A Guide to Christian Theology - Lesson 19

A Guide to Christian Theology
Dr. Gerry Breshears
th104-19
Incarnational Christology
Lesson Transcript

Well, our next topic we want to talk about, big topic is I'll just summarize it with a question from the disciples. After Jesus steals the storm, they look at him and just wander and say, "What manner of man is this that the wind and the waves obey him?" And they're just completely, who is this guy? And that's the question we want to consider next is who is this Jesus and what is He doing? And then, of course, the ultimate question you're preaching through Mark or something like that is, who is this man? What is He doing and what's He asking us to do? Those are the three big questions you work through in the gospel of Mark. And by the time you get to, what does He want us to do? It's oh my, no. He wants us to go and get killed. Yep, come on guys, let's go. When I look at this picture of Jesus, again, I've got names of Jesus in here and there are a lot of them, and there's a lot we could do with that.

And I'm not going to do anything with it here except just to remind you that the term Jesus is ... If you would've gone back in the streets of Jerusalem when Jesus walked around and he said, "Hey, Jesus," He wouldn't even turn around except you're being weird. That is through several different translation from Yeshua to Jesus. So every time people are saying, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, they're just something about that name, except you would never have recognized it." And I see how many people use the name of Jesus almost as a magical name and just knowing the fun. So Yeshua is a shortened verse of you Jehoshua or Joshua. And Joshua has his named changed so the Lord saves. And when it's applied to Jesus, it means this is the one who saves. There are some crazy stuff. I don't do TikTok, but a friend of mine does, he's a pastor and just kind of puts stuff. And he sent me a thing, a guy who does this thing on the name of Jesus. And he's this young stud kind of thing. And "No, it's not Jesus, it's Jehoshua."

I don't think he quite got it right, the violent martial arts Jesus. There was stuff He can do. But what I'd suggest you take a good look at is the meaning of the Son of man. And I've got the passages in here because when you start back in Psalm 8, Psalm 8 looks back to Adam, but it also looks forward to the Son of man, the Messiah. It looks both directions and gives that continuity of it. And if you look in Ezekiel, now the Son of man, that's where that phrase is used often, and the Son of man in Ezekiel is the prophetic one. And God puts his word in his mouth and does all these strange things to make God's work clear. And then in Daniel chapter 7, the Son of man is a human one who comes on the clouds up to the ancient of days to be given Messianic authority. In Daniel 7, "And then all the nations worship him," and it's clearly a divine Son of man. And that's the title Jesus takes for himself. And it's just a potent term and there's a whole raft of literature around it.

So I encourage you to take a look at that, but not in this class. The thing I want to do in our class here is think more about how we do Christology and how we develop it. And so what I want to do here is think about, first of all, is what I call incarnation christology. And what we're talking about here is that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity who becomes God-man and takes the name Jesus. And the question that I think it's a long-term question is how can God become man. The title of a famous book back in the Patristic era. And so the thing that comes up here is when we look at this, we find that ... well, it's crazy, isn't it? If you think of the story of God and Lazarus, John chapter 11, Jesus is out a way and He gets a word that his friend Lazarus has died and He says, "Well, let's wait a little while." I'm shortening the story a little bit. And then after a while He says, "Okay, Lazarus is dead, let's go now." How did Jesus know Lazarus dead?

His cell phone was not working in those days. He's out of cell range. How did Jesus know that Lazarus was dead? That's not natural knowledge. How did He know that? And that's the whole point. "Okay, let's go now." And the disciples interact with him and then He goes down, He meets Mary and she said, "Had you been here, my brother would not have died." What is He saying? Jesus is there and not here. Now, if that's God, if Jesus is God, he's omnipresent. How can God not be present here? "Had you been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus gives them a profound theology lesson, goes a little further, meets Mary. And Mary says the same thing, "Had you been here, my brother would not have died," and starts bawling. Now, instead of giving her a theology lesson like He did, Martha, He starts bawling with her. And then He says, "Where have you buried him?" How can the omniscient God not know where the guy is? He knows he's dead, how can He not know where he is buried or maybe he's just pretending not to know for some reason?

See, those are the kinds of questions you start getting into. If he's God, how can He do this? If He's God, how can He die? So that's what I want to think about is, what happened as the second person of Trinity becomes God-man. And there are all kinds of passages we could look at. And so what I want to do just to look at this briefly, is go back to Philippians chapter 2. And I've got this in your notes, but you turn to Philippians 2, and I'm actually going to look at the ESV as opposed to NIV in Philippians chapter 2 starting in verse 5. And I'll tell you why in just a little bit. Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 5, he says, "Have this mind in you which is yours in Christ Jesus." And it talks about Christ Jesus, "who though He was used to be, in the form of God, did not a quality of God thing be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." And then it goes on, "being found in human form.

He humbled himself becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God is highly exalted," and so on. The key word in that sentence, the key verb in that sentence is emptying himself, ekenosen in Greek. And the obvious question is of what did He empty himself? And this is where if you look at the NIV, it actually translates it differently. The NIV translate that same thing as He made himself nothing by taking the full nature of a servant, which is a very different meaning than He emptied himself. And I think the more literal, if I can use that term of ekenosen is emptied. And the question is what did He empty himself of? And I think the answer is written in it, but you have to dig in a little bit. So He begins in the form of God, after the emptying He is in the form of a servant. So He goes from morphe theou to morphe doulou, it's clearly a poem or maybe a hymn. So He begins in the form of God, ends up in the form of a servant.

He begins before the emptying of equality with God, after the emptying He's in the likeness of men, humans. So what does He empties himself of? And there's a big long debate, I'm just going to summarize very briefly. You can do some researching yourself. If you look in classical Greek, say Plato or something like that, form, morphe means inner essence. [inaudible] Homocea is the outward appearance. And in Greek philosophy made a big difference between inner essence and outward appearance. Well, morphe theou, if you follow that, would be the inner essence of God. So when you look NIV, it's going to translate it who being in very nature of God. If you look at ESV, it's going to translate that in a more literal form of God. So is that form of God, is that his divinity, his essence of deity? If that's true, then He empties himself of divinity and would stop being divine and would start having the inner essence of slaveness and is no longer divine. And if we took that view, that would be, what, heresy. We'd say He used to be God, but He's not anymore.

No, that's not where we're going. And then the question that comes up is He started the equality with God, but then He emptied himself, is how can that be? So here's what I take with this. The Bible is not written philosophic Greek of four centuries earlier. It's written in koine Greek, common Greek. And this distinction between inner essence and outward appearance has disappeared somewhat. If you look at Romans chapter 12, "Do not be conformed." That's a schemati word, but be transformed, that's a morphe word. So it'll be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renew of your mind. And the terms are not nearly as distinct as classical Greek, they're talking about similar kinds of things. So here's what I think is happening form of a servant. If I live in Charleston, South Carolina in 1855, are some humans fit only to be servants or slaves. And the answer is, yeah. Who? Black folk.

In Charleston, South Carolina in 1855, Black folk are not fully human. They're mostly human, but their place in life is to be slaves. If I come out to San Francisco out on this end of the world, and I'm there in say, 1875 are some human beings fit only to be slaves? Yes. Who? Chinese. What were Chinese? They were lesser human beings who weren't all that smart, but they could work hard, so they imported Chinese people to build a railroad. And when they finished the railroad, they did the Chinese Exclusion Act and they sent most of the Chinese people back to China. Those who stayed went into what we now call Chinatown, which is a ghetto and were only allowed to do certain jobs. The discrimination of Chinese in San Francisco was as severe as the discrimination of Blacks, but they were never bought and sold, they were just brought in and used up and sent back anyway. And the point is, some human beings are not fully human. If I go to first century Greece, Ephesus, Philippi, are some human beings not fully human? It's yes, anybody who's not Greek.

Now, biblically, biblically, are some human beings not fully human? Are there some people who are fit only to be servants of slaves of the more privileged class? The answer is, no. We don't recognize how radical idea is going to be built into our world. But I think what He's doing, when I see the form of a servant in verse 7, the morphe doulou, that is not an essence thing, that's a role, or a lifestyle, or a way of living. So in your blank here, down at the bottom here, being born in the form of a servant, write in way of living or lifestyle or something like that. Form of a servant is not an essential thing, it's a lifestyle thing. Now, come back up to the first point in the poem, Christ Jesus in the form of God. If form of a servant is a way of living or lifestyle, I suggest to you form of God is not an essence thing, but a role or lifestyle.

Now, question, how many persons live in the role or lifestyle of God? How many persons live in the role or lifestyle of God? It's not exactly a trick question.

Holy Trinity.

Yeah, three persons of the Trinity. How about Michael the Archangel, does he live in the role or lifestyle of God? No, he's a heavenly being and very powerful, but he's not. And so what he say when you saying that He is in the form of God is a way of living or lifestyle. That's only true of God, but that's what He gives up. He doesn't give up his Godness, his essence, but He gives up the way of life. And I think He actually empties himself, my phrase, is He empties himself of the use of what we call the incommunicable attributes, the attributes that are unique to God. So that'd be immortality, omnipotence, immutability, those kinds of things. I think He gives up the use of those attributes. When He empties himself, He empties himself with the use of those attributes, doesn't give him up, He gives up the use of those attributes and lives as a servant. He begins with equality of God is his way of life, and He empties himself of that equal status, equal way of living. So in the next blank you put status of equality in both lines.

So equality of God is the thing to be grasped, that's a status of equality. And He lives in the status of equality of a human. I think that's what's happening in the incarnation. He empties himself and I think that's the right translation, not of his divinity, that's what morphe theou means. And this is where I disagree with the NIV translation. It's actually coming from different model of Christology. The ESV, I think, it's more closer to what the Greek is saying, and I think that's the better way to do it. So the morphe theou is not essence of God, but the way of life of God, just like the morphe doulou is a way of life of a servant. So He goes from the way of living of God to the way of living of a slave. He goes from the status we call Jesus God to the status equality with a human. And I think that's what He does, and I think that's what it's talking about here.

So what I would say is I'd put the dots together, I would say is what happens in the incarnation is that he gives up his use of his divine attributes, communicable divine attributes. So "He who is as God immutable, now grows and changes." He who is omnipotent now gets beaten up by soldiers. And put in all those kinds of things, He is omnipresent, can be here and not there. He who is omniscient cannot know things. But here's one more step that I'm going to add in. It's not in this passage, but I think what he does is live as a fully spirit-filled human on the mission of Messiah. I think what He does, is He is living as a fully spirit-filled human on mission of Messiah. Now, that's the next step in your notes here, the basic model of Christology, the logos, the second person of the Trinity who is fully equal.

If you're filling the blanks, He's fully equal with God in every way, and we'll demonstrate this in a bit, emptied himself of the use, I would say, of his divine attributes and took a fully human nature ... meaning I'm filling in some blanks for you ... living a perfectly spirit-filled man, submitting himself to the will of the Father, leading the Holy Spirit in order to glorify the father, redeem the world, and become a Messianic King. Okay, let's say this one more time. The logos, that's John's word for the second person of Trinity, he was fully equal with God in every way as second person of the Trinity empties himself. Or in John 1:14, becomes or of Hebrews 2, made lower than the angels. It's a change of status ... emptied himself. And this is where I'm adding in my understanding, He empties himself of the use of his incommunicable attributes, omniscience, omnipotence, immutability, immortality and such, and took on a fully human nature and lives in the role and lifestyle.

But here He's living as a perfectly spirit-filled human on mission of Messiah. So what does this mean? In my understanding, Jesus had supernatural knowledge that Lazarus was dead. How did He get that knowledge? I think He got it by the Holy Spirit gave it to him. I think He got it from the Holy Spirit. Now, my friend Millard Erickson, who just turned 90 years old, as I'm recording this and wrote a really good systematic theology, good friend. He's a good friend of Bill's too, brilliant man. He disagrees with me. He thinks Jesus gave up the independent use of his divine attributes. So he says, He does not use his omniscience unless the Holy Spirit says, "Okay, tap it." And at that point, He taps into His own omniscience.

Oh yeah, right, Lazarus is dead. Same idea, He doesn't use it, but it's the independent use. So I think He gives it up altogether. I don't think He ever taps into His omniscience. Now, what's the difference between those two? If I can be like Jesus, in my view, I can because the Holy Spirit can give me supernatural knowledge, and does sometimes. What can't happen, if Jesus is tapping into His own omniscience, I can't be like that. To me, that's a very significant difference.

Yeah.

We both agree that He gave up the use of certain divine attributes, it's called semi-kenotic theory. So I think He does give up the use. I think he gave up the use altogether. So my analogy, and everybody's got their analogy, I travel quite a bit. I check into hotels and in some hotels, older hotels now, they give me little plastic card, it's called a key. And I go up into my room and I wave the key in front of the sensor and dink, it opens up and I walk in. In the newer hotels, the key's on my phone, but either way I get a key and it will get me in a certain rooms. It'll get me my room. It'll get me in an exercise room. It may get me into the back door of the hotel, a few things like that. The general manager of the hotel has a different key. What kind of key does she have? Well, her key gets into everything. Okay, now take that analogy, general manager key, guest key, except now we've got the logos. He has a God level access card. What will that get him into?

Everything.

Everything, omniscient, omnipotent, and so on. He takes that card, puts it in His pocket and picks up a perfectly spirit-filled human card. And when He goes to a door, He waves the card in front of it, and a bunch of the doors won't open. He could pull the divine level card and it'd open the door, but He doesn't. He uses the spirit-filled human card and that card will open some doors amazingly, supernaturally. I think that analogy is what happens. And I think when Philippian says, "Have this mind in you, which in Christ Jesus," is we can really do the things Jesus did as He did it is my way of looking things. So that's where I come out on this. Let me do one more passage with you here. If I go to Matthew, chapter 12, starting in verse 22. Matthew chapter 12, starting in verse 22, "This demon oppressed man," let's see doing NIV here again. NIV, "They brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute and Jesus healed him." And the people are astonished. "Wow, could this be the son of David, the Messiah?"

And they're rightfully wondering because that fulfills Isaiah's prophet, "He'll open the eyes of the blind and open the ears of the ..." Now I've got King James from Messiah going. "The ears of the death will be unstopped." Is the way of sing it in the Messiah. The people are astonished. And the Pharisees, [inaudible] and Beelzebul, he does it and they get in this argument. But look at verse 28. Verse 28, Matthew, chapter 12, Jesus explaining how He drives out demons. He said, "If it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." Jesus is driving out demons, not by his own divine essence, but by the Spirit of God. And I think that's what happens is He does this by the Spirit of God. He does supernatural stuff, has supernatural knowledge, but so can we if it's relevant to our mission. So I think we can be like Christ.

And so my model of what happened when the human or the fully divined God became fully human is He continues to have his divine essence and personhood, but He gives up the use of his divine attributes and lives as a perfectly spirit-filled human. So I'm saying He's God and man having both essences, but He's living as a spirit-filled human on the mission of Messiah. So that's what I put my model of Christology together. And I've talked about Millard Erickson's, He gives up the independent use which says He uses omniscience, but only when God tells him to. Another view would be the Philippians 2, but you see it in the NIV. In the NIV it's, "Who, being in very nature of God, did not equality with God something to be used for his own advantage, rather, He made himself nothing by taking." And in this view he has a hundred percent God with all the attributes. He makes himself nothing by adding to it a full humanity. So He is both a hundred percent God and a hundred percent man.

So He is both omniscient and not knowing at the same time. And I think that sounds like a contradiction to me. Yep, get used to it. That means they're both true, hence, you could find [inaudible] can't understand it. I don't think that's the best way to do things, though we come out to the same spot in our understanding of God is fully God and fully human. So that's where I come out on this stuff, model of incarnation. I think He emptied himself of the use of his incommunicable attributes and this uses a perfectly spirit-filled human, doing the things that are necessary for him to fulfill his mission of Messiah. We do the same thing except we don't begin as God. We're human, but we have the same spirit that animated him to fulfill our mission as representative Messiah. So a model of incarnation. Comments? Questions?

So if we're fellow heirs with Christ, then is that one of the reasons that we have the same relationship with the Holy Spirit? Where He gives us a model for living life as a human in relying on the spirit to live his life, so we should do the same thing.

Yes. Yeah. His mission is somewhat different than ours because He's Messiah and we're not Messiah in that same sense, but our fundamental mission is very similar. So the same spirit that anointed and empowered Jesus, anointed and empowers us to fulfill our mission to take the gospel to the whole world. Yeah, I think that's true.