Jared Wilson: What would prompt us to refer to a man as God? And even if we acknowledge that Jesus was somehow God, how did he become God? Was he born a man and later “divinized” in some way, perhaps at his baptism? Many have wrestled with these questions throughout church history, but the faithful church has always held as orthodox what the apostles profess in the creed: “We believe. . . in Jesus Christ, [God’s] only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary . . . This short phrase encapsulates the doctrine we call “the Incarnation.” What the Incarnation means is this: Jesus Christ was both fully God and fully man. He was not God manifesting in the illusion or appearance of a man. And he was not man operating under the title “God” as some vicarious ambassador or adoptee. Jesus was—simultaneously, totally, and actually—God and man. The second person of the Triune Godhead, the eternally
Deity of Christ
He Lay in the Manger Without Leaving Heaven
Gavin Ortlund: The second member of the Trinity is, like the first and third, omnipresent. Wherever you go, he is there. In fact, more than that, the Bible says he sustains all things: he “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3), and “in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:15). The miracle we celebrate each year at Christmas (the incarnation, when the Son of God became a man) raises a question about this theology. Was he still omnipresent in, say, the year AD 10, while walking around Nazareth as a boy? Or what about while he was a baby, nursing at Mary’s breast among the manger animals—can we really imagine that, at the same time, he filled the entire universe, governing every quark and star? According to the so-called extra Calvinisticum, the answer, amazingly, is yes. God becomes man without ceasing to be God, and thus the incarnate Son of God was not limited to his human flesh, but continued
Six reasons why the deity of Christ matters
Chris Morgan and Robert Peterson, drawing upon Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, propose six reasons – for starters – why the deity of Christ matters so urgently: 1. The divinity of Christ is the most distinctively Christian doctrine of all. 2. The essential difference between orthodox, traditional, biblical, apostolic, historic, creedal Christianity and revisionist, modernist, liberal Christianity is right here. 3. The doctrine works like a skeleton key, unlocking all other doctrinal doors of Christianity. 4. If Christ is divine, then the incarnation, or “enfleshing” of God, is the most important event in history. 5. There is an unparalleled existential bite to this doctrine. For if Christ is God, then, since he is omnipotent and present right now, he can transform you and your life right now as nothing and no one else possibly can. 6. If Christ is divine, he has a right to our entire lives, including our inner life and our thoughts. This new Crossway book is
The Glory of Christ – seen by revelation not imagination
CHAPTER VII THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN HIS EXALTATION AFTER THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE WORK OF MEDIATION IN THIS WORLD “This is that glory which our Lord Jesus Christ in a special manner prayed that His disciples might behold. This is that of which we ought to endeavor a prospect by faith; by faith, I say, and not by imagination. Vain and foolish men, having general notions of this glory of Christ, knowing nothing of the real nature of it, have endeavored to represent it in pictures and images, with all that luster and beauty which the art of painting, with the ornaments of gold and jewels, can give to them. This is that representation of the present glory of Christ, which, being made and proposed to the imagination and carnal affections of superstitious persons, carries such a show of devotion and veneration in the Papal Church. But they err, not knowing the Scripture nor the eternal glory of the
read more The Glory of Christ – seen by revelation not imagination
Can a Christian Deny the Virgin Birth?
Dr. Mohler takes on this question. His answer? “The answer to that question must be a decisive No. Those who deny the virgin birth reject the authority of Scripture, deny the supernatural birth of the Saviour, undermine the very foundations of the Gospel, and have no way of explaining the deity of Christ.” Read the whole thing here. (HT: Tim Challies)
Already Not Yet 