Short Essay on Christology

SHORT ESSAY ON CHRISTOLOGY

There are endless speculations as to who Jesus was and what his role here on earth was. My knowledge as a Christian leads me to believe, not only was Jesus the Son of God, but he was also God himself. Matthew 1:23 (NIV) prophesizes "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel", which means "God with us." We can then relate this prophesy to the fact that Jesus is God, the Word in the flesh.

Jesus was indeed human, as the Bible states in John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us...who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Throughout Scripture Jesus is referred to as a teacher; this supports the basis for His humanity because one must learn how to right their selves with God from somewhere, who better to learn from than the Son of Man? God sent Jesus to us as a salvation, a redeemer, as a sacrifice for our sins and as a way for Himself to connect with His very own creation. John 3:16 clearly emphasizes this, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

The Bible is both clear and abundant on verses stating whom Jesus is, "the bread of life" (John 6:35), "the light of the world" (John 8:12), "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6) "the Son of Man" (Matt 26:64) "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). These, and many, more all to refer to Jesus as God, therefore, to deny this would be to deny Scripture and the Word of God. When accepting these verses as truth, one must then accept that Jesus is in fact eternal and everlasting and not just a great prophet. Furthermore, Jesus is characterized in several verses as omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and immutable. These are descriptions pertaining to deity, not normal human beings.

Jesus has two complete natures--one fully human and one fully divine. What the doctrine of the hypostatic union teaches is that these two natures are united in one person as the God-man. Jesus is not two persons, He is one person. The Hypostatic Union is the joining of the divine and the human in the one person of Jesus. Elwell defines the union as the eternal inseparable union of both human and divine nature into the one person of Jesus Christ, yet both natures remaining whole, distinct and unchanged, so that the one person, Jesus, is truly God and truly man.

In order for Jesus to be both God and man he must maintain His Godly nature while presenting a human form. He did this by being born from a human woman but without a human father, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35) He then maintained His humanity all the way to the cross, "...one who