Christology

            Christology may sound like a confusing and scary word, but do not let it be.  Break down its parts and you get simply the study (from –logia) of Christ.  This study within Christian theology deals specifically with the person and nature of Christ.  There are many conflicting views about who Christ is and what his purpose was while he walked on earth in the 1^st Century A.D.  Some of these differences people hold include his deity, humanity, status as “son,” the resurrection, and his eternal reign.

Jesus wanted to know, “Who do men say that I am?”  How people answer this question is the core of christology.  Jesus is eternally divine.  Everything was created through him making him present in and responsible for the creation.  He was called Immanuel, “God with us,” because he was God in the human form.  The historical implications to this claim are affirmed in Jesus’ own claim of his divinity and the confirmation of that claim through his resurrection from the dead.  Jesus’ humanity is strongly affirmed through his birth to Mary.  He was born of flesh and blood.  The book ends of his life point to his humanity maybe more than anything else.  While he was born of flesh and blood, he died because of that same flesh and blood that he allowed to be abused and poured out during his crucifixion.

Christ is God’s one of a kind son.  Jesus’ discourse with Nicodemus in the gospel of John carries one of the most descriptive christological verses in the Bible.  Jesus said in 3:16 (NASB), “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…”  The description “only begotten” is also translated “only” and “one and only.”  The notion that Jesus came from or was created by God the father does not line up with his eternal nature.  The second verse of the Bible expressly mentions God and the Spirit of God during the creation narrative.  Later in that same story, the divine plural is seen for the first time, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).  It is a little easier to understand why the Jews could understand the Spirit, but not a third substance of God.  John 1:1-5 tells of the son’s presence also during creation.