03/01/2005: "Catholics and Evangelicals: Similarities: Christ"
We are moving along to the fourth part of our series Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences. In this section we will discuss another area of agreement, the doctrine of Christ. The basic concept is that Jesus is fully man while at the same time truly and fully God.
Definition of the doctrine of Christ By the name of the religion, Christianity, you can tell that Christ is the central focus of faith and doctrine. There are two main parts to the study of Christ. The first is, who is he, and the second is, what he did. We will only be covering the first part of the doctrine here in this section.
Generally speaking if you get the doctrine of Christ correct even though you may have some error or sin in some other areas of the doctrine you will stay within the realm of orthodoxy in terms of your Christian thinking.
Christ in the Old Testament A few years ago I was involved in a Bible study with a group of men. We were in a time of transition trying to decide what to study next. Just then God sent us a new member to our group. This new member was a very wise old Pastor that just so happened to have expertise in this area or study. Remember in the Bible after the resurrection, Jesus was with two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. He saw that they did not understand what had happened and he thought that they were pretty dim witted. Then Jesus opened up Scripture to them “then beginning with Moses and all the profits, he interpreted to them what referred to Him in all the Scriptures“. This old pastor did the exact same thing with us, showing us Christ in the Old Testament. It was like the scales fell off my eyes. Christ is all over the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament we often see Christ in a way that is anticipating his coming and anticipating what He is going to do for us in salvation.
Sometimes it takes some clarification in the New Testament to understand what was meant in the Old Testament. The New Testament is the realization of what was said in the Old Testament.
Historically, Christ has had the three main titles, Profit, Priest and King all three of these ideas come out of the Old Testament
Christ in the New Testament It is impossible to miss the personal Christ in the New Testament, yet the New Testament Christ is totally based on the historical figure and the Old Testament prophecy.
Two Natures of Christ The Deity of Christ: The doctrine of the deity of Christ is fundamental to the Christian church from the beginning and is basic to Christian theology. It is what divided followers of Jesus from other Jews of that day.
Within four hundred years after the apostles had died there had already been several challenges to orthodox Christian teaching. The first four councils defined and clarify the teaching of the church (see part one of our series for more details on the councils). Catholic dogma concerning the divinity of Christ agrees with orthodox Protestants: “Jesus Christ is the true God and true Son of God”. He is God and man. He is God of the same substance as the Father and a man born in time as the same substance as his mother.
The Humanity of Christ Jesus taking humanity on himself is another central doctrine of orthodox Christianity. The incarnation: becoming flesh Jesus had a real human body, and he had a human nature and he was raised to heaven in a body. When Jesus became a man, he did not cease being God. Jesus became man in order to redeem men..
The council of Nicene produced the Nicene Creed that rejected two false notions about Christ. 1) That Jesus was only a man. 2) That Jesus is was a spirit wandering the earth.
Virgin birth: “Christ, Son of God was born by external generation but of one parent, the blessed virgin Mary“ It is a miracle we cannot understand.
Union of Two Natures: Being Christ was born of Mary; therefore he is a descendant of Adam. He has his humanity. “He is our brother”. Also, Christ is one person and the two natures are united, joined to each other in one person. The Church states that these two natures were combined at conception. Christ with his two natures is affected by the Trinity and vice versa.
Resurrection of Christ On the third day Christ rose from the dead. This is a bodily resurrection from the dead. Christ’s resurrected body was a glorified body. He was not limited to the space and time. Christ’s body and soul ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of the father.
Titles of Christ We had already mentioned three names for Christ, Profit, Priest and King. There are other names used for Jesus. Messiah, Son of God, son of Man, Lord and Savior.
Conclusion The council of Chalcedon sums it up nicely.
Following therefore the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same one is being (homoousios) with the Father as to the divinity and one in being with us as to the humanity, like unto us in an things but sin (cf. Heb. 4:15). The same was begotten from the Father before the ages as to the divinity and in the later days for us and our salvation was born as to His humanity from Mary the Virgin Mother of God.
That concludes our study on the doctrine of Who is Christ.
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Next time we will be moving on to the second part of the doctrine of Christ, what is did for us, Salvation .
