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    The Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection and Return of Jesus Christ
    The Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection and Return of Jesus Christ
    The Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection and Return of Jesus Christ
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    The Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection and Return of Jesus Christ

    By Grace Communion International

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    Jesus was the most influential person who ever lived. His life contains several pivotal moments: when he began, what he did while alive, the way he died, his resurrection from the tomb, his return to heaven, and in the future, his return to earth. Authors from Grace Communion International, and a few guests, explore the significance of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGrace Communion International
    Release dateMay 20, 2015
    ISBN9781310215179
    The Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection and Return of Jesus Christ
    Author

    Grace Communion International

    Grace Communion International is a Christian denomination with about 30,000 members, worshiping in about 550 congregations in almost 70 nations and territories. We began in 1934 and our main office is in North Carolina. In the United States, we are members of the National Association of Evangelicals and similar organizations in other nations. We welcome you to visit our website at www.gci.org.

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      The Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection and Return of Jesus Christ - Grace Communion International

      Did Jesus exist before his human birth? What or who was Jesus before his incarnation? Was he the God of the Old Testament?

      In order to understand who Jesus was, we first should understand the basic doctrine of the Trinity. The Bible teaches us that God is one and only one being. This tells us that whoever or whatever Jesus was before his human incarnation, he could not have been a God separate from the Father.

      While God is one being, he exists eternally as three coequal and coeternal Persons, whom we know as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In order to understand how the Trinity doctrine describes the nature of God, we must keep in mind the difference between the words Being and Person. This distinction has been put in the following terms: there is but one what of God (that is, his Being) but there are three whos within the one being of God, that is, the three divine Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

      The Being we call the one God has an eternal relationship within himself of Father to Son. The Father has always been the Father and the Son has always been the Son. The Holy Spirit has always been the Holy Spirit. One Person in the Godhead did not exist before the others, or without the others, and neither is one Person inferior to the other in his essence. All three divine Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—share the one being of God. The Trinity doctrine explains that Jesus was not created at some point, but existed eternally as God.

      There are three pillars to the Trinitarian understanding of God’s nature.

      1) Only one true God exists, who is Yahweh (YHWH) of the Old Testament or theos of the New Testament—the Creator of all that exists.

      2) God includes three divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father or Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father or the Son.

      3) These three distinct (but not separate) persons equally share the one divine being, God, and that they are eternal, co-equal and co-essential. Thus, God is one in essence and one in being, but exists in three persons. (We must always be careful not to understand the Persons of the Godhead like persons in the human sphere, where one person is separate from another.)

      God as Trinity transcends our understanding. God is greater than our finite minds can completely grasp. Scripture does not explain how it is that the one God can exist as the Trinity. It just gives us the basic facts: there is only one God, but the Father is God, the Son is divine, and the Spirit is also divine.

      How the Father and the Son can be one being is difficult for us humans to understand. Our experience in the created world is that persons are different beings. So we need to keep in mind the distinction the early church made between person and essence, which the doctrine of the Trinity makes. This distinction tells us that there is a difference between the way God is one and the way that he is three. God is one in essence and three in persons. If we keep that distinction throughout our discussion, we will avoid being confounded by the seeming (but not real) contradiction in the biblical truth that God is one being in three Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

      A physical analogy, though an imperfect one, might help us understand. There is but one pure light, and we perceive it as white light. But white light can be broken down into three primary colors—red, green and blue. Each of the three primary colors does not exist apart from the other primary colors—they are included within the one light, which is white. There is but one complete light that we call white light, but this light contains three distinct but not separate primary colors. (The analogy fails, as all analogies from the created world do, if we extend it further. Although white light contains three primary colors, it is physically possible to separate the colors, and to have a stream of red light, for example. In the Trinity, it is not possible to separate the Persons, although they can be distinguished from one another.)

      The above explanation gives us the essential basis of the Trinity, which provides the perspective to understand who or what Jesus was before he became human flesh. Once we understand the relationship that has always existed within the one God, we can proceed to answer the question of who Jesus was before his incarnation and physical birth.

      Jesus’ eternality and pre-existence in John’s Gospel

      The pre-existence of Christ is clearly stated in John 1:1-4: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life.

      This Word (Logos in Greek) became incarnate in Jesus. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, John tells us (verse 14). The eternal, uncreated Word who was God, and yet was with God as one of the Persons of the Godhead, became a human being. The Word was God (an eternal state) but became a human being. The Word never came into being, that is, he didn’t become the Word. He always was the Word, or God. The Word’s existence is open-ended. He has always existed.

      As Donald Macleod points out in The Person of Christ: He is sent forth as one who already has being, not as one who comes into being by being sent (page 55). Macleod further states:

      In the New Testament, Jesus’ existence as a man is a continuation of his previous or prior existence as a heavenly being. The Word who dwelt among us is the same as the Word who was with God. The Christ who is found in form as a man is the very one who previously existed in the form of God. (page 63)

      It was the Word, the Son of God, who became flesh, rather than the Father or the Holy Spirit.

      Who is Yahweh?

      In the Old Testament the most common name for God is Yahweh, which comes from the Hebrew consonants YHWH. It was Israel’s national name for God, the ever-living, self-existent Creator. In time, the Jews began to consider the name of God, YHWH, as too sacred to be pronounced. The Hebrew word adonay (my Lord) or Adonai was substituted. In many English Bibles, we see the word Lord used where YHWH appears in the Hebrew Scriptures.

      Yahweh is the most common name of God in the Old Testament, being used over 6800 times. Another name for God in the Old Testament is Elohim, which is used over 2500 times, as in the phrase the Lord God (YHWH Elohim).

      In the New Testament, there are many scriptures the writers apply to Jesus that referred to Yahweh in the Old Testament. The practice of the New Testament writers is so common that its significance may escape us. By using Yahweh scriptures for Jesus, these writers are implying that Jesus was Yahweh, or God, now made flesh. We shouldn’t be surprised that the writers make this comparison, because Jesus himself explained that Old Testament passages applied to him (Luke 24:25-27, 44-47; John 5:39-40, 45-46).

      Jesus is the Ego eimi

      In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples: I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am he (13:19). The phrase I am he is translated from the Greek ego eimi. The phrase occurs 24 times in John’s Gospel. At least seven of these are said to be absolute, in that they are not followed by a predicate, such as in John 6:35, I am the bread of life. In the seven absolute cases, no predicate follows, and the I AM phrase comes at the end of the clause. This indicates that Jesus is using this phrase as a name to identify who he is. The seven places are John 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19; 18:5, 6 and 8.

      If we go back to Isaiah 41:4, 43:10 and 46:4, we can see the background for Jesus’ reference to himself in John’s Gospel as ego eimi (I AM). In Isaiah 41:4, God or Yahweh says: I, the Lord…I am he. In Isaiah 43:10 he says I am he, and later says, ‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘that I am God’ (verse 12). In 46:4, God (Yahweh) again refers to himself as I am he.

      The Hebrew phrase I am he is translated in the Greek version of the Holy Scriptures, the Septuagint (which the apostles used), by the phrase ego eimi in Isaiah 41:4; 43:10; and 46:4. Jesus’ made the I am he statements as references to himself because they directly connected to God’s (Yahweh’s) statements about himself in Isaiah. John said, in effect, that Jesus was saying he was God in the flesh (a point also taught in John 1:1, 14, which introduces the Gospel and speaks of the Word’s divinity and incarnation.)

      John’s ego eimi (I am) identification of Jesus can also be carried back to Exodus 3, in which God identifies himself as the I am. Here we read: "God [Hebrew, elohim] said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you‘" (verse 14).

      The Gospel of John makes a clear connection between Jesus and Yahweh, the name of God in the Old Testament. We should also notice that John does not equate Jesus with the Father (and neither do the other Gospels). Jesus, for example, prays to the Father (John 17:1-15). John understands that the Son is distinct from the Father—and he also sees that both are distinct from the Holy Spirit (John 14:15, 17, 25; 15:26). John’s identification of Jesus as God, or Yahweh (if we think of his Hebrew, Old Testament name), is therefore a Trinitarian explanation of God’s being.

      Let’s go over this again, because it is important. John repeats Jesus’ identification of himself as the I AM of the Old Testament. Since there is but one God, and John would have understood that, then we are left with the conclusion that there must be two persons sharing the one nature that is God. (We have seen that Jesus, the Son, is distinct from the Father.) With the Holy Spirit, also discussed by John in chapters 14-17, we have the basis of the Trinity.

      To put aside all doubt about John’s identification of Jesus with Yahweh, we may quote John 12:37-41, which says:

      Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For this reason they could not believe, because as Isaiah says elsewhere: He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them. Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.

      The quotes above come from Isaiah 53:1 and 6:10. The prophet originally spoke his words in regards to Yahweh. John says that what Isaiah actually saw was Jesus’ glory and that he spoke of him. For John the apostle, Jesus was Yahweh in the flesh; before his human birth he was known as Yahweh.

      Jesus is the Lord of the New Testament

      Mark begins his Gospel by saying that it is the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God (1:1). He then quotes from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 in the following words: I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way—a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him’ (Mark 1:2-3). The Lord in Isaiah 40:3 is Yahweh, the name of the self-existent God of Israel.

      Mark, as noted above, quotes the first part of Malachi 3:1, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me. (The messenger is John the Baptist.) The next sentence in Malachi says: Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. The Lord is Yahweh. By quoting the first part of this verse, Mark implies that Jesus is the fulfillment of what Malachi said of Yahweh. Mark announces the gospel, which is that Yahweh, the Lord, has come as the messenger of the covenant. But, says Mark, Yahweh is Jesus, the Lord.

      From Romans 10:9-10, we understand that Christians will confess that Jesus is Lord. The context through verse 13 shows that Jesus is the Lord upon whom all humans must call in order to be saved. Paul quotes from Joel 2:32 to make his point—Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (verse 13). In the Old Testament passage, salvation comes to those who call on the name of Yahweh—the divine name of Israel for God. For Paul, it is Jesus upon whom we call in order to be saved.

      In Philippians 2:9-11, we read that Jesus has a name that is above every name, that at his name every knee should bow and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Paul bases his statements on Isaiah 45:23: "By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear" (italics added). This is Yahweh, the God of Israel, speaking of himself. He is the Lord, who says, there is no God apart from me (verse 21).

      Paul has no hesitation in saying that every knee will bow to Jesus and every tongue will confess him. Since Paul believes in only one God, he must be equating Jesus with Yahweh in some way.

      One might then ask: If Jesus was Yahweh, then where was the Father in the Old Testament? According to our Trinitarian understanding of God, both the Father and the Son are Yahweh, because they are one God. (So also is the Holy Spirit.) All three Persons of the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—share the one divine essence and one divine name that is God, theos or Yahweh.

      Hebrews connects Jesus to Yahweh

      One of the clearest statements that connects Jesus to Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament is Hebrews 1, especially verses 8-12. It is clear from the first few verses of chapter 1 that the subject is Jesus Christ as the Son of God (verse 2). God made the universe through the Son and has appointed him the heir of all things (verse 2). This Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (verse 3). He sustains all things by his powerful word" (verse 3). Then, in verses 8-12, we read:

      But about the Son he [God] says, Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. He [God] also says, "In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end [italics ours].

      The first thing we should notice is that the material in Hebrews 1 comes from several Psalms. The second passage in the selection is quoted from Psalm 102:25-27. This passage refers to Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, the Creator of all that exists. All of Psalm 102 is about Yahweh. Yet, Hebrews is applying this material to Jesus. Only one conclusion is possible: Jesus is God, or Yahweh.

      Note also the italicized words above. They show that the Son, Jesus Christ, is called both God and Lord in Hebrews 1. Further, we see that Yahweh’s relationship to the one being addressed was: God, your God. Thus, both the one addressing and the one being addressed are God. How can this be, since there is but one God? The answer is in our Trinitarian explanation. The Father is God and the Son is also God. They are two of the three Persons of the one being, God, or Yahweh in the Hebrew language.

      In Hebrews 1, Jesus is shown to be the creator and the sustainer of the universe. He remains the same (verse 12), or simply is, that is, his being is eternal. Jesus Christ is the exact representation of the being of God (verse 3). Hence, he must be God as well. It’s no wonder the writer in Hebrews could take passages that described God (Yahweh) and apply them to Jesus. In the words of James White, in pages 133-134 of The Forgotten Trinity:

      The writer to the Hebrews shows no compunctions in taking this passage from the Psalter—a passage fit only for describing the eternal Creator himself—and applying it to Jesus Christ…What does it mean that the writer to the Hebrews could take a passage that is only applicable to Yahweh and apply it to the Son of God, Jesus Christ? It means that they saw no problem in making such an identification, because they believed that the Son was, indeed, the very incarnation of Yahweh.

      Jesus’ pre-existence in Peter’s writings

      Let us look at one more example of how New Testament writings equate Jesus with Yahweh, the Lord or God of the Old Testament. The apostle Peter calls Jesus the living Stone, who was rejected by men but chosen by God (1 Peter 2:4). To show that Jesus is this living Stone, he quotes from three passages in the Holy Scriptures:

      See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.

      The phrases come from Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 8:14. In each case, the statements refer to the Lord, or Yahweh, in their Old Testament context. For example, in Isaiah 8:13-14, it is Yahweh who says:

      The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall [italics ours].

      For Peter, as for the other New Testament writers, Jesus is to be equated with the Lord of the Old Testament—Yahweh, the God of Israel. (The apostle Paul in Romans 9:32-33 also quotes Isaiah 8:14 to show that Jesus is the stumbling stone over whom the unbelieving Jews had stumbled.)

      In conclusion, for the New Testament writers, Yahweh has become incarnate in Jesus, the Rock of the church. As Paul said of Israel’s God: "They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:3-4, italics ours).

      Bibliography

      Bowman, Robert M., Jr., Why You Should Believe in the Trinity (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1989).

      Macleod, Donald, The Person of Christ (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1998).

      White, James R., The Forgotten Trinity (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House Publisher, 1998).

      Paul Kroll

      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

      back to table of contents

      And the Word Was God

      Some people ask how to understand John 1:1, since some people claim that this verse should read that the Word was a God—or a god. This claim is based on the fact that in the original Greek text the word theos in the last clause of John 1:1 does not have the definite article, as it does in the second clause, which refers to the Father. This argument comes from a lack of understanding of Greek grammar and syntax.

      It is not true that John 1:1 could be translated: and the Word was a God. This translation may be possible in a pagan Greek work, but impossible in a Christian or Jewish writing. The reason is that the Bible teaches there is only one God. The Jewish and Christian religions have always taught this. The translation a God implies polytheism and denies one of the most fundamental teachings of the Bible.

      The clause and the Word was God is translated from the Greek "theos ēn ho logos." In this clause, ho logos is the subject, and theos is a predicate nominative. In Greek it is not necessary to use the definite article with a predicate nominative in this kind of sentence. In fact, doing so would change the meaning in a way that would confuse what John was saying. Using the definite article in this case would make the clause mean that the Word was the same person as the Father. However, John wanted to point out that the Word was God, but not the same person as the Father, who is the one commonly referred to when we just use the word God.

      The word theos in this clause is a predicate nominative coupled to the subject by a form of the verb to be. An eminent scholar, C. H. Dodd, commenting on John 1:1 explains:

      The general rule is that in a sentence containing the verb to be as a copula the subject has the article and a predicate noun is anarthrous, even though it be definite. Hence, if theos was to be used predicatively it would be anarthrous, without any necessary change of meaning from the ho theos of the preceding clause. (New Testament Translation Problems II, The Bible Translator 28, 1[January 1977]:103).

      There are a number of biblical texts where Christ is referred to as God where the definite article does appear—though with other qualifiers that distinguish Christ from the Father (John 20:28 and 1 John 5:20, and in most Greek texts, Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1).

      Nonetheless, some argue that Jesus was not God, but a creation of God. This is based on the fact that John 1:1 does not have the definite article with God (Greek theos) in the clause the Word was God. At least one group of Bible students believes that this indicates the Word is a lesser god. They then speculate that the Word was created. This notion is dispelled, however, by a proper analysis of the Greek. We quote a brief statement by a scholar on this point:

      A definite predicate nominative has the article when it follows the verb; it does not have the article when it precedes the verb…. The opening verse of John’s Gospel contains one of the many passages where this rule suggests the translation of a predicate as a definite noun. The absence of the article [before theos] does not make the predicate indefinite or qualitative when it precedes the verb; it is indefinite in this position only when the context demands it. The context makes no such demand in the Gospel of John, for this statement cannot be regarded as strange in the prologue of the gospel which reaches its climax in the confession of Thomas [John 20:28, My Lord and my God]. (E. C. Colwell, A Definite Rule for the Use of the Article in the Greek New Testament, Journal of Biblical Literature, 52 (1933), 12-21. See also B. M. Metzger, On the Translation of John 1:1, Expository Times, LXIII (1951-52), 125 f., and C. F. D. Moule, The Language of the New Testament, pp. 12-14.)

      John 1:1-3 explicitly states that both the Word and God are divine, and the vast majority of major translations have: and the Word was God. Greek scholars are in general agreement that the wording The Word was God or the Word was divine is the correct way to understand the last clause of John 1:1.

      Competent scholarship does not support the argument that the lack of a definite article in a predicate nominative indicates an indefinite reference. "To say that the absence of the article bespeaks of the nonabsolute deity of the Word is sheer folly. There are many places in this Gospel where the anarthrous [used without the article] theos appears (e.g., 1:6, 12, 13, 18), and not once is the implication that this is referring to just ‘a god’" [Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Frank E. Gaebelein, editor, volume 9, page 30].

      If it were true, as the heretic Arius taught in the fourth century, that Jesus Christ is a god but not the God, that he was created and not God from eternity, then Christianity would be a polytheistic religion. However, polytheism is condemned in the Bible. Scripture says there is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29; Ephesians 4:6; 1 Timothy 1:17; 1 John 4:8; 5:20; Matthew 28:1; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Corinthians 8:6).

      Here briefly are some of the reasons we believe that Jesus Christ was God the Son: he is called God (Hebrews 1:8-9) and Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6); we are told that in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Colossians 2:9-10). Also, the disciples worshiped him as God (Matthew 14:33; John 20:28).

      In the New International Version (and most other translations are equally clear on this point), there are a number of clear statements about the deity of Christ. See for example John 1:3, 10, 14, 18; 5:18; Revelation 1:13-18; 22:13.

      What about Revelation 3:14, however? Is there evidence here that Jesus could have been created? In this verse, the word beginning is translated from the Greek archē, which means chief (that from which the beginning is generated and flows). Christ is the originating instrument of creation (Colossians 1:15-17). He is the Chief—the Head and Governor of creation. Revelation 3:14, therefore, does not even hint that Christ was created by the Father sometime before the beginning. He has always existed.

      Paul Kroll

      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

      back to table of contents

      Is Jesus Really God?

      A Look at the Arian Controversy

      Few Christians are aware that two of the most fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith — the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Trinity — were not finally decided until some 350 years after the death of Jesus.

      Both doctrines were forged in the fourth century out of the religious and political firestorm sparked by Arius, a popular presbyter of the church in Alexandria, Egypt. Arius had a simple formula for explaining how Jesus Christ could be divine — and therefore worthy of worship along with God the Father — even though there is only one God.

      The simple formula taught by Arius was well received by the common believers in Alexandria, but not by Arius’ supervisor, bishop Alexander. Each man lined up supporters and the battle lines were drawn for what history would call the Arian Controversy. This bitter ordeal for the Christian churches of the eastern and western Roman Empire began in A.D. 318, led to the Creed of Nicea in 325 and finally ended with the Nicene Creed established at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

      Monarchianism

      Church Fathers from as early as the late 100s had been writing that the Word of God, the Logos of John 1:1-2, was co-eternal with the Father — and therefore uncreated and without beginning. The presbyter Arius was not the first to dispute this. Similar challenges had already arisen by the late second and early third centuries in the form of Monarchianism.

      Monarchians fell into two broad categories. The Adoptionist or Dynamic Monarchians held that Jesus was only a man in whom dwelled the power of the supreme God.¹ The Modalist Monarchians taught that God revealed himself in three modes — as Father, Son and Spirit — but never at the same time. This preserved the idea of the full divinity of the Son, but at the expense of any real distinction between the Son and the Father. Some Modalists believed that Jesus Christ was actually the Father in the flesh. All forms of Monarchianism were eventually branded as heresy and rejected by the Christian churches across the empire.

      Arius

      In one sense, Arius was simply the latest thinker to try to reconcile monotheism (belief in one God) with the Christian belief that Jesus Christ was divine. But there was a great difference between Arius’ attempt and all previous efforts. No longer was Christianity an officially unsanctioned, often underground and persecuted religion. Now the Roman emperor Constantine had granted Christianity unprecedented legitimate status in the Empire, so that the question of who Jesus is could finally come before the whole Church to be settled.

      Arius was a popular senior presbyter in charge of Baucalis, one of the twelve parishes of Alexandria in the early fourth century.² By A.D. 318, Arius had begun teaching his followers that the Son of God (who is also the Logos or Word of John 1:1-2) did not exist until the Father brought him into existence. To Arius, the Father first created the Word, and then the Word, as the Father’s unique and supreme agent, created everything else.

      Arius’ idea seemed to preserve monotheism as well as uphold the divinity of the Son, even if it was a bestowed divinity as distinct from the inherent and eternal divinity of the Father. With the help of catchy rhymes and tunes, Arius’ ideas quickly caught on among the common converts of Alexandria.

      Alexander

      Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria, and his assistant, a presbyter named Athanasius, saw great danger in Arius’ teaching and took action to arrest it. Contrary to Arius’ teaching that God was once without the Word, Alexander asserted that God cannot be without the Word, and that the Word is therefore without beginning and eternally generated by the Father.

      Alexander sent letters to neighboring bishops requesting support and convened a council at Alexandria that excommunicated Arius and a dozen other clergy.³ Arius also sought backing, however, and obtained the support of several leaders, including Eusebius, the bishop of Nicomedia. Eusebius enjoyed a close relationship with Emperor Constantine, which would play a major role in the unfolding of the controversy. Another supporter of Arius was the historian, Eusebius of Caesarea, whose history of the early Christian church is still available today.

      Constantine steps in

      The Emperor Constantine became aware of the developing problem, and saw a need to resolve it. As Emperor, Constantine’s concern was not so much for the unity of the Church as for the unity of the empire itself. Theologically, he viewed it as a trifle.⁴ Constantine’s first move was to send his religious advisor, Bishop Hosius of Cordova, Spain, to sort out the differences. Hosius was unsuccessful in bringing Arius and Alexander to peace, but he presided over a council in Antioch in early 325 that condemned Arianism and censured Eusebius of Caesarea.⁵ But the division continued, so Constantine called a universal council of the Church to settle the dispute.

      Ancyra had been the original choice of venue, but Constantine changed the location to Nicaea, a city closer to his Nicomedia headquarters. The emperor personally opened the council in June of 325 with about 300 bishops present (most from the east). Constantine was looking for mutual tolerance and compromise. Many of the bishops present were also apparently prepared to find compromise.

      As the proceedings unfolded, however, thoughts of compromise quickly eroded. Once the tenets of the Arian position became clear, it did not take long for them to be rejected and condemned. The ideas that the Son of God is God only as a courtesy title and that the Son is of created status were vehemently denounced. Those who held such views were anathematized. The divinity of the Logos was upheld, and the Son was declared to be true God and co-eternal with the Father. The key phrase from the Creed established at Nicaea in 325 was of the essence of the Father, God of God and Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.

      Homoousios (of the same essence) was the key Greek word. It was intended to convey, against the Arians, that the Son is equally divine with the Father. This it did, but it also left unanswered the question of how the Son and the Father, if they are of the same essence, are in fact distinct. Consequently, though Arianism was condemned and Arius banished, the Council of Nicaea did not see an end to the controversy.

      A little letter makes a big difference

      Athanasius and most other eastern bishops said that the Son was homoousios with the Father, meaning of the same essence. The Arian theologians disagreed, but suggested a compromise: they could accept the word with the addition of only one letter, the smallest Greek letter, the iota. They said that the Son was homoiousios with the Father — a Greek word meaning similar essence.

      But similarity is in the i of the beholder, and the Arians actually meant that Jesus was not the same kind of being as the Father. It would be like saying that he was almost divine. The orthodox theologians could not accept that, and would not accept a word that allowed such an unorthodox interpretation.

      Imperial reversals

      Eusebius of Nicomedia, who presented the Arian cause to the Council and was deposed and banished for it, enjoyed a close personal relationship with Emperor Constantine. In time, he was able to convince Constantine to ease the punishment on the Arians, and to order Arius himself recalled from exile. Eventually, after a council at Jerusalem formally acquitted him of the charge of heresy in 335, Arius was to have been received back into the fellowship of the church in Constantinople. Philip Schaff wrote:

      But on the evening before the intended procession from the imperial palace to the church of the Apostles, he suddenly died (A.D. 336), at the age of over eighty years, of an attack like cholera, while attending to a call of nature. This death was regarded by many as a divine judgment; by others, it was attributed to poisoning by enemies; by others, to the excessive joy of Arius in his triumph.⁶

      Athanasius, meanwhile, had succeeded Alexander as bishop of Alexandria in 328 only to be condemned and deposed by two Arian councils, one at Tyre under the presidency of Eusebius of Caesarea, and the other at Constantinople in about 335. He was then banished by Constantine to Treves in Gaul in 336 as a disturber of the peace of the church.⁷

      This turn of events was followed by the death of Constantine in 337 (who received the sacrament of baptism on his deathbed from the Arian Eusebius of Nicomedia). Constantine’s three sons, Constantine II, Constans, and Constantius succeeded him. Constantine II, who ruled Gaul, Great Britain, Spain, and Morocco, recalled Athanasius from banishment in 338. In the east, however, matters were quite different. Constantius, who ruled the east, was firmly Arian. Eusebius of Nicomedia, the leader of the Arian party, was appointed Bishop of Constantinople in 338. Before long, war in the west between Constantine II and Constans gave Constantius a free hand to again exile Athanasius in 340.

      When Constantine II died, however, and the western empire was united under Constans, Constantius had to follow a more moderate line with the Nicene party. The two emperors called a general council in Sardica in 343, presided over by Hosius, at which the Nicene doctrine was confirmed. Constans also compelled Constantius to restore Athanasius to his office in 346.⁸

      Semi-Arianism

      When Constans died in 350, the pendulum swung again. Constantius, now the sole emperor and still Arian, held councils supporting Arianism and banished bishops who opposed their edicts, including Hosius and Athanasius. By now, Arianism had itself become divided into two factions. One party had slightly modified its position to affirm homoiousios, or similarity of essence, rather than the original heteroousios, or difference of essence, still held by the strictest Arians.

      This compromise, sometimes called semi-Arianism, still represented an unbridgeable chasm from the orthodox homoousios, or same essence. It only served to pit the Arians against one another. For Nicenes who still had difficulty with the apparent lack of distinction between the Father and the Son represented by homoousios, though, the semi-Arian homoiousios did, for a time, afford a compromise. In any case, by the time of the death of Constantius, the Church had become Arian, at least on the surface.

      Imperial reversals

      It was the death of Constantius in 361 that set the stage for the permanent triumph of Nicene faith. Julian the Apostate became emperor and implemented a policy of toleration for all the Christian parties. Though Julian’s policy, at first glance, seems positive toward Christianity, his real hope was that the opposing factions would destroy one another. He recalled the exiled bishops, including Athanasius (though Athanasius was soon banished again as an enemy of the gods but was again recalled by Julian’s successor Jovian).⁹

      It was through the efforts of Athanasius that the concerns of the Nicenes and the semi-Arians about blurring the distinction between the Father and the Son were assuaged. Athanasius argued that homoousios could be interpreted in such a way as to affirm the same essence as long as the distinction between the Father and Son were not destroyed. In other words, he made it plain that same essence must retain the unity but never be allowed to destroy the distinctions in the Godhead. With this understanding, along with the compelling work of the Cappadocian bishops, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa, the Nicene faith again began to gain ascendancy.

      Julian died in 363, and was followed by Jovian, who was favorable toward Athanasius and the Nicene faith. His reign was short, though, ending in 364. He was succeeded by Valens, a fanatical Arian, whose intensity against both semi-Arians and Nicenes tended to bring those two parties together. In 375, he was followed by Gratian, who was of Nicene faith, and who recalled all the exiled orthodox bishops.

      By the end of Gratian’s reign, Arianism was greatly waning in intellectual defense and in morale. At last, it was the long reign of Theodosius I, who was educated in the Nicene faith, that finally ended the long controversy. He required all his subjects to confess the orthodox faith. He appointed a champion of Nicene faith, Gregory of Nazianzus, as patriarch of Constantinople in 380. In 381, Gregory presided over the Council of Constantinople.

      The Council of Constantinople

      The Council of Constantinople affirmed the Creed of Nicaea, altering it only slightly and in non-essential ways. It is the form of the Creed adopted at Constantinople that today bears the name Nicene Creed. The controversy was at last ended in the empire. However, Arianism would continue to impact the Church for the next two centuries in the form of the various peoples outside the empire who had become Christians according to the Arian faith (most of whom scarcely even knew the difference).

      Athanasius, who had so diligently and unswervingly opposed the Arian heresy, did not live to see the conflict ended. He died in 373 in his native Alexandria. In the end, the unyielding Athanasius is a fair representation of the unyielding truth of the orthodox Christian faith. Fundamental to the validity of Christianity is the reality of redemption, made possible only by the work of no being less than true God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

      Arius believed that a Christ designated as divine by virtue of his special creation could serve as true Redeemer and true Mediator between God and humanity. It took the dogged, relentless, unwavering faith of an Athanasius to hold fast to the truth that no being less than true God could in fact reconcile humanity to God.

      The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval (1 Corinthians 11:19). Likewise, the Arian controversy became an essential waypoint on the journey of the church, for despite the trial and pain of controversy, the truth of the nature of the divine One who had come to redeem humanity had to be made plain.

      Who was who?

      Arius (c. 250-336): Theologian in Alexandria, Egypt, a presbyter (an elder) of the church. He taught his followers that the Son of God did not exist until he was brought into existence by the Father.

      Alexander of Alexandria (d. 326): Bishop of Alexandria and Arius’ supervisor. He strongly opposed Arianism.

      Athanasius (293-373): A presbyter of the church in Alexandria and assistant to Bishop Alexander. He later succeeded Alexander as Bishop of Alexandria and spearheaded the effort to oppose Arianism and establish the Nicene faith.

      Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263-339): Bishop of Caesarea and author of several works chronicling the history of early Christianity, including Ecclesiastical History. He hoped for a compromise in the Arian controversy, and as a historian he recorded the proceedings at the Council of Nicea.

      Eusebius of Nicomedia (d. 341): Bishop of Nicomedia. He supported Arius’ ideas and presented the Arian side of the controversy at the Council of Nicea.

      Constantine the Great (272-337): Emperor of the Roman Empire who legalized Christianity in the Empire. He called the Council of Nicea in an effort to bring an end to the dispute among the churches that was threatening the security of the Empire.

      Hosius of Cordova (c. 256-358): Bishop of Cordova, Spain. He was sent to Alexandria by Constantine to mediate the Arian controversy.

      Endnotes

      1 Clyde Manschreck, Monarchianism, in Dictionary of Bible and Religion (Nashville: Abingdon, 1986), 704.

      2 David Wright, Councils and Creeds, The History of Christianity (Herts, England: Lion Publishing, 1977), 156.

      3 Wright, 157.

      4 Wright, 159.

      5 William Rusch, The Trinitarian Controversy (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980), 19.

      6 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910; reprinted by Eerdmans, 1987), vol. III, 663.

      7 Schaff, 663.

      8 Schaff, 635.

      9 Schaff, 638.

      J. Michael Feazell

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      Who Jesus Really Was

      The Gospel of John concentrates on Jesus’ divine identity. John says nothing specific about Jesus’ birth. His interest is to show the true identity and eternal nature of the One who became the human being, Jesus. John begins his Gospel before time began, we might say, in order to inform us about Jesus’ existence. He says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.¹

      John next tells us that the divine Word underwent an absolutely radical and unique change. John describes this historical creative act tersely in a single sentence in verse 14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

      The divine Word (the Son of God or Jesus Christ) became a fertilized egg in Mary’s womb. That cell divided again and again, becoming in time tens of millions of cells, developing into an embryo and then a fetus, and finally resulting in the birth of the infant Jesus, after Mary’s normal, nine-month pregnancy.

      Words cannot adequately describe the astonishingly infinite creativity and freedom of God to reach down to us by becoming one of us, bringing us the joyous good news of who he is for us and who he has made us to be in Jesus Christ.

      From infinite power to human cell

      When we turn to the apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we find a further explanation of this profound occurrence — the Incarnation — the infleshing of the divine Son of God as the man Jesus.

      Paul writes, speaking of Jesus Christ: Being in very nature God, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8).

      Why would the eternal, all-powerful Son of God put himself through such a profound change, taking on our fallen human nature and mortal body? Paul explains why by telling us that this act of pure love was necessary for our salvation. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich [in very nature God], yet for your sakes he became poor [human flesh], so that you through his poverty might become rich [receive eternal life] (2 Corinthians 8:9, italics mine).

      What God accomplished in Jesus

      There in a nutshell is the greatest story ever told. In this miraculous act of the Word become human flesh, Jesus took on our fallen human nature and recreated it within himself, transforming it into his perfect and righteous human nature. In Jesus’ death on the cross, God wiped away our spiritual fallenness and freed us from the sinfulness that enslaves us. In his bodily resurrection, Jesus was the forerunner of our salvation, drawing us into the new life of his resurrection. And, finally, at his coming in power and glory, Jesus will end the stranglehold of human death by redeeming our mortal bodies with immortality (1 Corinthians 15:50-54).

      All this stems from God’s eternal and inexhaustible love for us. Is it any wonder that Christmas celebration is filled with wonder and awe, as we contemplate the Incarnation of Jesus, our Savior and Lord?

      Christian believers do not put their faith in a group of doctrines or a set of logical proofs. They have no faith in fake, ersatz gods. They place no false hopes in themselves and do not rest on any good works that they perform.

      Believers believe in a living person — Jesus Christ, who is true God of true God, sent by the Father, and who, with the Father, lives in them by the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-21). Each Christian believer says with the apostle Paul: I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed—Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 1:12).

      That is the story of Christmas — the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

      _________

      ¹ Here we are given a truth about the Being of God that stretches our imagination to the utmost. It was not contemplated by human beings before God acted to reveal himself in Jesus. As it turns out, the one divine Being who is God has existed from eternity in three eternal and distinct persons who are of the same essence — Father, Son (the Word who was born as Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.

      Paul Kroll

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      A Study of the Incarnation

      Of all events in Jesus’ life, three stand out as most significant and most celebrated: his birth, death and resurrection. These are doctrinally significant. His birth illustrates his humanity; his death purchased our salvation; his resurrection illustrates his glory and guarantees our future resurrection to glory.

      A Savior is certainly someone worth celebrating. Christians have been celebrating Christ for almost 2,000 years. To commemorate and celebrate the Savior, most Christians have observed annual memorials of various events in the life of Jesus Christ. Some celebrate his birth, baptism, transfiguration, triumphal entry, Last Supper, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. Scripture tells us when some of these events happened; others are commemorated with dates that have become traditional.

      This worship calendar was useful for the needs of the Christian church. Since many early Christians were unable to read the Scriptures, the yearly cycle of worship days helped people remember the biblical stories about Jesus.

      In this study we focus on the importance of his incarnation—the fact that he was a human, with human flesh. In order to save us, it was necessary for Jesus to be born and to die as a human.

      1. What was one of the specific heresies that John warns us about? 2 John 7. What is the true teaching about Jesus? 1 John 4:1-3. How does John phrase it in his Gospel? John 1:14.

      John begins the story of Jesus by talking about the Word— who was both with God and who was God (verse 1). The Word was the Creator (verse 3), and he had both light and life (verse 4). The Word came into the world, but the world did not accept him (verses 9-11). But some people did accept him, and the Word enabled believers to be born as children of God (verses 12-13).

      The Word, who had life within himself, became flesh. The immortal became mortal. The Creator became as one of the created. These concepts contradicted everything Jews and Greeks had thought about God, and many people could not accept these ideas. They could not believe that God had become human.

      Some people tried to resolve the logical problem by saying that Jesus was not God. Others taught that Jesus wasn’t really human. But the apostle John tells us boldly that the Word became flesh. This concept is so important, he says, that anyone who teaches otherwise is an antichrist. This doctrine is one that the New Testament says is essential to the faith.

      John is saying that God became fleshly. This is the basis of the doctrine of the Incarnation, the teaching that God the Word was made flesh. Jesus was not only God, but also a flesh-and-blood human—God in the flesh. The Word became flesh— and made his dwelling among us, John tells us. A literal translation says that he pitched his tent among us—the Greek original uses the word for tent or tabernacle. The Word had a temporary dwelling, a mortal body (Paul also compares our body to a tent in 2 Corinthians 5:1-9).

      We have seen the evidence, John says. We have touched him and talked with him (1 John 1:1). We have seen both his humanity and his divine glory.

      2. In what ways did Jesus have human weaknesses and limitations? Matthew 4:2; John 4:6; 19:28. What emotions did he have? John 11:33-35; 12:27; 13:21; Matthew 8:10; 26:38; Mark 3:5; 6:6; 10:14; Luke 10:21; Hebrews 5:7. In how many ways did he grow? Luke 2:52; Hebrews 5:8. Did he have to grow in intelligence?

      Jesus began life as a fetus, helpless. He lived as a baby, crying when hungry, fussing when uncomfortable. As a child, he had to learn to crawl, and then walk and run. He learned to talk just as other children do. He had to learn words and grammar of Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. He had to learn about the physical world around him, farming, weather and the history of his own people. He was human physically, intellectually and emotionally.

      In the process of learning, Jesus would have made mistakes. He would fall down when learning to walk, make grammatical errors when learning to talk, make measurement mistakes when learning to be a carpenter. Making mistakes with facts such as these is not a sin, and we have no biblical or theological reason to think that Jesus never made such mistakes. This is part of life in the flesh.

      In contrast to factual mistakes, Jesus never made moral mistakes. He never committed a sin. This is a reflection of his divine nature. Although Jesus did not know everything (Mark 13:32), he knew his limitations, and he did not teach errors. He was full of truth; he is the truth (John 1:14; 14:6).

      3. Did Jesus sin? 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15. Is he called God? John 1:1, 18; 20:28; Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8; 2 Peter 1:1. Is he our Creator? John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2. Does he reveal to us what God is really like? John 14:9; Colossians 2:9. Is he worthy of our worship? Philippians 2:10-11; Revelation 5:12-14.

      4. Even after his resurrection, did Jesus have flesh? Luke 24:39. How did he prove it? Verses 42-43; John 20:27. Did he rise into heaven with a body, and will he return in the same way? Acts 1:9-11. Is he even now called a man, a human? 1 Timothy 2:5.

      Some scriptures tell us that Jesus is God; others tell us that he was and is human. He was God in the flesh—God made incarnate—a God-man.

      Jesus shows us that God is not just an idea or a list of doctrines, but a living being — one who wants a relationship with humans. To make this relationship possible, the Son of God humbled himself to become a human. Jesus is the best example of God we can see in this life—so much so that if we reject Jesus, then we are also rejecting God.

      If Jesus were not God, he could not save us. If he were not human, he could not die for all humanity. We may not understand exactly how he atoned for all our sins, but we recognize that our salvation depends on Jesus being both God and human. Let us see some reasons that his humanity is important.

      5. Was it necessary for Jesus to be a human? Hebrews 2:17. Does his experience as a human enable him to help us? Verse 18. As both God and human, is he uniquely qualified to be a High Priest, a mediator between God and humans? Hebrews 4:15; 1 Timothy 2:5. Are we made righteous through the obedience of a human? Romans 5:18-19.

      6. Does he set an example for us? 1 John 2:6; 1 Peter 2:21. Is he the pattern for our spiritual life? Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 4:19; Hebrews 12:2-3. Does his example even carry over into our future glory? 1 Corinthians 15:48-49; 1 John 3:2.

      It was as a human that Jesus paid the penalty of human sin. Because he is saving humans, he had to be made like us in every way (Hebrews 2:17). As a perfectly righteous human, and as our Creator, he could atone for everyone’s sins through his one sacrifice.

      Through his experiences as a human, through his lifelong struggles with temptations, he is able to serve as our High Priest. He was tempted in every way, and he suffered when he was tempted. We can therefore be confident that he understands us when we struggle with our temptations and look to him for the help and grace we need.

      Being human, Jesus could not conquer temptation without a struggle, but being divine it was his nature to do his Father’s will (John 5:19, 30), and therefore to resist and fight temptation until he had overcome it. From Gethsemane we may infer that his struggles were sometimes more acute and agonizing that any we ever know. (J.I. Packer, Concise Theology, Tyndale, 1993, p. 110)

      Jesus is the perfect role model for us. He shows us what it is to be fully human, fully in touch with God’s purpose for our lives. When God first made humans, he declared them very good. Jesus Christ proves that nothing is morally wrong with having flesh, with having weakness, with being mortal.

      Jesus had human nature. The reason that all humans have sinned is not because there is anything wrong with the way God made us, but because humans have chosen to misuse what God made. Jesus has shown what human nature could and should be.

      God intended that humans rule over creation, and through the human Jesus Christ, humans will indeed rule over creation (Hebrews 2:8). It is because of Jesus’ obedience as a human, as the Second Adam, that we are made righteous and therefore qualified to rule with him.

      Two moments in Jesus’ life illustrate his humanity most clearly: his birth and his death. Let us look briefly at his birth. Although his human life began with his conception, it was at his birth that he became visible.

      7. Was Jesus conceived in a miraculous way, in a virgin? Matthew 1:18-23. What was his significance? Verses 21, 23. How does Luke describe the events? Luke 1:26-35. Was Jesus born in a place of glory, or of humility? Luke 2:4-7. Did the angels sing praises for this event in God’s plan of salvation? Verse 14. Did angels sing for any other events?

      Since the incarnation was essential for our salvation, we praise God for it. Indeed, at least one passage in Scripture appears to be a song in celebration of Jesus’ willingness to humble himself for our salvation (Philippians 2:6-11).

      God became human—what a miracle!

      It is by far the most amazing miracle of the entire Bible…. The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal Son of God could become [a human] and join himself to a human nature…will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe. (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, Zondervan, 1994, p. 563)

      Michael Morrison

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      The Incarnation: The Greatest Miracle

      Which is the greatest miracle of all? Many Christians would point to the resurrection of Jesus after his death on the cross. The crucifixion-resurrection event is, after all, the basis for our salvation. But why would we consider the death and resurrection of Jesus so great an event? After all, others have died and risen again. Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, Eutychus. Why is the resurrection of Jesus a greater event than the raising of Lazarus from the dead?

      Make no mistake, Jesus’ resurrection is a greater event than the raising of Lazarus. Lazarus eventually died again, but Jesus rose to eternal life and glory. When Lazarus rose, a great deal changed for him, but little changed for the world. But when Jesus rose, everything changed.

      What was so different about Jesus’ resurrection? The key lies in who died and rose. In the case of Lazarus, a human died and rose again to continue a mortal life. But in the case of Jesus, someone much more than a human died and rose again. Jesus was human, but not just a human. He was both God and human — God in the flesh, God incarnate, both divine and human.

      The reason his death and resurrection have such power is not because death and resurrection are the greatest miracle. Rather, it is because his death and resurrection had been preceded by the miracle that truly is the greatest of all: the miracle of the incarnation. Billions will eventually die and be resurrected into eternal life and glory; the incarnation, however, will remain unique.

      C.S. Lewis called the incarnation the Grand Miracle. He wrote: The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation…. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this…. It was the central event in the history of the Earth—the very thing that the whole story has been about (Miracles, chapter 14).

      By a miracle that passes human comprehension, the Creator entered his creation, the Eternal entered time, God became human—in order to die and rise again for the salvation of all people. "He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still … (to) the womb … down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created. But He goes down

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