Short Essay 2 Lloyd Shaw Essays - Religion, Christian Theology

Short Essay 2 Lloyd Shaw Lloyd Shaw THEO201-D15-201320 Short Essay #2 The Biblical basis for Jesus humanity can be seen in multiple places in the scriptures. We see in John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we held his glory, the glory as of the begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This states that God came down in human form. Another example of humanity of Jesus comes through his human birth. He experienced hunger, anxiety, and disappointment (Mark 14:33). He also died and was buried. The Biblical basis for his deity is an essential doctrine and is a central non-negotiable belief within Christianity, which is also known as the divinity of Christ. This doctrine shows that Jesus Christ was and is Gods incarnate. The apostle Paul stated, For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). The Christian meaning of the term deity of Christ is very clear, Christians believe that there is a personal God, Creator, and Ruler of the universe, a God who is infinite, eternal and unchangeable. When a Christian says that Jesus is God, or that he believes in the deity of Christ, he means that God and Christ are one as stated in John 10:30, which says that I and My Father are One. The Biblical basis for Jesus deity is His pre-existence and eternality. Jesus has always existed, as specified in 8:58, when Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. The hypostatic union states that human nature was united with the divine natu re in the one person of Jesus Christ. The two natures are distinct, complete and unchanged; they are not mixed or confused, as having many personalities, so that Jesus is one person both God and man. (Elwell,2001). Because Jesus is both God and man, he had to have an intimate knowledge of what it was like to be man or human, but He is man He can maintain his deity. Because he is man, he can identify with us more intimately. Because he is man, he can come over to our aid as our sympathetic high priest when we peach the limits of our human weakness. Paul states in Philippians 2:6-8, Who, being in the form of go, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of a man. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. The only way this could be accomplished was that Jesus was both God and man. Incarnation of Jesus was required to pay for our sins. Incarnation means becoming flesh. Hebrew 9:22 states and according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. There is no greater symbol of life than blood, blood keeps us living. Jesus shed his blood and gave his life for our sins so that we wouldnt have to experience spiritual death. By over emphasizing the deity of Christ we fail to acknowledge that he is god and that he was like us. We fail to acknowledge that he was born sinless and that he died a physical death to atone for our sins. When we overemphasized his humanity, we fail to acknowledge that he is god, and without sin because of his divine nature. The majority of common objections of understanding Christology is denial of the full deity of Jesus and seen in heresies like Ebionitism, which views Christ as a born naturally, on whom the Holy Spirit came at his baptism, and also Docetism, witch asserts that the humanity and sufferings of Christ were apparent rather than real (Elwell p. 241-242). These different viewpoints all have something in common; they express mans opinion over the Word of God, which bring about fatality. Responding to this type of view would be laying out the scripture of Jon 1:14, Roman 8:3, Galatians 4:4, I Timothy 3:16, Hebrew 2:14, and John 4:2-3. Sometimes we can get bogged down discussing theology and doctrine and