An angel appeared before a woman named Mary and stated to her that she would give birth to a son. She would name her son Jesus. Mary being a virgin gave birth to a child, conceived by God through his Spirit. Jesus being conceived in a supernatural manner became man and God in one creation. God became incarnate in this child who became known by the name of Jesus (Mathew 1:18-25) . Jesus was a Palestinian Jew, born in a town south of Jerusalem, raised in Nazareth in a small village in Galilee. Jesus was not any ordinary child. Jesus was the son of the living God. Not only was He the son of Mary, He was foremost the Son of God. He was incarnated sent to us for the redemption of all mankind. So how do we handle the incarnation of God? Jesus’ humanity and divinity is union in one human body. God is now living in the flesh as Jesus of Nazareth. He is not half God or half man. He is fully divine and fully man. Jesus has two distinct natures (Divine and Human). Jesus was the word and the word was with God and was made flesh (John 1:1–14). This means, Jesus has both a human and a divine nature existing in one body (eis en prosopon k is ai mian hpostasin) of Jesus is the incarnation of God into man. Nevertheless, due to the loose meaning of the word, it is necessary to define the nature of the incarnation. Jesus was fully God and fully man at the same time. It is necessary that Jesus be all God and complete man in order to be truly incarnate. God being both human and divine, leaves us with a daunting questions concerning Jesus human nature and his divine nature. How did the nature of Jesus operate in one body? This research paper will look at different theories that attempt to explain the two natures of Jesus existence in one body..
...
... middle of paper ...
...were not fully man, and only God pretending to be human, then there is no triumph in his perfection. If there is no success in his perfection, then there cannot be any sacrifice. However, if God were man, but not completely God, then he would not have the power or authority over sin. If Jesus could sin, he could not be the sacrificial lamb. And Man would not have any atonement.
John writes that the Word was both with God and that the Word was God and that Jesus (the word) was with God in the beginning and that through him (Jesus) all things were made (John 1.1,2). Not only did John understand that Jesus was God, but Jesus himself did. He said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14.9). Jesus was not saying that he is literally the Father, but that he is one in essence with the Father, that he is incarnate God.
In this first chapter of Jesus and the Disinherited , the author Howard Thurman describes
In The Meaning of Jesus N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg present different views on issues relating to how Jesus is viewed. While Borg and Wright do agree on central ideals of Christianity, Borg tends to have more liberal views, whereas Wright holds more conservative views.
“We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. Being fully God and perfect man He performed miracles and lived a sinless life.” (GCU, Doctorial Statement) This paper will discuss how God and Jesus Christ is the essential core of all Christian worldviews despite the many differing internal worldviews they have.
While the belief in Jesus Christ as a divine being, God himself come to earth, is a core belief of Christianity, in his book, How Jesus Became God, author Bart Ehrman seeks to disprove this. Focusing on answering the question of who Jesus thought he was, Ehrman argues that Jesus himself did not believe he was a divine being, and he illustrates his point by discussing how divine beings were common around Jesus’s time, and by exploring biblical texts to back up his claim that Jesus saw himself as a messiah rather than God. With these arguments, Ehrman paints a clear picture of the time period, while using historical and biblical references to prove his point.
For someone so well known, Jesus is someone the historical world knows little about. Around this religious figure revolves a strange phenomena. Most people could probably tell you something Jesus stood for, or the gist of something he said, just off the top of their head. But someone who has spent years studying Jesus within a historical context, would probably have a hard time pinpointing anything Jesus really said. Scholars have been interested, and even obsessed with the historical Jesus for centuries, and two of the most well known Jesus scholars of today are Dale C. Allison and John Dominic Crossan. Yet how they go about examining the historical Jesus is completely different.
He had to shed his immortality and take on the nature of man without sin so that He could stand in man’s stead and put death away from all His peers by offering Himself as an equivalent” (section 9). Athanasius claims that “of His becoming Incarnate we were the object, and for our salvation, He dealt so lovingly as to appear and be born even in a human body” (section 4). The incarnate Jesus can be described as a barrier between humanity and corruption. “For because the Word dwelling with them, even their natural corruption did not come near them (section 5). According to Athanasius, through Jesus’ teaching, He restored all that was man’s by correcting their neglect through His own Power (section
We know that Christ is someone unique and distinct in many ways from every other man, especially in his incarnation. This word Incarnation basically means `made flesh'. This passage shows the unique and miraculous events which were involved in Christ's incarnation.
One of the main principles of Christianity is the belief in both the divinity and humanity of Jesus, that these two natures are combined harmoniously in one being. In general, all modern Christians believe that Jesus was human, he was considered to be “The Word was made flesh” (John, I: 14). However, Jesus was more than just a human, despite being subjected to pain, suffering and death like all other human beings, he was sinless and also possessed the power to heal and to defy death in order to ascend, both body and spirit, into heaven. He was all man and all God, a combination of these two elements, remaining distinct but united in one being. The deity of Jesus is a non-negotiable belief in Christianity, which is referred to in many parts of scripture, “God was revealed in the flesh” (I Timothy, 3:16). The Christian faith does not perceive Jesus as God but rather a reincarnation of God, a mysterious deity who is the second person of the Holy Trinity. Throughout history, controversy has surrounded the issue of the humanity and divinity of Jesus, leading to the formation of Docetism, the belief that Jesus was fully divine but not fully human, Arianism, that Jesus was superior to all of creation, but less divine than God, and Nestorius, that there were two separate persons within Jesus. This the proportion of the divine and human within Je...
...is composed of two natures, one external, one internal, one divine the other human, one invisible and one visible. “For notwithstanding this supreme and divine state, he experienced swaddling clothes, the crèche, childhood and the powerlessness of childhood, flight and persecution” (pg 144). God experienced the lowliness of human nature. Even though Jesus experienced all these states he was truly God-man. However, the glory of the Father wasn’t established in him yet. It was deferred by the plan of God for his son. This division only existed in Jesus. It was for the sole purpose of representing and erasing the separation that occurred between God and his creatures through sin. Jesus was separated from glory due to love. So its our duty to love Jesus in his love. It was due to love he gave his divinity to humanity. The mystery is love and only can be love.
..., and the praising of false idols. It was necessary for God to become human so that we may be able to finally see our Ruler in the flesh. Through all the treacherous moments Jesus endured, He ended all corruption and opened the gates of Heaven for all. Through all these deeds we must remember that “He is in truth Son of God, Existent Word and Wisdom and Power of the Father” (Athanasius 40), and that is why nothing is impossible through God. These saving actions of Jesus are important because without this manifestation, the world would still be plagued with sin and death.
After reading the chapter on Luke and knowing what I already know about Jesus and his
...believe it is the most important that God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to succeed in bringing salvation to humanity. This could be the most important because without Jesus dying on the cross for us, there would not have been a sacrifice great enough to overcome the corruption that was taking over humans (Athanasius 8). Secondly, by God coming in a human form, we were shown an example of how we are supposed to live our lives being Holy and showing respect for one another as God shows respect for us. This human form was necessary to take because it was the easiest way for us to comprehend and recognize that Christ is Lord (Pohle February Twenty Fourth). In conclusion, by the plan of salvation being accomplished through God taking human form people became faithful in God once again and escaped the consequence of never being united with God in Heaven. 3464
The greatest revealed mystery of the Christian faith is the Trinity; it is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone makes it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As Roman Catholics, we “worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spir...
What was the Holy Spirit referring to when he influenced the author to write " in the beginning" in John 1:1-2 ? Theologians and Biblical Scholars associate “in the beginning” to the creation account in Gen 1:1-3. However, John 1-3 concentrate its subject matter to the incarnate Christ and his mission to the world, which Jesus would come to live and sacrifice his life for those who would believe. Furthermore, the book of John demonstrates the power, knowledge, and wisdom that accompanies your calling. Raymond Brown stated: ‘If the Gospel begins with “In the beginning,” it is because the coming of Jesus will be presented as a new and definitive creation.” When we look at Gen 1:1-3 and John 1:1-2 it is easy to define similar themes in both. Gen 1:1-3 speaks to a time concerning the beginning of humanity and the world in which humanity lives. A testament to the strengths and failures of His greatest creation and the glory, power, and mercy of a true living God. A moment in eternity that will distinguish God as a creator, Lord, and Savior to his people. An era defining the frailty of humanity and it 's need for something greater than the created. John 1-3 wrote about the father, his Logos and the Logos as the acting force behind creation as well as a savior for the world. He wrote about of the origin of the Logos and his impact on the those who would listen and hear. John was trained from his youth to fulfill his calling to the father as a witness to the coming King. furthermore, John as child was taught about how God created the world and it inhabitants. It is easy to understand John’s knowledge of creation and why he would utilize this knowledge to explain Christ origins. The book of John brings to light the origin of the life of man (John 1:5). The Holy Spirit led the writer to see that both Genesis and John referred to the creative power of the father, his plan for Man, and
The greatest communicator I know has overcome the world by communication. a man who communicated love so well that He would rather die than ever be without me. A communicator so great, that he borne my griefs, carried my sorrows and was even pierced for my transgressions. The greatest communicator I know is a man named Jesus.