Tuesday, December 8, 2009

My Personal Creed on the Doctrine of Christ.

I believe:

Jesus Christ is fully and completely divine (John 10:30). He is also fully and completely human (Gal 4:4). His divinity and humanity are distinct natures (John 1:1) that are fully united in His person (Gal 4:4-5).

Jesus Christ is fully and completely divine:

He is eternally divine (John 1:1, 8:58), lacking no divine attribute and possessing every such attribute fully. Jesus spoke about God’s law authoritatively because He is God and it is about Him (Matt 5:18, 7:28-29). Jesus is God and therefore deserves to receive worship (John 9:38; Matt 28:17). Jesus is the Son of God (Matt 3:17), a person of the triune Godhead who was present during creation and had an active role in it (John 1:1). Jesus himself was not created (John 1:1) and is therefore equal in essence to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. His deity affirms that people can have real knowledge of God (John 1:18, 14:9). He needed to be divine because salvation is from God alone (Jonah 2:9).

Jesus Christ is fully and completely human:

He is God Incarnate (John 1:14). He was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35) and born from Mary who was a virgin (Luke 2:7). Just as any other person, He lived (Luke 2:52), breathed (Luke 23:46), grew (Luke 2:40), thirsted (John 19:28), hungered (Matt 4:2), walked (Luke 5:27), talked (Luke 8:9-15), learned (Luke 2:52), grew tired (John 4:6), and slept (Luke 8:23). Jesus was tempted (Luke 4:1-2; Heb 4:15), but He never sinned (1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5). Because of His humanity, he was fully capable of sinning (Eph 2:1), but because of His divinity He was fully able to resist sin (Heb 4:15). He was persecuted and died a criminal’s death (John 19). When He died, God poured our His wrath on His Son (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus, who did not sin, took on the sin and punishment of all people for all time, past, present, and future. He had a human body, which was broken for the sins of His human brethren (Luke 22:19-21). When He rose from the dead, His body was perfected, assuring the elect that their bodies will also be perfected (John 20:1-23). He ascended to heaven in His human body where He remains in human form today and forevermore (Acts 1:1-6). Christ’s humanity reaffirms God’s creation of man being good (Gen 1:31; 1 Tim 6:17).

Jesus is the true and perfect prophet (Deut 18:14-22; Matt 21:11), speaking God’s truth because He is God’s truth. Because of this, His followers are to represent Him in prophetically in the world (2 Cor 5:20). Jesus is the true and perfect high priest (Heb 4:15). As the high priest, He atoned for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). Not only did He offer the perfect sacrifice for sin, but He himself was that perfect sacrifice (2 Cor 5:21). As high priest, He also intercedes on the behalf of believers, praying for His people based on the work He accomplished through the atonement (Heb 7:25). Jesus is the true and perfect king (Phil 2:10), ruling over His creation. He will judge all people from all time (1 Cor 15:24).


In Christ’s work consists of phases of humiliation and exaltation. Since the beginning of time, He was in heaven in His pre-incarnate glory (John 1:1). Next came the incarnation (John 1:14) and His earthly life (John 13:1-17). He was then crucified (Acts 3:15), resurrected (Rom 6:5), and then ascended (1 Tim 3:16) to be at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33) where He will be until His second coming (Rom 8:34). When He comes again, He will slay evil and Satan forever and reign as the true king (Rev 18-20). He will be glorified forever (Rev 5:9-10, 12).

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