Part 9 of 11 in the Doctrine of God series

1. Systematic Theology Topics

1. Prolegomena (Introduction) - typically covers the doctrine of revelation, including scripture

• Theology Proper - the study of God (God’s attributes + the Trinity)

• Anthropology - the study of humans (including human nature and sin)

• Christology - the study of Christ (person of Christ + work of Christ)

1. Soteriology - the study of salvation
2. Pneumatology - the study of the Holy Spirit
3. Ecclesiology - the study of the Church
4. Eschatology - the study of the last times

2. RECAP: Nature, Person and the Trinity

Divine Nature: one simple, infinite and eternal essence of God, identical with His attributes.

Doctrine of the Trinity: There is one God. God is one in essence and three in persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each fully and equally possessing the one undivided divine nature, distinguished only by their eternal relations of origin (Father is unbegotten, Son is begotten of the Father, Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son). 

Three Related Trinitarian Doctrines:

• Doctrine of Inseparable Operations: All three persons of the Trinity act inseparably in every external work.
• Doctrine of Appropriation: Scripture may emphasize one person for a particular work.
• Doctrine of Perichoresis: Mutual indwelling of each member of the Trinity in another. 

3. The Incarnation: Assumption, Not Addition or Subtraction 

Incarnation: In the fullness of time, the Son, without ceasing to be what He is eternally, assumed a true human nature: so that in the one person of Christ there subsist two whole, perfect and distinct natures - divine and human - without confusion, change, division, or separation, each nature retaining its own proper attributes, yet united in one person for our salvation. 

TLDR: One God. Three Persons. Two Natures of Christ. God did not change (immutability) by addition or subtraction.

4. Anthropology Overview

Note: the classical position is called dichotomy (body + soul/spirit); there is a minority position that sees humans as made up of three parts called trichotomy (body + soul + spirit). The difference is minor.

• Note on the note: “spirit” here refers to the human spirit, not the Holy Spirit.

Human Nature: the essence that makes a person truly human, consisting of a body united to a human soul

1. Body (material)
2. Soul (immaterial) 
   • Faculties (powers of the soul):
     • mind (intellect): capacity for knowledge 
     • will: capacity for choice 
     • affections: desires, love, emotions

• Note: the body is essential to human nature, not accidental (not a disposable shell).
• Note: sin is not essential to human nature. Sin is a corruption, not part of the essence. 

Augustine’s Fourfold State of Man

Christ’s Two States

NOTE: in all of these states, human nature remains essentially the same. What changes is its condition, corruption, or glorification.

5. Christology & the Trinity: Early Church Councils

A. Council of Nicaea 325

Question: Is Christ truly divine/God? Answer: Yes.

Context: Arianism denies. Christ has a  similar (homoiousios) nature  as God the Father. Begotten implies he was made/created and therefore inferior.

Response: Christ is truly God. He has the same (homoousios) nature as God the Father.  Begotten shows relation, and demonstrates he is the same nature.

Nicene Creed: [We believe in] one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God,  begotten of the Father before all worlds;  God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father,  by whom all things were made.

B. Council of Constantinople 381

Question: Is Christ truly human? Answer: Yes.

Context: Apollinarianism implicitly denies. Christ has a human body but not a human soul. Instead he has a divine mind and will.

Response: Christ is truly human. He, like all humans, has a true/full/perfect/complete human nature (i.e. human body and human soul, including human faculties like mind and will)

Cappadocian Maxim: What is not assumed is not healed.

Athanasian Creed: [Christ] is both God and man, equally. He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time, and he is man from the essence of his mother, born in time; completely God, completely man, with a rational (human) soul and human flesh; equal to the Father as regards his divinity, less than the Father as regards humanity.

C. Council of Ephesus 431

Question: Is Jesus one person or two persons? Answer: One person.

Context: Nestorianism denies. The human Jesus and the divine Logos (Son of God) were two distinct persons living in one body. Mary is not the mother of God (theotokos) but only the mother of the human Jesus (christotokos).

Response: Remember the distinction between nature and person. Natures do not do things; persons do.

Nicene Creed: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ.

Athanasian Creed: Although he is God and man, yet Christ is not two, but one.

D. Council of Chalcedon 451

Question: What is Jesus’ nature? Answer: Christ has two full/true natures, divine and human, without confusion, change, division, or separation.

Context: Monophystism/Miaphysitism: One nature where either the divine nature swallows up the human nature, or the two are united into a composite.

Doctrine: Hypostatic Union (to be continued…)

6. Christological Interpretive and Doctrinal Principles

1. Figurative Language is True Language: Scripture often speaks analogically about Christ. Christ is the “Lamb of God”; not literally but truly the sinless sacrifice to which the image points.

2. Nature/Person Distinction:  Every question about Christ is really two questions. Persons act according to their nature. The Son alone acts according to his human nature, because he alone is incarnate.

3. Communication of Idioms: What is true of either nature can be asserted of the person (e.g. God died)

7. Common Questions

Q1. Matt 27:46: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Did the Father hate/forsake the Son?

• Answer: The Father always delights in his Son. God is simple and indivisible and there can be no rupture in the divine nature or eternal relations. The Son experienced real forsakenness according to his human nature, but this was a legal forsakenness, not an ontological one.

Q2. Who poured out wrath on Christ?

• Answer: The Father is said to pour out wrath (by appropriation), yet the Father, Son, and Spirit act inseparably in the work of judgment.

Q3. Did God die on the cross? 

• Answer: Yes, by virtue of the unity of Christ’s person. Christ (who is God) truly died according to his human nature, but not according to the divine nature.

Q4. 2 Cor 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us…” Did Christ become sin/a sinner?

• Answer: Christ was made sin by imputation, not by infusion or ontological change. He became sin legally. He remained ontologically sinless while bearing the guilt of sin. 

Q5. How do we interpret John 14:28: “for the Father is greater than I [Jesus]”?

• Answer: This refers to Christ in his state of humiliation. He is “less” than the Father with respect to his assumed human nature and mission, not with respect to his divine nature.

Q6. How do we interpret Colossians 1:15: “The Son is… the firstborn of all creation”? Was Christ created?

• Answer: “Firstborn” is an analogy for preeminence, authority, and heirship, not creation.

Q7. Mark 13:32: No one knows [the day or hour] not even… the Son, but only the Father?

• Answer: Christ does not know according to his human nature. According to the divine nature, he is omniscient, sharing the one undivided divine knowledge.

Q8. Phil 2:6-7 “[Christ] being in the very nature of God… made himself nothing…” Did Christ give up his divine attributes (kenosis?)

• Answer: No. In the incarnation, the Son assumed a human nature; he did not relinquish or diminish the divine nature.

Q9. Luke 2:52: “Jesus increased in wisdom”?

• Answer: Christ as truly human grew in wisdom according to his human nature, without any change in his divine omniscience.

Q10. Luke 22:42: “Not my will but yours be done?” Does Jesus have one will or two? One mind or two? 

• Answer: Christ has two wills and two minds, corresponding to his two natures. His human will is truly distinct yet perfectly submissive to the divine will. 

Q11. Does Jesus have human affections? 

• Answer: Yes, scripture displays his human but sinless love, compassion, sorrow and anger.