Christ was the very God in eternity (John 1:1) and became a man in time (John 1:14). His deity is complete and His humanity is perfect. Hence, He is both God and man (John 20:28; Rom. 9:5; John 19:5; 1 Tim. 2:5), possessing both divinity and humanity.
As a man He was anointed by God with the Spirit (Matt. 3:16; John 1:32-33; Luke 4:18-19) to accomplish God’s eternal purpose. Hence, He is the Christ, the anointed One (Matt. 16:16; John 20:31).
He is the Son of God (John 20:31), who is the image of God (Col. 1:15), the effulgence of God’s glory and the express image of His substance (Heb. 1:3) subsisting in the form of God and equal with God (Phil. 2:6; John 5:18); all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily (Col. 2:9). Thus, He is God Himself (Heb. 1:8).
As the Son of God He came in the flesh with (Gk., para, from with) the Father (John 6:46) and in the name of the Father (John 5:43); hence, He is called the Father (Isa. 9:6). He was with God, and He was God in eternity past (John 1:1-2), not only coexisting, but also coinhering with the Father all the time (John 14:10a, 11a; 17:21). Even while He was in the flesh on the earth, the Father was with Him (John 16:32). Hence, He and the Father were one (John 10:30), working in the Father’s name and with the Father (John 10:25; 14:10b), doing the Father’s will (John 6:38; 5:30), speaking the Father’s word (John 3:34a; 14:24), seeking the Father’s glory (John 7:18), and expressing the Father (John 14:7-9).
As the eternal God He is the Creator of all things (Heb. 1:10; John 1:3; Col. 1:16); and as man who came in the flesh (1 John 4:2) with the physical blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14), He is a creature, the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15b). Hence, He is both the Creator and the creature.
As the Sender and the Giver of the Spirit (John 15:26; 16:7; 3:34b), whom the Father sent in His (the Son’s) name (John 14:26), the Son, being the last Adam in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit through death and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b; John 14:16-20), who received all that is of the Son (John 16:14-15) to testify concerning the Son and glorify the Son (John 15:26; 16:14), and who is the breath of the Son (John 20:22). Hence, He is also the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17) to abide coexistingly and coinheringly with the Son and the Father in the believers (John 14:17, 23; Rom. 8:9-11) to be the Triune God who is Spirit (John 4:24) mingled with the believers as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17) in their spirit (Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22). Eventually, He became the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 1:4; 4:5), who are the seven eyes of the Son, the Lamb (Rev. 5:6).
As God becoming man, He is our Savior (Luke 2:11; John 4:42) by the name of Jesus-Jehovah our Savior, our Salvation (Matt. 1:21). As the Lamb of God slain on the cross and shedding His physical blood for our sin and sins, He is our Redeemer (John 1:29; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:26, 28; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). As the ascended Christ He is the Lord of all (Acts 2:36; 10:36), the Head of all things (Eph. 1:22), the Head of the church (Col. 1:18), and the Lord of lords and King of kings (Rev. 19:16).
In resurrection He is our life (Col. 3:4), the One who lives in us (Gal. 2:20), and God’s power and wisdom to us to be our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:24, 30). Thus, in Him all the attributes of God become our virtues, and He is the contents, the all in all, of the new man (Col. 3:11).
Thus, we see that Christ is all: God, man, the Creator, the creature, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, the Savior, the Redeemer, the Lord, the Head of all, the Head of the church, the Lord of lords and King of kings. As such a One He is our life, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and all in all. Praise Him!
Christ first became a man in incarnation (John 1:14) and died on the cross for our redemption (1 Pet. 2:24; Rev. 5:9). Then He rose from the dead for our regeneration (1 Pet. 1:3), ascended to the heavens to be the Lord of all (Acts 2:33, 36; 10:36), and will come back as the Bridegroom to the church (John 3:29; Rev. 19:7) and the King of kings to all the nations (Rev. 19:16). These are the main aspects of the work of Christ. These aspects include His incarnation, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension, and His coming back. No genuine Christian has any argument about these aspects of the work of Christ.
A sinner must repent to God (Acts 2:38; 26:20) and believe in Christ (John 3:16; Acts 16:31) for forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43), for redemption (Rom. 3:24), for justification (Acts 13:39), and for regeneration (John 3:6) in order that he may have the eternal life (John 3:36) to become a child of God (John 1:12) and a member of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27). This is our salvation by God through faith (Eph. 2:4-9).
The church, composed of all the genuine believers in Christ, as the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:24), is universally one (Eph. 4:4), and a local church as the expression of the Body of Christ is locally one-one city, one church (Rev. 1:11).
Home | First | Prev | Next