Concept

Christology

Intro

Christology is the branch of Christian theology that asks who Jesus is and what He did. The classic answer says Jesus is fully God and fully man, one person with two natures, and that He came into the world to live, die, rise, and reign in order to save His people from sin and reconcile them to God. Everything else in Christian doctrine, the Trinity, salvation, the church, the end of history, hangs on how those answers are worked out.

Most of the historic disagreements in the early church were Christological. Was Jesus a created being (Arius) or eternal God (Athanasius)? Did He have one nature (Eutyches) or two (Chalcedon)? Did He have a human will and mind (orthodox) or just a divine one wearing human flesh (Apollinaris)? The councils of Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), and Chalcedon (451) settled these in favor of the high-Christology answers Christians still confess today.

In full

Christology is the systematic-theological discipline that articulates the person and work of Jesus Christ: who He is in His being (ontology) and what He has done in His mission (soteriology). The discipline organizes around three classical axes: (1) the person of Christ, His being one divine person (the Son, the second person of the Trinity) who, in the incarnation, assumed a complete human nature without ceasing to be God, so that one and the same Christ is fully God and fully man (the hypostatic union, defined formally at the Council of Chalcedon, 451 AD: vere Deus, vere homo, "truly God, truly man," in two natures, "without confusion, without change, without division, without separation"); (2) the work of Christ, His mission to accomplish salvation through His incarnation, sinless life, sacrificial death (atonement), bodily resurrection, ascension, present heavenly intercession, and future return in glory; (3) the states of Christ, His humiliation (incarnation through death and burial) and exaltation (resurrection through return). The discipline also classically treats the threefold office of Christ (munus triplex: prophet, priest, king, codified by John Calvin) and the Christological titles (Son of God, Son of Man, Messiah/Christ, Lord, Logos, Wisdom, Servant, Lamb, Image of God). High-Christology orthodoxy ranges from Athanasius and the Cappadocians through Cyril of Alexandria, Leo the Great, the Reformed scholastics, and modern systematic theology; the alternative positions (Arianism, Apollinarianism, Nestorianism, Eutychianism, Adoptionism, Modalism) were rejected as inadequate to the New Testament data and pastorally insufficient.

The person of Christ

One person, two natures

The Chalcedonian Definition (451) is the church's normative answer to the question of how Jesus can be both God and man:

"...one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way abolished by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence (hypostasis), not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God, the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ..."

Two natures (divine + human), one person (the eternal Son). The natures don't blend, don't change, don't separate. This is the hypostatic union.

Anti-positions the church rejected

• Arianism (Arius, c. 318): the Son is the highest creature, like the Father but not of the same substance. Rejected at Council of Nicaea (325). Nicene Creed: homoousios, "of the same substance" with the Father.
• Apollinarianism (Apollinaris of Laodicea, c. 360): the divine Logos replaces the human mind/soul in Jesus, so He is divine spirit in human flesh. Rejected at Council of Constantinople (381). Christ has a complete human nature, including a human mind and will, or He cannot redeem the human mind and will.
• Nestorianism (Nestorius, c. 428): two persons (one divine, one human) loosely conjoined in Jesus. Rejected at Council of Ephesus (431). One person, not two; hence Mary is Theotokos, "God-bearer," because the one she bore is one person who is divine.
• Eutychianism / Monophysitism (Eutyches, c. 448): the human nature is absorbed into the divine, so Christ has one nature after the union. Rejected at Council of Chalcedon (451). Two natures persist in the one person; humanity is not swallowed by divinity.
• Adoptionism: Jesus was born a mere man, adopted as Son at His baptism or resurrection. Rejected throughout patristic period. Christ is the eternal Son, not a man elevated to that status.
• Modalism / Sabellianism: Father, Son, and Spirit are modes of one person, not three persons. Rejected throughout. Christ is genuinely distinct from the Father even while being of the same divine substance.

New Testament foundations

• Divine attributes ascribed to Christ: eternity (John 1.1, "in the beginning was the Word"; John 8.58, "before Abraham was, I am"), omnipresence (Mt 28:20), omniscience (Jn 16:30), omnipotence (Mt 28:18), unchangeableness (Heb 13:8).
• Divine titles ascribed to Christ: God (Jn 1:1; 20:28; Rom 9:5; Titus 2:13; 2 Pet 1:1; Heb 1:8), Lord (Phil 2:11; Rom 10:9), Son of God (Mt 16:16; Rom 1:4), Alpha and Omega (Rev 22:13).
• Divine works ascribed to Christ: creation (John 1.3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2), sustaining of all things (Col 1:17; Heb 1:3), forgiveness of sins (Mk 2:5-10), final judgment (Mt 25:31-46; Jn 5:22).
• True humanity: born of woman (Gal 4:4), grew (Lk 2:52), got tired (Jn 4:6), got thirsty (Jn 19:28), wept (Jn 11:35), was tempted (Heb 4:15), suffered, died (Mk 15:37).
• Self-consciousness: Jesus' "I am" sayings (I am the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth, and the life, the true vine) point to divine self-identification (echoing Ex 3:14 ego eimi).

The work of Christ

Threefold office (munus triplex)

John Calvin's classical organization (Institutes II.15):

• Prophet: Christ reveals God to us as the final and climactic word (Heb 1:1-2, "in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son"). His teaching, His person, and His miracles all disclose God.
• Priest: Christ offers sacrifice for sin (His own life, Heb 9:11-14) and intercedes for His people at the Father's right hand (Heb 7:25; Rom 8:34).
• King: Christ reigns over His people, the church, all creation, and the kingdom of God present and future (Eph 1:20-22; Rev 19:16).

Atonement

Christ's death accomplishes reconciliation between God and sinners. Major historical-theological models (often complementary, not mutually exclusive):

• Penal substitution: Christ bears the legal penalty for sin in the place of His people (Isaiah 53.5-6; Romans 3.25-26; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 2:24). The classical Protestant view.
• Christus Victor: Christ defeats the powers of sin, death, and the devil (Col 2:15; Heb 2:14-15; 1 Jn 3:8). Patristic and Lutheran-emphasis view.
• Satisfaction: Christ satisfies the honor of God offended by sin (Rom 5:9-10). Anselm's Cur Deus Homo (1098).
• Moral influence / exemplar: Christ's love-display moves the human heart to repentance (Abelard, modified liberal Protestantism). Generally rejected as a sufficient account by classical orthodoxy.
• Recapitulation: Christ retraces the steps of Adam and Israel in obedience where they failed, summing up and renewing humanity in Himself (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:22; Eph 1:10). Irenaean / patristic.
• Governmental: Christ's death upholds God's moral government of the universe. Grotian (Hugo Grotius, 17th c.).

Most major Christian traditions affirm penal substitution and Christus Victor as primary; the others are typically integrated as facets of one work.

Resurrection

The bodily resurrection of Christ (1 Cor 15:3-7, the pre-Pauline creed) is the climactic Christological act:

• Vindicates Jesus as the Son of God (Rom 1:4).
• Defeats death (1 Cor 15:54-57; Rev 1:18).
• Inaugurates the new creation (1 Cor 15:20-23; 2 Cor 5:17).
• Grounds the Christian's resurrection hope (Rom 6:4-5; 8:11).

See Resurrection of Jesus for the historical-evidential case and apologetic deployment.

Ascension, session, return

• Ascension (Acts 1:9-11): Christ ascends to the Father's right hand, completing His earthly mission.
• Session: Christ reigns as exalted King and intercedes as High Priest at the Father's right hand (Ps 110:1; Heb 1:3; 7:25; 10:12).
• Return (Parousia): Christ will return bodily in glory to judge the living and the dead and to consummate His kingdom (Acts 1:11; 1 Thess 4:13-18; Rev 19-22). See Eschatology.

States of Christ

Classical Reformed organization:

• Humiliation: incarnation (assuming human nature), birth in humble circumstances, life under the law, suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, descent (broadly read as state of death). Phil 2:6-8.
• Exaltation: resurrection, ascension, session at the Father's right hand, return in glory. Phil 2:9-11.

Christological titles

• Son of God: divine sonship, eternal relation to the Father (John 1.1-18; Mt 16:16; Heb 1).
• Son of Man: Jesus' favorite self-designation, drawing on Daniel 7.13-14's exalted heavenly figure who receives universal dominion; combines messianic exaltation with the suffering-servant motif.
• Christ / Messiah: anointed one, the promised Davidic king (Lk 2:11; Acts 2:36).
• Lord (Kyrios): in Septuagint, the translation of YHWH; applied to Jesus, equates Him with God (Phil 2:11; Rom 10:9-13).
• Logos: the Word of God in person, the agent of creation and revelation (John 1.1-14). See Logos Christology.
• Image of God (eikōn): the perfect image-bearer who restores what fallen humanity defaced (Col 1:15; 2 Cor 4:4; Heb 1:3).
• Servant: the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 (Acts 8:30-35; 1 Pet 2:21-25).
• Lamb of God: the sacrifice that takes away sin (Jn 1:29; 1 Cor 5:7; Rev 5).
• Last Adam: the head of the new humanity, succeeding where the first Adam failed (1 Cor 15:45; Rom 5:12-21).

Apologetic deployment

Christology grounds the central Christian truth claims:

• Christ's deity is the load-bearing claim that distinguishes Christianity from Judaism, Islam, Unitarianism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and liberal-Protestant reductions. See Deity of Christ, Trinity, OT Polytheism Objection Defeater, Yahweh is a Son of Elyon Defeater.
• Christ's atonement grounds the gospel: not "God forgives because He is loving" simpliciter but "God forgives because Christ bore the penalty" (Romans 3.25-26).
• Christ's resurrection is the historical-evidential anchor; if it happened, Christianity is true (1 Cor 15:14-19). See Resurrection of Jesus, Minimal Facts Argument.
• Christ's exclusive claim (John 14.6, "no one comes to the Father except through me") is the load-bearing exclusivity in religious pluralism debates. See Christ vs Other Religion-Founders.

See also

• Trinity, the broader doctrinal framework (one God in three persons; Christ is the second person)
• Resurrection of Jesus, the historical-evidential anchor of Christ's exaltation
• Deity of Christ, the New Testament case for Christ as God
• Logos Christology, the Johannine framework
• Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical settlement of Christ's deity
• Council of Chalcedon, the normative settlement of the two-natures doctrine
• Athanasius, the Nicene champion
• Anselm of Canterbury, the satisfaction-atonement theorist
• John Calvin, the munus triplex organizer
• Jesus Said, catalog of every passage where Christ speaks
• Christian God is the Only True God, the cumulative-case argument for Christ's God-identity
• Christ vs Other Religion-Founders, the comparative-religion deployment