1.
Jesus Christ the Objective Reality of Revelation
The
New Testament makes a twofold confession concerning Jesus Christ: first, the
Son of God is called Jesus of Nazareth; second, Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of
God. The biblical witnesses did not have a prior understanding of divine
sonship by which they judged candidates until they found Jesus. Instead, God’s
presence in Jesus impressed itself upon them and then, on the basis of Jesus
the person, they came to understand the meaning of divine sonship. In this way
they avoided the danger of ignoring his humanity as unimportant.
Conversely, the biblical witnesses came to recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the Son of God. They did not do so because Jesus was to them an exciting hero, pious saint, or profound sage. They confessed that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ because in him they were confronted by God’s presence and through him heard God’s Word. In this way they avoided the danger of rejecting his divinity.
2.
Jesus Christ the Objective Possibility of Revelation
Jesus
Christ is truly divine and truly human. As such he is the objective revelation
of God’s freedom to be with us and for us. To begin with, in Jesus Christ, God
revealed that he could enter into our creaturely and even sinful realm and
become fully human and still remain fully divine. Then, God revealed his
freedom to be for us by revealing himself visibly in a form familiar to us. Finally,
God revealed his freedom specifically by taking upon himself our flesh; that
is, not only our natural limitations but the whole curse of sin—without himself
sinning.
Copyright © 2019
by Steven Farsaci.
All rights
reserved. Fair use encouraged.