Non-Negotiable

There are many issues on which Christians differ such as the methods of baptism, for instance, but there are some things that are non-negotiable in order for one's theology to remain Christian. One such non-negotiable tenet of Christianity is the fact that Jesus Christ was both fully God and fully man. To promote any contrary idea about the nature of Jesus the God-man is to promote heresy.

In this week's class, we learned that it did not take long after Christ's death and resurrection for various heretical teachings to appear. Who was this man called Jesus of Nazareth? Most claimed that Jesus was merely human and not divine at all. Others said that he was indeed divine but not really human. There were those who taught that Jesus was divine but that his appearance/life as a human was more like that of a phantom. Ideas such as these continued to be wide-spread throughout the early centuries of Christendom. The early church councils were convened to combat heresy and articulate a common creed, a statement of faith.

The author of our textbook devotes an entire chapter to the discussion of the Apostles' Creed. It was noted that, at first glance, this might seem like overkill on the subject! However, after looking at the context of the church councils and the need to promote orthodoxy, especially at that time, one can understand that this one chapter is only scratching the surface of what could be researched and written on the subject. Jesus Christ was, and is, fully God and fully man. There is no room for compromise on this issue.

Based on the illustrations found primarily in the Gospels, we began a discussion about the ways in which we see both the divinity and the humanity of Jesus. There is no way that we can totally mine the depths of the riches of this doctrine, and yet there is so much that IS available to us! We will continue to explore it further next week.







http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?picture=holy-bible&image=4031