Let's uh come back to our lectures let's move on to our fourth point which is that the logos is the only begotten God the Gospel of John identifies the word with God and grants the word divine agency regarding his divine nature it repeatedly expresses the profound truth that the logos is the Eternal God grounding his entire Outlook in God's Sovereign creation of the world and Humanity John taught that the Eternal Word possesses a two-fold identity and notice I said the Eternal Word possesses a two-fold identity as God he is one with God yet he is also in relation to God on the one hand the word is directly identified as God for he simply is God John 111b on the other hand the word is distinguished by relationship for he is with God my English is bad today the word is identical to God and distinct with God dozen names or titles are are used to designate the word in John's first chapter and these descriptor may be divided into three types now some establish his deity others his humanity and yet others both his deity and his Humanity first John clearly emphasizes Christ's deity with names like word God or himself God Life Light only begotten son or only begotten God and the Son of God second some are human titles now these are discussed in the next section third in the johannine literature yet other titles touch upon both his deity and his Humanity alone mentions the Lamb of God and of course a lamb is a preacher right but in the Book of Revelation we find him standing on the throne um he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit only God can give the spirit who gives the spirit he breathes on the disciples remember receive the Holy Spirit and he is the one Moses wrote about in the law and the son of man a son of man's an interesting title that we'll get into a little later but it has both Divine and human meanings in the Gospel of John the son's identity with in relation to the father is indicated not only through names of paternal filial relation John ascribes Divine identity to the son and his personal relation with the father in numerous ways the Divine identity of the son with the father and the personal mutuality between the father and the son are guaranteed by the johannine dogma of Eternal generation the dawning realization that Jesus is the Lord God rightly prompted his disciples to worship the son with the father now the revealed Divine ontology of the word if you could bring up the outline uh the revealed Divine ontology of the word can be discussed under four he headings he is the one Lord God he is with God he is God by Eternal generation and we worship him as God so everybody on board all right now I'm going to take a little bit to explain each of these in particular with reference to the gospel of John so first of all he is the one Lord God the fourth gospel establishes the full sharing of the divine nature will and character between his the father and his son first referring to the wholeness of the son's Unity of nature with God the Apostle John wrote these words in chapter 3:35 The Father loves the son and has given all things into his hands according to John 5: 26 among the all things are the Divine reality of having life in himself Paul says something similar remember uh the first Adam was a living Soul the last Adam was a lifegiving spirit so he has the principle of life in himself the father has that the son has that and guess who else has the the spirit is The Giver of Life so there's to be able to give life to create is a Divine reality and the father has given that to the son 16 verse1 15 Jesus went even further stating without qualification everything the father has is mine so there's a Unity of nature that the Gospel of John is affirming again and again and again and the only way you can deny that is by taking his statements saying sorry for you online all that noise was me the only way you can do that is by denying or saying well he didn't mean what he said so that's with his nature uh what about his will we're talking about the will right so second the son identified his will so first his nature under the one Lord God he is one in nature second the son identified his will entirely with the will of the father you can see this in chapter 4:34 and chapter 6: 38-40 let's just read those texts my food is to do the will of uh him who sent me and to finish his work then John chapter 6 and verse 38-40 for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day for this is the will of my father that everyone who sees the son and believes in him will have eternal life and I will raise him on the last day so the will the common will to save Humanity the one will of God shared by the father son includes both the prerogative to Grant life and Resurrection through Christ's words and the prerogative to render Eternal judgment the will of the Son and the will of the father are indivisible look at chapter 5 and verses 24-30 anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from Death To Life truly I tell you an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live for just as the father has life in himself so also he is granted to the son to have life in himself and he has granted him the right to pass judgment because he is the son of man do not be amazed at this because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear the voice will hear his voice and come come out those who have done good things to the resurrection of life but those who have done wicked things to the resurrection of condemnation I can do nothing on my own I judge only as I hear and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will but the will of him who sent me now he has one will with the father he can give life and he can give judgment he gives judgment because it's been given to him to give judgment yet judgment is of the fathers give life but the father has given him within his nature the right to give life this Unity of will is in nature simply because it is the common property of the divine nature look at uh chapter 8 verse 29 the one who sent me is with me he has not left me alone because I always do what pleases him he always does the will of the Father the question you know what does it mean you know not my will but thine be done in the gospel of Matthew it means that he he takes his human will and submits it to the Divine will for his Divine will is always the will of the fathers do what pleases him also gave himself the Divine name so he has the nature the will and the character between the father and the son I am that's his name meanwhile placing himself temporarily before Abraham before Abraham was I am scandalized by the theological implications of Jesus's self-description the Jewish religious leaders tried to Stone Jesus for equating himself with God he made himself equal to God to the son's divine nature will and character we ought to confess with Thomas of Christ my Lord and my god he has the divine nature he has the Divine will he has the Divine character and we haven't even gotten into his Divine activity aping that he is the one Lord God Thomas F Torrance said early Christians were driven to affirm the homo usio of NAA because they really realized and I quote that without that Mutual togetherness and Oneness and being an act between the Incarnate son and the Father the gospel message would be empty of saving significance for Humanity so torren said we must affirm an unbroken oops don't put it in my pocket oh he calls it an unbroken Oneness between the father and the son you know uh coren says some other things including that we're you can tell a heresy is on the way when you hear somebody talk about the God behind Jesus no no no no you look at Jesus that's God unbroken Oneness between you can see this in the light the passion and he says the ultimate executive authority of Jesus Christ he writes in these words when we look into to the face of Jesus Christ and see there the very face of God we know we have not seen and cannot see God anywhere else or in any way but in him for he is God himself become human and there is no God except the God who has come and meets Us in Jesus now that'll separate the Orthodox from the heretic if you cannot say that Jesus is God come in the flesh you do not believe the scriptures don't look for Jesus don't look for God behind Jesus you look and you see him in the face of Jesus he's God all right so that's the first thing the second thing we need to go through is that not only is he the Lord God he is with God Jesus is certainly the one Lord God but he also located himself in unique relational identity with God he referred repeatedly to his personal location and distinction V of God he demonstrated his personal relationship with the father in several ways including his movement of descent and Ascent the prepositions of origin and [Music] return the activity of sending and going and then he personally faces God John 3:13 provides the Paradigm for locating the Sun during his Earthly Ministry no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from Heaven the son of man so that a Ascent depends upon the Descent he is uh he is the son of man who has descended he is the son of man who has ascended the same son of man he has been sent from the father he returns to the father he comes and he goes he is not or the son's origin a being is from above he is not originally of this World chapter 8 verse 23 the Son and the father moreover have there been in one another I'm in the Father the father is in me he said that a number of times look at chapter 14: 10 and 20 the son you'll remember shared eternal glory with the father before during and after his Incarnation chapter 8:54 and chapter 7 17:5 during his incarnation in Earthly Ministry the son had come from the Father in Heaven you see this in chapters 6 and seven and 8 in numerous places afterwards he was going back to the Father in Heaven Again chapters 6 7 and 8 moreover in eternity the father and the son always face one another as distinct persons the son alone John 6:46 has seen the father if a disciple has seen the son he has also seen the father chapter 14:9 the son's sight of the father is unique so his relationship to the father is radically differentiated from Human Relationships chapter 8:38 Jesus denied that his personal relation to the father could belong to anyone else whatsoever his uniqueness was reinforced by the ascription to him of Eternal Generation by God that brings us to our third aspect third way to see his Divine ontology and by the way we're still all of this is still emphasized in his true deity these four points Eternal generation the logos through Eternal generation receives both his Divine identity and his relational distinction from the father at the conclusion of his Majestic prologue the Apostle John deepened our knowledge of the Divine ontology with which his gospel began by affirming the son's Eternal generation Verse 18 by the way you can see Eternal generation in ways also in Proverbs 8:25 Psalm 2 27 John 1:14 3:16 318 526 Hebrews 15 and 55 and 1 John 4:9 but we're focused on a prologue in the literary form of an inclusion restating an important matter at the end as at the beginning of a discourse this Jewish Apostle returned to the two-fold identity of the Divine word and in this context John declared the word is the only begotten God the only begotten God that's his language in John 1:18 the noun monogan is placed in apposition with Theos the Greek word for God further reinforcing the truth that the word is divine the son is literally the only begot begotten God or himself God some translator the word is God begotten the Eternal relation between Father and Son is reinforced by John's intimate imagery of the only begotten Son of God as being in the bosom of the Father the Greek word copen may be translated as lap or bosom so through this relational metaphor of a continual Fellowship between persons John Allowed no conceivable means by which one might separate God the father from his son he is begotten he is eternally in the bosom of the father you cannot separate the son from the father two persons one God is the language we've chosen to try to describe this John's term for the words personal generation monogan occasioned controversy after Aras denied the full meaning of generation as the origin of nature instead Aras said Christ had a beginning in some type of past eternity and received a lesser Nature by the will of God you remember our previous discussion nine theologians responded by affirming the son was begotten from the father father before all the ages light from light true God from true God begotten not made one Essence with the father Eternal generation means the word proceeds as S as as subsisting in the same nature as the father and that comes from aquinus so generation means right for you the word proceeds as subsisting in the same nature so his person has the same substance as the substance of the father Eternal he's eternally begotten so this is what Eternal generation means aspect of knowing that he is true deity concerns the worship that is Du him this may be the most convincing of all although I think they all should contion due to his Divine identity and his subsistence in the Eternal relations within the trinity redeemed Humanity must worship the son with the father along with the spirit Jesus alluded to the worship empowered and sought by the trinity in his conversation with the woman at the well the son at the as the embodiment of divine truth together in spirit which is only possible through the Holy Spirit enables people to act as true worshippers of God you can only worship God truly through the sun you can only worship God truly by worshiping himself son the Jewish leaders you'll remember were in sensed that Jesus made himself equal to God by claiming God was his father however Jesus reinforced his claim to deity with his statement of the foundational Christian lurgical principle and it is this principle look at John 5 and verse 23 John 5 verse 23 that all people may honor the son just as they honor the father that's the principle honor the son as you just as you honor the father honor the son just as you honor the father Jesus revealed to the man healed from blindness that he is truly the son of man he then received the man's worship of him as Lord chapter 9 veres 35-38 Jesus also received the worship of Thomas who confessed Jesus was my Lord and my God no higher demonstration of the deity of the word is possible than the worship that the early church offered to him Larry herado if you pull up that slide Chris Larry herado found six ways in which biblical monotheism came to include Jesus Christ number one the singing of early Christian hymns this is New Testament EV evidence of the worship being offered to Christ the singing of early Christian hymns we've already seen a couple or one of those we're going to see a couple more prayers directed to Christ invocation of the name of Christ as Divine as with baptism the celebration of of the Lord's Supper recorded confessions of Jesus Christ as Lord Son of God and Christ all of those are acts of worship and prophetic Revelation from the Risen Christ in heaven so these six truths are found in the New Testament you know when you see this and then you read Scholars who say well you know the the early church didn't see Jesus as God they were worshiping the Great Commission they're worshiping him right the the the worship that is given to him and there's no textual doubt about that nor even the earliest so the the whole idea of modernity that somehow you've got to get behind uh Jes get behind the New Testament to Jesus is just not possible because it's not true Jesus himself claimed to be God coming the flesh any questions about our our second uh claim of these three important claims the true Unity the true deity any questions about his true deity that we could try to answer now let me say this if you believe that he is true deity that means you believe that he is God if you believe he is God you know that God is immutable he does not change don't forget that because there will be a Temptation on your part to try to change it B move he's God we worship Jesus I hope I've demonstrated to you in in substantial evidence that that is what scripture is teaching I got a question yes uh you said that he never changes and I mean I agree with you wholeheartedly but um say the son has he been son ever since uh you know from Eternal to Eternal even before uh the existence of the world ever before he created the world has there always been you know son father spirit in that aspect or is that kind of like a human construct because U I guess I'm it's it's hard for me to I guess explain my my question because I'm wanting to know if he was always son from the you know from before the beginning just as God was always father and always Spirit yes absolutely and I cover some of this in systematic 1 but yes absolutely he is eternally the son he is the Son of God he uh the father is Eternal Father you cannot have an eternal father without having an eternal son and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever in other words he's Eternal okay thank you sorry I haven't taken one yet so okay any other questions about the the true deity of Jesus Christ this may be the most important thing to learn because there are so many heresies who want to remove his deity because I I mean you know to your question what is the basic Christian confession it is very simple it is Jesus is Lord very simple utterly profound Jesus is his human Name Lord that's the Divine name the I am when you say he is Lord you're saying this man is the Eternal God and if you compromise this in any way qualify this basic plane you have lost his true deity and his true humanity and his true unity all of that is is located in Jesus's Lord It's a totalizing claim to say Jesus is lord it's not just a pair of words you can't say it truthfully Paul said apart from the Holy Spirit verse Corinthians 12:3 Romans 10:9 And1 you know you've got to confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and God has raised him from the dead if you don't believe this as you confess this you're not a Believer you're not saved Jesus is Lord that's that's saying all three of these things in all right let's go to our next point the logos became man I think I have a slide there Chris but you he asked him who do you say that I I am the directly personal question of this man standing before them prompted his disciples to consider the human identity of Jesus even as they began recognizing his Divine identity they had no doubt Jesus was human for instance in the first chapter of his gospel John refers to him with the human name Jesus three times and with human titles like Christ or Messiah four times the prophet two times a man once Rabbi or teacher once and the king of Israel once repeatedly we see he is a man so now we're on this point he is truly human however even as we focus on the truth of his Humanity we must never lose sight of his deity and vice versa the Apostle Peter said more than he fully understood at the time when he properly confessed that Jesus is both the human Messiah and the son of the Living God Paul's first description of the Gospel to the Church of Rome included the two-fold claim that Jesus Christ is both the human son of David and the Divine Son of God we want to say which one is he Paul says he is both the apostles affirmed two significant claims about the person person of Jesus Christ he is God he is man in one significant claim the apostles agreed that Christ is the Lord who became a human being he is the Eternal Word who became flesh they continually maintained his deity even as they affirmed his Humanity they said that in his eternal deity Christ was equal to or possessed equality with God as we shall see the apostles repeatedly claimed Christ was the creator James said every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights by the logos the apostolic consensus was that the word the son belongs permanently on the Eternal side of the Creator creature divide is he God yes in a second significant claim they also agreed that the Eternal Word became flesh in Jesus John 114 John used the form of the common Greek uh root word gomi which could be translated as be come to pass or be made now this is the part that really bothers people he is eternally God he is made man he is Creator he is creature div find ontology Divine economy human ontology for human ontology is always the Divine econ economy Paul used the same root word to confess Christ was being made denos Philippians 2:7 Paul also described the humanity of the word is that which the Lord was laone taking or assuming to himself Philippians 2:7 the humanity of Christ was manifestly a created reality in contrast to his uncreated deity the Myster mystery of the Incarnation forms the background belief of the entire New Testament however certain passages stand out as particularly helpful in perceiving The Portrait of the Divine human Jesus Christ now Daniel aen identified a quint essential quartet he called it that explicitly teaches both the deity and Humanity of Jesus we shall add one passage in our summary review of these significant texts is found in John 1 Ephesians 1 Philippians 1 Colossians 2 and Hebrews 1 there are numerous other New Testament texts that that could have been added to this christological cortex so John 1 1-18 building on our our previous discussions of the fourth gospel prologue I think we can safely summarize the teachings of John about the identity of the son with seven statements now here let me go and give them to you first he is a Divine person being both God and with God John 1: one second he is the begotten Divine person identified by the prologue both as only begotten emphasizing his uniqueness and only begotten God emphasizing his deity verses 14 and 18 third the word is the Eternal Creator all things were created through him and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created John 1 verse3 fourth the word as Creator it pre-existed his entrance into the world a truth rejected by his own people verses 10- 11 he was coming into the world but they did not receive him fifth the word is the Incarnate person the word became flesh and dwelt Among Us verse 14 six he is The Illuminating person identified by both the Apostle John and John the Baptist as the light verses 4-9 he is the Eternal Light who gives light to everyone and came into the world verse 9 seventh he is the enlivening person who is named life indicating his ability to give life to those who receive him now elsewhere John confessed the logos was from the one who is the beginning but that he had now been seen observed and touched I love that part in the first part really the the prologue to the first op Epistle of John we have seen him with our eyes we've observed him we've touched him with our hands remember John knew Jesus in an intimate personal way he leaned against him at the last submer and they had that kind of friendship so that's John here's another important text Ephesians chapter 1: 7 through 12 In this passage the whole Trinity is represented in Ephesians 1 3-14 the heart of the passage is focused on the sun verses 7-2 even as the father acts through the son verses 3-6 and the spirit applies the work of the son verses 13 and 14 so even though it's a A trinitarian Hymn uh father son son and spirit the son has the largest part and when it talks about the father and the spirit they're focused on the Sun the sun's a big deal Daniel Tri also noted the passages overwhelming Christ sinness in the christological section alone the sun is presented is taking Center place in three Divine activities Redemption recapitulation and predestination according to verses 7-8 we are united in him by the instrumentality of his blood for the Forgiveness of our sins according to verses 9-10 the divine plan or the mystery of God's will which derives from his good pleasure intends to bring everything together in Christ and and by the way we'll be discussing the divine plan and predestination more according to verses 11-2 we who had already put our hope in Christ are predestined to receive an inheritance for the purpose of glorifying God in Christ so in summary Christ summarizes everything in heaven and on Earth there's a Christ centeredness and a Christ holism at work here it's all focused on Christ because it's all about Christ all right are you with me soine that's two passages look at Philippians chapter 2 2: 5-11 Scholars have also identified Philippians 26-11 as an early Christian hymn which gives and I quote significant evidence of an early incarnational christology Paul uses the him to offer a lesson about how Christians should adopt the same humility Christ has demonstrated now the larger structure of this passage is twofold focused on The Descent of Christ Jesus verses 6-8 followed by his Ascent verses 9-1 everybody with me verses 6-8 is his descent verses 9 through1 is his Ascent The Descent begins with an ontologically revealing Claim about Christ he possesses equality with God such that he need not grasp for it he doesn't have to say I want to be God he's already God his equality with God deres from his existing in the form of God for six the Greek term morphe translated as form reveals an essential reality he is existing in the form of God so he doesn't have to grasp equality with God he's God and verse S we are told that he emptied himself so he empties himself by assuming the morphe the form of a servant the Eternal words Assumption of human reality should not be taken as an addition or a subtraction to God for God is immutable did you catch that if you say that Jesus assumed Humanity you're not saying the Incarnation added to God can anything be added to the one who is perfect can anything be taken away from the one who is perfect no so by assuming or taking doesn't mean he's getting something by emptying doesn't mean he's losing something that emptying is another way to speak of humbly it doesn't lose anything it doesn't gain anything that's that's the part that that I hear so often today from people who are preaching very popular preachers and Seminary presidents is that Christ has somehow changed in the Incarnation no he's the Eternal God who takes to himself human flesh he is the word who became flesh he doesn't change cuz he's already God God is immutable Jesus Christ is immutable he is the same yesterday today and forever does that make sense humanity is God is not changed by the Incarnation humanity is transformed by the assumption God's not getting something man is getting something Christ humbled himself moreover even further receiving death to himself into himself he swallowed death to use the language again in First Corinthians 15:45 now that's the desent anybody want to talk a little more about the sin this is a really important passage so he's God he empties himself by assuming the form of a servant he's the form of God form of a servant he humbles himself even further by his death on the cross so there's a sense of descent here is he losing anything and God doesn't lose anything is he gain anything God doesn't gain anything the one being changed is the humanity not the deity your Humanity was a changed by Christ's Assumption of it he took your humanity and he perfected it through his sufferings does this make sense so that's the desent the asent begins with an affirmation of the Divine activity which followed Christ human or second human humbling God highly exalted Christ by giving him the name that is above every name now what is the name that is above every name Lord Yahweh I am he's exalted by giving that name who givs that name well he's the Eternal God he's always had that name right and as the one who does not change he doesn't change his name so who's getting the name Humanity Humanity now has the name of the Lord a specific human being named Jesus Christ this is an illusion to the Divine name Yahweh as is made clear when the exaltation of Christ is taken up by every tongue the universal confession will be what Jesus Christ is Lord now we're back to that confession right Romans 10 1 Corinthians 12 and here Philippians 2 and as I've defined elsewhere saying that Jesus Christ is the Lord cuos constitutes the saving confession at the root of all Christian Creeds by affirming he is both God he's Lord and your master why call you me Lord Lord and do not do what I say depart from me for I never knew you right you can make a false claim that he is Lord by saying oh he's God but you deny his lordship over your life for your disobedience so the universal question is going to be Jesus Christ is Lord all right that's Philippians 2 descent and Ascent Colossians chap 1 ver 15-2 now Paul commonly circumscribed creation by God rather than circumscribing God by creation you know know I think part of the difficulty we have in saying that Christ came is somehow we want Christ to be circumscribed by creation and yet at the same time that he has become man he is still the Eternal Word so he's the god in whom we live and move and have our being and this God has become flesh look at acts 17:28 in him we live and move and have our being using a holistic series of prepositions of agency which could only be ascribed to God uh he wrote the church claan church about the revelation of Christ as Creator and as Redeemer Paul said that all things were created in verse 16 all things were created by Him and through him and for him did you notice that that the direction of these prepositions all things were created by him so he's coming from eternity all things were created for him all things were created through him giving both his Divine identity and his distinction from the father but that's not it the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 17 is in his deity located before creation and he continually upholds creation together he takes and holds it together so wherever you go with regard to Creation he's there doing it this is God Jesus is not just a weak man though he is that he is God come in the flesh while his work is described as that of creation and preservation his ontology is described as the image of the invisible God another claim this is an ontological claim this is about his work his economy now this is his ontology he is the image of the invisible God taking us back to you know the claim you see Jesus you see God and I hope that always you will see Jesus and see God now let's also take up this word protos because this is another word in the passage and it's used twice the fact that it's used twice ought to tell you something about the structure of the passage while he was the first born and that's what it means the first born or the Divine heir of Creation in his deity verse 15 and that's what a firstborn gets he owns it all and that's its meaning with regard to Creation who owns it all Christ he is the first born he is the heir of creation but he was also the first born in Verse 18 the first born to arise from Death In His Humanity so first born applies to his deity because he is the heir of creation that he upholds and created in the first place he's God now some people want to say firstborn well listen that means there are other boards oh we've been through that there's eternal generation and then there's our adoption we don't have the nature of God we have the grace of God don't have too high opinion of yourself that's dangerous this this this firstborn doesn't limit him it exalts him any time you take a title of the Divine Christ and limit him you have misinterpreted that Divine title never diminish Christ he is is true deity never diminishing so he is first born as God he is also first born as man because at the resurrection he is the one who conquers death he inherits the life for Humanity that Humanity can have through faith in him so through the Dual use of this single term the himym to the centrality of Christ in Colossians 1:15 through2 divides into two sections the first focusing on his deity verses 15-1 17 the second focusing upon his Humanity verses 18-20 however even in the section on his Humanity looking at verses 18- 20 his deity is reinforced as the agent of divine action he acts as God in both creation and Redemption the latter Redemption being the work identified also with his Humanity for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile everything to himself so through his Redemptive activity is the one who is both God and man he is the exclusive head of the church and retains first place in everything now I want to I want to stress that uh sometimes I hear people refer to the pastor as the head of the church blasphemy utter blasphemy don't do it maybe a leader he's not the head we've got one head his name is Jesus Christ I had a uh I had a deacon one time new chairman of deacons young guy he's a pastor now but he had to have some of the some of the pride taken out of him but uh he wanted to meet with me after one of our um after one of our uh uh church services when I was tired so okay so we said let's meet in your office so we go to my office he sits in my chair and puts his feet on my desk and so you know this is this is big dog language you know and so he said and I'm like okay whatever you know I don't care it's not my desk anyways so he he says to me he says well now that I'm the head of the church and he gives me uh a couple things that I have to do now that he's the chairman the deacons because he assumed being the chair of the deacons he was the head of the church uh number one you need to wear a pager this tells you how that so I can get get a hold of you whenever I want and um secondly you've got to uh uh you know tell me your sermons so that I can prove them before you preach them because I'm a as you can tell I'm a bit of a prophetic preacher teacher um and so you know I listened to him for a while and then I said are are you done he said yeah you can speak now I said okay thank you I said a couple things so number one I'm going to be taking you to the deacons tonight for discipline and then to the church for removal because you claimed the place in Jesus Christ because it's very clear in Scripture that Jesus Christ is the head of the church and you said you were well at that point he started shaking because he realized he made a mistake and so he just he's he started to totally back off of all this arrogance and these commands and stuff um I said number two I'm not wearing a major number three I already have a sermon approval committee it's made up of three persons the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit if you have difficulty with what I preach you take it up with him then finally would you get your feet off my desk he he had his feet off his desk but Jesus is the head of the church amen that clear yes nobody else uh I think some of the difficulty we've had today with people uh wanting to Define who gets to be called a pastor is they assume that being a pastor means being the head of the journey or having Authority listen as a pastor I have no Authority except for the word of God I leave the word of God I have lost all authority and that's true for every Pastor the word is the authority you and I are simply mere instruments and we're very fallible instruments too so we need to get over ourselves uh there's a bit of a a pagan Outlook with that kind of uh idea is somehow you do things for God you do nothing he does things through you and it is gift so he is the head of the church Dr yell yes uh I've got one question possibly two you said that uh he is the firstborn of creation so that he is the inheritor of creation correct and so uh if he is the firstborn of the Resurrection does that mean he is inheritor of all those who are resurrected both con uh both the resurrection of cond of condemned and the resurrection of Life yes okay because I was I was wondering if he would be only uh the inheritor of resurrection of life because all those stand condemned so there is a two-fold sense of Resurrection one is the resurrection to life and what is the resurrection to condemnation you can read about this in the Gospel of John the resurrection uh to life and the resurrection to condemnation come about through the resurrection of Jesus Christ when Jesus arose from the dead that changed the course of all humanity and you are either raised to life which means to be uh with God in glory forever or you're cast into the outer of darkness in into gehenna where there is no sensation of your being so he is uh so uh he is even the inheritor of the resurrection of condemnation then I wouldn't I mean scripture doesn't use that language of inheritor for that he's the judge of that and he's already experienced the Judgment for those who receive life but those who reject him uh they they have to go to hell forever yes sir and I mean I'm not disputing that at all I'm just just as you're saying the uh first born of uh cre uh he was firstborn of creation so he inherits all creation uh I was trying to equate that to the same thing as Resurrection I see yeah um I mean you could argue that uh he doesn't Paul doesn't talk about the Judgment at this point but John certainly does okay thank you the the final point is this he has first place in everything Verse 18 so whether we consider him in his deity or in his Humanity Jesus is the one Lord but we're not done we have a quintet which means we have one more passage we need to look at Hebrews 1 veres 1-6 the book of Hebrews speaks similarly to the other Apostles the Son of God the one begotten in the Eternal present verse five of Hebrews is both the Creator and the heir of creation so you have this inheritance again the ontological metaphors are then stacked up to indicate the fullness of the sun's deity verse three in the first part of verse three he is the radiance of God's glory a metaphor that indicates neither a beginning nor an end of a reality when you turn on a light is there a beginning of that reality and an end of it plus us it is simultaneous so the radiance of his glory is like talking about the light of his light that's and this is where the Ning Creed gets the language of light from light he is also the exact expression carar of his nature hastas now this is interesting herar is the is near term for Icon indicating a perfect representation so he is the son is a perfect representation of God's nature and the word is hostos or the Greek hupostasis which later was chosen to indicate the three persons Tria HOAs so the three persons or or in other words the sun is the perfect representation of the person of the father is one way to interpret it or the nature of the father is another way to interpret it interpreted either translation butresses the Orthodox conclusion that the son is exactly like the father in his nature in his person the only difference between the father and the the son is that the son is generated of the father eternally moreover he continues to sustain creation through his powerful word so he's the heir he's the Creator he sustains just as Paul did in Colossians chapter 1 the book of Hebrews does now in Hebrews chapter 1 and when and that's interesting language in verse 6 so in other words subsequent to his Divine pre-existence so to speak he came into the world the father sealed the ascription of deity to his incarnate Son by commanding the angels to worship Him Now consider that you worship only God God's telling the Angels you worship the son so the father is commanding the Angels who are creatures to worship the son that again points to his deity and yet he's the one who comes into the world through his Incarnation back to verse three he made purification for sins by the shedding of his blood he then again in verse three ascended it to sit down at the right hand of the Majesty on high indicating his right to the Eternal throne and everlasting Kingdom you have again as with Paul in Philippians 2 you have a descent and an Ascent In this passage as well elsewhere the book of the Hebrews maintains both the eternality of Jesus Christ and his Humanity in his eternal deity he is perfect Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever Hebrews 138 in his incarnate Humanity he suffers dies and arises chapter 2:10 says that God made him the source of their salvation perfect through sufferings at the end of the preface to the Hebrews his Humanity was said to have become superior to the angels just as the name he inherited is more excellent than theirs so as a human being he is inferior but because Christ has descended to become a human being that means Humanity by sitting on the Divine Throne Is Now by The Angels upending the created order and the only reason it's that way the only reason you and I have even a greater place than the Angels is because of Christ who is the god because come man arue that the only way this letter can be read properly is by maintaining the personal Unity of Jesus Christ and distinguishing though not separating the Eternal divine nature from his assumed human nature that's the only way you can make sense out of the book of Hebrews so bring to a conclusion our statement about the one the logos uh has become a human being the logos became man let me just say a few things about what he did as a man from an ontological perspective we noted the Divine ontology of the son is assured by scriptures description of the Eternal relation of generation between the father and the son from the above review we must also acknowledge Humanity his humanity is part of the Divine economy when Jesus says the son of man descended from heaven or was sent by the Father John 3 And1 17 and that he ascended to heaven or is coming to the Father John 3 and 17 he was not limiting the Divine ontology of the son but describing his Divine economy I think some people get this messed up when you have the ascent of the son and all all these places that we've been looking at do not assume that somehow the sun is losing something or changing he was not limiting the Divine ontology of the Sun but describing his Divine economy the word is not limited in his eternality by his Incarnation rather the word elevates Humanity into eternity that's what he's doing he was per perfected through his sufferings does that mean that somehow the son of man Son of God is perfected in his deity no that's just a contradiction of saying he's true deity that's his Humanity that is being perfected through his sufferings but it's his Humanity for Christ is one person truly God and truly man moreover Jesus Christ was revealed after his resurrection to become man eternally sometimes I run into people who think well okay okay so he's Eternal God who becomes man takes upon himself human flesh and his resurrection he stops being human no when he ascended to the father his humanity is what is ascending he's already on the throne the humanity gets to go to the throne [Music] now so his humanity is that which is receiving the honors his humanity is that his deity is too but his Humanity has been taken up into glory and this is what is happening there responding to Mary Magdalene he affirmed both his unique divine relation to the father and his human relation to God first he told Mary in John 20:1 17 that he is ascending to my father indicating his unique Divine re relation the relationship between the Eternal son and the father is unique he's the only big ey son okay that's his belongs to nobody else that refers to his Divine generation second because he had reconciled the holy God with Fallen Humanity he also told Mary God is now your father in Christ's Humanity the father is my God and by the extension of divine grace through Christ's Union with Humanity the father is now your God my father and your father my God and your God so in his in his deity the the father he says is my father in his Humanity the father or God is now my God because he's God and man but in his Unity with Humanity now Humanity can refer to God as our father we can't pray except in the name of Jesus Christ Our Father there's no access to Christ to the father apart from Christ due to his two-fold personal Unity with God on the one hand and with Humanity on the other hand he has become to use the language of Hebrews the Eternal high priest who can mediate the grace of restoring human Unity with God to Believers in him and you can see the high Priestly language in chapters 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 and 10 kind of a theme of Hebrews the reason that he is truly God and truly human is so that he can come to the throne to present his eternal sacrifice to take away your sin forever does that make sense so that brings us to our conclusion our discussion today who do you say that he is I would encourage you to look to the Caledonian formula crafted amidst great debate over the identity of Jesus Christ I think it has proven to be a helpful statement of the identity of Jesus Christ and as you read this ecumenical confession from the Council of Caledon in 451 I want you to note how it consistently maintains the unity of the person of Christ the truthfulness of his eternal divine nature and the truthfulness of his umed human nature so if you would bring that up on the screen and let's read this together it's it's long you're on the second slide go to the first one so first of all following the saintly fathers we all with one voice teach the confession of one and the same son our Lord Jesus Christ the same perfect in Divinity and perfect in humanity so one perfect in Divinity perfect in humanity the same truly God and truly man of a rational soul and a body are you just a body no you're a soul and a body is Christ just a body no he's a soul and a body his hum Humanity includes a human soul your question about the spirit he has a human Spirit on substantial that means of the same Essence homo Usos with the father as regards his divinity and the same cons substantial with us as regards his Humanity he has our Humanity our human essence Like Us in all respects except for sin begotten before the ages from the father as regards his divinity now catch this we've already affirmed his eternal generation right he's begotten of before the ages from the father as regards his divinity and in the last days when do the last days begin they began when Jesus came M if I cast out demons the kingdom of God Has Come among you that's when the kingdom is came when Jesus started casting out demons okay so his rule is being restored through the defeat of the Demonic that's when the kingdom starts so that's the last days and in the last days the same for us and for our salvation for Mary in other words two generations he is the only begotten son Son of God he is the begotten son of Mary does that make sense begotten by the holy spirit in his Humanity so unlike you you only have one generation you're only begotten once that's you became a human being at that time right but he has a two-fold generation eternally he is Son of God in time he is son of David Son of Mary all right so toold generation the Virgin god-bearer as regards his Humanity all right then let's read the second part of it again and here kind of repeat some of these one and the same Christ son Lord only begotten acknowledged in two Natures so unity and then these two Natures which undergo and I love how this says it no confusion no change no division no separation don't confuse his deity with his Humanity don't change either his deity or his Humanity don't divide or separate his deity and Humanity after all he has a true Unity and no point was the difference between the natures taken away through the union but rather the properties of both Natures is preserved and uh comes together into a single person and a single subsistent being he is not parted or separated into two persons but is one in the same only begotten son God word Lord Jesus Christ just as the prophets taught from the beginning about him and as the Lord Jesus Christ himself instructed us and as the creat of the fathers handed it down to us all right do you think you could agree with that confection you don't get to answer that question I've got away with this you really need to answer that question though could you agree with that statement do you think that's based in scripture I do and I think it I think it can hold you into an orthodox christology and keep you from crystalic error thank you'all have a good night