God the Son, Student Workbook, SW10

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G O D T H E S O N

Jesus, the Messiah and Lord of All He Came

Welcome in the strong name of Jesus Christ! After your reading, study, discussion, and application of the materials in this lesson, you will be able to:

Lesson Objectives

• Articulate the significance of the Nicene Creed for Christological studies.

• Define carefully the topic of Christology and speak of its general importance in our training as leaders in the Church. • Show precisely how the Nicene Creed helps frame our thinking about a study of the biblical materials on Jesus, especially in the sense of helping us view Christ’s work as two movements, his humiliation (i.e., his becoming human and dying on the cross for our sakes) and his exaltation (his resurrection, ascension, and the hope of his return in power). • Outline the ways in which a study of Christology can be of very special help today for those like us who work in urban communities, seeing how a new understanding of Christ can enable us to better communicate God’s love to humankind, and his glorious kingdom promise. • Detail precisely the key elements of the nature of Jesus before he came to earth, as preexistent Word or Logos , using the Nicene Creed as a key to understanding Jesus’ deity. • Lay out the three different ways in which Jesus’ preexistence is seen in the Scriptures, first as God the Son, a divine person equal with God, as the Expected One in OT Messianic prophecy, and then as the Incarnate, the Word of God made flesh, God in human form. • Provide details and refute two of the central historical heresies regarding Christ’s divinity, and comment on the significance of Jesus’ divinity for our faith and discipleship.

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My Lord and My God

Devotion

John 20.19-29 - On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and