God the Son, Mentor's Guide, MG10

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G O D T H E S O N

• Understanding, affirming, and celebrating the divinity of Jesus is central to our ongoing worship and discipleship. Confessing the truth of Jesus as God’s Son continues to be significant for every aspect of our faith and witness to the world.

Video Segment 2 Outline

I. The Preexistent Word ( Logos ) in the Nicene Creed and Scripture

A. Importance of the Creed for Christology

1

Prior to Jesus’ ministry, we can speak only of a diverse Jewish hope of a new age often involving one or more intermediary or redeemer figures—messiah, prophet, exalted hero, archangel, even God himself. A century later all these categories and more were either superseded or focused in one man, Jesus Christ. Ignatius spoke of Jesus in straightforward terms as “our God, Jesus (the) Christ” (Eph. 18.2 1 ; Rom. 3.3 2 ), and showed how Christology was well on the way toward the classical creedal statements of the ecumenical councils. “There is one physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and yet not born, who is God in man, true life in death, both of Mary and of God, first passible and then impassible, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Eph. 7.2 1 ). In the course of that hundred years, the claims of Christianity appeared and began to take definitive shape.

1 Ignatius’ letter to the Ephesians.

2 Ignatius’ letter to the Romans.

~ James G. G. Dunn. “Christology.” The Anchor Bible Dictionary . D. N. Freedman, ed. (Electronic ed.). Doubleday: New York, 1996.

B. Creedal language on Jesus’ preexistence

1. “We believe in One Lord Jesus Christ”: The Creed confesses unqualified allegiance in Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and Messiah .

a. Jesus is the anchor of our faith, Heb. 12.1-2.