Christology

The Development of ChFinally, the ascension and session of Christ guarantees His rule over all things now until the time when the completion of His victory by the subjugation of His enemies is brought to a close. "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet."[76] God has ordained that the earth be under man's dominion, and His Son took on human nature to accomplish what man could not.[77] At the same time His is one with His Father, and as God, He is Lord of all, and the Throne from which He rules is God's Throne.[78] He is King of all kings, Lord of all lords, and He will execute the victory of God over all things. He has now taken in hand and will bring to fruition the grand purpose of God that will bring glory to Him as His people revel in His presence forever.

It is hardly surprising that fallen man would be prone to err concerning such a wonderful Person. His deity has been emphasized at the expense of His humanity. The humanity has been embraced in a way that falls short of a full confession of His deity. The union of God and man has been explained in a way that confused His two natures and endangered the proper understanding of His Person and the efficacy of His work.

The early Church was faced with the challenge of responding to the various heresies that jeopardized a comprehensively biblical view of Christ. At the Council of Nicea and in the years following, the Church formulated an unequivocal affirmation of the deity of Christ against the Arian heresy that wanted to define Him as a mere creature. But because of the continuing confusion about the God-Man and in the face of many conflicting voices on the nature of the union of God and man in the Person of Christ, it remained for the Church to clarify its definition of the God-Man. If He is true God, how must His assuming a human nature be understood, and in the constitution of His Person and the accomplishing of His work, what is the relationship between the natures and how do they function? The Council of Chalcedon was the vehicle for the issuance of a succinct but comprehensive definition of the Person of Christ and a definitive expression of the reality and interrelation of His two natures in one Person. That definition has proven itself to be profoundly biblical in its grasp of the witness of Holy Scripture to the living Word of God, not just in scattered proof texts, but in the fullness of the revelation of Christ.

The Chalcedonian definition proclaims that the one Person is the God-Man, truly God and truly man, and that two truths must be held in unity.[2] The first is that each nature remains true to its own attributes and must not be confused in understanding the constitution of the Person of Christ and His salvific work. The second is that Christ must not be divided if His work is to be conceived of properly. The one Person accomplished that work, and did so with both a human and a divine nature.

The purpose of the God-Man was twofold: (1) to reveal the Person of God to man, and (2) to save man who is estranged from God. The Christ who accomplished this work must be one Person who is possessed of both a divine and human nature. Such an understanding ought to undergird all that is to be comprehended in regard to His Person and work.

The Apostle John opens his magisterial Gospel with bold lines that cogently define the one Whom He wishes to present. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."[3] Logos speaks of something revealed.

According to St. John, the one Who came to reveal is none other than the Creator: "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. . . . He was in the world, and the world was made through him."[8] John does not proclaim one who merely imparts life, or sustains it, but one Who is Himself life essential. He is the Creator and Source of life, He in fact who kindles the life of every man coming into the world.[9] Jesus proclaimed this of Himself while standing before the tomb of His friend Lazarus, and He proceeded to demonstrate the veracity of the claim by calling Lazarus forth from death.[10] Man lives in the realm of spiritual death, and when the Logos came to reveal God, He revealed that God is the Source of Life, both biological and spiritual. The Apostle repeated the revelatory aspect of Christ's mission in his first epistle: "the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life."[11]

If Jesus came to reveal, it is only natural that He would be called the light. Light, as St. John describes it, must be understood in a twofold sense. It is first, truth, and because it is essential truth, it either hardens those who reject it, or illumines those that embrace it. Whatever the response, it cannot be conquered for it is the unconquerable light of God: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."[12] John the Baptizer, as a witness to the Person of Christ, is contrasted with Christ Himself, as an instrument of light is to be differentiated from the essence of light itself:

But if He is the revelation of essential light and truth, He is the revelation of the God of glory. In seeing Christ, says the Apostle, "we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."[15] The notion of "glory" with all its multifaceted Biblical richnessÐ'--radiance, splendor, weight, richness, honorÐ'--is summed up in this Person Who perfectly manifests to man the splendor and rectitude of God in His essential character as the source of uncompromising truth and the giver of unmerited favor. The revelation was of the one of absolute holiness in Whom resides no darkness, but the revelation came in mercy to the undeserving who needed the light God's truth.

If then the Logos, the supreme and perfect expression of the Father, was made manifest to man as the essential life, truth, and glory, it remains to be asked, "How was this one revealed, what method was employed?" St. John answers this question in a statement of profound but direct simplicity: "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father."[16] God was revealed to man by incarnation. God revealed Himself to man by becoming a man and living among men.[17] The one Who came was life and light itself, the unsullied splendor and glory of God. Such a dazzling revelation, shining in its naked