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The Person of Jesus Christ Summary for A-Level Christian Thought
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The person of Jesus ChristSon of God A term for Jesus that emphasises that he is God incarnate, one of the three
persons of the Trinity
Liberator A general term for someone who frees people or a group of people
Rabbi A Jewish teacher
Hypostatic The belief that Jesus is both fully God and fully human, two natures united in one
union person
Homoousious Of the same substance or of the same being
Word Another name for the second person of the Trinity, used at the beginning of
John’s Gospel to describe the incarnation which existed from the beginning
Redemption The action of saving or being saved from sin and evil
Incarnation God born as a human in Jesus
Zealot A member of the Jewish political/military movement which fought against Rome
in the first century
Messiah In Christianity it is associated with Jesus, who is the Son of God and the Saviour.
In Judaism it is associated with people who rose up against oppression, the
people of Israel
Jesus as the Son of God
This is a title for Jesus in the New Testament and in the early Church. The idea links to the
Trinity and the doctrine of the incarnation. Being the Son of God is central to Jesus’ authority.
Jesus as the teacher of wisdom
Jesus' teachings and moral example have an enduring appeal to Christians and others. He is
believed by many to be a good and holy man who lived close to God and so is an example to
others. His teachings focus on loving others, forgiveness, healing the sick and looking out for
outcasts and the vulnerable.
Jesus the liberator
Some see him as a religious revolutionary who challenged the established religious
authorities with a spiritual message that sought to break down the division between God and
people. To some he was a reformer who sought political revolution; the liberation of the
people of Israel from the Romans, as a Messiah.
The nature of Jesus’ relationship with God is called Christology. Christology from above focuses on
Jesus’ divinity and God’s act of bringing humanity back into relationship with him. High Christology is
not something that can be proved but relies on faith. Christology from below focuses on Jesus’
messages, examples and teaching.
Jesus as the Son of God
Jesus calls God ‘Abba’ which is Greek for father, and a heavenly voice declares Jesus ‘my son’ during
his baptism, but Jesus does not use the term ‘son’ himself. The Gospels say that Jesus came into this
world through the intervention of the Holy Spirit and Mary and in the ancient world, there were myths
of demi-Gods who were not Gods but did have God-like powers. However, Christians see Jesus as
directly associated with God. St John writes of Jesus as the Word, and that the ‘Word was God’.
Thomas refers to Jesus as ‘my Lord and my God’ and Jesus is worshipped, something done only to a
God.
The idea that Jesus is both God and a separate human being was rejected in the early Church at the
Council of Chalcedon. The belief in the ‘perfect conjunction’ of Jesus’ two natures was termed a
hypostatic union by the early Church.
In Jewish terms, the phrase Son of God was often used to refer to the king, as someone chosen by
God to carry out his will on Earth. The Hebrew for ‘anointed one’ is messiah or Christos in Greek.
Therefore Son of God and Christ are equivalent terms. But in the non-Jewish Greek world, Son of
God referred to a human who had been elevated to become a divine being. The Church combined the
, Jewish and Greek meanings of the term Son of God and the official view was that Jesus Christ was
both fully God as well as truly human. This is how the Council of Chalcedon defined Jesus.
How human was Jesus?
In order to save humanity from sin, Jesus had to be divine as only God has that redemptive power.
But if Jesus was God, then that could mean that he did not really suffer on the Cross because a God
cannot suffer. If he is not God, he cannot reveal the father, if he is not human, he cannot reveal the
father to us. If Jesus was both human and God, then this can also create problems; Paul wrote that
humans have a sinful, corrupting nature in his letter to the Romans, so if Jesus became human,
wouldn’t he become corrupted? Bishop Apollinaris worried that “a human mind is enslaved to filthy
thoughts”, so suggested that the Word replaced the human mind and soul with a divine one, without
taking on a fallible human nature. Some rejected this idea as it was thought to be a ‘half salvation’ as
it suggests that Jesus was only half human.
Jesus makes a number of great statements beginning with “I am” which is similar to how God
revealed himself to Moses “God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am’”, such as “I am the way and the truth
and the life”. In John’s Gospel, he says that “the Father and I are one” and “whoever has seen me has
seen the Father”. However, some theologians argue that this does not demonstrate that he was God,
but that he had a consciousness of God. In John’s gospel he also says “the Father is far greater than
I” because a human would not have God’s powers.
Most Christian Churches today including Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and most Protestant Churches
follow the agreement established by the major ecumenical councils. The First Council of Nicaea
resolved that Jesus was of the same substance of the Father, or of one being – homoousious. The
Council of Chalcedon affirmed that Christ is acknowledged in two natures, which come together into
one person. Jesus was not a mix or a blend.
The purpose of philosophy, Wittgenstein argued, was to clarify words and meanings and strip away
confusion so as to practice the authentic life. Thus, for Wittgenstein, Jesus is not an abstract idea but
the ‘living word’, the embodiment of the external moral and inner spiritual life.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but
to fulfil”.
What was the extent of Jesus’ self-knowledge?
If Jesus had divine knowledge what do his expressions of emotions mean, such as his anxiety in the
Garden of Gethsemane and his tears at the death of Lazarus?
Karl Rahner suggests a genuinely human consciousness must have an unknown future in front of it.
Our life is conditioned by uncertainty. If Jesus was conscious of God all the rime, then his view of life
can hardly be human. Rahner believed that Jesus had an onion-like consciousness that had many
layers. Psychologists sometimes describe human self-awareness as layered, like an onion; we have
deep within us a better understanding of our self which is not always on the surface of our
consciousness. The expression of fear in Gethsemane makes sense if Jesus’ self-consciousness was
close to the surface but his divine self-consciousness was deep within. However, we cannot know for
certain this as Jesus did not have any of his own writings so we cannot gain an insight to his own
consciousness. Gerald O’Collins argued that we only know that Jesus knew that he had a mission
and was aware of his Sonship intuitively.
Miracles
In the New Testament, Jesus is shown as being a miracle worker; by being able to work miracles,
Jesus demonstrated that he had God’s powers. His power to walk on water, exercise demons,
recreate sight and even life are things only God can do, which reinforces the idea that Jesus is the
Son of God. Many Christians believe that miracles still happen today and are evidence of the holy
spirit’s everlasting presence.
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