Dr Paul Allen

This is a tenfold summary of key biblical Christology. 1. The person or subject of the incarnation is the eternal, divine Son. John 1:14 states this well: “The Word became flesh.” In other words, it was not the divine nature but the divine Son from eternity (John 1:1) who became incarnate. The Son, who has always been in eternal relationship with the Father and the Spirit, and who shares the same, identical divine nature with them, freely chose to humble himself by assuming a human nature to redeem his people (Phil. 2:6–8) and to reverse all that Adam did by ushering in a new creation (Col. 1:18–20). 2. As the divine Son, the second person of the triune Godhead, he is the exact image and correspondence of the Father and is thus truly God. Along with the Father and Spirit, the Son fully and equally shares the one divine nature. As the image and exact correspondence of the Father (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3), the Son is truly God. All of God’s perfections and attributes are his since our Lord i...

Just briefly in passing, let me ask you to pay particularly close attention, when you read the Gospels, to the use of the phrase or the title “Son of Man.” It’s one of the most important titles for Jesus in the New Testament and yet, at the same time, one of the most frequently misunderstood. Part of the reason is we see the difference between the title “Son of Man” and “Son of God.” And given the church’s confession, historically, of the dual nature of Jesus—that He has a divine nature and a human nature —the tendency is for folks to assume that when Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man, that He was speaking of His human nature, and when He’s referred to as the Son of God, He was being referred to vis-à-vis His divine nature. Well, it’s not as simple as all of that, because both of these titles have within them elements that refer to His deity and to His humanity. But if anything, the emphasis on the two is just the opposite of what we would normally expect. The title “Son of G...

As the incarnate Word of God (John 1:14), Jesus Himself repeatedly affirmed His divinity. He often referred to Himself as the “Son of Man” (cf. Matt. 8:20; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:22; John 9:35–37), a messianic title derived from Daniel 7:13–14 (NKJV), where the “one like the Son of Man” appears as an equal with “the Ancient of Days” (Matt. 25:31; 26:64).  HE SAID WHO HE WAS He similarly described Himself as the “Son of God,” a title clearly indicating His divine nature and eternal union with God the Father. As He explained in Matthew 11:27, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”  HE SPOKE WITH AUTHORITY In John 5:25–26, speaking of His divine authority, He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.  HE ...

Image via Wikipedia If you do a study of the term  Son of Man  in the Gospels you'll see that  Jesus didn't refer to himself most often as Son of God but as Son of Man. He said things like, in Mark 10:45, "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." So he calls himself Son of Man very often. I think the reason he did so is because, on the face of it,  Son of Man  is an ordinary phrase for " human being ." He was born of a man. And there's no offense there: who isn't a son of man ?  But those with ears to hear could hear  Daniel  7, in which he was claiming a very exalted role in the history of redemption. And he meant to do it.  Jesus was very subtle in that he was always opening his identity to those with eyes to see, but he wasn't opening it so blatantly that everybody would come and make him king.  He had to steer a very narrow course in disclosing his identity, not j...

English: Icon showing the Resurrection of Jesus, at the inner side of the Resurrection Gate to the Red Square, Moscow (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 17:22–23 “ Jesus said to them, ‘ The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day’” ( vv. 22–23 ). Peter’s great confession of Christ marks a turning point in our Lord’s life and ministry ( 16:13–20 ). Following the events that happen in and around Caesarea Philppi, a town 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee , Jesus begins His final journey south, setting His face toward Jerusalem where He will atone for the sins of His people ( Luke 9:51–53 ). He is single-minded in His efforts to arrive in the Holy City and will not deviate from His course, though He will continue to fulfill His messianic calling along the way ( Matt. 17:14–20 ; 20:29–34 ). Teaching remains integral to this calling, and in today’s passage Jesus makes the second major prediction of...

Tetramorph. Fresco, Meteora. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “ Son of man , take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus , and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.” ( Ezekiel 28:12 ) This prophecy against the King of Tyre is very similar to the prophecy given over a century earlier against the King of Babylon ( Isaiah 14:3-28 ). Both are ostensibly addressed to earthly kings, yet both are impossible to apply to any mere human monarch. In both instances, it becomes obvious that an evil spirit—in fact, none other than Satan himself—had possessed the bodies of these kings. Thus God , through Ezekiel, is here speaking primarily to Satan. Satan had been “full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty,” but he became proud instead of thankful. “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground” ( Ezekiel 28:17 ). He had been “the anointed cheru...

John Piper (theologian) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A Commanding Invitation Psalm 119 stands as an invitation to us to approach God ’s word with our whole minds (Psalm 119:113) and our whole hearts (Psalm 119:2). It commands us to think rightly and feel deeply about God’s word. It leaves no room for a clean division of the intellect and emotions , but rather demands a response from both the mind and the heart. Whether we hear God’s word in a call to worship , a confession of sin , an assurance of pardon, an exposition, or in the benediction — every time we hear the words of Scripture, God is speaking to his people. There is no space for yawning when God is speaking. His word commands our attention, our affection, and our obedience. We see in the 176 verses of Psalm 119 an unbreakable chain of knowing and feeling. The psalmist has tasted the word of God, and has developed an unquenchable appetite for it. His passions have been fixed on knowing and experiencing God’s word. He has...

Appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene after resurrection, Alexander Ivanov, 1835 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Daniel 7:9–14 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him” ( v. 13 ). The title Son of Man appears in the New Testament four times outside of the Gospels . It is used for our Savior unambiguously in three places ( Acts 7:56 ; Rev. 1:13 ; 14:14 ), but whether Hebrews 2:6 intends it as a title for Jesus is debatable. Since it is Jesus’ favorite title for Himself, it seems strange that it is not found more often in the apostolic writings. Maybe the original audiences of the epistles did not know the title’s meaning as well as the Gospels’ first readers. As we continue to study the meaning of this title, we must first consider what it does not intend to convey. Popularly speaking, many Christians look at “Son of Man” as a reference to the humanity of Chr...

English: "Satan Sowing Seeds" by Felicien Rops, pencil, around 1872 320px wide (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 13:36–43 “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (v. 43). This passage contains Jesus ’ interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:36–43), which presents problems for the twenty-first century person. Simply put, it is difficult to discern whether or not this parable teaches that unbelievers will exist alongside believers in the visible covenant community until the return of Christ . Many godly scholars teach that the parable in question is concerned mainly with the church and the authenticity of the faith of its professing members. Scripture, of course, teaches that we will often be unable to distinguish those who profess faith falsely from the true believers in the institutional church until Judgment Day. Yet this point is probably not th...

Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “ Marvel not at what I just said, you must be born again .” ( John 3:7 ) The term “born again” has come into such common use in recent years, even in political campaigns , that its tremendous meaning has been all but lost. But Jesus—who ought to know, being none other than God incarnate—said, “Ye must be born again!” Furthermore, He said it to Nicodemus , one of the most religiously knowledgeable people of that day. He did not say to Nicodemus that “they must be born again,” meaning the unbelieving multitudes who were not as instructed in the things of God as they should be. Nor did he say that “we must be born again,” meaning all of us mortals including Himself. Rather, Jesus said, “Ye must be born again!” Even a man like Nicodemus must be born spiritually—born again (literally, “born from above”)—if he were ever to see the Kingdom of God ( John 3:3 ). In answer to his question as to how this could be, Jesus said he must ...

English: A 14th-century of Jesus Christ bearing the cross, from the monastery in . (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified . Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit . He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” - John 12:23–26 - Jesus is acknowledging that the time for His crucifixion is near. We learn from the next verse (which we’ll look at in a minute) that He was troubled. And that’s not terribly surprising. It’s not that He’s just going to die an agonizing and ignominious death at the hands of those who have perverted His Father’s holy Law, and have subjugated His people under a yoke of slavery that no one in his...