SRR 124 WLC: Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God and man in one person?

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April 19, 2020

00:01: You're listening to Semper Ephraim on the radio where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of life
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01:41: All right, so let's just open up in prayer real quick and then we can get started Heavenly Father we thank you
01:48: Lord for the opportunity to fellowship and to study your word and The the creeds and confessions of the church that have been passed down to preserve the truth and Lord we ask that you bless the study that you help us to learn and to grow in it and In the truths that we we are going to study today about Christ and his mediatorial
02:09: Mediatorial work in person and we ask this in Jesus name. Amen Okay, so last week we picked up on the
02:19: Siri on a series of questions Relating to the mediatorial
02:28: Person of Christ, so it's going to capstone on a very important question here
02:36: And So I'm going to go ahead and read the question.
02:42: This is question 40 of the larger catechism Why was it requisite that the mediator should be
02:49: God and man in one person? It was requisite that the mediator who was to reconcile
02:54: God and man Where was
03:07: I Okay, so should be himself both be both God and man and this in one person that the proper works of each nature
03:16: Might be upset accepted of God for us and relied on by us as the works of the whole person so one thing always you always want to Make sure that the the terms are properly defined and understood, right?
03:31: So there's a key term here That we need to understand that's not defined in the question and what term is that?
03:46: In the question not the answer In the question so that there's the term
03:55: I have in mind is person, right? What is a person? and so That this is a really loaded question because we have to keep in mind that the
04:08: Westminster the the Westminster Confession the reform creeds and confessions They don't go against necessarily the ecumenical creeds the seven ecumenical creeds
04:20: Of the early church like the Apostles Creed the Nicene Creed the Athanasian Creed. So this is
04:28: Building on those creeds and some some Standards even incorporate the
04:35: Apostles Creed like the Heidelberg Catechism and the Orthodox Catechism, for example, so but obviously
04:41: Here it should it's talking about the mediator being God and man in one person
04:47: And so person is an extremely important term to understand especially when we're talking about the
04:54: Trinity and The the the Godhead the and and Christ himself right
05:01: What is the? What what's the traditional or the Orthodox?
05:07: definition of Christ Regarding his natures and his person he is
05:16: Right so the formulation goes he has two what natures and one
05:23: Person right so But again, we have to keep in mind with the word and a lot of this we have to be really careful because the terms
05:32: Have been confused. They've been Used differently defined differently and so it's very important to to make sure that the terms are properly understood some and some theologians actually criticize the fact that the terms are not clearly defined and so We have to keep that in mind.
05:50: It's really important and The the in in terms of the
05:57: Trinity there's there's another sort of Orthodox formulation for that Does anybody recall what that is?
06:05: It's one What's that? Yeah, basically what one
06:11: God three persons or one one substance one essence and three Persons, but in it's better to use the
06:19: Greek terms to make it a little bit more precise So it's one Lucia one Lucia and three
06:25: Apostasis well apostasis is a hypostasis like a hypostatic Union So if you guys study churches for your
06:32: Christology, that's those are the these were the crucial terms That were being wrestled with in the early church to solidify what the
06:41: Trinity was and or how they how to properly understand the Trinity and the person of Christ and so this actually presupposes
06:51: Greek philosophy so in order to properly understand these terms, you kind of have to have an understanding of The Greek metaphysics and philosophy.
07:01: So it's it's really it's important to keep that in mind because the word
07:06: Lucia is Oh Usia Yeah So the word
07:16: Lucia for example is basically Means substance or essence so in in philosophy, there's a there's a
07:29: School of thought called essentialism or I think foundationalism essentialism.
07:34: It's what is it that Makes up a Thing what are the essential components of a thing without which if you remove one, it will no longer be that thing, right?
07:46: So This is kind of important when it comes to the the
07:51: Godhead because if you remove any one of God's attributes He will no longer be God right if he if you remove omniscience
07:58: He he wouldn't be God anymore. So that's the Lucia is supposed to represent.
08:04: What is the What are the fundamental properties or characteristics or attributes That that compose the
08:12: Godhead the what what God is and Upostasis is basically translated as persons or subsistence
08:27: Subsistence Oppo yeah, oppo h u p o s t a s e i s
08:38: So one Lucia three upostasis and Here this gets a little tricky because upostasis typically gets translated into persons or subsistence so one substance three subsistence is and so Or persons, but there's it's important to keep something in mind that person the way we understand person today.
09:01: We kind of intuitively think or assume that it means a Thinking or rational being but in Greek philosophy that wasn't necessarily the case a
09:12: Basically, there was persons for everything. There was a tree person a Any inanimate object, you know trees mountains had persons they have persons and The relationship of person to nature also becomes critical because The a person is basically an instance of a nature in reality so this is where the
09:40: Greek metaphysics stuff comes in a little bit because You there has anybody studied programming like object -oriented programming?
09:50: Any chance? No so It's if one analogy used to describe it is like do you have a cookie?
09:59: Cookie a mold, right? You have a mold that if you apply it up to something, it'll make a cookie so the cookie mold is an instance or is it is a nature basically it defines the
10:16: Cookie basically and then when you make a cookie, that's a person. It's an instance of a nature, right?
10:23: So a more simple example What are we we're human beings, right each and every one of us is an instance of a human and The nature that we belong to or that belongs to us is it is a human nature, right?
10:42: And so That's something that really is important to keep in mind in order to make sense out of What these questions are presupposing they're assuming historic
10:54: Christian terminology and and the creeds of the early church And so we can just we can go over to we can read the script the scriptures weren't all that Helpful, but we can we can read them just to Just to say that we read the
11:13: Bible because it's a Bible study. No, just kidding It's what's the first one here?
11:18: That's Okay. So the first one is yeah,
11:34: Matthew 121 and 23 Anybody want to read that Call his name
11:43: Jesus He will save his people from their sins They can you keep reading to verse 23?
11:52: Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet Behold the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son
12:04: Translated means God with us yeah, so this is just talking about the incarnation obviously in the prophecies and It does kind of help to to to keep in mind what the question is asking it's you know, why why does it have to be
12:19: God and man in one person and It's important because the two previous questions we're talking about Why why did the meteor have to be
12:27: God and why did the meteor also have or should have to be man? And so that there's various reasons like we talked about before and so but they also have to be the same person and so Let's let's go to the next
12:46: Verse here. What's the neck is Matthew 3 17? So Matthew 3 17 just says and behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved son with whom
13:03: I am well pleased and this is just kind of showing God's affirmation of Christ whom he sent to to fulfill the covenant that Adam broke and that we are all guilty of in him and so And then the next verse here is
13:22: Hebrews 9 14 Anybody want to read that?
13:46: Who wants to read that? Yeah, so this again, it's just it's talking about the
14:07: The death of Christ the the Christ offering himself. So it's different aspects of Christ purpose for coming here right for coming and becoming a man and The last verse is first Peter 2 6
14:35: And I'll just go ahead and read it for it stands in Scripture. Behold I am laying in Zion a stone a cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame
14:44: So it's just again. It's explaining It's it's bringing to light some of the prophetic passages in the
14:53: Old Testament that prophesy a Savior and I'm not sure why they left
14:59: Other really relevant verses that talk about this and this is one actually one of my favorite verses
15:05: Let's jump over to Isaiah 9 6 so Isaiah 9 6 says for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and The government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called wonderful counselor mighty
15:36: God everlasting father prince of peace and so here you kind of see Very clearly that it's talking about a man being born but his name will be mighty
15:49: God his one of his titles will be mighty God and So this is where it's crucial that the same person had to be both
15:57: God and man And I've heard that in Jewish interpretation They believe some
16:04: Jews believe that there would be two Messiahs Because of the prophecies that talk about That suggests that the
16:11: Messiah will be God and then there's other passages that suggest that it will be a man and So but here it's very clearly showing that it's talking about the same person
16:21: It's going to be God and man and don't let the everlasting father throw you off.
16:26: I think a more a more accurate Rendering is father of eternity. So it's just another title for God because God is eternal
16:34: He is never he has no origin. He has no beginning he's he's always he's he's always existed and so this is clearly talking about Christ and In one person not to not not separate
16:49: Messiah is nothing like that It's just it's just one person and he's God and men and so that's why it's important to make sense of this in light of what the scripture teaches because that's what it's that's what it's clearly teaching and so With that in mind we come back to the question of what a person is and so with a person
17:13: The church had a lot of some of the most complicated aspects of Christian doctrine theology centers around the
17:22: Trinity and Christology, which is just a study of how do we understand
17:28: Christ as a person and his work and so The issue is is
17:39: Pretty obvious, right? How can he be both God and man in one person? How do we make sense of that and There's been a whole trail of heresies and even today.
17:49: There's still modern Modern heresies Even William Lane Craig.
17:56: He's a very popular apologist. He's sort of a neo a pollen there Apollinarian which is basically the denial that it's kind of the the slogan for it was got in a body
18:07: I think is that it was a denial that That sort of like the the divine aspect of Christ swallowed up the the the human and I think he denied that Jesus had a
18:21: Human soul and so it was just basically the divine nature in a human body.
18:27: And so it's a That's that's historically been heretical.
18:33: So there's there's a lot of missing wrong understandings of Christ and There's only obviously one right one and if we go back to the question here
18:45: Here it says He should be Both God and man and this in one person that the proper works of each nature
18:53: Might be accepted of God for us. So it's using both of these terms right nature and person
18:58: So it's extremely important to have a good understanding of what those terms mean and like we talked about so what who wants to Give a shot at what what those two things are and how they relate to each other
19:13: What's a nature? anybody recall well
19:35: Okay, so in nature like this is going back to Greek metaphysics right the
19:41: Greek philosophy stuff a nature is a a a a
19:51: Metaphysical substance or Usia that defines what something is essentially something so there
20:01: There's a complement to this called accidental properties. So there's essential properties and accidental properties and Accidental properties or properties that can change or can go away but you still are fundamentally the the the nature the nature doesn't change and so this is incidentally how the
20:20: Roman Catholic Church explains the doctrine of transubstantiation They believe that Christ becomes literally becomes the the body and blood
20:33: In the bread, right? They say that the the essential Nature of Christ is still there.
20:39: But the accidental properties of his appearance has changed into bread
20:46: Yeah Yeah, it's the little wafers, you know that No But all it's saying is that Christ is essentially still his body and blood but that his accidental properties change into bread so that's how they do they use
21:09: Greek this Greek kind of a Philosophy to make sense of it Well, that's a good that's a good point.
21:19: He one yeah, right one of the Core historic
21:28: Orthodox understandings of the Godhead is that God is simple and by simple we mean that God is not composed of parts
21:34: So God has no parts. He has no Thing fingers and toes or body spirit
21:40: He's just a spirit and he has he has the essence of his attributes. So he has no there's no
21:47: Divisions in God, there's no parts to him. So God is essentially who he is and nothing about him is
21:56: Accidental so to speak you could argue in some ways like okay Well, maybe Christ could have had blue eyes instead of brown eyes
22:04: You could you could maybe say that that was accidental property and So that's partly how they defend how they describe their view.
22:13: The Catholic Church describes its its view of the transubstantiation But we we have to keep in mind that this is presupposing
22:22: Greek philosophy so we have to make understand that and so Well This is well you mean the
22:42: Catholic from the Catholic Church or so this is the
22:48: Orthodox view that the Orthodox view is that there's one Lucia and three who post asses and This is coming from a
22:56: Greek philosophical framework. So this is what the early church used to formulate an understanding of the
23:03: Trinity and of Christology and things like that, so there's there's it's it's what we've inherited and as The result of it and it's it's gotten it's a pretty stable
23:18: It's a pretty stable Doctrine like we've basically ironed out the boundaries and that's not to say that it's a fully fleshed out
23:27: Understanding because there's still issues there's still issues with the with the Christology especially but it's it's served a good purpose for as We're you know hundred over a millennia basically
23:42: Yeah, right and so I Want to I want to read a little okay.
23:48: So in the in the Nicene Creed Yeah, so that's what that's what a substance the
23:56: Lucia is a substance is a metaphysical reality that Generically defines the the the
24:03: Upostasis the instances or the person of that and I remember a person is not necessarily rational
24:09: It doesn't necessarily mean that in Greek on Philosophy a person is not necessarily a thinking or rational feeling willing individual the the the the personal component that made
24:25: That defined Christ as those things they use another term for that and that term was prosop on But also pawn also gets translated sometimes interchangeably with person
24:40: P r o s o p o n and so there's a so in the
24:49: Nicene Creed you have What that that Talking about Christ that he has one substance with the father or the same substance with the father that word substance is that word?
25:02: One substance is homo ocean Does anybody? recognize that homo ocean that what homo means
25:14: One right and Lucia means what we just talked about right it means substance so Christ and The father are of the same substance they have the same nature and But even we have to be careful with the word nature because nature is actually referring to something else
25:36: It's a little bit more technical so Lucia substance. God is the same all three persons of the
25:41: Godhead have the same substance But they have three different persons with or who post a sees now so that's the
25:50: Nicene Creed and That was a response to arias right because arias denied that That Christ was of the same substance as the father.
26:01: He denied that he was God and so There was a controversy with the term and another term proposed was homo ocean
26:11: Ocean which means like substance and so like substance as opposed to same substance
26:18: It's obviously not as strong as same or one substance the same the one in the same substance
26:24: So there's a big controversy behind that the whole history of the church and some of these terms didn't get really fleshed out
26:31: It took time for that to flesh these terms out. There's there were used differently by different authors and things like that so it gets it gets very it gets very controversial and a lot of arguments and Controversies in the church in the history of the church to to flesh this stuff out and so Chalcedon When you get to the
26:55: Council of Chalcedon, which is the later later Creed it's
27:01: You have a phrase there caught that that says concurring in one person and one
27:08: Subsistence so here you have the term person and subsistence and Again the
27:14: English terms get a little shaky and then the Latin so these were originally formulated with Greek and then the the
27:21: Latin kind of Added a layer of confusion and Complexity and then the this also is partly why the
27:31: East and the West had some Disagreements about things like this and the fact that they were not in an agreement with certain things but Person here in one person in one subsistence.
27:43: It's one prosop on and one who post asses so prosop on and Who post asses the prosop on part?
27:53: That's basically that is going is making it or as an attempt to make it more explicit that this is a personal presentation that Christ is a is a
28:03: He's he's not just a person in the sense that well. He has this He's a he's a yes, he's a
28:10: God he has a God nature and a man and the man nature in one person so this is where the term person kind of comes into play and Now we have some issues here because what was calcid on going against Does anybody recall what what what calcid on was trying to go against starts with an
28:36: N Historian ism.
28:45: So what's the what is the story an ism? Nestorian ism.
28:55: Does anybody know what that is? That Christ was two persons right and that's not the
29:09: Orthodox Understanding if you say Christ is two persons you've sort of created a rift in the in this in the unity of Christ and so What happened one second
29:59: Okay, is this making sense is it do you guys have questions comments? That's modal ism
30:15: Modal ism or Sibelian ism. That was the the heretic's name Modal ism is the belief that God is one person and three different modes
30:25: So he appears as God the Father. He appears as God the Son and God the
30:31: Spirit But he can't be all three at the same time he can only be one at a time and That's obviously heresy because God in the
30:39: Bible is clearly showing that all three persons are They all Operate and exist at this at the same time and they at the yeah, they coexist
30:57: Well Nestorius is an interesting case because most there's scholars today that say that Nestorius probably wasn't a
31:05: Nestorian The heresy just kind of dubbed his name and part of it was church politics because the
31:11: I think it was Cyril who opposed him and there was there may have been some misrepresentations of Nestorius and they kind of it got kind of ugly, but The the it doesn't change the fact that it's still a heresy to say that Christ is two persons
31:27: You can't say that he's two persons in the sense that we under that the terms are being used because that would make
31:33: That would make too much of a separation with the unity of Christ as a single individual and so The way the early church basically resolved this was
31:46: What What well, we have the term nature now, right nature as opposed to person
31:53: And so when we mean by nature, there's a term the Greek term for it is foosies foosies p -h -u -s -i -s and This is what's used to describe the different Aspects of Christ like the the human nature and the divine nature and there was also some controversy with with with that with namely the the monophysite controversy and The diophysite so mono means one right and dial dial means two so Christ had two natures one person and so But the the way this works out is that What nature came first?
32:38: His divine nature, right? So Christ the Son the second person of the
32:46: Trinity He has he has a divine nature. Is he a person?
32:53: Yes, right Christ is a the the second person of the Trinity is a person in the sense that he is a
33:02: He is a he's a divine person he has an instance of the the
33:08: God right. He is an instance of God and He is of the substance the same substance now
33:16: He is a divine person What happens when Christ is born?
33:26: How does that work? so when Christ He has
33:32: He yeah, he assumes right at the conception he assumes a
33:41: Person a nature So Yeah, we have a human nature.
33:51: We're humans. We're humans, right? so our our Osea is Is human humanity humankind?
34:01: now the When Christ became a man is he fully man?
34:11: He was fully man, right? So therefore is he a human person? Well, then that now you're an historian
34:21: Right, that's the problem right that's the dilemma. How can you be fully man, but not a human person?
34:29: This is the whole issue surrounding The Christological controversies that came later on and so the way the church resolved this it's kind of clever
34:38: It's you know, what they did was essentially Christ was a divine person and He assumed a human nature now this nature in order to become a a fully human nature and not just an impersonal and Apostasy is an actual a
35:03: Part of his his person was that his nature became attached to his divine person and That is what made him fully man without being a distinct or separate human person
35:20: So when Christ the second person of the Trinity the divine person assumed a human nature that nature became
35:31: Fully human by virtue of becoming attached to his divine person not by becoming a human nature or a human person on its own it's by attaching itself to the his divine person and There's the the technical term for that is in hypostatic
35:50: It literally I guess means in personal So Christ is not The the issue here is that a person is an instance of a nature
36:01: But Christ nature is not a person right it's in Hypostatic it's in personal by virtue of the divine person
36:10: So that's really important to keep in mind as to what the Orthodox Formulation of this is
36:15: I know it's a little tricky. Does that make sense? Is that kind of making sense You can't say he's two persons right that's the big issue with Nestorianism that was clearly condemned and There's actually
36:31: Chalcedon had some very helpful. I'm going to read a phrase from it That the two natures are in confusedly unchangeably
36:41: Indivisibly and inseparably United in the one person so Those are the four boundaries that they established in Chalcedon and So you can see why this is kind of a loaded question because this this assumes the the definitions that were taken on by The earlier creeds and this is basically how the terms are used
37:05: So Christ is not a human person. He is a impersonal human nature
37:11: Because it's attached to the divine person and That's very important to understand in this
37:22: In light of what the question says that it's it's God and men in one person, right? Many any question.
37:29: Yeah No subsistence is
37:35: Equated with person that's the hoopoe stasis Subsistence is the hoopoe stasis and Calvin preferred to use that term again these terms.
37:44: It's there's there's some there's there's some problems here because in In when you're talking about a term that applies to everything the term essentially
37:55: Means nothing. So a good example of this is existence. The term existence can be applied to anything
38:04: God exists Men exist you exist. I exist everything exists unicorns exist
38:10: Bad dreams exist hallucinations exist. Everything exists. And so the word existence when you apply it to everything doesn't actually mean anything
38:24: It's sort of it just doesn't say anything like you to say God exists doesn't actually mean anything
38:30: And a lot of people don't realize that but God exists doesn't mean anything. Like what do you mean by God? What do you mean he exists?
38:37: So it's like saying God is Well, God is what? In order in order to define or to to say who
38:45: God is you have to attach predicates to him you need to define him with predicates or Attributes or characteristics and to say that he exists doesn't actually say anything and it's similar in this situation with the term person or apostasis because everything has an apostasis
39:03: The only thing that doesn't have an apostasis according to this Greek way of looking at it are things that don't exist in reality that don't have a concrete manifestation in reality, so for example
39:16: Science fiction or fantasy novels, right? Those are all made up in somebody's mind. They don't exist in reality so those are not who apostasis so that the the 20 headed dragon and You know, what's a popular ongoing blank
39:33: But Harry Potter, right? Harry Potter the Though that yeah, anything in there is not a who apostasis because it doesn't actually have a concrete reality so In that sense it limits out the the the it excludes those things that aren't actually
39:55: Manifested in reality, but the term is still kind of vague. It's not really saying a whole lot and so In order to understand who
40:04: Christ is you still have to add predicates to to the natures and to the person in order to make sense of it and so Yes Yes, because that's a title that's a title for God, right
40:25: The title forgot I am or I will be who I will be it kind of gets translated in different ways but but the issue of existence is
40:38: Such that so that that title I am is The title that only applies properly to God Yeah, well he's not everything right because that would be pantheism right gotcha and in fact
40:55: Spurgeon so Spurgeon Brilliantly said that pantheism is actually atheism on a fig leaf
41:04: Because if you say that God is everything Then God is essentially nothing If you say that God is this table, he's this phone
41:12: He's you and he's me. How can God be everything and and we that's that's like impossible, right?
41:18: you can't be everything and and still like Be something else.
41:24: It doesn't that's a contradiction. I Can't be this or I can't be those glasses in this cup and myself in the same time and at the same sense
41:34: That's a contradiction And so that's why pantheism is atheism on a fig leaf and this is the problem
41:39: To these Greek terms that they kind of don't really add a whole lot they help in some sense, but It kind of leaves stuff a little bit unclear and that's why a lot of theologians have criticized this and have attempted to Contribute more a more fleshed out understanding of these controversies in these doctrines and so That's the the key thing here though is that crisis and hypostatic in the sense that his divine his human nature is
42:11: Not a human person. It becomes a person by virtue of attaching itself to the divine person that's the main thing to keep in mind and so So Yes Yes, right, yeah, and So in order for a word to mean something it has to also not mean something
42:39: This is just going back to basic logic in order for a cat to be a cat It also has to not be a dog if it was a dog and a cat in the same sense
42:48: Then that's a contradiction that doesn't make any sense, right? Because now you're contradicting the very Substances of what they mean like you can't be a dog and a cat at the same time
42:58: You can't be a man and a woman in the same sense even despite what our culture may may try to make of that or think right and so Yeah Right.
43:09: So that's that's really important to keep in mind and there's there's philosophical problems.
43:14: There's some issues with with with these Distinctions that are they're attempting to make because we just talked about how everything exists even
43:22: Harry Potter exists It doesn't it exists in the in the in the book. I mean you if it's it exists as a concept
43:31: The Greek the Greek understanding just attempts to make a distinction between stuff that actually manifests in reality or stuff
43:37: That's actually has a concrete instance of that nature and so yes
43:44: Yeah, yes, they exist they Yeah, as a cup.
43:50: I think they do. I think unicorns are in the Bible actually Yeah, so that may very well be a legitimate creature, but This is
44:03: It gets really Loaded and tricky here because you have to really It's it's it's appealing to it's it's it's presupposing the calcite to be a dog
44:12: Donion definition the the Nicaean Creed and all of those earlier creeds to kind of and further developing what what that means and so There's another really important section and it's if you have the
44:29: London Baptist Confession Yeah, he said that Can't just say that God is but in Hebrews It says that Hebrews 11 6 it says but without faith is impossible to please him for he who
44:48: He who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder
44:56: Yeah, thank you, yeah the fool says there is no God So what you mean by he is means something
45:05: What when you say God is you're assuming what God actually is defined as?
45:11: So who is God? He is the Father. He is the Son the Holy Spirit.
45:16: All of that is assumed into that meaning of in Hebrews Otherwise God would be an empty empty term so you have to that's what in a better way to say when you say
45:28: God exists is is a God is who he says he is That's that's what it really means that God is who he says he is
45:37: Do you believe that God is who he says he is in his word and That is what he is. Otherwise the term
45:42: God is means nothing if you just say God exists. Well, what does that mean? You have to know
45:48: By virtue of the predicates and how he's defined himself in the Bible So let's turn to if you have your
45:55: London Baptist Confession I'm going to read our section real quick to in it chapter chapter 8 section 7
46:08: So here the the chapter 8 on the
46:23: Baptist Confession, this is similar to the Westminster Confession there are some differences in this chapter, but This section is basically identical and This is very important because it gets it gets really messed up and it gets very misunderstood by people
46:40: Including myself I I formerly did not really understand this properly until recently So I'm going to go ahead and read
46:48: London Baptist Confession chapter 8 section 7 Christ in the work of mediation
46:54: Acteth according to both natures by each nature doing that which is proper to itself
47:01: Yet by reason of the unity of the person That which is proper to one nature is sometimes in Scripture Attributed to the person denominated by the other nature so this
47:14: Is very important to keep in mind with respect to this question what this is saying is
47:24: Let's so I'm going to ask the question and let's see what you all think did God die on the cross
47:32: No Did God die on the cross?
47:44: So So Okay, so let's let's turn to Acts 20 28, okay who wants to read that There you go, so does
48:41: God have blood Well, it just says that he put
48:49: God purchased the bride with his own blood Using the assumption that Jesus Christ is God that Jesus Christ is the
48:55: God that they're speaking of there. Yes So The the answer to the question is yes and no
49:05: So yes Right, no, and yes, no and yes, of course
49:12: It's yeah, it's true that God did not die because God cannot die God cannot change right
49:18: God is unchanging Malachi 3 6 as I am the Lord I change not
49:23: God cannot die and he cannot change however Because God because Christ is both
49:32: God and man Here it's saying that God purchased the church with his own blood and So because of the again, this is what we've been talking about the whole time because of the unity of the person
49:48: What's attributed to one nature can is sometimes applied to the other? Right, so the blood of Christ which pertains to his human nature is being applied to his divine nature
50:00: Right, so it's not literally true that God has blood or that God died. That's not literally true, but it's nominally true
50:08: It's true in the sense that it's applying to the same person, which is Christ so We do have to keep the distinction clear because again
50:17: Chalcedon says the natures are not confused You cannot confuse the natures, right?
50:23: So we have to still maintain that distinction God cannot die and that's why he had to become a man, right? that's exactly why
50:29: God had to become a man because God cannot die and so Now now with with this in mind
50:58: No, it's literally talking about the blood of Christ because the blood of Christ is what ransoms the blood of Christ is a term
51:06: That's used very often in the scriptures to to denote the sacrifice that he made on the cross, right? The shedding of blood this goes back to what we were talking about last week
51:14: That without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin So Christ's blood purchases the church with his own blood and so he's not just saying that God purchased the church with his own blood
51:20: He redeems us or redeems us from our sins Right, and that's what saves us the fact that Christ shed his blood for us on the cross now
51:31: Let's turn to another verse at in Luke 1 43 and in light of Christmas just Passing this will be a very relevant as well.
51:47: Luke 1 43 who wants to read that?
52:04: Okay Did y 'all catch that Yeah, yes
52:16: Yes, right exactly the mother of my lord
52:26: Yes Yes, and and the mother of my she's talking to Mary right she's talking to the mother of my lord
52:35: This is where the term the opticals comes from Back in the Christ the Nestorian controversy
52:41: Nestorius didn't like using the term He didn't like the term They all took us because God doesn't have a mom, right?
52:50: Literally speaking. God doesn't have a mom and so he didn't like that term. So he preferred the term He preferred the term crystal tacos
52:59: Which means Christ's bearer? God bearer and Christ's bearer that Mary bore
53:06: Christ not God But the controversy with that is that we just read that God purchased the church with his own blood, right?
53:16: So Mary Bore God in a nominal sense, right?
53:22: She just said the mother of my lord God has a mom because Christ had a mother but Not his divine nature, but by virtue of the fact that he is both
53:34: God and man he the fact that he's both God and man means that Because he's one person
53:43: It's okay to say That God had a mother the Lord that's a title for God right the
53:49: Lord the mother of my lord and so It's very important to keep this in mind to keep the distinctions in mind, right?
53:57: It's not literally true, but it's nominally true by virtue of Christ being one what one one person two natures, right and so this is
54:10: This is how it plays out and there's a lot of confusion about this and I am myself was a little confused about this because I was very but see and you see the
54:21: Nestorian controversy how this plays out because The effort the whole point of saying theologicals
54:27: God bear that Jesus that Mary bore God is to preserve the unity of the person and not make too so sharp a distinction that You end up you end up losing the unity that exists in Christ as both
54:44: God and man in one person and So that was the that was the point of Chalcedon. That was part of the point of Chalcedon to retain that unity
54:52: In the nominal sense That Christ that God was born right
54:58: God God was born when Christ was born and so Any questions about that?
55:05: Does that make sense? When you say that Everybody believes that's true
56:17: Yeah, so the the this is why Nestorius was nervous about That term deltacos because he felt it could lead to worship of Mary To idolatry idolizing
56:30: Mary, which is exactly what the Catholic Church did, right? The term the term doesn't have anything to do with Mary It has to do with God and man being one in Christ one person in Christ that's what the term is signifying and they're in the
56:46: The Hail Mary says Holy Mary Holy Mary mother of God and now that is true in a
56:53: Protestant sense, but it's not true in their Catholic sense because They have elevated Mary to co -redemptrix and Queen of Heaven, which is a title of basically divinity a
57:04: Divine goddess and so that's totally idolatrous. That's not what the term Historically meant that wasn't the purpose of the term they took that and perverted it into a grossly idolatrous manifestation that you see today and That's not what the term is for that wasn't the what the term originally was for Okay, I don't think even
57:27: Mary would want Would want that Idolatry today, you know, yes later you see this big prayer where she's just praising the
57:38: Lord and what do you call it? the Magnificent yeah, the Magnificat and Jesus praising the
57:44: Lord and praying unto him and and she's just Humbling herself.
57:50: She said oh And So she she didn't even think she was worthy to be to Give birth
58:05: Messiah, you know, I don't think she's even still completely comprehended it but she she would be appalled disgusted with the
58:17: What the Catholic Church is doing with her today? Yep Yeah, and so is God God hates that stuff because he has no glory and in fact
58:25: Mary's Magnificat like what Raleigh's talking about In verse 47 of Luke 1. It says my spirit rejoices in God my
58:34: Savior, right? So she's a sinner just like everybody else She was faithful.
58:40: She was a faithful believer in God and that's why and God had chose her for he had chosen her before the foundation of the world to bear
58:46: Christ, but She was still just a sinner that needed Christ's forgiveness just like everybody else because she was guilty in who
58:54: In Adam, right she was guilty of Adam's sin just like we all are and so That's that's
59:05: That's probably a lot to chew in to chew on and to take in So I think we can probably stop there and we can are you all is that I know it's a lot
59:16: It's probably maybe still kind of Making sense of it. Does that make sense?
59:21: Did y 'all want me to go over anything again or? Yeah Yeah I Yeah Yeah, sure.
59:41: So actually and I need to clarify a nature is an instance
59:47: Way way way nature a Nature, this is where it gets tricky, because nature in the
59:56: Greek is φύσις, and φύσις that's not the same thing as a nature in terms of the hypostasis.
01:00:07: And so, an hypostasis is an instance of nature, and the better term for it is ούσια, right?
01:00:19: So the ούσια is the substance or the essence that's being defined, and then the hypostasis is an instance, is a concrete instance, a metaphysical instance of that ούσια, that essence.
01:00:36: Does that help? That's the relationship there. And there's an issue as to what, because in Greek philosophy these ideas,
01:00:47: I think it comes from Plato, Plato believed in this world of ideas, and this world of ideas actually existed.
01:00:55: They had a metaphysical reality somewhere, I forget where he says they existed, but they actually exist.
01:01:03: So humanity is a metaphysically real term, and that's kind of weird, because it's like, well, where?
01:01:13: Where does that exist? If it's a real thing, because they say it has to be a real thing in order for an instance of it, an ουποστάσις of it to be real.
01:01:28: So in Christianity, how do we make sense of that? Where do these universals, these are basically universals, right?
01:01:35: Humanity, sin, none of these exist in a specific place or time or location, but they do exist where?
01:01:50: Well, in where? Whose mind? They exist in whose mind?
01:01:59: God's mind. God, God's mind gives truth and reality to these ideas, right?
01:02:08: These universals. He's the one who defines them. So, God, not me, God, He is the one who defines what these absolutes are.
01:02:20: Like Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. And so, He is the one who defines sin, He defines humanity.
01:02:26: So, these absolutes exist in the mind of God. And that's by virtue of who
01:02:34: He is. Because He is unchanging, these are absolute. They don't change, the definition doesn't change.
01:02:46: So, does that help? Is that making some sense? Yeah, so, that was a loaded question, kind of like the other one.
01:02:56: These are really loaded questions, but I think, and this is an area that I am still learning myself.
01:03:02: I need to, the early church is still kind of my weak spot and I need to do more.
01:03:08: I had to do a lot of, I was reading through some books and this is a good book for anybody interested.
01:03:15: J. N. D. Kelly's Early Christian Doctrines. This is a pretty good standard early church text.
01:03:25: There's some other good ones. Another good one is, what's it called? Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley.
01:03:36: That's another pretty good book. That's more of a survey, it's not as in depth, but it's a pretty good book.
01:03:42: This book is really interesting too. This is a book by Gordon Clark. He's one of my favorite philosophers and theologians.
01:03:49: He has a book on the incarnation, it's a very interesting book. He actually, he has a lot of criticisms to make about the orthodox terminology because it's a frustrating process of figuring out what the terms actually mean.
01:04:08: And when you do actually get the terms definition, they don't actually say much to begin with.
01:04:13: And so he proposes some contributions to the field of Christology that I think are fascinating, that are worth looking at.
01:04:22: But you have to, I wouldn't start with something like this. You kind of want to make sure that you have a good understanding of the orthodox development and views, the doctrines, before going into something like this.
01:04:40: And actually a really good way to learn that is by reading
01:04:47: Charles Hodge's section on Christ in Systematic Theology.
01:04:52: That's a very thorough, Hodge has one of the most thorough treatments on this whole issue we've been talking about.
01:04:59: How it is that Christ was a divine person with a human nature. He has a divine nature and a human nature, but he's not a human person.
01:05:09: And so that's a really good section in Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology. It's very thorough, it kind of elaborates all of the orthodox understanding.
01:05:21: And so, Systematic Theology, yeah. Was he an
01:05:26: Armenian? No, Hodge was reformed from, he's a
01:05:32: Princeton theologian, he was reformed. So he's one of the best theologians from a
01:05:39: Presbyterian perspective. But his Systematic Theology is one of the best out there. So that's a really good book to consult.
01:05:46: And his commentary on Romans as well is a classic that everybody would be good to be familiar with.
01:05:55: And incidentally, he has a really good discussion on the covenant of works that we talked about in Romans 5.
01:06:00: He has a very good commentary on that in Romans. So yeah, that's about as far as we should probably go at this point.
01:06:10: Any other questions? Bruce Shelley's book is Church History in Plain Language.
01:06:19: And if the historical theology class ends up coming to fruition, that will probably be one of the texts for that class.
01:06:28: And so that's a very good text. It's a survey, it doesn't go as in -depth as Hodge would in his
01:06:37: Systematic Theology. But it's a good text to have in your library to consult what happened at any point in time in Church History.
01:06:47: If you want a good general idea of what happened. Anything else?
01:06:57: So are you going to be teaching again next week? No, I don't think so.
01:07:03: When Ryan comes back, he'll go ahead and resume the classes. And when he comes back, we'll probably end up switching over to the
01:07:11: Baptist Catechism on this one. So this booklet has the
01:07:19: Baptist Catechism, and it's really good. It's similar to the Shorter Catechism.
01:07:24: So here, the larger Catechism that we've been using, that's the longer version of the
01:07:30: Shorter Catechism. This one has 196 questions. The Shorter, I think, has 108.
01:07:38: And they're not as detailed. And this one, the
01:07:44: Baptist Catechism, has 114. But it's kind of better to use the
01:07:51: Baptist versions because that gives a more accurate summary of what we teach.
01:07:58: Or what we believe as Baptists and not Presbyterians. And you can order this for free on chapellibrary .org.
01:08:04: So you can order up to 10 booklets there for each month. So you can grab a copy of this if you don't already have one.
01:08:11: We're probably going to get some more for people. So chapellibrary .org.
01:08:22: That's one of the best websites for classic Reformed Baptist literature. It's a very good website. One of my favorite ministries.
01:08:30: Most of the booklets that you see in the church stand, those booklets are from Chapell Library.
01:08:41: So they have great stuff. Yeah, they're all free.
01:08:47: Yeah, you can order up to 10 per month for free, including one book. They also offer books for free, like Owen's Doctrine on Sin and Pink's Sovereignty of God, Attributes of God.
01:09:00: So yeah, you can order a bunch of stuff from there. It's very much worth bookmarking the website. And they're all sound.
01:09:06: Yeah, I mean, you don't necessarily – it's not all necessarily right.
01:09:14: But the vast majority is extremely solid, classic Reformed and Baptist material.
01:09:21: It's some of the best stuff that the church has had to offer. So very good.
01:09:30: Yeah, unfortunately, the new titles may not reflect that. Because the term
01:09:38: Reformed means Presbyterian. So people are going to think we're Presbyterian. So I was – and I was kind of – my suggestion was to use
01:09:48: Reformed Baptist in order to qualify because we are Reformed. But Baptist has some important qualifications to Reform that we shouldn't use.
01:09:59: I don't think we should use the term as a standalone term because it means – historically it means Presbyterian, not
01:10:05: Baptist. And so – but yeah, that's what that chapel library is.
01:10:10: They're Reformed Baptist. And based on the London Baptist Confession, those Baptist standards, and so –
01:10:17: So we're Baptist. Yes, we're Reformed – we're more Reformed Baptist. There's a lot of overlap, but there's also some very important differences that we'll probably get into in this class later on.
01:10:29: Yeah, so let's close in prayer, and we'll go ahead and finish up. Precious Heavenly Father, we thank
01:10:36: You, Lord, for this class and for the opportunity to study Your Word and the sound doctrines that the church has blessed us with through these
01:10:44: Reformed creeds and standards and confessions. Help us to continue to study and to learn and to grow in the knowledge and grace of our
01:10:51: Lord and Savior and to make sense of this in light of Your Word and to judge all things by Your Word as the ultimate, sole, infallible rule of faith and life for us.