Affirming Christ: The Core of Our Faith

"And the author of Hebrews tells us, 'Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.'" [00:02:22]

"This was a world dominated by Plato, and one fundamental doctrine of Plato is 'matter is bad.' And so, how could the divine being sully himself by taking on flesh? So, in the incarnation, Jesus was not truly man; he only appeared to be human. He, as it were, hovered six inches off the ground. So, the early church combated this. The apostles themselves combat this." [00:05:47]

"And this was the Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed. And this wonderful statement from the Nicene Creed that Jesus is of one substance with the Father. So we have the humanity of Christ established as the church combats Docetism. We have the deity of Christ established as the church combats Arianism. And now, we have a problem of, well, how do the two natures come together?" [00:08:25]

"And so, we have this wonderful Chalcedonian formula of the two natures of Christ, that Jesus is truly man and truly God, two natures in one person. We skip ahead a bit to the Reformers, and we find that the issue here is the work of Christ. And so, now we need ... and we talk about sola fide, we talk about sola gratia. Solus Christus is the shorthand for 'the gospel,' 'Christ alone.'" [00:09:00]

"And when the interviewer pressed him a little bit, he said, 'Because that's the gospel.' And it's always the gospel that will be under attack. And so, we put together this statement. As you have the statement in front of you, it begins with a confession, a statement of belief. There are really two key verbs that bookend this statement. The first is 'We confess,' which is our theology." [00:11:17]

"Theology always leads to doxology. Theology that is straight, 'ortho' is the word as in 'orthodox.' Theology that is straight and right and biblical will always lead to praise. Didn't we hear that earlier? We sing! We sing as a natural response to the truth that we encounter in theology. So, we begin with theology, and we end with doxology, and let's take a look at what's in between." [00:12:16]

"And so we study this person of Christ, 'With the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Son,' so this is Trinitarianism. This is recognizing the equality of the Son with the Father. Again, as Nicaea tells us, that Christ is of one substance, the same substance of the Father, 'created all things, sustains all things, and makes all things new.' Summarizing then, the Chalcedonian formula, 'Truly God, He became truly man, two natures in one person.'" [00:13:47]

"To pause for a moment and not simply skip over from the birth of Christ to the death of Christ, but to pause for a moment and recognize that in His incarnation, He did not hover six inches off the ground, but is our faithful high priest, touched with our infirmities, sympathetic because He lived among us. 'Tabernacled' is the word. 'Dwelled among us.'" [00:14:39]

"Let’s not skip over this crucial expression that 'He kept the Law.' Theologians refer to this as 'the active and passive obedience of Christ.' That in His passive obedience, he's paying that penalty, He's undoing what Adam did. But in His active obedience, he's doing what Adam should've done. In His active obedience, He's keeping the law. And that is such a crucial part of the gospel." [00:19:50]

"And the extent to which God sees you now is the extent to which He sees the Son. That in your union with Christ, you stand before the Father, clothed in a righteousness that is not our own. Luther called it 'alien righteousness.' And by that, he didn't mean a Welshman who made his way into South Carolina. He meant that it was outside of us and given to us. And so, 'He took our filthy rags and gave us His righteous robe.'" [00:21:47]

"And so we come, then, to what is the first confession, the singular confession, the concise confession that is in the New Testament itself. And it’s simply this, 'Jesus Christ is Lord.' We should have put an exclamation point there. 'Jesus Christ is Lord.' And then, in a hushed tone, we say, 'We praise His holy Name forever. Amen.' Because theology leads to doxology." [00:23:45]

"One of the most beautiful phrases, I think, in all of theological literature, comes to us from the Nicene Creed, and it’s this little expression, 'For us.' For us, that Jesus, truly God, became incarnate and undertook His Messianic mission to accomplish redemption for us. This is not the God of Plato. This is not the abstract deity. This is the God who, as the Latin expression is, pro nobis, is 'for us,' and has made Himself known, and is known in His redemptive work." [00:15:30]