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