SEMESTER 4
153 – Terminology – Part 3
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: THEOLOGY IV LESSON # 53
WORDS AND TERMS DESCRIBING THE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTOLOGY
ETERNAL SONSHIP OF CHRIST:
The truth that Christ did not have a beginning of sonship at any time, either by a pre-creation act of God or by His incarnation, but that He was eternally and without beginning, the son of God.
DEITY OF CHRIST:
Jesus Christ’s state of being, before, during and after His earthly life, that is, eternally God.
HUMANITY OF CHRIST:
The truth that Jesus Christ did not merely assume a human form by and in which He acted as and appeared to be man, but that He actually became man when He was born of Mary.
HYPOSTATICAL UNION OF CHRIST:
Hypo (below) and static (substance). This deals with the inexplicable union of Jesus Christ's two natures, which underlies the visible or tangible, in which the divine and human, (very God and very man) were fully united, yet not mixed together, being neither compoundable nor divisible. Nor was the one confused or in any way mitigated by the other. By this union He could act either as God or as man, without either nature violating the other.
INCARNATION OF CHRIST:
The truth that in becoming Jesus of Nazareth, God the Son partook of flesh and blood, in such a way that He suffered in every way in which the flesh is capable of suffering.
SELF-LIMITATION OF CHRIST:
The doctrine that Jesus Christ, being very God, all the while He was man, was not stripped of, or denied the infinitude of deity, but by perfect divine power and wisdom voluntarily limited Himself, so as to bear all the burdens of man, in whose stead He came to stand.
TEMPTATION OF CHRIST:
The truth that Jesus suffered all the objective assaults that Satan ever hurls upon any man, but that He, not being a fallen creature, was never subjectively tempted. That is to say, He never felt any impulse or inclination to yield to Satan’s invitations.
IMPECCABILITY OF CHRIST:
The truth that Jesus Christ was not only innocent of, but incapable of, sinning. That is to say that He was not, as is fallen man, a sinner by nature, making Him capable of committing the acts properly identified as sin.