Saturday, February 8, 2020

Did Jesus know all things or didn't he?


Jesus was a man. With respect to his mind, he grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52) and learned obedience (Heb 5:8). Jesus was also God. With respect to his mind, he knew men's thoughts ahead of time (John 6:64) and could see things from far off (John 1:48).

How do we reconcile this? Here are some failed attempts, 3 ancient and 1 modern:

Apollinarianism
One person of Christ had a human body but not a human mind or spirit.
Jesus had to be fully and truly man to represent us.
Nestorianism
There are two separate persons in Christ, a human person and a divine person.
The Bible never presents Christ as two people. He is always "I" and never "we".
Monophysitism (Eutychianism)
Christ had one nature, a fusion of the human and divine natures.
Christ is neither God nor man but some third thing.
Kenosis theory
Jesus emptied himself of divine attributes
A misreading of Philippians 2:7

The church resolved this with the Definition of Chalcedon in AD 451. It states that Jesus is truly God and truly man, two natures in one undivided person, the property of each nature being preserved.

This was rejected by the Oriental Orthodox churches (e.g. Coptic, Armenian). They prefer the term miaphysitism, which is a more subtle non-Chalcedonian term than monophysitism, "mia" being less emphatic feminine Greek word (Wikipedia).

Explaining the significance of this, Grudem says, "One nature does some things that the other nature does not." Jesus slept in the boat and held the universe together at the same time. Grudem also says, "Anything either nature does, the person of Christ does." We can say that Jesus died on the cross without limiting this to only Jesus' human nature died on the cross. As an undivided person, Jesus died, so it is correct to say that God the Son died.

This extends to Jesus' mind. For discussion: Would Jesus have been fully human without having a human mind? Would Jesus have been fully God without having a divine mind?
  
Now, read Mark 13:32. How should we understand this? How should we not understand this? Why is this important to consider?

But it leaves us with profound mysteries, but Christians submit themselves to the authority of God's Word as his self-revelation. We would expect that a transcendent God would be beyond our ability to fully understand.

Notes for Community Group, largely drawn from Chapter 26 "The Person of Christ" from Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology

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