Alister McGrath Theology Basics (2018) Chapter 4: Jesus — Transcript

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1. 0:00well hello again this is Alister McGrath
2. 0:03of Oxford University introducing my
3. 0:05textbook theology the basics so we come
4. 0:09to the fourth chapter of this book which
5. 0:11deals with the identity and significance
6. 0:14of Jesus Christ who after all is a
7. 0:16central figure of the Christian faith
8. 0:18and this area of Christian theology is
9. 0:21traditionally known as Christology
10. 0:23Christology if theology is trying to
11. 0:26make sense of God then Christology is
12. 0:29trying to make sense of Jesus Christ and
13. 0:31this fifth presentation we'll explore
14. 0:34this topic to help you get the most out
15. 0:36of this important chapter in this
16. 0:38textbook now what Christology does is to
17. 0:41weave together the biblical witness to
18. 0:44the identity and significance of Jesus
19. 0:46Christ and it's a topic of enormous
20. 0:49importance given the centrality of the
21. 0:51person of Christ to the Christian faith
22. 0:54now Christology weaves together the
23. 0:56biblical witness to the identity and
24. 0:58significance of Jesus Christ and given
25. 1:01the centrality of the person of Jesus
26. 1:03Christ to the Christian faith it really
27. 1:05is important and actually it helps us to
28. 1:08understand why icons are so important
29. 1:10for many Christians for example think of
30. 1:13this Byzantine icon depicting the
31. 1:16Nativity or indeed church altarpiece
32. 1:19which often help people focus on Christ
33. 1:22for example this very famous work by
34. 1:24Matias Grunwald at a church in easin
35. 1:26Hyman Alsace the New Testament
36. 1:30statements about Jesus can be broadly
37. 1:32listed under two different classes first
38. 1:36of all we have statements about Jesus's
39. 1:38function in other words what did Jesus
40. 1:42achieve what did Jesus do and then
41. 1:45secondly we have statements about
42. 1:47Jesus's identity who Jesus is now these
43. 1:52two who Jesus is what Jesus does are
44. 1:56closely connected Christ's achievements
45. 1:59are grounded in his identity crisis
46. 2:03identity is disclosed through his
47. 2:05achievements so for example if Jesus
48. 2:09achieved salvation what does that tell
49. 2:12us
50. 2:13who he is that's especially important
51. 2:16given that the Old Testament makes it
52. 2:18clear only God is able to save for New
53. 2:24Testament writers Jesus is the savior of
54. 2:27humanity think for example of this verse
55. 2:29from Luke's Gospel which is often read
56. 2:31in Christmas carol services for to you
57. 2:34Is Born This Day in the City of David a
58. 2:37savior who is Christ the Lord so Christ
59. 2:42is our Savior but the Old Testament is
60. 2:45absolutely clear there's only one Savior
61. 2:48and that's God yet knowing that God
62. 2:52alone was Savior that God alone is able
63. 2:55to save the first Christians had no
64. 2:58hesitation and affirming that Jesus
65. 3:00Christ was also their Savior now the
66. 3:05symbol of a fish was widely used by
67. 3:08early Christians why is that well you
68. 3:11see the five Greek letter spelling out
69. 3:14the word fish in Greek were the initial
70. 3:18letters of the Greek version of the
71. 3:20theological statement Jesus Christ son
72. 3:24of God Savior Jesus Christ son of God
73. 3:29Savior and for the New Testament Jesus
74. 3:32Christ saves his people from their sins
75. 3:35he is the savior who is Christ the Lord
76. 3:39so Jesus here is clearly understood to
77. 3:42function as God to do something that
78. 3:45only God can do
79. 3:47so who must Jesus be if he is able to do
80. 3:51something that only God is able to do
81. 3:55now in the 4th century the great
82. 3:57Christian theologian Athanasius of
83. 3:59Alexandria emphasized that no creature
84. 4:02no matter how splendid can achieve
85. 4:05salvation for any other creature for
86. 4:08Humanity only God can save if Jesus
87. 4:13Christ is indeed the true savior of
88. 4:16humanity then he must act as and act for
89. 4:19God and this lying of fork like many
90. 4:23points to an understanding of Jesus to a
91. 4:26Christology which transcends the
92. 4:29category of pure humanity and we find
93. 4:33this lying of thought reaching a climax
94. 4:35in the prologue to John's Gospel which
95. 4:38declares that the word became flesh and
96. 4:42dwelt among us in other words God chose
97. 4:46to dwell amongst us in Christ who is God
98. 4:49incarnate and I'll have more to say
99. 4:52about this very shortly so the New
100. 4:55Testament clearly assumes that Jesus is
101. 4:57more than just a human being that the
102. 5:00New Testament does not understand us to
103. 5:03entail that Jesus Christ is not a human
104. 5:07being Jesus is human but he is more than
105. 5:11human after all New Testament shows
106. 5:13Jesus a genuine human being who felt
107. 5:16pain who wept and who knew what was like
108. 5:19to be hungry and thirsty yet this
109. 5:24insight on its own is just not good
110. 5:28enough to do justice to the biblical
111. 5:30portrait of Christ so the question then
112. 5:34arises how can the human and divine
113. 5:37aspects of Christ be held together
114. 5:40meaningfully and coherently without
115. 5:44compromising each other and the riddle
116. 5:47that Christian theology had to resolve
117. 5:49is were to locate the identity and the
118. 5:54significance of Jesus Christ on a
119. 5:57conceptual map now the Christian
120. 6:00doctrine the person of Jesus Christ is
121. 6:03often discussed using the category of
122. 6:06incarnation and incarnations are
123. 6:08difficult but an important word it
124. 6:11derives in a Latin word for flesh and it
125. 6:14summarizes and affirms the basic
126. 6:16Christian belief that Jesus Christ is
127. 6:20the word become flesh and the idea of
128. 6:25incarnation is basically the climax of
129. 6:27Christian reflection on the mystery of
130. 6:30Christ it's the recognition of Jesus
131. 6:33Christ reveals God wrapper
132. 6:36Zen scored and speaks and acts as God
133. 6:40and for God if you like in the
134. 6:44Incarnation God has paid us the very
135. 6:47great compliment of coming to us were we
136. 6:52are taking our form in order us to show
137. 6:56us the way home and to bring us safely
138. 7:01home so the Christian doctor the
139. 7:05Incarnation thus frames and safeguards
140. 7:09one of the most imaginative the dramatic
141. 7:11insights of the Christian faith namely
142. 7:15that all that we need to know about God
143. 7:18is to be found in Jesus Christ there may
144. 7:22indeed be aspect of God's immense
145. 7:24mystery that lie beyond Christ but that
146. 7:27does not undermine the finality or the
147. 7:30completeness of our knowledge of God in
148. 7:32Christ the life of Jesus Christ is about
149. 7:36God being embedded in history and
150. 7:38embodied in an historical form and that
151. 7:43means God is both known and available to
152. 7:47us now let me tell you how I myself came
153. 7:52to appreciate the importance of this
154. 7:54concept of the Incarnation I was an
155. 7:58atheist as a younger man all of my
156. 7:59objections to Christianity was that God
157. 8:02seemed to be existentially irrelevant
158. 8:05and I conceived this non-existent God as
159. 8:09a distant figure who had no involvement
160. 8:11in the world God was in heaven where
161. 8:15that was and I was located in the flow
162. 8:19of space and time that we called human
163. 8:22history and since God was absent from
164. 8:25this flow of history God was just
165. 8:28irrelevant to me yet as I slowly began
166. 8:32to grasp what Christianity was all about
167. 8:35I came to see that the core Christian
168. 8:38idea of incarnation addressed my deep
169. 8:42existential concern because you see the
170. 8:45Incarnation spoke of a God
171. 8:48who
172. 8:49chose to inhabit history who chose to
173. 8:53come to the place which I inhabited as
174. 8:56one of us who suffered as I and so many
175. 9:00others did but who chose to make that
176. 9:04same suffering the basis of our
177. 9:07salvation in short I discovered a God
178. 9:11who journeyed to my place of exile in
179. 9:14order to bring me home
180. 9:17and that's a key insight that is
181. 9:19safeguard than expressed by the
182. 9:21Christian idea of incarnation
183. 9:26so what models or analogies might be
184. 9:29helpful to us as we try to visualize the
185. 9:32place of Jesus Christ on the map of
186. 9:35divine and human possibilities
187. 9:38let's explore one New Testament title
188. 9:41for Christ which is actually relatively
189. 9:43easy to grasp and consider its
190. 9:45implications the New Testament refers to
191. 9:48Christ as a mediator between God and
192. 9:52humanity at several points and Christ is
193. 9:57clearly understood here to mediate
194. 9:59between a transcendent God and a fallen
195. 10:04humanity so what does Christ mediate and
196. 10:09new Testament gives us two basic answers
197. 10:12which of course are complementary
198. 10:14they're both part of the bigger picture
199. 10:16first of all revelation and secondly
200. 10:21salvation Christ mediates both knowledge
201. 10:25of God and fellowship with God now some
202. 10:33early Christian writers like the second
203. 10:35century Roman theologian Justin Martyr
204. 10:37focused mainly on the importance of the
205. 10:39mediation of true knowledge of God
206. 10:42through Jesus Christ in other words the
207. 10:45idea of Revelation and they used the
208. 10:48idea of the logos a Greek term which can
209. 10:51be translated as word but which is
210. 10:53richer associations of rationality and
211. 10:55meaning and for Justin Christ was the
212. 10:59log
213. 11:00a mediating principle which bridges the
214. 11:03gap between a transcendent God and the
215. 11:07created order but other writers stressed
216. 11:12the importance of Christ as a mediator
217. 11:14of salvation and we find this approach
218. 11:18particularly in John Calvin's Institutes
219. 11:20of 1559 and Christ is here seen as a
220. 11:25unique channel or focus through which
221. 11:28God's redeeming work is directed towards
222. 11:31and made available to humanity
223. 11:34now here's what Calvin had to say and
224. 11:37he's worth listening to the son of God
225. 11:41became the son of man and received what
226. 11:45is ours in such a way he transferred to
227. 11:48us what is his making that which is his
228. 11:53by nature to become ours through grace
229. 11:57that's very helpful let me read it again
230. 12:00the son of God became a son of man and
231. 12:04received what is ours in such a way they
232. 12:07transferred to us what is his making
233. 12:10that which is his by nature to become
234. 12:13ours through grace now I've talked about
235. 12:18how early Christian theologians such as
236. 12:20Justin Martyr and Daphne's of Alexandria
237. 12:22understood the significance of Jesus and
238. 12:25the Council of Chalcedon in 451 was a
239. 12:29landmark in Christian theology it
240. 12:32brought a long period of theological
241. 12:34exploration reflection to a close with
242. 12:38its definitive resolution of centuries
243. 12:41of discussion and the term Caledonian
244. 12:45definition is widely used to refer to
245. 12:48the council's firm affirmation of the
246. 12:51two natures of Jesus Christ as truly God
247. 12:56and truly human and what's interesting I
248. 12:59think is the Council of taos Eden allows
249. 13:02a generous degree of diversity on how
250. 13:05this idea of the two nature of Christ
251. 13:07was to be understood here's what the
252. 13:10council had to say we all were
253. 13:14one voice confess the Lord Jesus Christ
254. 13:17to be the one and the same son perfect
255. 13:20in divinity and humanity truly God and
256. 13:23truly human consisting of a rational
257. 13:26soul and a body being of one substance
258. 13:29with the father in relation to his
259. 13:31divinity and being one substance with us
260. 13:34in relation to his humanity and is in
261. 13:37all things like us apart from sin so
262. 13:42let's try and sum things up there are
263. 13:46four basic elements to the Christian
264. 13:48understanding of the theological
265. 13:50significance of Jesus Christ and the
266. 13:51first of these actually really
267. 13:53historical namely Jesus Christ is the
268. 13:56historical point of departure for
269. 14:00Christianity the coming of Jesus of
270. 14:02Nazareth brought the Christian community
271. 14:04into being and Christianity possesses
272. 14:08certain definite characteristics as an
273. 14:11historical faith due to the influence of
274. 14:14Jesus but the next three elements are
275. 14:18all theological the first of these core
276. 14:22theological themes is this Jesus Christ
277. 14:26reveals God what I mean by that is the
278. 14:29Christianity recognizes a revelatory
279. 14:32presence of God in Jesus Christ who is
280. 14:36seen as making God known in a particular
281. 14:39and specific manner which is distinctive
282. 14:42to Christianity and the second key
283. 14:45theological element is this core belief
284. 14:48that Jesus Christ is the bearer of
285. 14:52salvation in other words that salvation
286. 14:55in the Christian understanding of the
287. 14:58word is manifested in and through and is
288. 15:02constituted by the life death and
289. 15:05resurrection of Jesus Christ
290. 15:07and when Explorer was understood by
291. 15:09starvation and how this might be
292. 15:11grounded in the history of Jesus Christ
293. 15:13in the next presentation which deals
294. 15:17with the fifth chapter of theology the
295. 15:19basics and thirdly Jesus Christ defines
296. 15:24the shape of the redeemed life
297. 15:27Christ not only makes the conditioned
298. 15:29life possible he also determines its
299. 15:32shape the story of Jesus does
300. 15:35illustrates and informs Christian
301. 15:37thinking about ethics in that the manner
302. 15:40which Jesus Christ acted is seen as
303. 15:42having continuing importance for the
304. 15:45church today there's a lot more
305. 15:47Christian ethics than asking what would
306. 15:50Jesus do it's a slogan you will see on
307. 15:52lots of our bands but it's still a very
308. 15:55good start so let's look at the topics
309. 15:58covered in this chapter and you can work
310. 16:01through these on your own we begin by
311. 16:05thinking about five New Testament titles
312. 16:08of Jesus and reflect on their
313. 16:10significance Jesus as Messiah Jesus Lord
314. 16:13Jesus the Son of God Jesus a son of man
315. 16:17and Jesus as God and we then begin to
316. 16:21look at functional statements about
317. 16:23Jesus I say statements about Jesus that
318. 16:25say here is what Jesus did and ask what
319. 16:29does this tell us about who Jesus
320. 16:32actually is we then look at some models
321. 16:35of Christology used in the early church
322. 16:38and ask how helpful these are before
323. 16:40going on to look at the console of
324. 16:42calcium we then reflect on the
325. 16:45Incarnation and icons in other words if
326. 16:47Jesus makes God known how do images of
327. 16:51Jesus help us think about God we then
328. 16:54focus on this model of Christology that
329. 16:58we touched on earlier the idea of Jesus
330. 17:00is meteor and ask how does this help us
331. 17:03position God in the mediation of
332. 17:06revelation and salvation and we then
333. 17:10look at a debate about the historical
334. 17:12Jesus in which we consider whether
335. 17:14historical scholarship discloses a Jesus
336. 17:17who is relevant to theology and the life
337. 17:21of faith and finally as with every
338. 17:24chapter in this volume we end by
339. 17:27engaging with the text and a text we're
340. 17:30looking at here is from a really
341. 17:32interesting lecture by Dorothy L sayers
342. 17:35on the importance of the Creed's which
343. 17:37offers a penetrating analysis of the
344. 17:40relation of the divine
345. 17:41and humanity of Christ now
346. 17:45we covered a lot of ground in this
347. 17:46presentation and in our next
348. 17:49presentation dealing with the fifth
349. 17:50chakra theology the basics will pick up
350. 17:53on the theme of Jesus Christ as our
351. 17:55Savior we've touched on this already so
352. 17:58we move on to ask how do we make sense
353. 18:00of this theologically how does the work
354. 18:04of Christ link up with the person of
355. 18:06Christ and what does this word salvation
356. 18:09mean anyway those questions are engaged
357. 18:12in Christian reflection on the grounds
358. 18:14and nature of salvation and I look
359. 18:17forward to speaking to you again very
360. 18:19soon thank you so much for listening