Notes: December 8, 2009

What is your Christology?

“Doctrine divides,” say the ecumenists.  They are right. It divides lovers of God from all others.

Matthew 22:41-46

  • Now Jesus asks a question of the Pharisees (v. 41).
  • It is a theological question: whose son is the Messiah?
  • Rightly, but incompletely, they answer: the son of David. Like many today, they know the Messiah only in the flesh, only as a man, only in his humanity. They overlook the truth that Christ is both son of Man and son of God. Many there are, even among modern professional clergy, who deny the deity of Christ!
  • But Jesus is fully aware. Acknowledging the inspiration of David, Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1 and shows that David addresses the Messiah as “Lord.”  How can the Messiah be both the son of David and David’s lord?
  • No one was able to answer him, of course, because they did not grasp the two natures in one Messiah. This ended the questions for the day. So also should a consideration of Psalm 110 end all of today’s foolish questions about the deity and humanity of Christ. (You should be aware that this is not the only place in scripture that teaches either the deity or humanity of Christ).

Meditation Points:

  1. Do you still think that theological accuracy is unimportant?
  2. Remember that David spoke “in spirit.” All scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16).
  3. The Pharisees prided themselves in their knowledge of the scriptures, yet Jesus demonstrated that they did not have answers to the most obvious of questions.

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