Category: Book Update

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Post-Nicaea Rejection of Onto-Theology: Part I

The Council of Nicaea repudiated the ontotheological trajectory of the Ante-Nicene tradition. There are a number of theories about the origins and aims of the Arian heresy.1 But perhaps the most cogent way of reading it is simply as the Subordinationist heresy taken to its logical conclusion. Origen, and others within the Ante-Nicene tradition, thought more in terms of the Hellenistic concept of being and degrees of being. As a result, Greek philosophy supplanted the biblical paradigm of creator/creature and then removed God from the system of being. The Greek paradigm also deemphasized the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. Without the strict division of creator/creature, Hellenized Ante-Nicene theologians fit the Second Person of the Trinity into a continuum of degrees of being, with the Father at the top and nothingness at the bottom.  

Arianism and Its Rejection

Based on indirect evidence regarding the nature of the Arian heresy, it can be said that much to his credit Arius recognized the importance of the biblical distinction between creator/creature more seriously than his Origenist predecessors in the Church of Alexandria.2  Nevertheless, like Origen, Arius saw the second person of the Trinity as part of the hierarchy of being.  If God as creator is outside the hierarchy of being (in that he is ingenerate), then it logically followed that as generated Christ must be part of the hierarchy of being.  Consequently, Arius reasoned that Christ must be on the creaturely side of the creator/creature division.3  

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Our Great Hope: Christ’s Return as Judge

The little apocalypses of the Synoptics, St. Paul’s letters, and Revelation affirm that at the Second Coming of Christ the dead will rise and final universal judgment will commence. Believers should experience “bold confidence” (Eph. 3:12) regarding Christ’s Second Coming because he has already proleptically judged us righteous through the promise of the gospel present in Word and Sacrament. As the Son of Man, Jesus shared his verdict with his hearers ahead of time. Believers today, in the interim between the first and second coming, do not need to wonder what Christ’s final judgement on them will be. The presence of the risen Jesus in Word and Sacrament (Matt. 18:20) proleptically delivers his “forgiven and justified” verdict to the contemporary Church.  

Quotation from exegetical professor emeritus Rev. Dr. Paul Raabe

Are We Judged According to Works?

The clearest passages of Scripture interpret other passages. Therefore, sections of Scripture that speak of judgment according to works must be read in harmony with the clear passages affirming the unconditionality of justification. Thus, the good works upon which Christ judges believers provide evidence of genuine faith (Matt 25). As we have seen, true faith necessarily gives rise to the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-26). Paul very clearly teaches both that saving faith inevitably results in good works and the unconditional nature of the promise of the gospel (Rom. 3:28). 

Although Luther sadly misinterpreted it, the Epistle of James makes precisely the same point. When St. James speaks of believers being “justified by works” in addition to faith (Jam. 2:24), he refers to the way works manifest saving faith. In a similar vein, in Romans 2, Paul speaks of the final judgment according to works (Rom. 2:6-11). However, he is speaking of a hypothetical situation apart from the intervening grace of Christ. In the next chapter, he is quick to affirm that no one can stand before God because of humans’ total lack of righteousness (Rom. 3:9-20).  

Thus, Christ will not render his positive judgment at the Second Coming on the basis of one’s works. However, a tree is known by its fruit. Only those with saving faith can actually perform good works in God’s sight. These fruits will reveal otherwise hidden faith at the Last Judgement.

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The Royal Priesthood and the Authority of the Church   

The justification of believers within the Church through the means of grace effects a happy exchange between Christ and believers. Christ possesses all things and shares them with believers through the union brought about by forensic justification and faith. This means that believers share in Christ’s offices of king, priest, and prophet (Dn. 7:27, Rom. 8:17, 8:32, Eph. 2:6, 1 Pt. 2:9, Rev. 1:6, 5:10). Being conformed to Christ’s image begins the restoration of the image of God in humans. This restored image enables believers to assume the protological roles of king, priest, and prophet that find their ultimate fulfillment in the eschaton.  

As we have previously seen, Luther develops this point strongly in Freedom of a Christian (1520). As kings, believers are no longer subject to the law coram Deo because the law has been fulfilled in them through reception of justification and sanctification in Christ. Coram mundo, believers become priests because possessing all things in Christ. As priests, they sacrifice themselves for one another through their individual vocations.1  Scripture also teaches that believers are now Spirit-anointed prophets empowered to proclaim the Word of God to all nations (Acts 2:16-21). As prophet, believers also test all teachers by the standard of harmony with the biblical witness centered in Christ (1 Thess. 5:21, 1 Cor. 2:15, 1 Jn. 4:1-6).  

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The Word and Revelation of the Triune God

In the primal state and through the history of salvation, God’s Word created different channels and masks as mediums of law and grace. God reveals to his creatures the actions he will take through a given created medium. In so doing, he bids humans to flee by faith from his masks of wrath to his masks of grace. In Eden, God established the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil through his word of command and promise. Here, the new humans found his judgment, hiddenness, and wrath (Gen. 2:17). By contrast, God attached his promise of grace to the Tree of Life and all the other trees in the garden (Gen. 2:16). 

Later in the history of salvation, God designated Mt. Sinai as the location of judgment. From Sinai, God spoke forth his law and barred his people from ascending the mountain lest they be destroyed by his wrath (Exod. 19-20). Nevertheless, God established first the Tabernacle and then the Temple as the places where Israel could receive the grace of atonement and participate in divine holiness (Lev. 16-17). 

Finally, in the era of the New Testament, Jesus designated the Temple and its old law as a place of divine judgment that would soon be destroyed (Mk. 13, Mt. 24, Lk 21). Now, his own cross is the new site of grace and atonement. On Easter Sunday, the women fled from the empty tomb, which seemed merely a place of death. Yet the atonement given via the cross and justification given via the tomb became the font of grace. The angels instructed the women to tell the disciples what they had experienced. This is significant, because the apostles’ Word and Sacrament ministry became the medium of the presence of the risen Jesus (Mt. 18:20, 28:20).

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“I Am With You Always”: Christ’s Absolute Presence with Us

Confessional Lutheran Christology Part II

Martin Luther [steadfastly defended the substantial presence of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper against other reformers like Ulrich Zwingli.] Luther responded to Zwingli in part by teaching the absolute omnipresence of Christ’s human nature. This doctrine is sometimes incorrectly called “Ubiquity.”1 As Luther notes, the Bible teaches that Christ is at the “right hand of God.” But this is not a physical location (i.e., a semi-local heaven, as Zwingli had taught). Rather, God’s right hand refers to rather his power and glory, which are everywhere.1 

Hence, Jesus’s body is, in some mysterious sense, everywhere. However, Luther emphasized that Christ’s body does not exist everywhere in the form of infinite multiplication or spatial extension (hence, the inaccuracy of the term “Ubiquity,” which implies spatial extension).3 Rather, Luther drew on Gabriel Biel’s distinction among the various presences bodies can have (local/circumscribed, definitive, and repletive)4 Following Biel, Luther affirmed Jesus can exercise multiple modes of presence, including a repletive presence, or divine omnipresence. 

Logically, since Jesus is at the right hand of God, he is in some incomprehensible and supernatural sense present at all places as true man.5 Beyond the fact that Christ sits at the right hand of God, Luther also argued that if Christ was not omnipresent according to his humanity, his two natures would be divided. The consequent Christology would contradict the Chalcedonian definition: 

Wherever this person is, it is a single indivisible person, and if you can say, ‘Here is God,’ then you must also say, ‘Christ the man is present too.’ And if you could show me one place where God is and not the man, the person is already divided and I could at once say truthfully, ‘Here is God who is not man and has never become man.’  But no God like that for me!6

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