The document discusses several key aspects of Christian theology: 1) The incarnation - how God became human in Jesus, who was born of Mary but also divine, experienced human life but claimed divine power and identity. 2) Views of atonement - how Christ's death brings reconciliation, including ransom, satisfaction, penal substitution, and moral influence theories. 3) The resurrection - how Christ rising from the dead can change the world according to the Gospel accounts. 4) The kingdom of God - what it refers to, including realized, future, and already/not yet perspectives, and how Jesus and the church relate to it.

1. God in Christ and
Reconciliation
Week 4

4. The Incarnation
How Can God Become Human?

5. The Bible Says…
 Born to Mary
 Had syblings
 Experienced bodily functions
(eating, drinking, etc.)
 Experienced human emotion
 Experienced real pain and
suffering
 Was tempted in every way
 Was a friend to “sinners”
 Was distrusted by the
“righteous”
 Physically died
 Physically rose from the dead
He claimed…
 Power to forgive sins
 To be one with the
Father
 To be the way, the truth,
and the life
 To be the vine
 To be “I AM”

6. Is the Virgin Birth Important?
The Impact of Augustinian Theology
Seminal Headship,
Sex transmits sin,
Therefore, sex is bad
Mary couldn’t have had sex
Leads to Mary’s immaculate conception

7. Is the Virgin Birth Important?
From Guthrie…
 The proper analogy here is not the physical
process of procreation but God’s original
creation of all things “out of nothing” when God
simply spoke and it was done.
 The “sinfulness” was not sex, but the male!
 The doctrine is only a way of stating the
mystery that it did in fact happen.

8. Six attempts to explain the God/Man
Ebionism
Arianism
Eutychianism
Docetism Nestorianism Appolinarianism

9. Implications of the Incarnation
 Jesus was a real Human Being
 A Jew
 Experienced need and limitation
 Tempted to sin
 Lived without sin: He fulfilled his true humanity in
the image of God
 What if…his miracles were not because of his divinity, but
because of his fulfilled humanity?
 Was sinless because he was a friend of sinners.
 Was a dangerous human being…he upset the
apple cart

10. Implications of the Incarnation
God with us is a shocking reversal
The Exaltation of Humanity
The Self-Humiliation of God
From Guthrie…
The idea that the Son of God is to be great
and powerful on earth and lord it over
people is the idea of the devil. (p. 246)

11. Discussion
How would you answer someone who
said that the story of Jesus’ birth is just
another example of the many myths in
ancient religions about gods coming
miraculously to earth in human form
(from the textbook)?

12. Atonement
How Can the Death of One Man
Correct the Sin Problem?

13. The Bible Says…
The Old Testament
Caphar – to cover, purge, make an
atonement, make reconciliation, cover over
with pitch.
The Passover Lamb
The killing of animals (or grain)

14. The Bible Says…
The New Testament
hilastarion – the mercy seat (its hilarious)
Katalasso -- With the thought of “change”
predominating, this word can mean “to
change,” “to exchange,” and “to reconcile”
or “reconcile oneself.”

15. Views of the Atonement
Ransom-
God paid off
the Devil
Satisfaction-
God’s anger was
appeased
Penal
Substitution
– Our sentence
was taken out
on Jesus
Moral
Influence
Jesus
demonstrated
God’s way of love

16. Discussion
Which of the biblical images describing
the atonement is most helpful to you?
Which would be most helpful in
expressing the meaning of Christ’s death
to a non-Christian (Guthrie, 268)?

17. Resurrection
How Can A Person Rising From the
Dead Change the World?

19. Taking the Easter Challenge
“Compare the versions of the Easter
story in Matthew 28:1-20; Mark 16:1-19;
Luke 24:1-51; John 20:1-21, 25-27; and
1 Corinthians 15:1-8.” (Guthrie, 287)
Focus on the sequence and uniqueness
of each passage.

20. The Kingdom of God
Is Jesus Lord?

21. What is the Kingdom of God?
Future (Two Views)
We bring it in, so get busy
Jesus brings it, so just wait
Realized
Jesus is the Kingdom, it is “at hand” and we
are invited to join Him in it.
Already, but not Yet

22. From George Ladd – Jesus and the
Kingdom
The church is not the kingdom.
The kingdom creates the church.
The church witnesses to the kingdom
The church is the instrument of the
kingdom.
The church is the custodian of the
kingdom.

23. Discussion
What do we mean in the Lord’s Prayer
when we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” and
then end by saying, “For thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and glory”?