Theology of Predestination, Part Two

MUSINGS ON THEOLOGY AND PREDESTINATION, PART TWO

Continued from Part One.

The mystery surrounding the Incarnation is similar to the mystery surrounding the sovereign work of God and the human responsibility of responding to the gospel. I see an analogy between the Incarnation (the sovereign, eternal God becoming flesh) and God’s salvation of his elect.

We believe that Jesus is truly God (Jh. 1:1-14) and truly man (Lk. 2:40; Heb. 2:14). Think of it! God is infinite, all-powerful, all-knowing, self-existent, the eternal Spirit. Man is finite, limited in his power and knowledge, created out of dust, born in time with a corporeal body. This God-Man is both truly God and truly human. As Paul confessed, “Great is the mystery of godliness.”

In the early Church theories abounded, trying to explain this mystery so that it made logical sense, but one by one they were dismissed as heresies. The Christian Church finally concluded that Jesus is one Person with two Natures, a human nature and a divine nature, each being complete and perfectly joined in one Person. What does this really mean? Does this explanation really help me to comprehend the mystery of the Incarnation? This ecclesiastical conclusion may be true but it only raises more questions. For me, the Incarnation remains a mystery, but a mystery which I joyfully embrace and believe. Jesus was fully God and fully Man – the God-Man – whom we trust but cannot fathom in our finite minds.

The Christian faith is filled with mystery, theological truth that is beyond human comprehension. Instead of trying to make a water-tight logical system of beliefs, we need to embrace our faith joyfully by agreeing upon the truths that Scripture clearly teaches (Jesus is truly God manifest in a human body), rather than speculating and conjuring a rationalistic system of theology which can only divide the Church.

To be continued in Part Three