Christologia - Chapter 3 (pt 1). The Glory of Christ

It's been a while, but Cam and I are about to launch back into Owen's Christologia. We're up to chapter 5, which is hard work, but before we get there I thought I'd post some thoughts on chapters 3 and 4.

Chapter 3 is where Owen turns to focus on the person of Jesus as the foundation for all true religion (religion being, according to Owen, to glorify God as God). God himself is the primary foundation of all religion, but not in essence - rather God as revealed. Essentially, Owen is saying that God is only known as he is, by what he does. Therefore, God is known, or his power, wisdom, goodness is known, in creation, to a certain extent, but He is known most perfectly in the person of Christ. Not Christ as eternally generated (for this is an internal and eternal act of God), but rather Christ as incarnate. This is the mystery of godliness (1 Tim 3:16), and Owen has some wonderfully beautiful language to describe it. Some examples are needed:

But this assumption of our nature into hypostatical union with the Son of God, this constitution of one and the same individual person in two natures so infinitely distinct as those of God and man - whereby the Eternal was made in time, the Infinite became finite, the Immortal mortal, yet continuing eternal, infinite, immortal - is that singular expression of divine wisdom, goodness and power, wherein God will be admired and glorified unto all eternity.

Go on, read it again. Read it out loud. And if that doesn't make you smile and whisper prayers of praise and adoration to our gracious Father, you've got something wrong with you.

This mystery, continues Owen, has a veil drawn over it in Scripture. It is declared without being described - it is a mystery. Statements are made like john 1:14 - the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

But what Word was this? That which was in the beginning, which was with God, which was God, by whom all things were made, and without whom was not any thing made that was made; who was light and life. This Word was made flesh, not by any change of his own nature or essence, not by a transubstantiation of the divine nature into the human, not by ceasing to be what he was, but by becoming what he was not, in taking our nature to his own, to be his own, whereby he dwelt amongst us.

This indeed, says Owen, is wisdom. However, some, he observes, say that it isn't. That if the only way by which humanity might be reconciled is by the incarnation of the divine, then there is no wisdom in it. Owen's reply is superb. 'Vain man indeed would be wise, but is like the wild ass's colt.' Owen then turns to Hebrews 1:1-3 and Isaiah 6 to see the glory of the one who was made flesh.

This, summarises Owen, is the glory of the Christian religion. This is where God might truly be worshipped. True religion, he observes, existed in the garden. Being made in the image of God, man was able to glorify God, but because this image was not 'united to himself in a personal union', it quickly fell. It required a firmer foundation - a foundation whereby the human and divine were united - permanently, perfectly, so that true worship might be offered. No 'gracious relation could be stable and permanent' unless 'our nature was assumed into personal union and subsistence with himself'. This is wonderfully true, and a helpful corrective to our (post)modern thinking about relationships in general, and our worship of God in particular. Owen is here carrying on thinking about divine-human relationships in a way which he more fully developed in Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (published some 21 years earlier). To worship, know, and love God qua God requires being drawn into, united with, the one whom we seek to worship, know, and love. While he doesn't address it here, the work of the Holy Spirit is hugely significant here.

Owen's point, however, is the centrality of the hypostatic union to our relationship with, and true worship of, God. There was true worship post-fall, observes Owen, for the cult was revealed by God. However, it all pointed to Christ, both in promise and the outward institutions associated with it. Heb 1:1-3 again. Only in Christ, the God-man, in whom the divine has united himself with the creature, is the real foundation of true worship. In the rest of the chapter Owen will go on to describe how faith is the right response and action in light of the mystery of Godliness. But that will have to wait until tomorrow!

Encouragement from the Ordinary - Review of Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome

I hope you’ll forgive the prolonged period between instalments on the Hughes’ book (a little thing called clergy conference got in the way). Anyway, back to it. The Hughes are setting out in the second part of their work, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, a series of encouragements to pastors. The next they turn to is encouragement from the ordinary.

Essentially, they say that we can take encouragement from the fact that God uses ordinary people to do his work. This is a vitally helpful point given their earlier comments on the encouragement that comes from the call (see here for my comments/rant). Their point is thoroughly God-glorifying – God’s greatness is seen most clearly in our ordinariness. They take the disciple Andrew as an example – first called, but not a prominent apostle. He is characterised by his thoughts for others (John 1:40-42), his optimism of Christ’s power (John 6:5-9), and his belief that all were welcome to come to Jesus (John 12:20-22). They also turn to 2 Cor 4 and Paul’s language of jars of clay. While they run the risk of seeing ordinariness as itself something to boast in (see, for example, their comment that “Ordinary Andrews become vehicles for the extraordinary. There is glory in the ordinary!”), I believe that their primary point is theocentric – God uses the plain, ordinary, usual things of this world for His glory.

It results in three suggested responses – to thank God for our ordinariness, to thank God for any extraordinary gifts he has given us, and to thank God for the call to ministry, for “it is the ministry that fosters in us a profound awareness of our ordinariness and inadequacy.” While personally I find the last of these three responses a little odd given the direction of the rest of the chapter, I can understand why they include it. There is encouragement from the ordinary. There is encouragement that through these frail and weak men and women God is pleased to have his gospel go forth. There is encouragement that we bring nothing to the table, and yet God is bringing all things in heaven and earth together under the headship of Christ through the ministry of his people.

With a nod to John Piper...

John 17:24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

It is interesting that this verse and ones like it are often used to argue against the God of Christianity. It is argued that the Jesus is here being supremely egotistical. That he wants people to be with him not for their own good; not so that they can be supremely happy - but so that they would see his glory.

However, what if our happiness and God's glory were not opposites? What if the way for us to be supremely happy was to see Jesus in his pure, pre-incarnation glory.?Then he is not being egotistical at all. He knows that we are most happy when we see him most clearly.

You see – if I said to you – if you take the time to get to know me it would make you really happy – you would recoil ...wouldn't you? But with God ... it is true!! He is not being egotistical – he knows that you will be most happy if you know him, if you see him as he really is. It would be false modesty, it would be a lie, if he pointed you somewhere else for your happiness. No Jesus is praying this verse not for his own kudos but for our good. You will be most happy when you see Jesus as he really is.

Jesus wants you to be with him. He wants you to see him as he really is. He is concerned for you. He knows that will make you supremely happy. And so the principal is that – the more we know Jesus, the more clearly we see him as he is, the happier we will be. This verse has eternity in view, but the principal is true even now. Growing in the knowledge of Jesus and his glory is what Jesus wants for you. He knows it is what is best for you. Will you trust him that that is where true life, true joy will be found?