Metamorphosis: Reflections 1

Here are some of my reflections on my experiences in the Metamorphosis Student Conference.

The conference was run from the 26th Dec (Tue) to the 30th Dec 2006 (Sat). Throughout this conference, we the conferencees spend time worshipping the Lord, attending various workshops, having fun and bonding with each other. As for me, I had a fun time fellowshipping with my fellow brothers and sisters in my Community Group (CG), all from NUS Science region, and getting to know them better. I took the workshop on Christology as I thought it would be interesting and I didn't know a lot about Christology before this. With that said, I would like to share what I have learnt in my 6-hour Christology workshop.

The Christology course was taught by Amy Lau, a lecturer at EAST (East Asia School of Theology) and a graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary. It started off by emphasizing the importance of theology in general and Christology in particular. Following that, it goes through some of the names and titles of our Lord Jesus Christ (which is in itself a name and title), especially with respects to what it means for Jesus to be the Son of God (see my prior short explanation here). The explanation given by Amy was that the title 'Son of God' refers to Jesus partaking of/ having the same essence and character as God the Father, which is similar to my prior view except mine was a bit more technical and philosophical.

After this, we went through the Deity and Humanity of Christ. For both parts, we went through a bit of the historical controversy behind both concepts, then we see the scriptural evidences for both; that Jesus is 100% God and 100% Man. As such, we also looked and refuted the errors of Arius (Arianism), Apollinaris the Younger (Apollinarianism), Nestorius (Nestorianism), and touched slightly on the errors of Monophysitism and Monothelitism. Just FYI, Arianism denies the deity of Christ and His per-existence, Apollinarianism denies the full humanity of Christ (Christ only seemed human), Nestorianism denies that Jesus was phyiscally born of Mary, Monophysitism denies that Christ has two natures (human and divine), and Monothelitism denies that Christ has two wills (human and divine).

After going through these two important areas, we looked at how did God became Man in Jesus Christ, as seen especially in Phil. 2:1-11, as seen in the Greek word Kenosis (κενοσις). We went through what does it mean for God the Son to have emptied Himself — not that He ceased having the attributes of God, but that He did not utilize (set aside) some of these attributes when He was on Earth. We then finished off with an overview of Jesus' life while He was here on Earth.

The main thing that I liked about this course was the way Amy linked Christological concepts with Soteriological ones. Soteriology is my forte, as of now, so I greatly appreciated the linkage, since it makes defending the faith and seeing the relevance of what I have learnt so much easier. Basically, if Jesus was not 100% God, He can never atone for Man's sins, since only God can satisfy divine justice and properly propitiate for our sins. As an addition, only God can impute to us the perfect righteousness required for us to stand holy before our Most Holy God by His active obedience. It is simply not enough for our sins to be atoned for, but for us also to be declared holy before God, and Christ provided us with the merits to be so sanctified when we will meet Him in Heaven.

Now, conversely, if Jesus was not 100% Man, He can never be our perfect substitute to die on our behalf. Christ must be our perfect representative (Rom. 5:18-19; 1 Cor. 15:46-47), perfect substitute (Heb. 2:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:46-47), perfect mediator (1 Tim. 2:5), perfect pattern for our redeemed bodies (1 Cor. 15:23, 42-44, 49; cf Col. 1:18), and perfect high priest (Heb. 2:17-18; 4:15-16), and all these can only be accomplished if He is indeed 100% Man. As an additional thought on Jesus being our perfect substitute, the idea of federal headship can be brought in; that just as Adam was our head in the Fall which leads to death, so also Jesus is the head of the New Covenant which leads to life (which requires Him to be fully human).

With that said, I have learnt quite a lot from my Christology course. It was truly a good time of learning God's Word and appreciating who He is, glorifying God with our thoughts of Him who is the Sovereign Lord of all.

[to be continued]