Christology

The Study of Jesus Christ

By CN Staff

A Biblical understanding of Jesus Christ is crucial to our salvation. Many world religions claim to believe in Jesus Christ; the problem is that they do not believe in the Jesus Christ presented in the Bible. That is why Christology is so important: it helps us to understand the significance of the deity of Christ and demonstrates why Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Christology teaches us that Jesus had to be man so that He could die - and had to be God so that His death would pay for our sins. It is perhaps the most important area of theology. Without a proper understanding of who Jesus Christ is and what He accomplished, all other areas of theology would be irrelevant.

An in-depth study of Christology has incredible personal impact on the believer’s daily life. The ECRC recently offered a 6-week class for the Lenten season called “Who Is Jesus?” led by Karam Bahnam, who was gracious enough to speak to the CN about the course.

The series was a combination of lectures, meditation, and adoration, and each week had a different theme. The course began with “Jesus Son of Man,” followed by “Jesus Son of God” and “Jesus Son of God & Man.” Once the idea of the duality of Jesus was established, the course turned to His own understanding of His Divine nature, as evidenced by his teachings, in “Jesus the Priest.” The last two weeks were focused on “Jesus the Prophet” and “Jesus the King.”

We asked Karam what Christology was and why the ECRC offered this course. “Christology is a branch of theology that focuses on the person and nature of Jesus,” he explained. “It is through this science we learn about Jesus and consequently, we can deepen our relationship with Him.”

Part of the confusion stems from the relationship between the Old and New Testaments.

“As Christians, we believe the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament,” Bahnam explains. “St. Augustine used to say, ‘The New Testament is hidden in the Old, and the Old is revealed in the New.’

“Prophets of the Old Testament spoke of the future Messiah and described him in great detail. For example, about 700 years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah foretold his birth: ‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel.’”

Heresy has also historically plagued our understanding of Jesus. When asked what, if any, heresy was the most difficult to dive into, Bahnam replied, “The first and most prominent heresy that Christianity faced was Arianism. After Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in 313 A.D., a priest named Arius argued that Jesus wasn’t equal to God the Father. This belief came to be called Arianism. In response, the Church held the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, which produced a creed proclaiming the divinity of Jesus.

“Arian had good intentions,” Bahnam went on. “His basic premise was the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent; on the other hand, for Arius, Jesus was not self-existent. Arius believed that Jesus was created by God because He came from the Father.

“This belief was reincarnated in the modern-day heresies of Jehovah Witnesses and Mormonism. What these groups fail to understand is the fact that Jesus was begotten of the Father from eternity. God is outside of time, so the terms ‘before’ and ‘after’ don’t apply to God the same way we understand them.”

The Jesus of history is now being explored in ways not previously possible, with new research and archaeological tools. So how does he align with the Jesus of faith? Bahnam had this to say: “In the early part of the 18th century, a new movement came to existence. It first started in the Protestant Church, then at a later time, started influencing Catholic theologians. This movement deals with the notion of the historical Jesus versus the Christ of faith.

“Those who invented and believed in this movement basically claim that the real man Jesus was nothing like the Christ we believe in today. They claim that the man Jesus is radically different than the Christ we believe in, making it seem that we, Christians and Church officials, have invented a Divine Christ that had never existed and attributed him to Jesus.

“Many scholars and over 300 hundred years have delt with these claims and made solid refutations to them, but to me there is no better way to answer them than considering the words of Jesus himself.”

Did Jesus Consider Himself Divine?

“The answer is ‘absolutely yes!’” says Bahnam. “There are many places in the Bible that support this claim, but given our limitations here, I will highlight two.

“The first is from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2, verses 3–7: ‘They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?”’

Jesus and Divinity: A Closer Look

“Here we see a sick person brought to Jesus for physical healing,” explains Bahnam. “Instead, Jesus heals him spiritually by forgiving his sins. But who can forgive sins except God alone? That’s exactly what the scribes say at the end of the passage. Nowhere in the Bible or Jewish tradition do we see a human making such a claim. Only God can forgive sin, so in this moment, Jesus is showing the crowd that He is God—that He is divine. And the crowd understood it that way, which is why the scribes accused him of blasphemy.

“All of Jesus’ miracles follow a similar pattern. Unlike the prophets before him, who performed miracles through the power of God, Jesus performs them by his own power. It’s not just the miracles—it’s how He talks about Himself.

“Take, for example, his ‘I am’ statements in the Gospel of John. Jesus says, ‘I am the bread of life,’ ‘I am the light of the world,’ ‘I am the door of the sheep,’ ‘I am the good shepherd,’ and ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’

“This ‘I am’ has enormous significance. Why? Because Jesus’ audience was Jewish, and they knew that Yahweh’s name is ‘I Am.’ Remember in Exodus, when Moses encountered God in the burning bush and asked for his name? God replied, ‘I Am who I Am.’

“Throughout his life, Jesus repeatedly tells the Jews that he is this ‘I Am.’ In John 8:24, he says, ‘Unless you believe that I Am, you will die in your sins.’ Then, in John 8:28, he adds, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I Am.’”

As we delve into the heart of Jesus, we begin to grasp the profound truth that he, being fully man and fully God, loves each of us with an eternal, unimaginable love. The various titles and names of Christ throughout Scripture offer insight into who he is and how he relates to us. He is the Good Shepherd, leading, protecting and caring for his flock (John 10:11, 14); the Light of the World, illuminating our way in a dark and uncertain world (John 8:12); the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), bringing calm into our chaos; and the Rock (1 Corinthians 10:4), a secure foundation we can trust.

C.S. Lewis, the British philosopher and author, famously said that when we examine the Bible carefully, we come to one of three conclusions about Jesus: He was either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. As Lewis argued, no good moral teacher or prophet would dare to make the kind of claims Jesus made. And since Jesus was clearly neither a liar nor a lunatic, that leaves only one conclusion—he is Lord.