A High Christology

I once heard a man give a speech in which he commented that in the early stages of his life the furthest subject from his mind was Christology. A person speaking this word to him may have caused his mind to jump to the study of crystals, or something other than what the word actually means.

Christology is the study of who "the Christ" really and truly is; His person and work. I've been accused at times of having a low Christology myself, but this accusation generally comes from people who have not made an honest attempt to ask me what I believe about the Messiah. It is true that I do not believe in the concept of the Trinity or in Trinitarian doctrine. I do not believe that the Almighty exists as one being in three distinct persons. I do not believe what many in the professing Christian world hold to: "Jesus is God." If that causes one to stop pursuing anything else I believe about Christ, I can only say that I feel this is because of what a person has been taught to believe, and not because of what a person believes based upon examination of Biblical text.

What led me to write on this is a study I've been doing in Colossians recently, specifically Colossians 2. Within this chapter (as well as chapter 1) we find the preeminence of Christ and the centrality of Christ. We find Paul urging Christians in Colossae to not be deceived into thinking that their power, holiness, righteousness, etc. comes by other means than through Christ.

I was reading through the text of Colossians 2 again the other morning and as I read, Colossians 2:9 stood out to me. It announces to us that in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of Divinity. This is an outstanding statement! How could the entirety of the Almighty dwell within humanity; I'm not sure, but that is what the Scripture says. This same strand appears in the earlier chapter of this epistle of Paul (Colossians 1:19) as well as in the words of John the Baptist when he said that the Spirit (of Yahweh) dwelt in the Messiah without measure (John 3:34). Truly, the Almighty was in the Messiah reconciling the world unto himself (1 Corinthians 5:17-21). Yahweh dwelt within Yeshua in a way in which no other had been indwelt before nor ever will be after; Yeshua really was the Son of Almighty Yahweh.

Matthew Janzen