Why We Believe

“We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin…” (cf. https://carm.org/creeds-and-confessions/chalcedonian-creed-a-d-451/).

So begins the famous Chalcedonian creed of 451 AD. The question becomes for us not whether Jesus is more God or more Man, but what can we glean from observing His life and conduct as to his own perception of Himself and His relationship to the Holy Spirit? We know that Jesus attributed to Himself various and unmistakable Messianic titles such as Son of God and Son of Man, and that He meant for his listeners to know that He was God in the flesh (John 8:58-59). Why else would His detractors pick up stones to try and kill Him? If he was not God incarnate then He was a blasphemer.

Paul, writing in his letter to the Philippians chapter two and building upon Jesus’ own understanding of Himself, foresees what Chalcedon later formulates about Jesus by declaring Jesus to be One “who, while existing in the form of God (a succinct presentation of Jesus as both Man and God because we understand that hupargõn is in the predicate or circumstantial¹ position) did not consider “equality with God” (einai isa theõ) something to be held onto.” Paul, perhaps quoting from a possible song or creed of the early Church, posits Jesus as one who “let go” of his being God. How do we understand this? As Paul goes on to say in vvs. 7-8, Jesus “let go” voluntarily. It is clear that any letting go on the part of Jesus was not a complete divestiture of divinity because in verses 10-11, this same Jesus is the one to whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess as Lord, the God of the Old Testament (Isaiah 45:23). In some way Jesus was a Man who also existing as God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, voluntarily and temporarily divested Himself of the independent use of His divine attributes.²

It is best to understand that Jesus eternally (pre-, post- and incarnate) always existed in the form of God, or the outward manifestation of a corresponding essence.³ The phrases “form of God” and “equality with God” are contextually the same. Therefore, we can understand that when we see the language used here, “seizing” (harpagmos), we know that Jesus understood that He did not need to hold onto this outward manifestation of God’s essence because it was eternal, but could lay it aside (v. 7 kenoō)⁴ becoming vulnerable as a man, dependent on God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Paul in Colossians 3:1-3 tells the church the seeming contradiction that we are to live differently because we are dead! That is, as we see ourselves as purchased by Jesus’ blood, we know that we have a greater prize awaiting us and therefore, we can “let go” of desires and felt needs in this life and put ourselves in dependence on God.

This brings us to Christ’s perception of His own purpose. Jesus utterly depended on the Holy Spirit to help him obey the Father. We can learn a lot about how this applies to our own walk of obedience and its intersection with the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. After Jesus submitted to the baptism of John, He submitted to the Holy Spirit who led Him into the wilderness.

For Jesus, the anointing comes first and then comes the task for which He was anointed. Jesus was anointed (the Spirit came upon Him) as recorded in Luke 3:21 “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as He was praying, heaven was opened.” It was the Spirit upon (epi) Him that caused Him to do the work of the ministry (cf. Luke 4:1). The Spirit led Jesus into the desert. “Led” (agõ) literally means that the Spirit took Jesus into custody. He was driven into the desert.⁵

After Jesus emerged from His wilderness experience, He returned to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:14) and it was this Power that drew attention to Himself. Jesus then goes to the synagogue to explain what has happened by quoting from Isaiah 61. What follows is a comparison of the Septuagint (henceforth referred to as LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, c. 300 BC) and the text as it appears in Luke’s gospel: