Point of View

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is part of an occasional series of commentaries examining and explaining the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention's confession of faith.

Many Christian leaders at the beginning of the 20th century popularized the slogan "Christianity is Christ." The slogan emphasized the person of Christ as foundational to Christianity. The person of Siddartha Gautama is not foundational to the teachings of Buddhism; the person of Confucius provides no underpinning for Confucianism; and Muslims would adamantly deny, "Islam is Muhammad." Without the person of Jesus Christ, the Christian faith could not exist.

The Baptist Faith & Message sets forth the article "God the Son" in a chronological manner. Philippians 2:5-11 provides a scriptural framework for a chronological exposition of the person and work of God the Son.

First, God the Son is pre-existent (Phil. 2:6). The term "pre-existent" conveys the claim that the existence of God the Son did not begin with his earthly life. The BF&M highlights the pre-existent state by two key concepts, "eternal" and "Son of God." In contrast to the ancient heresy Arianism and contemporary Jehovah Witnesses, Baptists affirm that Christ existed before time. Christ always was, Christ always is, and Christ will always be. Furthermore, Christ is the Son of God; He eternally possessed equality in essence or being with God the Father.

Second, God the Son humbled Himself (Phil. 2:7-8). The humiliation of Jesus entailed His conception, incarnation, and death.

God the Son became incarnate (in flesh) as Jesus Christ. The BF&M 2000 committee made a significant improvement over the BF&M 1963 statement. The 1963 edition states, "...taking upon Himself the demands and necessities of human nature." A foster mother temporarily may take upon herself the demands and necessities of motherhood without being a mother. The BF&M 2000 states, "...taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities." The 2000 revision sets forth the full-humanity of Jesus stronger than the earlier edition. The incarnation of Jesus, the uniting of God and man, became a permanent union. Jesus remains the God-Man today; Christ did not give up His human nature when He ascended. As the BF&M affirms of His exalted state, "He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man."

The Spirit of God conceived the incarnate Son in the womb of the virgin Mary. The BF&M states, Jesus was "born of the virgin Mary." I find an increasing number of Baptists that prefer the phrase "born through the virgin Mary." This phrase reflects the heretical teachings of some second-century Gnostics and sixteenth-century Anabaptists. In this false view, Jesus brought his human nature with Him from heaven. Mary, then, was a surrogate who contributed a womb but contributed nothing to the human nature of Jesus. This teaching denies that the crusher of Satan came from the "seed" of woman (Gen. 3:16); repudiates Paul's teachings that Christ is the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:15-16); and mythologizes Scripture's teaching that Jesus literally descended from David (Acts 2:29-30; Rom. 1:3).

The greatest humbling of Jesus occurred at His shameful death. The BF&M 2000 committee properly added the adjective "substituitionary" to describe the death of Jesus. The substituitionary death of Jesus means that Jesus became our sacrifice for sin, substituted Himself for us, and bore our iniquities and curse. Some object to the addition of the word "substituitionary" because the New Testament contains varied descriptions of the death of Christ. All of the biblical descriptions, however, derive meaning from the central teachings that Jesus died in the place of sinners.

Third, God the Father exalted God the Son (Phil. 2:9-11). The exaltation of Jesus involves His resurrection, ascension, seating at the right hand, and return. Because of the exaltation of Jesus, the New Testament asserts that Jesus is our intercessor, cosmic Lord, and giver of gifts. Jesus literally, physically rose from the dead. Paul associated the resurrection with our justification-God's declaration of acquittal (Rom. 4:5). Jesus ascended into heaven. The ascension marked the end of the resurrection appearances. Because of the ascension, the disciples learned a vital lesson: even though Christ was not physically present, He was still present. Christ sat down at the right hand of God the Father. He sat royally. He sat down as our priest. A priest stood during his service in the temple (Heb.10:11). Our high priest sat down because He completed His priestly service. God the Son will return personally, visibly, and gloriously.

Baptists affirm that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the Incarnate Son, the Sacrificial Son, the Reigning Son, and the Returning Son. The Gospel or good news centers on God the Son. In light of our beliefs about God the Son, the guilty silence of many Baptists is deafening.

Mark Rathel is associate professor of theology at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.