06_person_1305_outline

The history of Christology is divided into seven parts. The first four parts, which occurred in the fourth and fifth centuries, focus on the belief that Jesus is fully God, fully man, one person, and two natures. These two centuries greatly influenced our understanding of Christology. The last two points, that Jesus has two wills and is the man who is God, are elaborations of the previous ideas. We will follow this historical outline, starting with Jesus as a man. As we cover the history of Christology, we're going to follow a seven-part outline to show the events that happened in the first seven centuries of the Church. And the order is that Jesus is the man who is God, fully God, fully man, one person, two natures, two wills. And one thing that you can notice in the outline is that four of them all occur within two centuries, the fourth and the fifth century. And that is namely that Jesus is fully God, fully man, one person, and two natures. And these two centuries really are what shape almost the entirety of our Christology. That last point, that he has two wills, is really just an outworking of the fact that he has two natures. And as you can see, the fact that he is fully God and fully man covers the first two points, that he is the man who is God. Nevertheless, it's helpful to see the progression of thought through the centuries. So we'll follow this outline in historical order, starting with Jesus, the man.