Salvation by Christ’s Incarnation

Salvation by Christ’s Incarnation

An Intro to 5 Ecumenical Councils in 5 minutes

Greg Johnson, St. Louis Center for Christian Study

n the year 553, bishops of the Christian church met in Constantinople in an attempt to end the series of schisms that had arisen in the church over the doctrine of the person of Christ. Called by the Byzantine (Roman) emperor Justinian, the Fifth Ecumenical Council has been accused of being a politically motivated council, not a theological one. Certainly Justinian wanted to unite the empire under a single theology, just as it had a single emperor. But the council saw a profound theological development that lies at the heart of the meaning of Christmas. For a little historical background, consider the four previous councils:

1. Nicea, 325

Nicea declared that Jesus Christ was of the same substance (the same “stuff”) as God the Father. This was over against the Arians, who considered Jesus a created god, a lesser divinity than the Father—the greatest of all creatures, but still a creature, much like the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe today.

2. Constantinople I, 381

This council took Nicea a step further. Jesus Christ was confessed again to be of one substance with the Father, but was further specified to be “God from God, Light from Light true God from true God.” It may seem a misnomer, but this is where our Nicene Creed came from.

3. Ephesus, 431

Ephesus was where Mary was declared to be the theotokos, the “Mother of God.” Don’t let your Protestant bias blind you here—this was not a statement about Mary, but about Jesus. Jesus was fully God, such that Mary could be said to have borne God in her womb. Over against the heretic Nestorius, who taught that Christ’s divine and human natures were united only by appearance, Ephesus stressed the unity of Christ’s person. There is one Jesus, not two.

4. Chalcedon, 451

Twenty years later, though, the Council of Chalcedon emphasized the counter point. There are genuinely two distinct natures in Christ—a full divine nature (he is God) and a full human nature (he is man). And these natures remain distinct; they don’t merge into a third thing, a hybrid. They stand “without confusion, change, separation or division.” Jesus was not merely a human cadaver animated by God. He was fully human, body and soul. He is God and man, not God and body.

5. Constantinople II, 553

Each of these councils modified the council before it, and the fifth modified Chalcedon. It affirmed everything Chalcedon affirmed, but added something more. Constantinople II was the council that asserted that God (not just Christ’s human nature) died on the cross. “One of the Trinity suffered for us.”

Chalcedon could have been interpreted in a Nestorian manner—as if Christ’s humanity was doing one thing, while his divinity was doing something different—Christ with a split personality. While Jesus had two natures, the Fifth Council stressed that these natures were united in a single person. Further (and this is the big development!) the Personhood of Christ (that which acts) is supplied by his divine nature, not by his human nature. This thrills me.

Why do I think this is so exciting? Because this is where the unity of God and man is found. Without this, we’d have a mere human dying on the cross, while the eternal Logos is off doing something else. We’d have God and man in proximity, not God and man united. This is a big, big deal.

***The Real Issue: SALVATION in Christ

The million-dollar question that was lurking behind the scenes at Constantinople was the question of salvation. How can humans find life in God? Our communion with God was lost in the fall, so how could sinful humanity again be united to God? Their answer? It can be found in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh (Jn 1:14). In his person humanity was united again to God, our nature again united to God’s nature. We find new life only there. A new humanity was reconciled to God in the Person of the Logos.

This is big. We evangelicals usually talk about being saved by the cross—and rightly so. But the cross is only one part of the picture. We’re ultimately saved not by the cross, but by the one who suffered for us on the cross. Christmas is not significant merely because it sets the stage for Good Friday. The cross was necessary, but the amazing thing about the Incarnation is not that the Logos was coming to die. The Incarnation itself was an act of salvation, enabling us to “participate in the divine nature” in Christ (2 Pe 1:4).

Where is your life right now, Christian? “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). Mentioned 164 times just in Paul’s letters, mystical union with Christ is the central theme of salvation in the New Testament epistles, more pervasive even than the profound legal language of atonement and justification or the imagery of adoption.

God the Son came in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), taking our fallen human nature, uniting himself to it, and redeeming it in his broken, cursed and resurrected flesh. When the Logos died, you died. When he rose, your new life became certain (Rom 6:1-10). Because God united himself to human nature, our natures (united to him) again enjoy life in God. This is the message of Christmas—not just that God united himself to humanity so he could die, but that he united himself to humanity to unite humanity to God in the person of Christ, the Logos Incarnate.