Confirmation Notes: Christ – Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection

• The pre-existence of the Word, the Logos  Genesis 1, John 1
• The outrageous idea of Incarnation

• Carne – flesh  lit ‘en-flesh-ment’
• No other faith comes close in engagement with humanity
• Human and/or Divine: Video of the Geneology of Matthew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUjI3ebu_Wk

• The paradox of two natures – ikon of Christ as reminder
• The vulnerability of the Incarnation, Matthew and Luke nativity stories, esp compared to the ‘chocolate box’ story of the traditional Christmas story

• Growing up as God: Christ in theTemple(Luke 2:41-52), Temptation without sin (Matthew 4, Luke 4), righteous anger (Matthew 19:13)
• Claims of Jesus

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (CS Lewis Mere Christianity pg. 52)

• The purpose of the Passion
  • The mistake of Penal Substitution “cosmic child abuse” & how it fails to fit our understanding of a loving Heavenly Father
  • Kensosis – Phillipians 2:5-11
  • The Cross not as defeat but Victory
    • John 19:30 “It is complete / paid off” Gk: Tetelestai
    • §  The word tetelestai was also written on business documents or receipts in New Testament times to show indicating that a bill had been paid in full. The Greek-English lexicon by Moulton and Milligan says this: “Receipts are often introduced by the phrase [sic tetelestai, usually written in an abbreviated manner…”
  • o   “The cross is a stake planted in the ground around which the whole history of the world revolves”

• The significance of the Resurrection
  • As vindication of the power of God
  • Not immediate – for patience is a teaching point
  • Hidden from view, then revealed: John 20
  • The resurrection body cf Bramantino’s Resurrected Christ
• The proof of the resurrection http://www.users.ms11.net/~dejnarde/resurrect.htm
• • Genuine death on the cross – blood & water
  • Empty Tomb
  • First witnesses were women (the wisdom of God vs the foolishness of men!)
  • Testimony of the Apostles even to Martyrdom

• The impact of the resurrection on the world today in the lives of Christians