Theological term
Apollinarianism
5 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 3
The sinlessness of Christ, the efficient and instrumental causes of the incarnation, and the hypostatic union are examined through a clause-by-clause exposition of 2LCF Chapter 8, paragraph 2, with supporting analysis of paragraphs 3 and 7. The confession's language — 'yet without sin,' 'conceived by the Holy Spirit,' 'of the seed of Abraham and David,' 'without conversion, composition, or confusion' — is unpacked against the background of patristic Christology, Chalcedonian definition, and Reformed theological precision. The ministry of the Holy Spirit throughout the entire mediatorial life of Christ is recovered as an often-neglected dimension of Christology. Incarnational and interpretive rules drawn from paragraph 7 equip hearers to handle Scripture passages that appear to diminish Christ's deity, by distinguishing what is predicated of a nature from what is predicated of the one person according to a nature.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 2
The incarnation of the Son of God — his taking to himself a true and complete human nature — is the greatest of all gospel mysteries and the life and soul of the church. Working through paragraphs one, two, three, seven, and nine of the Second London Confession chapter eight, this study examines the timing, manner, and extent of the Son's assumption of humanity, arguing that the incarnation was neither a subtraction from deity nor an addition to it, but a terminative assumption by which the eternal Son united human nature to his own divine person in the hypostatic union. The full extent of that assumption — body, reasonable soul, human will, human affections, and the common sinless infirmities of our nature — is not a speculative nicety but a soteriological necessity: what is not assumed is not healed.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 3
The incarnation of the Son of God — that the eternal, divine Son took to himself a true and complete human nature without ceasing to be God — stands at the centre of the Christian religion and is inseparable from the doctrine of salvation. This confession study works through 2LCF Chapter 8, paragraphs 2 and 7, first clearing away eight historical errors about what the incarnation is not (mutation, docetism, a heavenly body, a bodyless appearance, an animal soul without a human soul, a mixing of natures, a divestiture of divine attributes, and a Nestorian conjunction of persons), then positively establishing the language of assumption, union, and incarnation as the church's consistent witness from the apostolic era forward. The Son did not subtract from nor add to himself; he took to himself that which he was not while remaining fully what he eternally is, and the Trinity — Father, Son, and Spirit — acts undividedly in this work, though it terminates on the Son alone.
OF Christ the Mediator (2LCF 8)
The doctrine of the Incarnation — that the eternal Son of God took to himself a full human nature, body and soul, yet without sin — is one of the two great mysteries of the Christian faith alongside the Trinity. This confession study works through 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 8, Paragraph 2, establishing first what the Incarnation does not mean (mutation of the divine nature, mere appearance, assumption of body only, full humanity without exception, addition to divine being) before drawing out five positive theological entailments: it is the Son alone who became incarnate through the undivided work of the triune God; it is the divine Son who assumed flesh; the assumed humanity is full and complete; Christ is sinless in that humanity; and the two natures are united in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion. The whole doctrine is shown to be the necessary foundation of the Christian gospel, since only a mediator who is truly and fully God, truly and fully man, and wholly without sin can accomplish the redemption of fallen humanity.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 2
The deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, as confessed in 2LCF Chapter 8 paragraphs 1–3, stand as the twin foundations of orthodox Christology. This session from a series on the 1689 London Baptist Confession works through what the confession affirms — and what it denies — regarding both natures of the one Mediator, showing how its language recapitulates the early church's creedal formulations. The study demonstrates the deity of Christ from his self-identification as the divine 'I Am,' his equality with the Father, explicit New Testament declarations, Old Testament Yahweh texts applied to him in the New Testament, and divine prerogatives predicated of him. The humanity of Christ is then established from the birth narratives, apostolic declaration, and Christ's own evidential self-disclosure, preparing the ground for a subsequent session on the incarnation proper.