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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Wayne Grudem
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March 15 - December 27, 2021
Jesus calls himself “the Son of Man.” This title is used eighty-four times in the four gospels but only by Jesus and only to speak of himself
This unique term has as its background the vision in Daniel 7 where Daniel saw one like a “son of man” who “came to the Ancient of Days” and was given “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away”
“From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:64). The reference to Daniel 7:13–14 was unmistakable, and the high priest and his council knew that Jesus was claiming to be the eternal world ruler of heavenly origin spoken of in Daniel’s vision.
Evidence That Jesus Possessed Attributes of Deity
demonstrated his omnipotence when he stilled the storm at sea with a word (Matt. 8:26–27), multiplied the loaves and fish (Matt. 14:19), and changed water into wine (John 2:1–11).
The Kenosis Theory: Did Jesus Give Up Some of His Divine Attributes While on Earth?
Only someone who is the infinite God could bear the full penalty for all the sins of all those who would believe in him.
Only someone who was truly and fully God could be the one mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5), both to bring us back to God and also to reveal God most fully to us
The biblical teaching about the full deity and full humanity of Christ is so extensive that both have been believed from the earliest times in the history of the church.
a precise understanding of how full deity and full humanity could be combined together in one person was formulated only gradually in the church and did not reach the final form until the Chalcedonian Definition in AD 451.
a large church council was convened in the city of Chalcedon near Constantinople (modern Istanbul), from October 8 to November 1, AD 451.
We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [coessential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the
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the union of Christ’s human and divine natures in one person is sometimes called the hypostatic union.
One Nature Does Some Things That the Other Nature Does Not Do.
Yet here we must give a note of caution: it is true that when Jesus died his physical body died and his human soul (or spirit) was separated from his body and passed into the presence of God the Father in heaven (Luke 23:43, 46).
Jesus had two distinct wills, a human will and a divine will, and that the wills belong to the two distinct natures of Christ, not to the person.
This distinction of two wills and two centers of consciousness helps us understand how Jesus could learn things and yet know all things.
“Remaining what he was, he became what he was not.”
The Atonement Was it necessary for Christ to die? Did Christ’s entire earthly life earn any saving benefits for us? The cause and nature of the atonement. Did Christ descend into hell?
The atonement is the work Christ did in his life and death to earn our salvation.
The pain of bearing sin.
Abandonment.
Jesus faced this pain alone.
dying for our sins. Jesus’ cry is a quotation from Psalm 22:1, a psalm in which the psalmist asks why God is so far from helping him, why God delays in rescuing him: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. (Ps. 22:1–2)
vicarious atonement. A “vicar” is someone who stands in the place of another or who represents another. Christ’s death was therefore “vicarious” because he stood in our place and represented us.
Christ’s death met the four needs that we have as sinners: 1. We deserve to die as the penalty for sin. 2. We deserve to bear God’s wrath against sin. 3. We are separated from God by our sins. 4. We are in bondage to sin and to the kingdom of Satan.
so many passages of Scripture that speak of Christ dying for sin, bearing our sin, or dying as a propitiation.
The phrase “he descended into hell” does not occur in the Bible. But the widely used Apostles’ Creed says that Christ “was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell.
unlike the Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian Definition, the Apostles’ Creed was not written or approved by a single church council at one specific time. Rather, it gradually took shape from about AD 200 to 750.
the phrase “he descended into hell” was not found in any of the early versions of the Creed
took it to mean that Christ “descended into the grave.” (The Greek form has hadēs, which can just mean “grave,” not geenna, “hell, place of punishment.”).
Acts 2:27. This is part of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, where he is quoting Psalm 16:10.
“Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
The word hell here represents a New Testament Greek term (hadēs) and an Old Testament Hebrew term (shĕ’ōl, popularly translated as “sheol”) that can mean simply “the grave” or “death” (the state of being dead).
1 Peter 3:18–20. For many people this is the most puzzling passage on this subject.
Peter tells us that Christ was “put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.”
(1) Does this refer to Christ preaching in hell?
Scripture elsewhere indicates that there is no opportunity for repentance after death (Luke 16:26; Heb. 10:26–27).
1 Peter 4:6.
“For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”
It could mean that the gospel in general was preached (this verse does not even say that Christ preached) to people who are now dead, but it was preached to them while they were still alive on earth.
Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43), imply that after Jesus died his soul (or spirit) went immediately to the presence of the Father in heaven, even though his body remained on earth and was buried.
What I have called “the Reformed view” in this section is commonly referred to as “limited atonement.”
The term that is usually preferred is particular redemption, since this view holds that Christ died for particular people (specifically, those who would be saved and whom he came to redeem), that he foreknew each one of them individually (cf. Eph. 1:3–5) and had them individually in mind in his atoning work.57
the emphasis of Scripture when it speaks of eternal punishment is not on the fact that the people suffer because they have rejected Christ, but on the fact that they suffer because of their own sins in this life (see Rom. 5:6–8, 13–16, et al.).
it seems to me that the Reformed position of “particular redemption” is most consistent with the overall teaching of Scripture.
Mark 1:13 the present participle peirazomenos, “being tempted,” modifies the imperfect main verb of the clause (ēn, “was”), indicating that Jesus was continually being tempted throughout the forty days in which he was in the wilderness.
it is the “L” in the acronym “TULIP,” which represents the so-called “five points of Calvinism,” five doctrinal positions that distinguish Calvinists or Reformed theologians from many other Protestants. The five points represented by the word are: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints.
Resurrection and Ascension What was Christ’s resurrection body like? What is its significance for us? What happened to Christ when he ascended into heaven? What is meant by the states of Jesus Christ?
The Nature of Christ’s Resurrection: A Physical Body Made Perfect
