I taught a class last night and briefly mentioned apologetics. I said I didn’t care of apologetics because everything I had ever seen of it was arguments and debates, which I do not care for. But apologetics is really a defense of the faith and of the doctrines of the faith and it is not a new construct. Apologetics have been part of the church since there has been a church – Paul was a master apologist.
In church history, debates arose often and the leaders of the church had to address much false teaching. In the early centuries, councils met to sort through them to get to the truth. One of the major issues of the 4th and 5th centuries was the identity of Christ. Just who was Jesus?
Four major church councils met to confront heresies head-on. The outcome of these councils forms the basis of our Christology. The first was the Council of Nicaea in 325 which stated that Christ is fully divine. That was followed by the Council of Constantinople in 381 which said that Christ is fully human. The Council of Ephesus in 431 affirmed that Christ is a unified person, and the Council of Chalcedon in 451 concluded the matter: Christ is human and divine in one person.
What is interesting is that the Councils did not attempt to explain how it happened, just that it was true. Paul said that there are “mysteries” in the spiritual realms –things that God has set in place without giving us full insight. One of those is “the mystery of Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:2-3). These are the things that we must take “by faith.”
Faith is crucial to our Christian life. In big doctrinal matters and small, everyday things. But faith is not blind. God never said we must leap off a cliff into the unknown to be saved. Jesus told His disciples, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves” (Jn. 14:11). Jesus left a trail of healing, resurrection, freedom, and restoration everywhere he went. He continues to provide ample testimonies through the transformed hearts and lives of people who took Him by faith. Count me as one of them.
Jesus is exactly who He said He is – the Son of God in human flesh. Beloved, you can take that as the gospel – because He is the gospel.
Deeper Roots 