The Synoptics appear to provide an understanding of Jesus as a man preaching and healing in Galilee and Judea, empowered by the Holy Spirit and, consequently, a valid example for us to follow. However, should the uniqueness of Christ Jesus and his proportional anointing not impact the extent to which Christians can emulate his ministry? Although scripture reveals Jesus as the believer’s role model for living the Christian life, including serving him in the power of the Spirit, a distinction should be made between how the Spirit functioned in Jesus’s life and that of his contemporary disciples. Consider the significant differences in the below parallel between anointed disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit and “The Anointed One” (Gr. Christos):

  • As disciples, we experience spiritual rebirth (regeneration) (John 3:3–6): Jesus was a biological miracle conceived by the Spirit (Luke 1:35). Immanuel at birth—God with us (Matt 1:23). Disciples are also called “sons of god” (Gal 3:26) but by adoption. Jesus was born as the Son of God; therefore, related to the Father like no other.
  • As disciples, we depend on the infilling of the Holy Spirit for ministry (Acts 1:8): Jesus baptized his disciples with the Spirit (Luke 3:16). He was permanently anointed (John 1:32) without measure (3:34), perfectly depending on God the Father and the Holy Spirit at all times (John 3:34–35, 10:30, 14:10, 16:7–11).
  • As disciples, we depend on the Spirit to affirm our salvation and ministry (Rom 8:16); Jesus’s anointing provided evidence of his status as the anticipated “Messiah of the Spirit” (Isa 11:2–3, 42:1, 48:16, 61:1).
  • The Holy Spirit enables the sanctification of disciples (2 Cor 3:18); The Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus as “the Holy One” (Luke 1:35).

The conclusion to the significance of Jesus’s proclamation, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me” (Luke 4:18, NET), is that Christ is divinely commissioned with a representative anointing and authority, corresponding to his unique mission. Therefore, although some elements of Jesus’s mission are the mission and ministry of the Church corporately, by inference, contemporary disciples will not be able to function like him.

Williams (1988, 339), a charismatic theologian, asserts that Jesus’s “preaching [of] the Good News, healings, deliverances, and many miraculous deeds, flowed out of His anointing by the Holy Spirit.”  However, he then states that “this not to deny that there were works of Jesus accomplished by Him in His divine nature.” I find this inconsistency perplexing and challenging to discern. At the risk of being uncharitable, could it be that charismatic theology is controlling Williams’s Christology and not Christology controlling his theology?

The claim that Jesus was fully human and, therefore, a valid example for us to follow must also be sensitive to the unique ontological nature of Christ Jesus. In this regard, I concur with Lewis and Demarest (1996, 343) that “it is futile to seek a reductively human Jesus of history unassociated with the eternal Son of God.” Christ Jesus fulfilled his messianic mission by preaching the good news, healings, deliverances, and many miraculous deeds that flowed out of his anointing were more than the ordinary enablement of a mere man by the Holy Spirit. These were the acts of not just a Spirit-filled man but the Spirit-filled God-man; Jesus was a unique receptive God-man through whose life the Trinity was “fully” revealed.

What about the Kenotic view that Jesus gave up some of his divine essence, identity, and relative attributes during the period of the incarnation? Grudem rightly confirms that Jesus, “remaining what he was,… became what he was not.” (1994, 558, 563). With that in mind, Erickson (1998, 789) justly asserts that it is difficult to see how Jesus could have given up any of his divine attributes without ceasing to be fully God. At this junction, I want to stress that asserting the integrity of Jesus’s humanity and deity is an uncompromising Christological assertion necessary for the efficacy of his redemptive work.

I am not without sensitivity to the awesome task involved in attempting to harmonize the ontological with the functional Jesus. I am also uncompromisingly committed to theological reflection that does not eliminate Jesus as a role model in living the Christian life, but not at the expense of presenting a reductionist view—an oversimplistic view of the complexity of the person of Jesus—of Christ to just a mere man. It is also incumbent on evangelic theologians to safeguard orthodox incarnational Christology—God took human form in the body of Jesus—that emphasizes the uniqueness of Christ Jesus. Christology is not formulated by observing functional realities that are relevant to contemporary disciples. For High Christology to be legitimate to the Church, the formulation of doctrine must be committed to the full extent of the ontological integrity of the person of Christ Jesus. I concur with Ortlund’s (2009, 312) Christocentric definition that the “Bible will be properly understood, faithfully preached, and rightly applied only if the enfleshed second person of the Trinity is seen as the integrative North Star to Christian doctrine and practice” (italics added; see de Carvalho 2017).

Short Bio

Jose was born in Lisbon, Portugal, grew up in Mozambique and South Africa currently living in Johannesburg. He was last employed in the corporate world as a General Manager by Sulzer SA, a Swiss engineering company. Jose holds a master’s in theology (MTh) from the South African Theological Seminary (SATS), where he now serves as an academic. He is an active member of the New Testament Society of Southern Africa (NTSSA). His research interests are in Pauline studies.

 

Bibliography

De Carvalho, J. 2017. “Christocentricity without Christoconformity: An Evaluation of the Healing Ministry of Jesus.” MTh thesis, South African Theological Seminary.

Erickson, M. 1998. Christian theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic.

Grudem W. 1994. Systematic theology. An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House.

Lewis & Demarest. 1996. Integrative theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House.

Williams R. 1988. Renewal Theology. God, the World & Redemption, (Vol 1–3). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House.