blhowes
Puritan Board Professor
As a result of conversations at work (with an orthodox Jew), I've started studying about God's oneness and the trinity. At first, after reading some materials given to me, it appeared that there was a big contrast between the OT and the NT, between the "Jewish God" and the "Christian God", with respect to God's oneness vs the trinity. I was surprised, just by doing a quick search, how often God's oneness is mentioned in the NT (Mar 12:29, Rom 3:30, 1Co 8:4, 1Co 8:6, Gal 3:20, Eph 4:4-6, 1Ti 2:5, Jam 2:19). Its not just an OT teaching.
In reading through and thinking about these verses, one of the verses got me wondering:
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
I'm sure this is probably not the best proof text to use to defend the deity of Christ, but I got to thinking about the last part of the verse, the man Christ Jesus. I thought it was interesting the use of the word man. If Jesus wasn't God, but only a man, is there any reason why Paul would have used the word man? Is there any warrant to the idea that Paul was differentiating between Jesus as God and Jesus as man, or is the point mainly that Jesus had to be a man to be a sacrifice for mankind, regardless of whether he was man or man/God? Does it make sense what I'm trying to ask?
In reading through and thinking about these verses, one of the verses got me wondering:
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
I'm sure this is probably not the best proof text to use to defend the deity of Christ, but I got to thinking about the last part of the verse, the man Christ Jesus. I thought it was interesting the use of the word man. If Jesus wasn't God, but only a man, is there any reason why Paul would have used the word man? Is there any warrant to the idea that Paul was differentiating between Jesus as God and Jesus as man, or is the point mainly that Jesus had to be a man to be a sacrifice for mankind, regardless of whether he was man or man/God? Does it make sense what I'm trying to ask?