CHAPTER SEVEN
Christology
What sort of person is Jesus? What is the relationship between Jesus
and God? What is the relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
What is the relationship between Jesus and fallen man? What do
trinity and rebirth mean?
Christology deals with these questions. In order to answer them, we
must begin by understanding the value of an original, true, person.
The reason for this is that if Adam and Eve had perfected themselves
and had become true human beings, true husband and wife, and true
parents, giving birth to descendants who were the embodiments of
goodness, there would have been no reason for the Messiah (and thus no
Christological discussions).
I. The Value of a Person Who Fulfills
the Purpose of Creation
From the following viewpoints, let us discuss the value of a person
who fulfills the Purpose of the Creation, that is of one who attains
the value of the perfect Adam.
First of all, what is the value of this perfect person in relation to
God? According to "The Principles of the Creation", man is created as
the child of God, as the object that substantially resembles the
invisible God. When a person fulfills the Purpose of the Creation, he
becomes God's body, a being in which the spirit of God dwells (1 Cor
3:16). Naturally he has a divine nature and is one in heart with God.
He is a true person, one who is perfect as his Heavenly Father is
perfect, as Jesus said (Mt 5:48). Thus, a true person is one who is
the visible embodiment of God, is God's true son or daughter, has a
divine nature, and fulfills the Purpose of the Creation.
Secondly, what is the value of a perfect person in relation to other
people? According to "The Principles of Creation", God's purpose in
creating man is for God to enjoy happiness through him. Therefore,
each person is an object substantially resembling the characteristics
within God, the subject. Since all human beings resemble the
universal aspects of God, all persons share a common nature. However,
each individual also resembles certain unique characteristics within
God. Thus, no two individuals are the same. If God created, anywhere
in his entire Creation, two or more individuals whose characteristics
were exactly alike, then God's own Creation would be wasteful. Since
man is created to be eternal, God's desire to experience stimulating
joy through a certain individual is sufficiently satisfied through
that one individual. Therefore, a person who fulfills the Purpose of
the Creation, is a unique individual who will never be duplicated
throughout eternity, so he has an innate unique value, which cannot be
denied.
Thirdly, what is the value of a perfect person in relation to the rest
of the Creation? According to "The Principles of the Creation", man
was recreated to rule the invisible spirit world by means of his
spirit self and the physical world by means of his physical self. Man
then functions as the medium through which these two worlds interact.
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A person who fulfills the Purpose of Creation is to rule the entire
cosmos (Gen 1:28).
Man's spirit self is to be the microcosm of the entire spirit world
and his physical self is to be the microcosm of the entire physical
world. A true human being, one who fulfills the Purpose of the
Creation, is the microcosm of the entire cosmos. Man is a microcosm
(of the Creation) and has the value of the cosmos. The fact that man
is originally of such cosmic value underlies Jesus saying "'For what
will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his
life?"' (Mt 16:26).
II. Jesus and the Person Who Fulfills
the Purpose of Creation
A. Jesus and the Perfect Person
As explained in "The Fall", if Adam had become the first man who
fulfilled the Ideal for the Creation, he would have become the very
Tree of Life referred to in Genesis 2:9, and thus, all of his
descendants would have become trees of life. However, because Adam
fell, he could not realize the ideal of the Tree of Life (Gen. 3:24),
and ever since, fallen people have hoped to restore themselves and
become trees of life (Prov 13:12, Rev 22:14).
Though fallen man has the "name of being alive", he is, in reality, a
false tree of life and dead (Rev 3:1). Since fallen people cannot
restore themselves as trees of life by their own power, a Tree of Life
-- in other words a man who has fulfilled the Ideal for the Creation -
- must come and graft fallen man to him. The man who comes as the
Tree of Life is Christ (Rev 22:14). Therefore, perfected Adam,
symbolized by the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, and Jesus, who
is likened to the Tree of Live in Revelation 22:14, are identical from
the standpoint of their both being persons who have fulfilled the
Ideal for the Creation.
Then, is Jesus a human being? Yes, he is. He is an example of a
person who has fulfilled the Ideal for the Creation; he is a true
person, an example of man as he was originally created, and as such
his value is not to be compared with the value of fallen man.
As already mentioned, a true person is one who fulfills the Purpose of
the Creation, is the incarnation of God, and is perfect as God is
perfect, possessing divine value. A perfect person is also a unique,
non-duplicable individual who is the lord of the cosmos and has cosmic
value. Jesus is a true man, and thus is a person of such value.
The Principle does not flatly deny the conventional belief held by
many christians that Jesus is God, because a perfect, true person is
one with God. Furthermore, when The Principle asserts that Jesus is a
true human being, this does not in any way diminish his value. It is
simply that when one examines the value of the perfect person, we find
it is equivalent to the value of Jesus. In fact, if the first man and
woman had not fallen and had become a man and a woman of such value,
then Jesus' coming would not have been necessary. It would be a grave
error, indeed, to suppose that the value of fallen man can be compared
with Jesus' value simply because Jesus was a human being. He was a
true human being. Let us examine the biblical bases for saying this:
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For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Tim 2:5)
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
one man's obedience many will be made righteous. (Rom 5:19)
For as by a man [Adam] came death, by a man [Jesus] has come also
the resurrection of the dead. (1 Cor 15:21)
... because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world
in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he
has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.
(Acts 17:31)
These passages indicate that Jesus was a man. Jesus also referred to
himself as the Son of man in many places in the Bible (e.g., Lk 17:26,
18:8).
B. Is Jesus God?
Up until now, many Christians have believed that Jesus is God, the
Creator, based primarily on the following passages from the Bible.
When Philip asked Jesus to show him God, Jesus replied "'He who has
seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, "Show us the Father"?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?'" (Jn
14:9,10). However, this does not mean that Jesus is God. As
clarified above, Jesus was a visible manifestation of the invisible
God and is one with God in heart; yet, this does not mean that he is
God. Philip asked Jesus to show him God. But God can only be
experienced so completely by a person who is perfect. Philip was not
yet perfect, and so Jesus had no choice but to show only himself.
Again, the Bible says, "He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was
made through him, yet the world knew him not" (Jn 1:10). Based on
this passage, Christians have believed that Jesus is the Creator.
The center of God's Ideal for the Creation is man, and the cosmos is
so designed and created as to be the domain which each ideal person is
to rule. Thus, God established the person who fulfills the Purpose of
the Creation as the highest ideal. From the lowest being to the
highest, God created all of them, and then he finally created Adam as
lord over all. Then, Jesus, as a person who was fulfilling the
Purpose of the Creation, was the ideal person God had envisioned
before the creation was created. In this sense, Jesus existed from
the beginning.
Some try to identify Jesus with God on the basis of the quote in John
8:58, in which Jesus said, "'... before Abraham was, I am.'" But
Jesus didn't mean that he was God. Rather, Jesus could say this
because, although on the basis of his genealogy Jesus was a descendant
of Abraham, in fact he is the ancestor of Abraham because he came to
give rebirth to all mankind from the position of the perfect Adam,
that is from the position of a True Parent, a True Ancestor of all
mankind.
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If Jesus had been God, then in the spirit world, after his
resurrection, he would be one and the same with God, rather than in a
position "next to" God. However, in the spirit world, Jesus is said
to be at the right hand of God, interceding for us (Rom 8:34). Jesus
was born on earth as the Son of man and had a human external
appearance like anyone else. In the spirit world he lives as a spirit
person just as his disciples do, the only difference being that his
spirit self is without original sin and shines brilliantly.
If Jesus were God, how could he intercede with himself? When he
prayed, he made it clear that he was not God by calling God Father (Jn
17:1). If Jesus were God, how could he be tempted (Mt 4:1) and
tortured and driven to the crucifixion by Satan? It is especially
evident that Jesus is not God when, on the cross, he cried out, "'My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'" (Mt 27:46).
C. Jesus and Fallen Man
A fallen person is not comparable to Jesus. A fallen person does not
fulfill the Purpose of the Creation, and is far from the Heart of God.
What is more, because he has original sin, he is in such a miserably
low state that he even envies the angles, who were created to be man's
servants, and he cannot free himself from Satan's accusation. Thus,
fallen man is very different from Jesus, who was a perfect, true
person. However, though Jesus, who as to be the True Father, a fallen
person will be restored as a spiritual child and will come to resemble
Jesus. Then Jesus becomes the head of the Church (Eph 1:22), and
fallen people are his body and members (1 Cor 12:27). Jesus is the
main temple and we are the branch temples; Jesus is the vine and we
are the branches (Jn 15:5). In order to become true olive trees, we
as wild olives shoots, should be grafted onto Jesus, who is the true
olive tree (Rom 11:17). Thus Jesus called us his friends, and John
said that when Jesus appears, we shall be like him (1 Jn 3:2). The
Bible also says that Christ is the "first fruits", and we shall be the
next (1 Cor 15:23).
III. Rebirth and Trinity
A. The Meaning of Rebirth
Jesus told Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, that unless one is born
anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God (Jn 3:3). Then, why must man
be reborn?
If Adam and Eve had fulfilled the Ideal for the Creation and had
become true human beings, a true couple, and the True Parents, and had
given birth to true children (without sin), the Kingdom of Heaven on
earth would have been realized. However, because of their fall, they
became false parents, and their descendants have original sin and have
realized the Kingdom of Hell on earth. Therefore, fallen persons
cannot see the Kingdom of God unless they are reborn as heavenly
children, free of original sin.
We cannot be born without parents. Fallen persons absolutely need
parents of goodness who can give them rebirth as children without
original sin, enabling each to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus was
the True Father who came to give us rebirth as children of Goodness.
Therefore, 1 Peter 1:3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our
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Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a
living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
...". This shows that Jesus is the source of rebirth. He is also
called the "last Adam" (1 Cor 15:45) and the "Everlasting Father" (Is
9:6) because he was to be the True Father, which Adam failed t become.
However, to give fallen persons rebirth as children of goodness, there
must be not only a True Father, but also a True Mother. The Holy
Spirit is the one who works as the True Mother with the resurrected
Jesus. This is why Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born again -- born
of the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:3-5). Since the Holy Spirit came as True
Mother, or second Eve, there are many who receive revelations,
indicating that the Holy Spirit is a female spirit. The Holy Spirit
works to console and move the hearts of the people (1 Cor 12:3-10).
Jesus has been working in the spirit world, while the Holy Spirit has
been working on earth to cleanse the sins of mankind. When we believe
in Jesus, we enter the love generated by the cooperative relationship
between the resurrected Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who are the
spiritual True Father and spiritual True Mother, respectively. Being
born again by believing in Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit means
that one's spirit is made new and one receives true life through the
love of the spiritual True Parents. This is spiritual rebirth.
However, since man fell both spiritually and physically, each person
must be reborn both spiritually and physically. This is the reason
for the Second Coming.
B. The Meaning of the Trinity
Up to the present, in accordance with Christian theology, Christians
have understood that the God who has worked for the salvation of man
is a Triune God and have believed that when he reveals himself he
appears as one of three persons; Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. When he
reveals himself as the Creator, he is in the person of our Heavenly
Father; when he reveals himself as the Saviour, he is in the person of
the Son; and when he reveals himself as the peacemaker, he is in the
person of the Holy Spirit.
The theory of the Trinity has caused much debate throughout history.
Let us look at this in light of The Principle. If the Fall of man had
not occurred, God would not have had to have Jesus and the Holy Spirit
work for the salvation of man. If Adam and Eve had perfected
themselves as God's son and daughter, each becoming an embodiment of
God's divine nature, then they would have been "'... perfect, as
[their] heavenly Father is perfect'" (Mt 5:48), and they would have
attained the ideal of union with God (Jn 14:20). Then Adam would have
become God's holy son, and Eve, his holy daughter. They would have
become true husband and wife, centered on God. If Adam and Eve had
then become one as the True Parents, centered on God, together with
God they would have been the original Trinity, a trinity centered on
God's Heart and ideal.
This is the fundamental condition for realizing the Three Blessings
and the Four Positions Foundation which fulfill God's Purpose for the
Creation. Yet, because of the Fall, Adam and Eve became the false
parents of man, and failing to fulfill the Purpose of the Creation,
formed a trinity centered on Satan. Therefore, in order to fulfill
the Purpose of the Creation, God had Jesus and the Holy Spirit take
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Adam's and Eve's places, as the second Adam and second Eve and as the
True Parents. However, in establishing the spiritual trinity centered
on God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit accomplished only the mission of the
spiritual True Parents. Therefore, the Lord of the Second Coming
comes to be the True Father who is to establish the trinity both
spiritually and physically.