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George Warnock — Christology

b3 — Feed My Sheep

Christ as Shepherd — Good Shepherd, Chief Shepherd, and Lamb-Shepherd

  • “When Jesus came forth from the heart of God He was God’s answer to the needs of the scattered sheep.” (feed2.html) Interpretation: Warnock links the incarnation directly to the shepherding office: Christ’s coming in the flesh is the fulfilment of God’s own shepherd-nature.

  • “The Shepherd had to die as the Lamb.” (feed2.html) Foundational christological statement: Christ is simultaneously Shepherd and atoning Lamb — two offices in one person.

  • “The Shepherd must rise again as the King-Shepherd.” (feed2.html) Warnock views the resurrection as constitutive of Christ’s continuing shepherding ministry.

  • “The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them.” (Rev. 7:17, quoted in feed6.html) Warnock uses this verse as his central image: the glorified Christ reigns as Lamb-Shepherd — the sacrificial mark persists even into the heavenly exaltation.

  • “Christ sits enthroned as a shepherd characterized by lamb-like qualities.” (feed6.html) Interpretation: Warnock treats kenosis not as temporary but as the enduring character of Christ’s authority.

  • “The Chief Shepherd” — Christ described as the supreme authority over all earthly shepherds who minister to God’s flock. (feed-preface.html; feed6.html)

  • “Christ calls His own sheep by name… knowing each individual personally despite having ‘ten thousand times ten thousand’ in His fold.” (feed5.html) Interpretation: Warnock emphasises the personal, direct relationship of Christ with His sheep — not impersonal governance but intimate union.

Incarnation and Divine Nature

  • “He possessed the heart of the Shepherd-God, with whom He walked in total union.” (feed2.html) Warnock describes the incarnation as the divine shepherd-nature becoming visible in human form.

  • “Jesus was the true Seed, because He was the Word.” (feed7.html) Interpretation: Links incarnation to John 1 — Christ as the enfleshed Word, the true seed.

  • “Jesus was uniquely the ‘very Temple of God’ during His earthly ministry.” (feed5.html) Interpretation: Warnock connects God’s incarnate presence to temple theology — Christ as the sole true dwelling-place of God on earth.

Kenosis and Obedience

  • “Jesus could have called more than twelve legions of angels to His aid as He hung on the Cross… But because He was more concerned about doing the will of God than He was about fulfilling His role as the Messiah — He chose to remain on the Cross.” (feed2.html) Interpretation: Warnock describes kenosis as voluntary obedience, not incapacity: Christ lays aside divine power freely in favour of the Father’s will.

  • “He made himself of no reputation, took the form of a servant, learning obedience even unto death.” (feed6.html) This sacrificial submission becomes the very ground of His divine authority.

  • “He had to wait before God… pray long hours on the mountainside… learn obedience through the things He suffered.” (feed7.html)

  • “Not my will but thine be done.” (Gethsemane prayer, quoted in feed3.html) Interpretation: Christ’s obedience to the Father is constitutive of His sonship.

Authority of Christ — Union with the Father, Not Messianic Office

  • “Christ’s authority SPRANG FROM HIS UNION WITH THE FATHER, AND NOT FROM HIS MESSIANIC OFFICE.” (feed3.html) Warnock’s key thesis on Christ’s authority: it is relational in nature, not derived from office or positional power.

  • “I can of mine own self do NOTHING.” (John 5:30, quoted in feed3.html) Warnock treats this statement as the hermeneutical key to the entire Christology of the book.

  • “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself.” (John 14:10, quoted in feed3.html)

  • “What Jesus did in the earth He did as the Son of God sent forth from the heart of the Father.” (feed2.html)

  • “Christ walked in total union with the Father, making the Father’s will and works His own.” (feed3.html)

  • “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what He seeth the Father do.” (John 5:19, quoted in feed4.html)

  • “This wasn’t predetermined action based on His Messianic office. Instead, it flowed from direct alignment with the Father’s will in that moment.” (feed4.html — on the healing at Bethesda) Interpretation: Warnock explicitly relativises the office concept: Christ acts moment by moment from union, not from a static office.

Sonship as Relationship — Pattern-Son

  • “PATTERN SON” — Christ serves as the exemplar for believers of how sonship is lived. (feed3.html) Interpretation: Warnock introduces the term ‘pattern-Son’ as the central christological category of the book: Christ as the model of true filial obedience.

  • “Jesus functioned as the exemplar of sonship, showing how believers should relate to God.” (feed4.html)

  • “Jesus was ‘ordained… as a SON,’ requiring ‘total and absolute obedience unto the Father in all things’.” (feed5.html) Reference: Heb. 7:28 quoted.

  • “The word of the oath, which was since the law, APPOINTETH THE SON, who is perfected forevermore.” (Heb. 7:28, quoted in feed5.html)

  • “He simplified His life through union with the Heavenly Father rather than exercising independent divine authority.” (feed4.html)

Atonement — Christ as Lamb and the Cross

  • “It was in the smiting of the Shepherd that the sheep would be redeemed.” (feed2.html) Interpretation: Warnock describes the atonement as the sacrifice of the Shepherd himself — not an offering He brings, but one He is.

  • “The Shepherd had to die as the Lamb.” (feed2.html) Substitutionary death is implicit: the Shepherd dies so that the sheep may live.

  • “A Lamb as it had been slain… remained fundamentally characterized by sacrifice and meekness rather than power alone.” (feed6.html) Warnock uses the Revelation language (Rev. 5:6) to emphasise the enduring sacrificial mark of Christ.

  • “The New Covenant is simply the New Will that Jesus left for His people, and ratified it by His death on the Cross.” (feed7.html)

Resurrection and Exaltation

  • “The Shepherd must rise again as the King-Shepherd.” (feed2.html)

  • “The glorified Christ continues administering” the New Covenant. (feed7.html)

  • “Christ’s exaltation involved Him ‘actually BECOMING THAT AUTHORITY, sitting at God’s right hand, until all enemies are subdued under His feet’.” (feed5.html) Interpretation: Warnock views the exaltation not as passive waiting but as active exercise of royal authority.

  • “Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever…” (Heb. 1:8, quoted in feed5.html)

  • “The last Adam… became a ‘Life-Giving’ SPIRIT.” (feed7.html, alluding to 1Cor. 15:45)

Priestly Office

  • “The Church’s advocate with the Father, appointed to bear responsibility for God’s people like the Old Covenant High Priest.” (feed1.html)

  • “He presents believers’ cause ‘upon His shoulders’ before God’s presence and communicates their petitions to the Father through the Holy Spirit’s assistance.” (feed1.html) Interpretation: Warnock connects the high-priestly office (Heb.) to Christ’s ongoing intercession — with explicit reference to the shoulder-bearing high priest of the OT.

  • “The Apostle, and High Priest.” (Heb. 3:1, quoted in feed3.html — as one of Christ’s titles)

Prophetic and Kingly Office

  • “The Prophet that Moses spoke about.” (Deut. 18:15, quoted in feed3.html)

  • “The Evangelist… The Teacher… The Good Shepherd.” (feed3.html) Interpretation: Warnock describes Christ as the fulfilment of all ministries in one person: “the fulness of ALL MINISTRY.”

  • “His kingdom operates through lamb-like sacrificial obedience rather than coercive power.” (feed6.html)

  • “Jesus reigns at God’s right hand ‘with all power and authority to do whatever God has commissioned Him to do’.” (feed1.html)

Christ as Sole Mediator

  • “There is ‘one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’.” (1Tim. 2:5, quoted in feed5.html)

  • “Ministers must not take the place of a Mediator.” (feed5.html) Interpretation: Warnock emphasises the exclusivity of Christ as mediator as an ecclesiologically critical norm: church leaders must not usurp this position.

  • The Church’s purpose: leading believers into “direct union with Him,” enabling them to “HEAR HIM… and see ‘JESUS ONLY’.” (feed5.html)

Christ and the Holy Spirit

  • “The Holy Spirit abiding within you, will be to you EVERYTHING THAT I WAS WHEN I WALKED BY YOUR SIDE.” (feed2.html; echoed in feed6.html) Interpretation: Warnock describes the Spirit as the continuing presence of the exalted Christ — not a replacement but a continuation of His personal shepherding.

  • “The Holy Spirit represents Christ on earth, called ‘Another Advocate’ because Christ now dwells in bodily form at God’s right hand.” (feed4.html)

  • “The Spirit speaks only what Christ communicates.” (feed4.html)

  • “The Spirit’s office work establishes ‘the nature, and the character, as well as the authority’ of the exalted Christ in believers’ hearts.” (feed6.html)

Christ as Master Builder

  • “The Captain of the host of the LORD.” (Josh. 5:14-15, quoted in feed7.html)

  • “Thou, O Lord, art alone responsible as the Captain of our Salvation, and as the Builder and Architect of your Church.” (feed7.html)

  • “Jesus has shown us the Way… rather, He has BECOME the Way.” (feed7.html)

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