George Warnock — Christology
The Vision and the Appointment — extraction of christological content.
Warnock’s christology in b9 focuses on the new man in Christ as ontological recreation, not moral improvement. The crucifixion of the old man and pneumatic rebirth are central themes.
The New Man in Christ — Ontological Recreation
Building on 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Ephesians 2:15, Warnock describes the “new man” in Christ as neither moral improvement nor religious reformation but ontological recreation. This is Christ-determined: the old man is not reformed but crucified (Gal. 2:20). The new creation is pneumatic — “born from above” (John 3:3), not born of blood, will of the flesh, or will of man.
“We are not calling men to clean up the old nature, nor to discipline the flesh into submission. We are announcing the death of the old man and the creation of a new man in Christ — a new species, formed after the image of God.”
Warnock explicitly resists any form of Pelagianism or moral self-improvement soteriology. The transformation in Christ is entirely God’s sovereign work, received by faith. It is not human achievement but divine creation.
Key Texts:
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 — “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (NKJV)
- Ephesians 2:15 — “thus making peace, and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross” (NKJV)
- Galatians 2:20 — “I have been crucified with Christ” (NKJV) — old man dead
- John 3:3 — “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’” (NKJV) — pneumatic dimension