George H. Warnock — Christologie
b2 — Evening and Morning
Kenosis — Incarnatie als zelfontlediging
Dit is het meest uitgewerkte christologische thema in “Evening and Morning”. Warnock behandelt de kenosis in Hoofdstuk 5 (The River of God) als het hart van de incarnatieleer.
“When the Son of Man came to earth He laid aside the glory of Heaven, and came into our very likeness and nature, that He might live here as man, and strictly as man, in utter dependence upon the Father. For though He was in the form of God, yet He made Himself of no reputation. literally, it says, ‘He emptied Himself…’ or ‘made Himself void.‘”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
Hij formuleert een definitie van incarnatie vanuit de kenosis:
“Incarnation speaks of God ‘emptying’ Himself—even emptying Himself into human nature. Incarnation placed God, the Most High, in a position of ‘weakness,’ of ‘flesh and blood,’ of ‘temptation,’ of ‘poverty,’ of ‘humiliation.‘”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
En hij beklemtoont de radicaliteit ervan:
“How could the Most High possibly empty Himself into human nature without becoming poor, and weak, and meek, and lowly? Flesh and blood cannot even look upon God and survive. What then shall we say of the Most High who came into our very flesh and likeness? How little do we appreciate of the greatness of the humiliation and suffering that the Almighty subjected Himself to, in merely taking upon Himself the form of man!”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
De kenosis culmineert in de weg naar het kruis:
“But He went further and further down the ladder of humiliation. Rather than coming as an earthly King, He took a bondslave’s form—that in such a form He might learn obedience… obedience even unto death… and that, the death of the Cross, the death of the criminal.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
Interpretatie: Warnock koppelt kenosis direct aan het soteriologische doel van de incarnatie. De zelfontlediging is niet alleen metafysisch (afleggen van goddelijke heerlijkheid) maar ook existentieel: het leven als mens in volkomen afhankelijkheid van de Vader.
Twee Naturen — Een Unieke Formulering
Warnock formuleert de verhouding van Christus’ twee naturen op een afwijkende manier ten opzichte van de klassieke formulering. In plaats van “Zoon des Mensen naar zijn menselijkheid, Zoon Gods naar zijn godheid” schrijft hij:
“He was not the Son of Man as to His humanity and Son of God as to His Deity. He was both Son of Man and Son of God as to His humanity. ‘That holy thing’ that was born of Mary was at the same time Son of Man and Son of God, for God was the Father of His human nature, as Mary was the mother (Luke 1:35).”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
Hij voegt toe:
“This Son-of-Man-Son-of-God was PERFECT MAN in every sense of the word. In other words, the Son of God was God—made weak, the God—made poor, God emptied out, God the Ruler of the Universe condescending to become a bondslave amongst men!”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
En hij citeert Christus’ eigen woorden over zijn verhouding tot de Vader als grondslag:
“he declared Himself to be the expression of the Father, the servant of the Father, the one in whom the Father lived, in whom He worked, whose words He spake, whose mouthpiece He was, and whose works He performed. The Son of God was the living Temple in whom God the Father dwelt.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
En:
“Jesus testified, ‘I can of mine own self do nothing.’ Yet in union with the Father He could do ANYTHING.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
Interpretatie: [SPANNING met klassieke tweenaturenleer] Warnock ontkoppelt de titels “Zoon des Mensen” en “Zoon Gods” van de naturen-onderscheiding. Beide titels zijn voor hem uitdrukkingen van Christus’ menselijke werkelijkheid als de zelfontledigde God. Dit nuanceert de klassieke Chalcedonese hypostatische unie-formule zonder haar expliciet te verwerpen.
Zondeloosheid en Volmaaktheid door Lijden
Warnock onderscheidt twee aspecten van Christus’ zondeloosheid: zijn aangeboren zondeloosheid én zijn verkregen volmaaktheid:
“Thus the Son of Man was sinless and spotless from His birth until His death, but He was not declared PERFECT until He had learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He had to be made ‘perfect through sufferings’ (Hebr. 2:10).”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
Interpretatie: Warnock volgt hier Hebr. 2:10 — zondeloosheid is de passieve toestand van Christus’ persoon, maar “volmaaktheid” is een verworven kwaliteit door actieve gehoorzaamheid in het lijden. Dit correspondeert met de klassieke onderscheiding tussen Christus’ persoonlijke heiligheid en zijn prestationele gerechtigheid.
Gehoorzaamheid tot de Dood — Verzoening en Verheerlijking
Warnock verbindt de verzoeningsleer niet primair met satisfactie maar met het thema van gehoorzaamheid en het voltooien van de cirkel van Gods doel:
“And this included the fulness of obedience, even unto death, and that the death of the Cross. Only in the fulness of obedience unto death would there come forth the fulness of glory unto life. When Jesus gave the sop to Judas on the eve of His crucifixion, He was able to say: ‘Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him’ (Joh. 13:31). Anything less than the fulness of obedience unto death would have meant the cutting short of the fulness of glory, and the Logos, the Word, would have returned unto the Father ‘void.‘”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
Hemelvaart en Verheerlijking — Perfect Man in de Godheid
Warnock beschrijft de hemelvaart als een ontologisch unieke gebeurtenis:
“Then God received Him back into heaven as PERFECT MAN, where PERFECT HUMANITY was absorbed back into DEITY—making Him to be both Lord and Christ.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
En hij beschrijft de hemelvaart als een ongekend nieuw feit in de schepping:
“Something happened that had never happened before in Creation. He didn’t merely come from God and go back to God, as it may have seemed to the disciples. He came forth the Lord from heaven, but He went back a Man from earth, crowned with glory and honor, and made both Lord and Christ. Now there is in Heaven a Man, a Perfect Man, and this Perfect Man is Lord of the Universe.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
Interpretatie: Warnock benadrukt de blijvende mensheid van Christus in zijn verheerlijkte staat. “PERFECT HUMANITY absorbed back into DEITY” is een formule die de eenheid na de hemelvaart uitdrukt zonder de mensheid te annuleren.
Incarnatie als Cirkel van Gods Doel
Warnock plaatst de incarnatie in een kosmisch schema van “het Woord dat uitgaat en terugkeert”:
“He came forth from the Father; now He must go back to the Father, completing the cycle of Truth as it pertained to His incarnation, and thus bringing greater honor and glory to the Father’s Name. Were He to accept the kingdom before the completion of the circle of God’s purpose, there would have been an emptiness, a voidness, about His incarnation. He must finish the work, and return to the Father with abundant FULNESS.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
Dit kader ontleent hij aan Joh. 16:28:
“Jesus said, ‘I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.‘”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 1 en 5.
Priesterlijk Ambt — Christus als Mediator van het Nieuwe Verbond
“Christ, therefore, has become the ‘mediator between God and man’ (1 Tim. 2:5), and he is there to mediate ‘the new covenant’ (Hebr. 12:24). The mediator is the ‘middle man.’ Not, however, to settle arguments, to negotiate bargains, as in the affairs of men. But he is there to mediate the New Covenant, to administer it and to enact it in His many brethren.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
Warnock beschrijft de uitwerking van dit mediateurschap pneumatologisch:
“This administration of the New Covenant is not completed by writing it upon tables of stone, nor in writing it upon the parchments of the New Testament. It is only the New Covenant as He writes it upon the ‘fleshly tables of the heart.‘”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.
Christus als Laatste Adam — Schepping van een Nieuw Geslacht
In Hoofdstuk 2 werkt Warnock de Laatste Adam-theologie als tegenhanger van de eerste Adam uit:
“in the spiritual generation of the Last Adam there has been, and there will continue to be, an ever increasing and continual unfolding of the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 2.
Hij formuleert een contrast van de twee dynastieën:
“As the law of sin and death has just about reached its climax in the old generation of Adam, so the Law of the Spirit of Life hastens on to its glorious fulness in the generation of Christ.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 2.
En beklemtoont de superioriteit van de genade boven de zonde:
“Is there not to be a ‘much more’ effectual working of the grace of God in the Last Adam, than there ever was in the disobedience of the first Adam? In other words, are we going to honor the power of Adam and Satan above the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit?”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 2.
En verbindt de Laatste Adam met zijn zaadfunctie:
“The Last Adam left no seed in Adam’s line to declare his generation; but he himself became the ‘corn of wheat’ that fell into the ground and died that there might come forth a harvest in his image and likeness.”
Warnock, Evening and Morning, hfdst. 5.