The mission of the Messiah IS the ransoming of all from the captivity (power) of sin, the reconciling (pardoning) of all from sin’s condemnation, and the renewing of the whole created order (purification) from sin’s corruption; we ourselves are included in that – the “Big Picture” is entailed in the early church idea of recapitulation (cf. Eph 1:10, Strongs G346). This term essentially means to GATHER TOGETHER ALL (unite/comprehend/sum up all) under our new head, Christ (the last Adam). The central idea is that the enmity that Satan and the serpent sought to place between Adam (mankind) and the LORD is undone in the last Adam – who Himself is the LORD from heaven, the Son of God and the Son of man. You see, Messiah is that prophet like unto Moshe (Moses), This is THAT restoration (restitution) of ALL THINGS spoken of by all the prophets since the world began.

16 According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. 17 And the LORD said unto me, They have well [spoken that] which they have spoken. 18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. 19 And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require [it] of him. – Deut 18:16-19 (cf. Acts 3:22-26)

11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. 12 And when Peter saw [it], he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? 13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let [him] go. 14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; 15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. 16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. 17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did [it], as [did] also your rulers. 18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. 19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. – Acts 3:11-21 (cf. Deut 18:18)

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. -Eph 1:7-14

14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. – Rom 5:14-18

21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. – 1Co 15:21-22 (cf. 1Co 15:45-49)

This Power, Pardon, and Purification or salvation is available to whosoever will repent, believe, and abide in Christ. Christ Jesus IS our great God and Savior and our righteous sovereign or King and His mission is intrinsic to His message. King Messiah came to proclaim this Gospel of the Kingdom. We who are His, become His hands, His feet, and His voice in this world. We become strangers and pilgrims in this world; for we have new citizenship. Our new identity is WITH the redeemed; the blood bought and washed. That is, in being redeemed, we are now in Him and of His body, actively engaged in His redemptive mission – the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel of the kingdom of God and Christ.

An Uncomplicated Biblical Christology
Jewish Christian Monotheism OR the Christology of Divine Identity ( ref: “Jesus and the God of Israel”, Book – Paul’s Christology of Divine Identity, paper By Richard Bauckham )

We could characterize early Jewish monotheism as creational monotheism, eschatological monotheism and cultic monotheism.

That God alone – absolutely without advisors or collaborators or assistants or servants – created all other things was insisted on (even when he was understood to have created out of pre-exisiting chaos rather than out of nothing). That God was the sole Creator of and the sole Lord over all things required the expectation that in the future, when YHWH fulfills his promises to his people Israel, YHWH will also demonstrate his deity to the nations, establishing his universal kingdom, making his name known universally, becoming known to all as the God Israel has known. This aspect I call eschatological monotheism. Finally, there is also cultic monotheism. Only the sole Creator of all things and the sole Lord over all things should be worshiped, since worship in the Jewish tradition was precisely recognition of this unique identity of the one God.

The early Christian movement, very consciously using this Jewish theological framework, created a kind of christological monotheism by understanding Jesus to be included in the unique identity of the one God of Israel.

Probably the earliest expression of this to which we have access – and it was certainly in use very early in the first Christian community’s history – was the understanding of Jesus’ exaltation in terms of Psalm 110:1. Jesus, seated on the cosmic throne of God in heaven as the one who will achieve the eschatological lordship of God and in whom the unique sovereignty of the one God will be acknowledged by all, is included in the unique rule of God over all things, and is thus placed unambigously on the divine side of the absolute distinction that separates the only sovereign One from all creation.

God’s rule over all things defines who God is: it cannot be delegated as a mere function to a creature. Thus the earliest christology was already in nuce the highest christology.

Early Christian interest was primarily in soteriology and eschatology, the concerns of the Gospel, and so in the New Testament it is primarily as sharing or implementing God’s eschatological lordship that Jesus is understood to belong to the identity of God. But early Christian reflection could not consistently leave it at that. Jewish eschatological monotheism was founded in creational monotheism. If Jesus was integral to the identity of God, he must have been so eternally. To include Jesus also in the unique creative activity of God and in the uniquely divine eternity was a necessary corollary of his inclusion in the eschatological identity of God. This was the early Christians’ Jewish way of preserving monotheism against the ditheism that any kind of adoptionist Christology was bound to involve. Not by adding Jesus to the unique identity of the God of Israel, but only by including Jesus in that unique identity, could monotheism be maintained. This applies also to the worship of Jesus, which certainly began in Palestinian Jewish Christianity. This expressed the inclusion of Jesus in the unique identity of the sole Creator of all things and sole Sovereign over all things.

Early Christology was framed within the familar Jewish framework of creational, eschatological and cultic monotheism. The first Christians developed a christological monotheism with all three of these aspects. From this perspective I call the Christology of all the New Testament writers, rooted as it was in the earliest Christology of all, a Christology of divine identity, proposing this as a way beyond the standard distinction between ‘functional’ and ‘ontic’ Christology. This latter distinction does not correspond to early Jewish thinking about God and has therefore seriously distorted our understanding of New Testament Christology. When we think in terms of divine identity (relational, like a Hebrew), rather than of divine essence or nature (like a Greek) , which are not the primary categories for Jewish theology, we can see that the so-called divine functions which Jesus exercises are intrinsic to who God is. This Christology of divine identity is already a fully divine Christology, maintaining that Jesus Christ is intrinsic to the unique and eternal identity of God.

In outline the Christology of Divine Identity or the unique identity of God may be summed up with the following:

1. God is the sole Creator of all things (all others are created by God)
2. God is the sole Sovereign Ruler over all things (all others are subject to God’s rule)
3. God is known through His narrative identity (i.e. who God is in the story of dealings with creation, all nations, and Israel)
4. God will achieve his eschatological rule (when all creatures acknowledge His sole deity)
5. The name YHWH names God in His unique identity
6. God alone may and must be worshiped (since worship is acknowledgement of His sole deity)
7. God alone is fully eternal (self-existent, the only metaphysical proposition of divine-identity in Jewish Christian monotheism)

In closing, I will cite the New Covenant Shema, in which the Apostle Paul includes Yeshua haMashiach (Jesus the Christ) in the unique divine identity of the one (echad) God of Israel.

5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) 6 But to us [there is but] one God, the Father, of whom [are] all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [are] all things, and we by him. – 1 Cor 8:5-6

This is Jewish Christian monotheism. Yeshua, did not become God. You are or you are not. He did not evolve into being regarded as Divine. The Messiah is the eternal Son of God and was received as such from the birth of His Church/Ecclesia/Kahal that He established and redeemed with His own blood. Hallelujah! and Amen!

I apologize for your headaches in advance … Because now we will look at the turmoil that followed on Messiah’s being divine that began with the controversy of Arius. Here we will think like Greeks and the discussion is about nature and substance — for Greeks it’s all about “stuff”. So centuries were spent wrangling over Christ’s human vis-a-vis divine nature and how this all worked. Oy! vey!

The Hexagon of Heresy
On the Nature of Christ

This explanatory model we will call the hexagon of heresy. All teaching or doctrine that ventures outside the boundaries of the hexagon represent unbiblical and heretical departures from the scriptural revelation of Christ. These may be classed in two broad groups and two sub-groups. Divine vis-a vis Human and Partly Divine vis-a-vis Partly Human. The other two errors merge the natures either into a single nature or confound them such that only one nature is active at any given moment; creating either a Superman Messiah (who is Alien and NOT fully human or of this earth) as in the error of Monophysitism or a Messiah who is either schizophrenic or has Dissociative Identity Disorder as in the error of Nestorianism. The earlier heresies of Ebionism denied Christ’s deity while the error of Docetism denied Christ’s humanity. Their later variants were much more insidious. They held that he was partly divine (Arianism) or partly human (Apollinarianism). Essentially these Christological errors either deny Christ’s complete Deity or complete Humanity or subsume or confound them in the one person of Christ.

Not at all Divine OR not at all Human Ebionism – Denies Christ’s deity in entirety. This was primarily a Jewish heresy. There were Jews who believed in a mere human Messiah and rejected Paul’s apostleship. There are some today that hold to a modern form of Ebionism: Dr. James D. Tabor Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina where he has taught since 1989. He affirms that the Apostle Paul corrupted the original “Christianity”. There is also the United Israel World Union to which Dr. Tabor is a part which in many ways seems to represent a “sect of the circumcision” resurgence in that they affirm a human Messiah and commandment keeping as the basis of salvation. Another modern day person who appears to affirm similar views is Simcha Jacobovici, the director of the documentary film “Exodus Decoded”. Among other strange teachings, Simcha Jacobovici affirms that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. What?! Docetism – Denies Christ’s humanity in entirety. This is a core teaching of the dualism of gnosticism. Spirit = good ; Matter = bad. According to the primal gnostic myth, the world of men and matter as we know it, was created by a lesser ignorant, blind, and evil god called the demiurge. The true or highest god would NOT debase himself to reveal himself in (evil) matter. Partly Divine (demi-god) OR Partly Human (extra-terrestrial) Arianism – Arius affirmed that “There was a time that the Son was NOT”, that the Son is God with a a little “g”. The son is therefore a creature and had a beginning. Arians would interpret the biblical phrase “the firstborn of every creature” to mean that the son was created and not therefore eternal. Arius in order to preserve the immutability and oneness of God denies Christ’s eternal pre-existence; else in his mind there are two Gods and you have a God who suffered. Yet in so doing he creates change in the father, a quasi-deity in the son , and a soteriology of human effort as Christ achieves this quasi-deity status by his perfect obedience. Christ is a quasi-god by adoption or elevation in status and NOT by nature and there is change in the father as there was a time when He was not a Father. Apollinarianism – Apollinarius held the view that Christ had a human body, but a Divine mind and soul. He did not possess the intangible and internal parts that make one fully and completely human. Gregory of Nazianzus in refuting this view stated that the “Unassumed is the Unhealed”. That is, if Christ did not have a human soul – then the human soul remains unhealed or untouched by the atoning work of Christ. Confusion and Subsuming of the Natures Nestorianism – Nestorius was accused of dividing the Deity and Humanity in Christ to such an extent that the natures are actors and function as two separate persons. Nestorious was accused by Cyril of Alexandria of conflating persons with natures. Natures grant capacities to act; but persons are the actors and agents. Natures do nothing. Monophysitism – Also called Eutychianism. This view held the Deity and Humanity as fused with the humanity generally being subsumed by the Deity; resulting in one confused nature. It appears to be the natural devolution of the Apollinarian heresy. “Jesus is very man of very man and very God of very God. Having two natures within one person without change and without confusion (refuting monphysitism) without division and without separation (refuting nestorianism).” – Council of Chalecedon 451 CE Athanasian creed in full ( I have omitted the verbiage about the holy fathers and draw attention to the phrase “Mother of God” It should read “Mother of Christ” ) “We all with one consent teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body; co-essential with the Father according to the Godhead, and con-substantial with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us,without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, ¹ the mother of God?, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the creed handed down to us.” ¹ This is going beyond Biblical language and teaching. Was Nestorius misunderstood and misrepresented? Did not Mary worship result from this unbiblical language rather than simply guard the deity and Biblical preservation of two natures in the one person of Christ? Cyril of Alexandria fighting for the term “Mother of God” is in fact focusing on a nature and Mary the originator of the divine nature and not a person. The term Christ or Mashiach encapsulates BOTH natures in the one person. Then “Mother of Christ” retains the Messiah as a complete person and is expressly biblical without any ambiguity. Hence, two streams of theology become apparent “catholic” from Athanasius to the Papacy (veneration of Mary and her perpetual virginity, the syncretism of pagan customs, sacraments of grace, and establishment of  an infallible theological class) and “protestants” who develop their own theological class and extra-biblical theology with Calvin and Luther. Both of these camps are in fact with their emphasis on correct “theology” (ideas devoid of Christian fruit) were enemies of the TRUE FOLLOWERS of CHRIST — as is demonstrated by their DEEDS against the RADICAL REFORMERS; which sheep bore FRUIT UNTO CHRIST that will testify to their eternal rewards when the King returns. Amen and Amen Maranatha LORD Yeshua (Jesus).