I am convinced that the central doctrine of the Christian faith is that the Incarnation. The doctrine of the Incarnation, as expressed in Trinitarian theology, is central to all other doctrines and practices in the Christian faith. Here is a brief summary of my understanding of this Incarnational Trinitarian theology:
God is revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, united as one in love for one another. This union of life and love within the Triune God has been called by theologians the Perichoresis, or the “Divine Dance.”
Jesus Christ is the Incarnation (the fleshing out in human form) of God. Jesus is both fully God and fully human.
As the Incarnation of God, Jesus Christ is the truest expression of God’s character. If we really want to know what God is like, we look to Jesus, who said: “I and the Father are one.”
As superior to all other revelations of God, Jesus Christ is the lens through which scripture is to be interpreted.
As the fully human one, Jesus serves as God revelation of what God intended humanity to be.
As the fully human one, Jesus vicariously represents the human race before God in his life, death, resurrection and ascension.
Because of God’s great love, Jesus Christ bore in himself the full consequences of human sin. He became our atoning sacrifice, so that in Christ, humanity might be reconciled to God.
Because of Christ’s atonement, God has acted to defeat the evil of our brokenness and sin, so that by faith we might repent, receive forgiveness, and share in Christ’s resurrected and eternal life.
The evangelistic mission of the church is to exhort all people everywhere to respond to this gift of reconciliation so that they might fully participate in the life for which humanity was created.
Jesus, as both fully God and fully human, is the connection point by which human beings participate in the divine dance that is the life and love of the Triune God, which was God’s intent from before the foundation of the world.
