We are all more deeply influenced by Modernity than we realize and as (unintentional) Modern people, we know that doors do not change. We have a bias toward uniformitarianism. De facto we think as if we live in a closed universe. Thus, it does not seem to occur to us that just as he walked on water and fed the thousands, our Lord is quite capable of overcoming a locked door. If anything changed in that episode, it was the door and not the true humanity of our Lord. 

Recently a well-known Presbyterian minister posted a short sentence on a social media site that caused some controversy. My intent here is not to comment directly on his language but to notice and respond to some of the reaction because it illustrates a theological problem among evangelical laity and it points us to an important biblical, creedal, and confessional truth.

I first noticed this problem when I was teaching an undergraduate survey course in Christian theology. These students were bright and industrious—sometimes too much so. At some point in the course we were discussing the incarnation and to try to explain why the early church used the word theotokos (θεοτοκος) and to illustrate the true humanity of the incarnate Son of God I said in passing, “God the Son was in the womb of the Virgin and he had an umbilical cord.” As I recall, some students gasped. I was a little surprised. I have had occasion, however, to repeat this experiment and others like it, however, and I have had similar results. E.g., I find that evangelicals tend to assume that Jesus’ humanity changed when he went through the locked door (John 20:19).

Scripture says, “Therefore when it was evening on the first day of the week (σαββάτων) and the doors had been firmly shut (κεκλεισμένων), where the disciples were because of their fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and says to them, ‘Peace to you.’”  The text does not say how Jesus entered the room when the doors were firmly shut (or locked—Louw and Nida point to Acts 5:23 as a parallel) only that he did it. When I ask how it happened students tend to assume that Jesus’ humanity changed. Why do they assume that? I submit that it is for two reasons:

1. We are all more deeply influenced by Modernity than we realize and as (unintentional) Modern people, we know that doors do not change. We have a bias toward uniformitarianism. De facto we think as if we live in a closed universe. Thus, it does not seem to occur to us that just as he walked on water and fed the thousands, our Lord is quite capable of overcoming a locked door. If anything changed in that episode, it was the door and not the true humanity of our Lord. After all, we have much less riding, as it were, on the door than on his true humanity.
2. We have been influenced by what I call the “Star Trek Christology.” We have seen Captain Kirk “de-materialize” and “re-materialize” and evangelicals tend to interpret this passage through the lens of late-modern physics.

The lens they (and we) tend not to use is the creedal and confessional interpretation of holy Scripture. In Galatians 4:4 Paul says, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman (γενόμενον ἐκ γυναικός)…” (NASB). In the third article of the Apostles’ Creed Christians confess, “Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary” (qui conceptus est de Spiritu sancto, natus ex Maria virgine). That prepositional phrase in Galatians 4:4 “of a woman” (ἐκ γυναικός) and its parallel in the Creed,“of the Virgin Mary” (ex Maria virgine) is more important than we might assume.

This passage and these phrases also get us back to the original question, why evangelicals squirm when I say that God the Son was in the womb of the blessed Virgin and that he had an umbilical cord. Another underlying problem is the influence of the Anabaptist “celestial flesh” Christology. This was widely held among first and second generation Anabaptists. It was a denial of the consubstantiality of Christ with our humanity.

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