Stephen J. Nichols - For Us and for Our Salvation: The Doctrine of Christ in the Early Church

Nothing is more critical than a right understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ. If we misunderstand Christ, we misunderstand everything elsethe nature of God, the gospel, the Scriptures, and the church. This insightful volume from Dr. Nichols traces the doctrine of Christ in the earliest centuries of church historyshowing that the truth about Christs person and work goes back to Christ himself. In a world where the biblical depiction of Christ is often distorted or denied, this book serves as a tremendous defense of orthodox Christian belief. But its value is more than just apologetic. Its Christ-centered focus makes For Usand for Our Salvation a recommended read for anyone who wants a clear picture of the Savior.

JOHN A. MACARTHUR, Pastor-Teacher, Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, California

With clarity and brevity, Stephen J. Nichols presents the intriguing development of the doctrine of Christ over the early centuries of the church. His account of the key councils and theological proposals is written in a very simple and readable style, and the reader is made aware of how much was at stake for us and for our salvation in these very crucial debates. His inclusion of selections from primary sources and his very helpful glossary of key terms assist in making this vitally important period more understandable. As an overview of the key issues and developments involved in formulating the churchs Christology, Nichols has provided a wonderfully clear and accessible introductory work.

BRUCE A. WARE, Professor of Christian Theology,
Senior Associate Dean, School of Theology Advanced
M.Div. Program Director, The Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary

By interweaving original sources and explanatory chapters, Nichols has given us a genre of historical theology that is both informative and interesting.

MILLARD ERICKSON,Distinguished Professor of Theology,
Western Seminary, Portland

In For Us and for Our Salvation, Stephen Nichols has given us a wonder-fully readable book about one of the most important eras of the Christian church. Nichols guides us through the earliest centuries of Christian history, deftly navigating the Christological controversies, debates, heresies, and orthodox formulations. We hear the voices of Ignatius, Irenaeus, Athanasius, and many others as they defend, often against the world, an orthodox Christology and the Trinitarian foundation of our faith.Whether you know this history well, or whether this is your first foray into the Christological debates of the first centuries, you will not want to put this book down. This is, however, not simply a report of what happened back thenit is a book uniquely relevant to our own day, surrounded as we are by popular magazines, books, television shows, and movies (not to mention Arians literally knocking at our doors), all attempting to give us the definitive or scholarly answer to the age-old question, Who is Jesus? How that question is answered is no mere historical or academic debateit is a matter of defending the faith once for all delivered to the saints. I would encourage everyonepastors, teachers, students, and lay-mento take and read.

BRIAN VICKERS, Assistant Professor of New Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

This book is a great idea and a valuable contribution to the church.Stephen Nichols provides a wise selection of classic excerpts on the doctrine of Christ, and he places them in the context of a readable story with helpful explanations that ordinary Christians can follow. In the daze of The Da Vinci Code and other revivals of ancient errors, we need clear celebrations of Christian orthodoxy such as this.

DAN TREIER, Associate Professor of Theology, Wheaton College

FOR US AND
FOR OUR SALVATION

ALSO BY STEPHEN J. NICHOLS:

Jonathan Edwards:
A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought

Martin Luther:
A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought

An Absolute Sort of Certainty:
The Holy Spirit and the Apologetics of Jonathan Edwards

The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards:
American Religion and the Evangelical Tradition (coeditor)

J. Gresham Machen:
A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought

Heaven on Earth:
Capturing Jonathan Edwardss Vision of Living in Between

Pages from Church History:
A Guided Tour of Christian Classics

The Reformation:
How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World

For Us and for Our Salvation

Copyright 2007 by Stephen J. Nichols

Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Jon McGrath

Cover illustration: Veer

First printing, 2007

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The HolyBible: English Standard Version. Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission.
All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations indicated as from KJV are taken from The Holy Bible:
King James Version.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nichols, Stephen J., 1970
For us and for our salvation : the doctrine of Christ in the early,
church / Stephen J. Nichols.
p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-58134-867-5 (tpb)
1. Jesus ChristHistory of doctrinesEarly church, ca. 30600. I. Title.
BT198.N56 2007 232.09'015dc22

2007003660

VP 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07

15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For
GEORGE NICHOLS
JAMES KUTNOW
MICHAEL ROGERS

in appreciation for
preaching Christ and him crucified

Contents

I am very grateful for a circle of friends who are quick to offer encouragement and support. With the risk of missing some, Id like to personally thank these folks for contributing directly and indirectly to this book: Eric Brandt, Mark Deckard, Allan Fisher, Gordon Gregory, Ted Griffin, Darryl Hart, Keith and Beverly Haselhorst, Keith Krueger, Timothy Larsen, Sean Lucas, Ray Naugle, Sam Storms, Justin Taylor, Derek Thomas, Carl Trueman, and my mom, Diane Nichols. I am especially grateful to Lester Hicks, Dale Mort, and Dan Treier for their close reading of the manuscript and for saving me the embarrassment of my mistakes. Some of my graduate students graciously endured being subjected to the manuscript. Thank you for courageously telling me when I didnt make sense.

My family has graciously settled in to losing me to the past from time to time. I am truly grateful. Thank you, Heidi, Ben, and Ian. Finally, this book is dedicated to the three pastors that Ive had in my lifetime: George Nichols, my father; Jim Kutnow, who now ministers in Milan in the shadow of Ambroses cathedral; and Michael Rogers, our pastor in Lancaster. Thank you for preaching Christ and him crucified. I think Athanasius is grateful to you too.

Thanks to a best-selling novel and to a movie with the likes of Tom Hanks, people everywhere inside the church and out are talking about the Nicene Creed, the Chalcedonian Creed, gnos-ticism, the Christology of the early church, and early church figures such as Irenaeus, Athanasius, and Arius. This is a theo-logians dream scenario, and in some cases a nightmare scenario as well. Imagine the shock of reading three whole paragraphs about the Nicene Creed in the pages of