Degree of Baccalaureate in Theology

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Browsing Degree of Baccalaureate in Theology by Subject "AKKADIAN PRINCIPLE:"

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    Jesus First-Born Son: Priest and Messiah
    (Tangaza University College, 2006) Ekpenyong, Gregory Gabriel
    Faith, a supernatural gift of God is the only means for practical union with God. A union that has to be real, reciprocal, communicative and of mutual lcnowledge. This is all we experience in the revelation of the divine plan of salvation. As such, Jesus the first-born son, priest and messiah fulfils all these and concretises our relationship with God. Meanwhile, this divine sonship has to be historically revealed and experienced in the history of humanity through Israel. For Israel to claim sonship, history and theology had to merge. The election of Israel as son therefore starts with the promise of progeny and prosperity to Abraham who through faith is found righteous and blameless before God. Isaac the apparent fulfilment of this promise bridges the hope of inheritance but introduces the historical right of the first-born son and a dimension of future hope. With this, the promise that resides in blessing grows from the personal to the national blessing. This national blessing finds concrete expression in the formal constitution of Israel as first-born Son of God through the Sinai covenant events. In the covenant, Israel is adopted and given a mode of relation with God. This covenantal relation brings Israel to understand her special intimacy and consecration to God. Hence, the establishment of institutions like the priesthood. As sons therefore, Israel comes to understand her place as mediator. All the historical and theological understanding of Israel as mediators and servants of God simply prefigure the ultimate end of history in the person of Jesus Christ who fulfils all the promises of God and ushers in a new promise of inheritance in the kingdom of God. The mediating role of Christ unveils the distinction between his unique sonship and Israel's adopted sonship. The uniqueness of Christ's sonship connotes a revelation that affirms his being the eternal object of God's love. He mediates this love to humanity, as the baptism experience will show. As a revealer, he shares and reveals the Father's glory. This means that being the unique son, he sees, knows and reveals the nature of God, which finds its traces in the Exodus experience. Being son, Jesus reestablishes the grounds for inheritance and the relations required for it in the historical and cultural context. This is our priest and messiah. This project tries to establish a unity in the history of salvation following the revelation of historical events situated in the culture and tradition of Israel. So doing, it shall see the nuances of the term "First-Born Son" to place the fact that Jesus' salvific acts are within the ambience of human traditional, historical and cultural understanding. Through it, we shall appreciate the "Son-Servant" role of Christ, which culminates in his proclamation as Messiah after the glory of the resurrection.