by Marilynn Chadwick
The doctrine of Christology is connected to how we pray, live, and serve. Prayer is a major means of nourishing and strengthening our relationship with God. We pray like Jesus prayed. A strong Christology also invites us to share Jesus’s vision for the world. We see a lost and broken humanity as Jesus sees it. The focus of our prayers then becomes restoring people to the image of God. This means we pray through the eyes of love.
Jesus’s vision of love becomes our vision—for all Creation. Empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are prompted to pray for people as Jesus prayed for them. Following the example of Jesus, we fix our gaze on what is hidden deep within each person. As Christ’s body, we’re to speak prophetically, restore, redeem, and bring justice.
When we pray, we consider others in the light of eternity. For this, we need supernatural wisdom, power, and love. Like John Wesley and others, we see salvation as “the restoration of the defaced image of God.” The imago dei, or image of God, is present in men and women, Jew and Greek, black and white, saint and sinner. This image is “a gift,” says Augustine; something we receive from Christ.
Every human being from conception to death is created in the image of God, even when marred by sin. As we devote ourselves to a proper Christology, we will look at humanity as Jesus sees it. Might we also challenge our own assumptions about who can be transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
With Jesus’s vision, we pray with expectancy, certain that “God the Holy Spirit” is working to bring comfort, hope, healing, and deliverance, even in seemingly impossible situations. Our practice of Christology challenges us to trust in God’s enormous power, always on the lookout for opportunities to celebrate his manifestations.
We also begin to see ourselves as Jesus sees us—as dearly loved children of God. Julia of Norwich, an influential theologian and mystic from the 14th century, is said to have challenged others to imagine the enormous love of God. Norwich grasped a vision of our redemption through “the mercy and grace of our sweet, kind, and ever-loving...Jesus, feeding us not with milk but with himself, opening his side to us and claiming all our love” (Revelations of Divine Love).
Julia’s portrayal of Jesus was both kind and fierce—much like a “mama-bear” caring for her cubs. Just as the mother of Moses saw that he was a “beautiful child,” risking her life to save her baby by defying the king’s edict (Hebrews 11:23 ESV), Jesus “sees our beauty” even before we can see it for ourselves. He gave his own life that we may live. Such a tender image should encourage us to pray with even greater faith.