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High Priestly Prayer
[Bible]The High Priestly Prayer is the extended prayer of Jesus Christ recorded in John 17. Jesus offered it just before his Passion for himself, for his disciples, and for those who would later believe. It takes its name from the idea that he intercedes for his people as a high priest does.
Christology
[Doctrine & Theology]Christology is the field of Christian theology that deals with who Jesus Christ is and what he has done. It explains the person of Christ (his divinity and humanity) and his work (atonement, resurrection, and related themes).
Passive Obedience
[Doctrine & Theology]Passive obedience is a theological term for the obedience by which Jesus Christ, in the place of sinners, bore the penalty of sin through his suffering and death on the cross. It is paired with active obedience, by which he kept the law perfectly.
Dyothelitism
[Doctrine & Theology]Dyothelitism is the Christological doctrine that Jesus Christ possesses two wills, a divine will and a human will, in one person. It was formulated in opposition to monothelitism.
Active Obedience
[Doctrine & Theology]Active obedience is a theological term for the obedience by which Jesus Christ perfectly kept the law of God throughout His entire life. It is used chiefly in Reformed accounts of justification, where it is paired with passive obedience, which refers to His suffering on the cross.
Mary
[People]Mary is the woman presented in the New Testament as the mother of Jesus Christ. Protestants and Catholics both confess the virgin birth, but they differ in their understanding of Mary's status and of the veneration due to her.
Atonement
[Doctrine & Theology]The atonement is the Christian doctrine concerning the work by which Jesus Christ, through his death on the cross, dealt with human sin and reconciled God and humanity. It is also referred to as substitutionary atonement.
Second Coming
[Doctrine & Theology]The Second Coming is the Christian teaching that Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven, will return at the end of the world. Many Protestant denominations share this confession, though they differ in how they understand its timing and the order of end-time events.
Nazareth
[Bible]Nazareth was the small village in Galilee where Jesus Christ grew up. It appears only in the New Testament, and its name became widely known because Jesus was called "Jesus of Nazareth."
Discipleship
[Christian Life]Discipleship is the path of following and learning from Jesus Christ as his disciple and living according to his teaching, or the way of life that results from doing so.
Bride of the Lamb
[Bible]The Bride of the Lamb is an expression in the Book of Revelation for the bride who is married to the Lamb, Jesus Christ. It is commonly read as a symbol of God's redeemed people, that is, the church.
Mediator
[Doctrine & Theology]A mediator is one who stands between two estranged parties and restores the relationship between them. Protestants confess Jesus Christ as the one Mediator between God and humanity.
Hypostatic Union
[Doctrine & Theology]The hypostatic union is the Christological teaching that in the one person of Jesus Christ true divinity and true humanity are joined in a single hypostasis (person), without being mixed or divided.
Baptism of the Lord Sunday
[Feasts & Seasons]Baptism of the Lord Sunday commemorates the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. In the Western church calendar, it is usually observed on the first Sunday after Epiphany.
James (Brother of Jesus)
[People]James is recorded as a brother of Jesus and became the leader of the church in Jerusalem after Jesus' resurrection. Church tradition identifies him as the author of the Epistle of James.
Incarnation
[Doctrine & Theology]The Incarnation is a central Christian doctrine holding that the Son of God took on a human body and was born into the world as Jesus Christ. The doctrine expresses the confession that Christ is both true God and true man.
Cross
[Doctrine & Theology]The cross was an instrument of execution in ancient Rome. In Christianity it refers to the death of Jesus Christ, who was nailed to a cross, and to the confession that his death was an atonement in which he bore sin in the place of others. It is the foremost symbol of the Christian faith.
Acts 4:12
[Bible Verses]Acts 4:12 records Peter's declaration before the Jewish supreme council: "Neither is there salvation in any other." It is a leading text for the confession that Jesus Christ alone is the way of salvation, and it is frequently cited in discussions of the salvation of adherents of other religions and of those who have never heard the gospel.
Parousia
[Bible]Parousia (παρουσία) is a Greek word meaning "presence" or "arrival." In the New Testament it refers chiefly to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
IHS
[Doctrine & Theology]IHS is an abbreviation that renders in Latin letters the first three letters of ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, the Greek name of Jesus. It is one of the principal Christian symbols representing Jesus Christ.