Witnessing to Jesus the Spirit Baptizer: A Response to Macchia’s Pentecostal Christology

Abstract

This response proceeds in two parts. It begins by conversing with the broad-strokes sketch Frank Macchia offers in his article in this issue and his christological thoughts from his other, more extensive work. This is followed by an articulation of the author’s pentecostal Christology to offer a teleological assist to fill in some of the gaps in Macchia’s approach. The telos of Christology is to witness and testify to the forming of the character of Christ in all things (Col 1:17). This complementing response to Macchia utilizes one of the significant Jewish particularities of Jesus the Spirit baptizer, outlined in the definition of anointing that he spoke at his inaugural sermon in Nazareth. Jesus’s Jewish identity creates a framework to christologize in a way that is informed by the author’s context as an Indonesian pentecostal theologian.