12. The Twofold Nature of Christ
“God Manifest in the Flesh”
The Twofold Nature of Christ
THE GREAT AMERICAN statesman Daniel Webster was dining with a company of literary men in Boston. The conversation turned upon Christianity. As the occasion was in honor of Mr. Webster, he was expected to take a leading part in the conversation, and he frankly stated his belief in the Godhead of Christ, and his own dependence on His atonement.
A Unitarian minister opposite him responded. “Mr. Webster, can you comprehend how Jesus Christ could be both God and man?”
“No, sir, I cannot understand it,” replied Webster, “and I would be ashamed to acknowledge Him as my Savior if I could comprehend it. He could be no greater than myself, and such is my conviction of accountability to God, my sense of sinfulness before Him, and my knowledge of my own incapacity to recover myself, that I feel I need a superhuman Savior.”
The great confessions of the church affirm this as one of the cardinal Christian doctrines. Here are two examples.
It is just as heretical to affirm the deity of our Lord while omitting the reality of His humanity, as it is to affirm the humanity while omitting the deity.
As we think of the union of the divine and human natures in the single personality of Jesus Christ—”hypostatic union” is the theological term—we are at once confronted with the fact that:
It Is Mysterious
“Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16), said Paul. In this connection W. Graham Scroggie wrote: “Christ was human and divine; but we must not think of these as being distinct and separate in Him. Their relation must remain to us a mystery, but the evidence of each is abundant, and the necessity for both is obvious. Had He not been man, He could not have sympathized with us; and had He not been God, He could not have saved us.”
The reason for the mystery is that we have no analogies to it in our own nature or experience. Illustrations of such matters are only partial and often confuse rather than clarify. It is a truth of revelation that like many others must be accepted by faith, awaiting the dawn of eternal day for fuller knowledge, for a full explanation. The fact that there is mystery need not prevent us from taking at their full value the Scriptures that teach it.
The correct approach to the subject was indicated by R. A. Torrey, who wrote: “It is not our main business to reconcile the doctrine of the deity of Christ with the doctrine of the real humanity of Christ. Our first business is to find out what the various passages mean in their grammatical interpretation. Then if we can reconcile them, well; if not, believe them both and leave the reconciliation to increasing knowledge.” Must we reject the doctrine of the Trinity, so clearly taught in the Scriptures, merely because to our minds it is an impenetrable mystery?
It Is Actual
Jesus was truly God; whatever it is to be God, Jesus was that absolutely. He was equally really man. His deity and His humanity were distinct and separate, and each nature retained its normal attributes. The divine did not permeate the human, nor was the human absorbed by the divine. St. Leo expressed it: “He united the true ‘form of a servant’ in which He was equal to God the Father, and combined both natures in a league so close that the lower was not consumed by receiving glory, nor the higher lessened by assuming lowliness.”
The Son of God was not changed into a human being, nor did the man Jesus rise to a state of deity. The two natures were so bound as to constitute them a single undivided person, acting with a single consciousness and will. Since the union of the natures was accomplished without the conversion or weakening of either, Jesus Christ cannot be spoken of as God and man. He was the God-man.
Although He possessed those separate and distinct natures, He did not act sometimes by His human and sometimes by His divine nature only. He acted in all things as a single person. He is asleep in the stern of the boat, wearied with His day’s service. In a moment He arises and controls the raging storm. Thus the reality of His humanity is seen against the background of His divine power and prerogatives.
Chrysostom has a striking paragraph on this theme: “I do not think of Christ as God alone, or man alone, but both together. For I know He was hungry, and I know that with five loaves He fed five thousand. I know He was thirsty, and I know that He turned the water into wine. I know He was carried in a ship, and I know that He walked on the sea. I know that He died, and I know that He raised the dead. I know He was set before Pilate, and I know that He sits with the Father on His throne. I know that He was worshiped by angels, and I know that He was stoned by the Jews. And truly some of these I ascribe to the human and others to the divine nature. For by reason of this He is said to have been both God and Man.”
It Is Demonstrable
In all His ministry our Lord uniformly speaks and is spoken of as a single person. There is no interchange of “I” and “Thou” between Christ’s two natures, such as is recorded of the three Persons of the Trinity (e.g., “I in them, and thou in me,” John 17:23). Nor does He ever use the plural in speaking of Himself.
It is significant that the powers and attributes of both natures are ascribed to the one personality. We can attribute to the one person what is really appropriate to only one of the two natures, for; example, “None of the princes of this world knew [this]: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8).
It is of the greatest importance in thinking of our Lord’s ministry and life on earth, that we make no distinction such as saying that a certain act or saying was divine and another purely human. Both proceeded from the single personality of Christ.
Again, Jesus spoke of Himself as being in heaven and on earth at the same time. “He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13). This is inexplicable on any other theory than that the two natures were so organically united as to form a single person. “His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:3–4, RSV).
It Is Necessary
The value of the atonement is intelligible only upon the assumption that the two natures were so united in Christ that what each did had the value of both. Had Christ been only man, His death would have meant no more than that of any other martyr who gave himself for others. Had He been only divine, He would have had no real link with humanity, and His death would have been devoid of any redeeming quality.
In the union of the two natures, the atonement becomes not only available, but infinite in its efficacy. Apart from it, Christ could not have been a proper mediator between God and man. His twofold nature enables Him to lay His hand on both—His deity affords Him equal dignity with God, His humanity gives Him perfect sympathy with man (Hebrews 2:17–18; 4:15–16).
But suppose He had been only human. How could He have helped us? He would have afforded an inspiring example of how to live, but His sympathy with us would have been of little avail. We need not only human sympathy but divine power. Assured of His human sympathy, we know that He is willing to help and save us. Assured of His divine power we know that He is able to help and save us. This willingness and ability combine to make Him our all-sufficient Savior (Hebrews 7:25).
It Is Eternal
It seems clear from Scripture that the Son of God assumed forever the humanity of which He partook at His birth. His incarnation is in perpetuity. He could not lay aside His humanity without ceasing to be Son of Man. This does not imply that He is forever subject to the natural limitations of life on this earth but that He has a bodily form such as was manifested to His disciples after His resurrection. He never will cease to have all the essential attributes of humanity.
In the ascension of Christ, humanity attained the throne of the universe. His ascension appearances represent Him as having a literal but glorified body (Acts 7:56; 9:4–6; Revelation 1:9–18). “May we not believe,” wrote D. M. Mclntyre, “that the Holy Spirit holds in an indissoluble unity the human and the divine nature of our Lord…. The Spirit … was the Bond of Union between the divine and human natures of the Son.”
The night was long, and the shadows spread
As far as the eye could see;
I stretched my hands to a human Christ,
And He walked through the dark with me!
Out of the dimness at last we came,
Our feet on the dawn-warmed sod;
And I saw by the light of His wondrous eyes
I walked with the Son of God.H. W. BEECHER
But Thee, but Thee, O Sovereign Seer of time,
But Thee, O poet’s Poet, Wisdom’s tongue,
But Thee, O man’s best Man, O love’s best Love,
O perfect life in perfect labour writ.
O all men’s Comrade, Servant, King, or Priest.
What if or yet, what mole, what flaw, what lapse,
What least defect, or shadow of defect,
What rumour tattled by an enemy,
Of inference loose, what lack of grace—
Even in torture’s grasp, or sleep’s, or death’s—
Oh, what amiss may I forgive in Thee,
Jesus, good Paragon, Thou crystal Christ?SIDNEY LANIER