In ancient times there was a debate regard
In ancient times there was a debate regard ing the mingling of the divine essence and the human essence in the Person of the Lord Jesus. Some who misunderstood this mingling said that it caused a third nature to be produced, some thing which is neither divine nor human. To say that with respect to the Lord Jesus the mingling of the divine essence and the human essence pro duced a third nature, a nature that is neither fully human nor divine, is heretical. However, we wish to make it clear that this is not our understand ing of the word "mingle." We agree with the first definition of this word given in Webster's un abridged dictionary—"to combine or join (one thing with another, or two or more things to gether), especially so that the original elements are distinguishable in the combination." Accord ing to this definition, when two or more things are mingled together, their original natures are not lost but remain distinguishable.
We may use tea as an illustration of mingling. When tea is mingled with water to make a bev erage, neither the essence of tea nor the essence of water is lost. Instead, both essences remain. These two essences mingle together to produce a beverage, but they do not produce a third nature, something which is neither tea nor water.