16. The Divine and Human Nature of Christ
8. In what ways does the New Testament affirm and expand upon the Old Testament revelation of Christ as the Mediator?
Reflect on specific New Testament passages that confirm and deepen the understanding of Christ's role as foretold in the Old
Testament.
9. How does the unique relationship between Christ and the Father, as described in the New Testament, underscore His role as the Mediator?
Consider how Christ's divine Sonship and His mission from the Father highlight His qualifications and authority as the Mediator.
10. What practical implications does the doctrine of Christ as the Mediator have for your faith and daily Christian life?
Reflect on how understanding Christ's mediating work influences your relationship with God, your assurance of salvation, and your worship and obedience.
16. The Divine and Human Nature of Christ The testimony that Christ gave of Himself, as recorded in the Gospels, is further developed and confirmed by the apostolic
preaching. The confession that a man named Jesus is the Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father, stands in stark contrast to all human experience, thinking, and the inclinations of our hearts. No one can sincerely and wholeheartedly accept this confession without the persuasive work of the Holy Spirit. By nature, everyone is hostile to this confession because it is contrary to human nature. No one can declare that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit, and no one who speaks by the Holy Spirit can call Jesus accursed; rather, they acknowledge Him as their Savior and King (1 Cor. 12:3).
When Christ appeared on earth and declared Himself to be the Son of God, He did not merely leave this proclamation to stand alone; He ensured that it took root in the world and was believed by His congregation. He called and taught His apostles, making them witnesses of His words and deeds, of His death and resurrection. He gave them the Holy Spirit, who led them personally to confess that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16). On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit enabled them to act as witnesses to what they had seen with their eyes and touched with their hands of the Word of life (1 John 1:1). The apostles were not the ultimate witnesses; rather, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, is the original, infallible, and omnipotent witness to Christ. The apostles testified only in and through Him (John 15:26-27; Acts
5:32). This same Spirit of truth, through the witness of the apostles, leads the congregation of all ages to confess and remain steadfast in their faith: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we have believed and known that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (John 6:68-69).
When the four Evangelists recount the events of Jesus' life in a regular sequence, they typically refer to Him simply as Jesus, without any further description or addition. They recount that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that Jesus was led into the desert, that Jesus saw the multitudes and ascended the mountain, and so forth. Jesus, the historical figure who lived and died in Palestine, is the subject of their narrative. Similarly, in the Apostolic Letters, Jesus is sometimes referred to only by His historical name. Paul, for instance, states that no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit
(1 Cor. 12:3). John testifies that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (1 John 5:1), and in Revelation, the faith, witness, and testimony of Jesus are mentioned without further specification (Rev. 14:12; 17:6; 19:20; 20:4).
Yet, the use of this simple name, without further qualification, is rare in the Letters of the Apostles. Typically, the name Jesus appears in conjunction with titles such as the Lord, Christ, or the Son of God.
The full appellation often reads: our Lord Jesus Christ. Whether the name Jesus is employed alone or in combination with other titles, it consistently signifies the connection to the historical person who was born in Bethlehem and crucified.
The entirety of the New Testament, both in the Letters and the Gospels, rests on the bedrock of historical facts. The figure of Christ is not a mere abstraction or an ideal born of human imagination, as some in earlier centuries and even today would suggest, but rather a real person who appeared at a specific time and in a specific individual, namely, the man Jesus.
It is true that the various events in Jesus' life recede into the background in the Letters; their purpose differs from that of the Gospels. The Letters do not provide a chronological history of Jesus' life but rather illuminate the significance of that life for the redemption of humanity. Nevertheless, the apostles are thoroughly acquainted with the person and life of Jesus, His words and deeds, and they declare that this Jesus is the Christ, whom God exalted to His right hand to grant repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Acts
2:36, 5:31).
The apostles frequently refer to events from Jesus' life in their preaching; they vividly portray Him before the eyes of their hearers and readers (Gal. 3:1). They mention that John the Baptist was His forerunner (Acts 13:25, 19:4), that He is of the lineage of Judah and the tribe of David (Rom. 1:3, Rev. 5:5, 22:16), that He was born of a woman (Gal. 4:4), circumcised on the eighth day (Rom. 15:8), raised in Nazareth (Acts 2:22, 3:6), and had brothers (1 Cor. 9:5).
Furthermore, He was perfectly holy and sinless (2 Cor. 5:21, Heb.
7:26, 1 Pet. 1:19, 2:22, 1 John 3:5), setting Himself as an example for us (1 Cor. 11:1, 1 Pet. 2:21), and spoke words with authority (Acts
20:35, 1 Cor. 7:10, 12). Betrayed by one of the twelve apostles He appointed (1 Cor. 15:5, 11:23), and unrecognized by the rulers of this world as the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8), He was killed by the Jews
(Acts 4:10, 5:30, 1 Thess. 2:15), and died on the cross.
He died on the accursed tree of the cross (Gal. 3:13, Col. 2:14).
But though He suffered greatly in Gethsemane and on Golgotha (Phil. 2:6, Heb. 5:7-8, 12:2, 13:12), by His shedding of blood He made atonement for the sins of the world. Consequently, God raised Him
up, exalted Him at His right hand, and appointed Him as Lord and Christ, Prince and Savior for all peoples (Acts 2:32-33, 36, 5:30-31,
Rom. 8:34, 1 Cor. 15:20, Phil. 2:9).
From these few facts, it is evident that the apostles did not disregard or undermine the facts of Christianity but, on the contrary, fully recognized and comprehended their spiritual significance. There is no trace among the apostles of a separation or opposition between the fact of salvation and the word of salvation, as some have advocated in past and later times. The fact of salvation is the realization of the word of salvation; the latter is given concrete and real form in the former and thereby serves as its explanation.
If any doubt remained about this, it was completely dispelled by the struggle the apostles had to wage even in their own days. Not only in the second and third centuries but already in the apostolic age, there emerged men who considered the facts of Christianity of secondary and transitory importance, or even denied them altogether, thinking the idea alone sufficient. "What does it matter," they argued,
"whether Christ is risen bodily; as long as He lives on in spirit, our salvation is assured!" But the Apostle Paul held quite a different opinion, and in 1 Corinthians 15, he placed the reality and significance of the bodily resurrection in the clearest light. He proclaims Christ according to the Scriptures, the Christ who died, was buried, and rose again according to the counsel of the Father, who was seen by many disciples after His resurrection, and whose resurrection is the foundation and guarantee of our salvation. Even more emphatically, John insists that he proclaims what he has seen with his eyes and touched with his hands from the Word of life (1
John 1:1-3). The principle of antichrist lies in denying the
incarnation of the Word; the Christian confession, by contrast, consists in believing that the Word became flesh, that the Son of God came by water and blood (John 1:14, 1 John 3:2, 5:6). The entire apostolic preaching in the Gospels and Epistles, indeed in the entire
New Testament, argues that Jesus, born of Mary and crucified, is, according to His exaltation, the Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31, 1
John 2:22, 4:15, 5:5).
It is noteworthy that, in connection with the content and purpose of apostolic preaching, the use of the single name Jesus, without further description, is very rare in the Epistles. As a rule, the apostles speak of Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus, or even more fully of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Even the evangelists, who usually refer to Jesus in the narrative, use the full name Jesus Christ at the beginning or at significant turning points in their Gospels (Matt. 1:1, 18, 16:21, Mark
1:1, John 1:17, 17:3) to indicate the person of whom their Gospel speaks. In the Acts and the Epistles, this usage becomes the norm; the apostles do not speak about a person, Jesus, without qualification, but in the addition of Christ, Lord, etc., they express the value of who this person is to them. They are proclaimers of the Gospel, that in the man Jesus, the Christ of God has appeared on earth.
In this way, they had gradually come to know Jesus during their contact with Him, and especially after the pivotal moment at Caesarea Philippi, a light had dawned on them about His person, and they had all confessed through Peter that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16). In His supreme prayer, He identifies
Himself by the name of Jesus Christ, whom the Father has sent (John 17:3). Precisely because He presented Himself as the Christ,
the Son of God, He was accused of blasphemy by the Jewish council and sentenced to death (Matt. 26:63). And the inscription above His cross read: Jesus, the Nazarene, the King of the Jews (Matt. 27:37,
John 19:19).
Indeed, the disciples struggled to reconcile Jesus' Messianic claims with His impending suffering and death, as seen in Matthew 16:22.
However, through and after the Resurrection, they came to grasp the necessity and significance of the Cross. They now understood that God had made this Jesus, whom the Jews had put to death, both
Lord and Christ through the Resurrection, exalting Him to be a Prince and Savior (Acts 2:36, 5:31). This does not imply that Jesus was not already Christ and Lord before His Resurrection and only became so afterward. Even before the Resurrection, Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Christ, and His disciples recognized and confessed Him as such (Matthew 16:16). Yet, before the Resurrection, He was the Messiah in servant form, a form that concealed His divine dignity from the eyes of humanity. In and after the Resurrection, He laid aside that servant form, reclaimed the Lordship He had with the Father before the world began (John 17:5), and was thus appointed the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness that dwelt within Him (Romans 1:3).
Hence, Paul asserts that now, after it pleased God to reveal His Son in him, he no longer knew Christ according to the flesh (2
Corinthians 5:16). Before his conversion, Paul knew Christ only according to the flesh, judging Him solely by His outward appearance, by the servant form in which He walked on earth. At that time, he could not believe that this Jesus, stripped of all glory and crucified, was the Christ. But his conversion transformed his
understanding. Now, he knows and judges Christ not by appearances, not by the outward, temporary servant form, but by the Spirit, by what was within Christ, by what He truly was internally and revealed Himself to be through His Resurrection.
This transformation is true, in a certain sense, for all the apostles. It is accurate that even before Christ's suffering and death, they had already come to a believing confession of His Messianic dignity. But for them, this dignity remained veiled by His suffering and death.
The Resurrection, however, reconciled this apparent contradiction.
The same Christ who descended to the lowest parts of the earth is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens to fulfill all things (Ephesians 4:9). When the apostles speak of Christ, they simultaneously think of the Christ who died and was raised, the Christ who was crucified and glorified. They relate their Gospel not only to the historical Jesus, who lived and died a few years prior in Palestine, but also to the same Jesus, now exalted and seated at the right hand of God's power. They stand at the intersection of the horizontal line, connecting them with the past and history, and the vertical line, connecting them with the living Lord in the heavens.
Christianity, therefore, is a religion of history but also a religion that lives out of eternity in the present. The disciples of Jesus were not called Jesuits after His historical name, but Christians after His official title (Acts 11:26).
This peculiar stance that the apostles adopted in their preaching after the Resurrection elucidates why they almost never refer to Jesus simply by His historical name. Instead, they frequently speak of Him as Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus, our Lord Jesus Christ, etc. The name Christ soon shed its appellative significance within the circle of
the disciples, assuming the nature of a proper name. The conviction that Jesus was the Christ was so deeply ingrained that He could be referred to simply as Christ, even without the prefix. This usage appears occasionally in the Gospels (Matt. 1:1, 16, 17, 18, 27:17, 22;
Mark 1:1, 9:41; Luke 2:11, 23:2; John 1:17), but it becomes standard with the apostles, particularly Paul. Moreover, in Acts (3:20, 5:41, etc.), and especially with Paul, both names—Jesus Christ—are frequently used to underscore the Messianic dignity of Jesus, transforming into Christ Jesus. This compound name, Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus, became the preferred designation in the early congregations. The use and significance of the name in the Old
Testament is transferred to Christ in the New Testament. In the Old Covenant, the Name of the Lord, or simply the Name, denoted the revealed Lordship of God. In the New Covenant, that glory of God has manifested in the person of Jesus Christ; thus, His name embodies the church's power. In that name, there is baptism (Acts
2:38), speaking and teaching (4:18), healing of the lame (3:6), and forgiveness of sin (10:43). That name faces resistance and opposition
(26:9), yet is suffered for (5:41), invoked (22:13), and exalted (19:17).
Consequently, the name of Jesus Christ encapsulates the church's confession, the strength of its faith, and the anchor of its hope. As Israel once gloried in the name of Jehovah, so the New Testament church finds its strength in the name of Jesus Christ. In this name, the name of Jehovah is fully revealed.
The title "Lord," invariably linked to the name of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, points in the same direction. In the Gospels, Jesus is frequently addressed as "Lord" by those outside His immediate circle seeking His help (Matt. 8:2, 6, 21; 15:22; 16:22; 17:4, 15, etc.).
Initially, this title bore no more weight than that of rabbi or master.
However, His disciples also frequently used this title (Matt. 14:28, 30; 26:22; John 6:68; 11:3; 21:15, 16, 17, 21). In the Gospel narratives, Luke and John sometimes interchangeably use the names
Jesus and Lord (Luke 1:43; 2:11, 38; 7:13, 31; 10:1; 11:39; 17:6, etc.; John 4:1; 6:23; 11:2; 20:2, 13, 18, 25, 28, etc.). Moreover, Jesus
Himself employs this title, referring to Himself as the Lord (Matt.
7:21; 12:8; 21:3; 22:43-45; Mark 5:19; John 13:14, etc.).
In the usage of Jesus and His disciples, the title "Lord" takes on a far deeper significance than the mere title of rabbi or master. It is impossible to ascertain precisely what those who sought Jesus' help and addressed Him as "Lord" thought or meant by this title.
However, Jesus' self-awareness was that of a teacher, master, and Lord surpassing all others. He attributed to Himself an authority far exceeding that of the scribes. This is already evident in passages like
Matt. 23:1-11 and Mark 1:22, 27, where Jesus elevates Himself as the sole Master above all others. This is even more evident when He calls
Himself the Lord of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8) and the Son of David and David's Lord (Matt. 22:43-45). This clearly indicates that He is the Messiah, who sits at the right hand of God, shares in His power, and holds authority over the living and the dead (Matt. 21:4, 5; 13:35;
24:42 f; 25:34 f).
This profound significance has likely also become associated with the name "Lord" because the Old Testament names Jehovah and Adonai are rendered in the Greek translation by "kurios," the same term applied to Christ. As Christ revealed more clearly who He was and as the disciples grew in their understanding of the divine revelation in Christ, the name "Lord" acquired a richer meaning. Old Testament texts that spoke of God were seamlessly applied to Christ. Thus, in
Mark 1:3, the quotation from Isaiah, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight," is seen as fulfilled in the preparation of Christ, the Lord, through John the Baptist. In Christ, God Himself, the Lord, has come to His people. By confessing Jesus as Lord, the disciples increasingly recognized that in Christ, God Himself had revealed and given Himself to them. The climax of this confession during Jesus' earthly ministry is reached when Thomas falls at the feet of the risen Christ and addresses Him as: "My Lord and my
God," John 20:28.
After the Resurrection, "Lord" became the common name among Jesus' disciples. We find it repeatedly in Acts and the Epistles, particularly those of Paul. Sometimes the name "Lord" is used alone, but usually it appears in combination with others: the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, or our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. By the name "Lord," believers expressed that Jesus Christ, who was humbled to death on the cross, is exalted by God to be Lord and Prince due to His complete obedience to God
(Acts 2:36, 5:31), seated at God's right hand (Acts 2:34), Lord of all and everything (Acts 10:36), especially of the church, which He bought with His blood (Acts 20:28), and also of all creation, which He will judge as the judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42,
17:31).
Therefore, whoever calls upon this name, the name of Jesus as Christ and Lord, shall be saved (Acts 2:21, 1 Cor. 1:2). To be a Christian means to confess with one's mouth the Lord Jesus and to believe in one's heart that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 10:9, 1 Cor.
12:3, Phil. 2:11). The essence of Christian preaching is encapsulated in the declaration: Christ Jesus the Lord (2 Cor. 4:5). This confession
so thoroughly encapsulates the essence of Christianity that the name "Lord" with Paul almost becomes a proper name for Christ, distinct from the Father and the Spirit. Christians profess one God, the Father, of whom all things are, and we unto Him; and one Lord,
Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we by Him; and one Spirit, who distributes gifts to each individually as He wills (1 Cor.
8:6, 12:11).
Thus, the apostolic blessing invokes for the congregation the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit (2 Cor. 13:13). The singular name of God is explicated in the three persons of Father, Son, and Spirit (Matt. 28:19).
Given the apostles' testimony of Christ's exalted position, it is unsurprising that divine attributes and works are attributed to Him, indeed, even His divine nature. A unique figure emerges in the person of Christ as depicted in the Holy Scriptures. On the one hand,
He is truly human, made flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14, 1 John 4:2-3), bearing the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3), of the patriarchs concerning the flesh (Rom. 9:5), Abraham's seed (Gal.
3:16), of Judah's lineage (Heb. 7:14), of David's line (Rom. 1:3), born of a woman (Gal. 4:4), sharing our flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14), with a spirit (Matt. 27:50), a soul (Matt. 26:38), and a body (1 Pet. 2:24).
He was fully human, growing from infancy, increasing in wisdom and stature, and finding favor with God and humanity (Luke 2:40,
52). He hungered, thirsted, grieved, rejoiced, was moved with compassion, and felt anger (Matt. 4:2, 26:28, John 11:27, 35, 19:28).
He submitted to the law and was obedient unto death (Gal. 4:4, Phil.
2:8, Heb. 5:8, 10:7, 9). He suffered, died on the cross, and was buried
(Isa. 53:2-3). He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and bore our infirmities.
And yet this same man is set apart from all men and placed high above them all. Not only was He, according to His human nature, conceived by the Holy Spirit, but throughout His life He remained untainted by sin, and after His death, He was raised again and ascended into heaven. Yet, this same subject, the same person, the same "I," who humbled Himself so profoundly by taking on the form of a servant and becoming obedient to death on a cross, existed in a different state long before His incarnation and humiliation. He existed in the form of God and did not consider it robbery to be equal with God (Phil. 2:6). At His resurrection and ascension, He received back the glory He had with the Father before the world was (John
17:5). He is eternal as God Himself, having been with Him from the beginning (John 1:1, 1 John 1:1), and just as He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:13); omnipresent, so that while He walked the earth, He was also in the bosom of the Father in heaven (John 1:18, 3:13). After His glorification, He remains with His church and fills all in all (Matt.
28:20, Eph. 1:23, 4:10); unchangeable and faithful, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8); omniscient, so that He hears prayers (Acts 1:24, 7:59-60, Rom. 10:12-13); omnipotent, so that all things are subject to Him, all power is given to Him in heaven and on earth, and He is the Prince of all kings (Matt. 28:18, 1 Cor.
15:27, Eph. 1:22, Rev. 1:4, 19:16).
Possessing all these divine perfections, He also participates in all divine works. With the Father and the Spirit, He is the Creator of all things (John 1:3, Col. 1:16), and the firstborn, the principle and head
of all creation (Col. 1:15, Rev. 3:14). He sustains all things by the word of His power, so that they exist not only of Him but also in Him and through Him forever (Heb. 1:3, Col. 1:17). Above all, He preserves, reconciles, and restores all things, gathering them under Himself as the head. As such, He bears the name Saviour of the world. In the Old Testament, the name Saviour, Redeemer, was attributed to God (Isa. 43:3, 11, 45:15, Jer. 14:8, Hos. 13:4). But in the New Testament, both the Son and the Father bear this name. In 1
Timothy 1:1, Titus 1:3, 2:10, God is called Saviour, and in 2 Timothy 1:10, Titus 1:4, 2:13, 3:6, 2 Peter 1:11, 2:20, 3:18, Christ is named
Saviour, in whom and through whom the salvific work of God is fully accomplished.
All this indicates a unity between the Father and the Son, between God and Christ, that is unparalleled between the Creator and His creatures. Even though Christ assumed a human nature that is finite and limited and began to exist in time, as a person, as an entity,
Christ is not positioned on the side of creation in Scripture but on the side of God. He shares in His attributes, participates in all His works, and possesses the same divine nature. This is especially evident in the three titles ascribed to Christ: the Image, the Word, and the Son of God.
Christ is the Image of God, the radiance of God's glory, and the express image of His being (2 Cor. 4:4, Col. 1:15, Heb. 1:3). In Christ, the unseen God becomes visible; he who sees Him sees the Father
(John 14:9). Anyone desiring to know who and what God is, must look to Christ; as Christ is, so is the Father. Christ is also the Word of God (John 1:1, Rev. 19:13); in Him, the Father has fully revealed
Himself, His wisdom, His will, all His attributes, His entire being; He
has given Himself to have life in Himself (John 5:26). Whoever wishes to know God's thought, counsel, and will for humanity and the world must listen to Christ and heed Him (Matt. 17:5). Finally,
Christ is the Son of God, as John frequently calls Him without further qualification (1 John 2:22, Heb. 1:1, 8), the only begotten and the one true Son. Whoever desires to be a child of God must accept
Christ, for all who receive Him are given the right and authority to be called children of God (John 1:12).
Finally, Scripture crowns its testimony concerning Christ by attributing to Him the Divine Name. Thomas confessed Him as his
Lord and God even before the ascension, as recorded in John 20:28.
John affirms that in the beginning, the Word was with God and was God Himself. Paul declares that, according to the flesh, He is of the fathers, but in His divine nature, He is God over all, blessed forever,
Romans 9:5. The letter to the Hebrews exalts Him far above the angels, with God Himself addressing Him as God, Heb. 1:8-9. Peter speaks of Him as our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1:1. In the baptismal command of Jesus, Matt. 28:19, and in the apostolic blessings, 2 Cor. 13:13, 1 Peter 1:2, Rev. 1:4-6, Christ the Son is placed on the same level with the Father and the Spirit. The name and essence, the attributes and works of God belong to the Son as much as to the Father.
Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God - upon this foundation, the church is built. From the very beginning, the unique significance of Christ was clear to all believers. He was confessed by all as the Lord, who had secured salvation, the forgiveness of sins, and immortality through His teachings and life, then was exalted by the Father at His right hand, and would soon return as the Judge of the living and the
dead. With the same titles, Christ, Lord, Son of God, God, etc., which appear in the Apostolic Letters, He is also mentioned in the earliest
Christian writings and invoked in prayers and hymns. All believers were united in the conviction of one God, whose children they were, one Lord, who had assured them of God's love, and one Spirit, who guided them in newness of life. The baptismal command in Matt.
28:19, which became widely adopted towards the end of the apostolic era, is evidence of this unified belief.
However, as soon as people began to ponder the content of this confession, various differences of opinion emerged. The members of the congregation, previously educated in Judaism and Paganism, and mostly from humble backgrounds, struggled to fully grasp the apostolic teaching immediately; they lived amidst a society filled with diverse ideas and influences and were thus continually vulnerable to temptation and error. Even during the Apostles' lifetimes, we read of various deceivers infiltrating the congregation and attempting to undermine the firmness of their faith. For example, in Colossae, some members failed to appreciate the person and work of Christ, turning the Gospel into a new law, Col. 2:3, 16. In Corinth, libertines arose who, abusing Christian freedom, refused to be bound by any rules, 1 Cor. 6:12. In his first letter, the Apostle John battles against false doctrines that deny the incarnation of Christ and thereby misunderstand the truth of His human nature, 1 John 2:18,
4:1, 5:5.
This struggle continued into the post-apostolic age; the errors of the second century grew in variety, strength, and spread. There were those who believed in the true human nature of Christ, His supernatural birth, resurrection, and ascension, yet saw the divine
only as an extraordinary measure of the gifts and powers of the Spirit, bestowed upon Him by God at His birth or baptism, enabling
Him for His religious and moral work. Followers of this view, influenced by the deistic Jewish concept of the relationship between God and the world, could not conceive of a more intimate relationship between God and man than a mere communication of gifts; thus, Jesus was a richly gifted man, a religious genius, but in their view, He remained merely a human.
However, others, nurtured in the philosophies of paganism and more inclined to polytheistic concepts, found it plausible to conceive of Christ as one of the most exalted, perhaps the supreme of all divine beings, according to His inner essence. Yet, they could not accept that such a divine, pure being could have assumed a human, material, fleshly nature. Thus, they denied the true humanity of Christ, asserting that He merely appeared on earth in a phantom form, similar to how the angels of the Old Testament had occasionally manifested. These inclinations persist to this day; at times, the divinity is sacrificed for the sake of humanity, while at other times, the divinity is preserved at the expense of humanity.
There are always extremes, those who forsake the idea for the fact, or the fact for the idea; they fail to recognize the unity and harmony of the two.
From its inception, the Christian Church stood on a different foundation, professing in the person of Christ the most intimate and profound, and therefore entirely unique, union of God and man.
Early interpreters of the Church sometimes expressed themselves in a clumsy manner; they first had to wrestle for a somewhat clear understanding of the matter and then strive to articulate this
understanding clearly. Yet, the congregation did not waver from its foundation; it avoided the extremes and steadfastly adhered to the apostolic teaching concerning the person of Christ.
When the same person partakes of both the divine nature and true humanity, it becomes necessary to establish His place and clearly define the relationship between Him, the Godhead, and the world.
Here, too, errors arose on both sides.
If the unity of God, a foundational truth of Christianity, were to be interpreted such that the essence of the Godhead completely coincided with the person of the Father, then there would be no place in the Godhead for Christ; He would be outside the Godhead and thus a creature, for there is no gradual transition between Creator and creature. Consequently, as Arius asserted, it could be claimed that Christ preceded the entire world in time and rank, that He was the first creature and excelled them all in stature and honor. Yet,
Christ would still be a creature; there was a time when He was not, and in that time, He was brought into being by the will of God, like all other creatures.
In attempting to maintain the unity of God and to accord Christ the place and honor due to Him, it was easy to fall into another error, named after its chief proponent, Sabellius. While Arius effectively identified the essence of the Godhead with the person of the Father,
Sabellius merged all three persons into that essence. According to his doctrine, the three persons—Father, Son, and Spirit—are not eternal entities within the Godhead's essence, but forms and appearances in which the one Godhead has successively revealed itself over time: under the Old Testament, in the earthly life of Christ, and after
Pentecost. Both errors have had adherents through the centuries: the Groninger Theology essentially revived Arius's teachings, while modern Theology initially followed Sabellius's path.
Finding the correct path amidst these errors required much prayer and struggle, as these errors were further modified and mingled in various ways. Yet, under the leadership of great men, distinguished by their piety and intellectual prowess, and thus rightly called
Church Fathers, the Church remained faithful to the apostolic teachings. At the Council of Nicaea in 325, the Church proclaimed its faith in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father as the only-begotten, that is, from the essence of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, through whom all things in heaven and earth were made, and in the Holy
Spirit.
Please change the words in the following paragraphs to the style, voice and tone of the attached .pdf entitled "Calvin_Style.pdf"
Important as this outcome was, it by no means brought about an end to the *Iyristian Disputes. On the contrary, the Nicene Creed opened the way to new questions and different answers. For although the relationship of Christ to the essence of God and to the world and humanity was determined in the sense that He shared both in His person and was God and humanity in one person, the question could not be left unanswered as to how the relationship of these two natures in one person should be conceived. And on this point, too, various avenues were explored for an answer.
Nestorius decided that if there were two natures in Christ, there must also be two persons, two selves, in Him, who could only be united by a moral bond, as, for example, in marriage between a man and a woman. And Eutyches, starting from the same identification of nature and person, came to the conclusion that, if in Christus there was only one person, one I, then the two natures must have been so mixed and fused that only one divine nature emerged from that mixture. There the distinction between the natures was maintained at the expense of the unity of the person, here the unity of the person at the expense of the duality of the natures.
But after long, hard struggles, the church also overcame these disagreements. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, it declared that the one person of Christ consisted of two natures, which existed unchanged and unmixed (against Eutyches), and undivided and undivided (against Nestorius), but had their unity in the one person.
This decision, which was later supplemented and completed on a specific point at the Synod in Constantinople in 680, put an end to the centuries-long struggle over the person of Christ. The Church had preserved the essence of Christianity, the absolute character of the Christian religion, and with that also her own independence.
It goes without saying that this Nicene and Chalcedon creeds cannot claim infallibility. The terms used by the church and theology, such as person, nature, unity, etc., are not found in Scripture, but are the fruit of the reflection which Christianity gradually had to devote to the verbosity of salvation; it was forced to do so by the errors which arose from all sides, both within and outside the church. All the expressions and descriptions used in the Church's confession and in the language of theology do not serve to explain the mystery before
us, but to preserve it purely and unimpaired in the face of all those who weaken or deny it. The Incarnation of the Word is not a problem that we must or can solve, but it is a wonderful fact that we thankfully confess, as God Himself places it before our eyes in His
Word.
But understood in this way, the confession, which the church established at Nicea and Chalcedori, is of great value. There have been many, and there are still many, who look down on the doctrine of the two natures in Christ and try to replace it with other words and terms. What does it matter, they say, whether we agree with this doctrine or not; what matters is that we possess the person of Christ
Himself, who stands high behind and above this clumsy confession.
But later on all these men will themselves also introduce words and terms in order to describe in more detail the person of Christ whom they accept. No one can escape this, for what we do not know, we do not have. If we believe that we possess Christ, that we have fellowship with Him, that we are His property, then that faith must also speak, and resort to words, terms, expressions and descriptions.
But then, history has also shown that the expressions used by those who oppose the doctrine of two natures lag far behind those of the confession in value and force, and often even, in disregard of the fact that they are true, fall short of the latter.
Even when disregarding the fact of the Incarnation, as Scripture reveals it to us, they foster error.
Today, for instance, there are many who view the doctrine of the two natures as the pinnacle of absurdity and hold an entirely different perception of the person of Christ. They cannot deny that there is
something in Christ that sets Him apart from all men and elevates Him above all. Yet, this divinity they acknowledge in Christ, they do not consider as partaking of the Divine nature itself but as a divine gift or power bestowed upon Christ in a special measure. They assert that Christ has two aspects, a divine and a human side; or that He can be viewed from two perspectives; or that He lived in two successive states, of humiliation and exaltation; or that He, though merely a man, has, through His proclamation of God's love and the establishment of His kingdom, become the extraordinary and perfect instrument of God's revelation, thus acquiring for us the value of God. However, any impartial reader will sense that these representations do not merely modify ecclesiastical expressions but transform the person of Christ into something entirely different than what the Church has always professed based on the Apostolic witness concerning Him.
Divine gifts and powers are, in a certain sense, bestowed upon every human being, for all good and perfect gifts descend from the Father of Lights. The prophets and apostles were men subject to the same passions as we are. If, therefore, Christ received nothing more than extraordinary divine gifts and powers, He was no more than a man, and there can be no question of His becoming flesh. But then He could never, as others suggest, have been exalted to God through resurrection and ascension after His death or have acquired the significance of God for us. For between man and God, there is no gradual transition but a profound chasm. They stand in relation to each other as creature and Creator, and the creature can never become the Creator nor ever hold the value and significance for us, human beings, of the Creator, on Whom we are wholly dependent.
It is noteworthy, then, that after comparing all these new ideas about the person of Christ with the teachings of the Church and Scripture, some have come to the honest conclusion that ultimately, the creed of the Church still aligns best with the teachings of Scripture. The doctrine that Christ was God and Man in one person is not a product of pagan philosophy but is rooted in the Apostolic Testimony.
Herein lies the mystery of godliness, that He who, as the Word, was in the beginning with God and was God Himself, John 1:1, who was in the form of God and did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, Phil. 2:6, who was the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, Heb. 1:3, became flesh in the fullness of time, John 1:14, was born of a woman, Gal. 4:4, humbled
Himself, took on the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, Phil. 2:7.
The first thing to note here is that Christ was and is God and remains eternal. He was not the Father nor the Spirit, but the Son, the Father's own, only begotten, beloved Son. And it was not the Divine essence, nor the Father and the Spirit, but the person of the Son who became man in the fullness of time. And when He became man and walked upon the earth as a man, even when He agonized in Gethsemane and hung on the cross, He remained the Son, in whom the Father had all His good pleasure. It is true that the apostle says that Christ, who was in the form of God and did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage, made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, Phil. 2:6-7.
But this is wrongly understood by some to mean that Christ, at His incarnation, in the state of humiliation, stripped Himself of His
divinity in whole or in part, and laid down His divine attributes, and then gradually took them back in the state of His exaltation. For how would this be possible, since God cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13), and since the unchangeable One in Himself is above all creation and corruption? No, even when He became what He was not, He remained what He was, the only-begotten of the Father. But the Apostle does say that Christ humbled Himself in this sense: that He, who was in the form of God, took on the form of a man and a servant.
To put it humanly and simply, before His incarnation, Christ was not only equal to the Father in essence and virtues, but He also had the form of God. He radiated the glory of God and was the express image of His person. Whoever could have seen Him would have recognized
Him immediately as God. But this changed at His conception; then He took on the form of a man, the figure of a servant. Whoever saw
Him now could no longer see in Him the only Son of the Father, except through the eye of faith. He had laid aside His divine form and glory; He hid His divine nature behind the form of a servant; on earth, He appeared as one of us.
Secondly, the incarnation includes the fact that He, who remained what He was, became what He was not. He became this at a point in time, at a particular moment in history, at that hour when the Holy
Spirit came upon Mary and the power of the Most High overshadowed her (Luke 1:35). But that does not take away from the fact that this Incarnation was prepared centuries ago.
If one wants to understand it well, one can say that even the generation of the Son and the creation of the world prepared the incarnation of the Word. Not in the sense that the generation and creation already included the incarnation in principle. For the
Scriptures always connect the incarnation of the Son with the redemption from sin and the acquisition of salvation (Matt. 1:21,
John 3:16, Rom. 8:3, Gal. 4:4-5). But generation and creation, especially the creation of man in God's image, both teach that God is communicable, in a complete sense within and in a relative sense outside the Divine being. If this were not the case, there would be no room for the incarnation of God. Whoever considers the incarnation of God impossible, in principle also denies the creation of the world and the generation of the Son; and whoever recognizes the latter, can no longer raise any principled objection to the former.
However, the Incarnation of the Word was directly prepared in the Revelation, which began immediately after the fall, continued in the history of Israel, and reached its highest point in the conception of Mary. The entire Old Testament is an approach of God to man, in order to make His home permanently in him in the fullness of time.
However, since the Son of God, who assumed human nature in Mary, already existed before that time and from eternity as the person of the Son, His conception in Mary's womb did not take place through the will of the flesh and the will of man, but through the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. The Incarnation joins and completes the previous revelation, but it is not itself a product of nature or mankind. It is a work of God, a revelation, the highest revelation. Just as it was the Father who sent His Son into the world, and the Holy Spirit who came upon Mary, so it was the Son Himself who became a partaker of our flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14). He became flesh by His own will and by His own act. Therefore, at the time of His incarnation, He set aside the will of the flesh and the will
of man, and He prepared Himself a human nature in Mary's womb by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
This human nature did not exist beforehand. It was not brought by Christ out of heaven and carried into Mary from outside and led through her. The Anabaptists taught this, in order to be able to maintain the sinlessness of human nature in Christ; but in doing so they were following in the footsteps of the old Gnosticism and starting from the idea that flesh and matter are in themselves sinful.
Yet the Scriptures uphold the goodness of creation and the divine origin of matter, even in the incarnation.
Christ assumed His human nature from Mary, as attested in Matt.
1:20, Luke 1:52, 2:7, and Gal. 4:4. He is, as far as the flesh is concerned, of David and of the fathers (Acts 2:30, Rom. 1:3, 9:5).
Hence, it is also a true and perfect human nature, akin to us in all things, except sin (Heb. 2:14, 17, 4:15). Nothing human was foreign to Christ. The denial of the coming of Christ in the flesh is the principle of antichrist (1 John 2:22).
Just as the human nature of Christ did not exist before His conception in Mary, so it did not exist for a time before or after His birth, separate from Christ. The seed received in Mary, and the child born of her, did not first grow up independently into a human being, into a person, into an entity, and was then accepted by Christ and united with Himself. This error, too, was defended in the past and later, but Scripture knows nothing of such an idea. The Holy One, who was conceived in Mary's womb, was and bore from the beginning the name of God's Son (Luke 1:35). The Son, whom the Father sent, was born of a woman (Gal. 4:4). The Word did not take
upon Himself a man at a later date but became flesh (John 1:14).
Thus, the Christian church rightly confessed that the person of the Son did not take upon Himself a human person, but a human nature; and that only in this way can the duality of natures be maintained in the unity of the person.
For - and this is the third point that merits our consideration although Scripture states as clearly as possible that Christ was the Word and became flesh, that according to the flesh He is of the fathers but according to His essence He is God over all, to be praised for all eternity, yet in this Christ He always appears as one person to us. It is always the same "I" that speaks and acts out of Christ. The child that was born bears the name of Mighty God and Everlasting
Father (Isa. 9:6). David's son is also David's Lord (Matt. 22:43). The same, who descended, also ascended far above all heavens (Eph.
4:10). He who according to the flesh is of the fathers, is according to His essence the God of all things, to be praised forever and ever
(Rom. 9:5). Walking on the earth, He was and remains in heaven, in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18, 3:13). The fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him in bodily form (Col. 2:9).
In a word, to the same subject, to the same person, are ascribed Divine and human characteristics and works: eternity and time, omnipresence and limitedness, creative omnipotence and creaturely weakness. This being so, the union of the two natures in Christ cannot have been as that between two persons. For two persons can be intimately united by love, but they can never become one person, one "I". Love presupposes duality and brings about nothing but a mystical and ethical unity. If the union of the Son of God with humanity had this character, it would be different, at best in degree
but not in essence, from that which God establishes with His creatures, especially His children.
But Christ occupies a wholly unique place. He did not form a moral alliance with a human being and did not take an existing human being into His community, but He prepared Himself a human nature in Mary's womb, and became a human being and a servant. Just as a human being can pass from one state of life to another, can live successively or sometimes even simultaneously in two spheres of consciousness, so Christ, who was in the form of God, walked the earth in the form of a servant by way of analogy. The union that came about in His incarnation was not a moral one between two persons, but the union of two natures in the same person. Man and woman, however intimately united in marriage, remain two persons; God and man, although united by the most intimate love, remain distinct in nature. But in Christ, the man is the same subject as the Word, which in the beginning was with God and was God Himself, and the Word is the same subject that became flesh. Here is a completely unique, incomparable and incomprehensible union of God and man. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth
(John 1:14).
Through this union, Christ, in the unity of His person, possesses all the qualities and powers that are peculiar to both natures. Some have tried to obtain a stronger and more intimate union of the two natures by teaching that the two natures were at once fused into one divine nature at the conception of the flesh, or that divine nature divested itself of its own attributes and descended into the narrowness of human nature, or that human nature lost its attributes and received
those of divine nature (either all or some, such as omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience and life-giving power) as its own. But the Reformed confession has always rejected and disputed such a fusion of both natures and such a communication of characteristics by one nature to the other. For such a fusion and communication amounted to confusion and mixing of the two natures and thus to a pantheistic denial of the distinction between God and man, between Creator and creature.
There exists a profound union between the two natures of Christ, each retaining its own properties and powers. This union is actualized within the unity of His person, forming a bond that is unparalleled in its depth and intimacy. Just as, in an analogy but not an exact comparison, the soul and body are united in a single human being while remaining distinct in essence and properties, so in Christ, the same person is the subject of both natures, with all their respective properties and powers. The distinction between soul and body forms the basis and condition for their intimate unity in one man; likewise, the distinction between the divine and human natures underpins their unity in the person of Christ. A fusion of these natures or a communication of their attributes to one another does not create a more intimate union but rather dissolves it into a confusion, impoverishing the fullness that resides in Christ. Such actions either diminish the divine or human nature, or both, thereby weakening the scriptural declaration that the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Him (Col. 2:9). The true fullness remains only if both natures remain distinct, communicating their qualities not to each other but to the one person, serving Him. It is always the same rich Christ who, in His humiliation and exaltation, has the qualities and powers of both natures at His disposal, thus accomplishing those
mediatorial works which, being distinct from the works of God and man, hold their unique place in the history of the world.
This doctrine of the two natures has the great merit of allowing everything that Scripture says about the person of Christ to be fully appreciated. On one hand, He is and remains the only and eternal
Son of God, who, with the Father and the Spirit, created, sustains, and governs all things (John 1:3, Col. 1:15-16, Heb. 1:2), and thus may rightfully be the object of our worship. He was already this in the days of the apostles (John 14:13, Acts 7:59, 9:13, 22:16, Rom.
10:12-13, Phil. 2:9, Heb. 1:6), just as He was then and is now the object of the faith and confidence of all His disciples (John 14:1, 17:3,
Rom. 14:9, 2 Cor. 5:15, Eph. 3:12, 5:23, Col. 1:27). He cannot and must not be both if He is not truly God, for it is written, "The Lord thy God shalt thou worship, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matt.
4:10). The basis for the religious worship and adoration of Christ lies in His divine nature; denying this while maintaining such worship constitutes idolatry. The divinity of Christ is not a speculative doctrine but is of utmost importance for the life of the church.
On the other hand, Christ became a true and complete human being, like us in all things except sin. He was an infant, a child, a youth, and a man like us, increasing in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man. This was not mere appearance but full reality. In Christ, there was a gradual development, a steady progress in bodily growth, in mental powers, and in favor with God and man. The gifts of the Spirit were not all given to Him at once but were bestowed in increasing measure. There were things He had to learn, which He did not initially know (Mark 13:32, Acts 1:7). Though He possessed an inherent inability to sin due to His weak human nature, He was still
capable of being tempted, suffering, and dying. While on earth, He was not in heaven according to His human nature, thus living by faith and not by sight. He fought and suffered, continually clinging to the Word and promise of God. In this manner, He learned obedience from what He suffered, continually establishing Himself in obedience, thereby sanctifying Himself (John 17:19, Heb. 5:8-9).
Simultaneously, He left us an example and became the cause of eternal salvation for all who obey Him (Heb. 5:9).
Study Questions for Reflection 1. How does the testimony of Christ in the Gospels and the apostolic preaching confirm His identity as the Son of God?
Reflect on the ways Jesus' self-proclamation and the apostles' witness affirm His divine nature and messianic role.
2. What role does the Holy Spirit play in enabling individuals to confess Jesus as Lord?
Consider the necessity of the Holy Spirit's work in transforming human hearts to acknowledge and believe in Jesus as the Christ.
3. How does the historical narrative of Jesus' life in the Gospels support the claim that He is both fully divine and fully human?
Reflect on the significance of the Gospels' accounts of Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection in understanding His dual nature.
4. In what ways do the apostles emphasize both the historical facts and the spiritual significance of Jesus' life and work?
Discuss how the apostles balance the historical reality of Jesus' life with the theological implications for salvation.
5. Why is it important to maintain the unity and distinction of Jesus' divine and human natures in Christian theology?
Reflect on the dangers of either conflating or separating Jesus' two natures and the importance of holding to the orthodox teaching.
6. How do the titles "Lord," "Christ," and "Son of God" used in the New Testament highlight different aspects of Jesus' identity and mission?
Consider the implications of each title for understanding who Jesus is and what He accomplished.
7. What does the New Testament teaching about Jesus' exaltation after His resurrection reveal about His divine authority and lordship?
Reflect on how Jesus' resurrection and ascension affirm His role as Lord and Christ, and the significance of His current reign.
8. How do the apostles address and refute early heresies that denied either Jesus' humanity or divinity?
Discuss the importance of the apostles' teachings in preserving the true doctrine of Christ against early church heresies.