God and Man
Christians have at all times believed that Jesus is each God and man. The normal manner of placing this in additional theological language is that in Christ we meet one individual in two natures. The one individual is the Son of God, the second individual of the Trinity. The 2 natures are his totally divine nature (by which he at all times existed) and, from the incarnation onward, his totally human nature. Query 35 of the Heidelberg Catechism offers a terrific abstract:
Q. 35. What does it imply that he “was conceived by the Holy
Spirit and born of the virgin Mary”?
A. That the everlasting Son of God,
who’s and stays
true and everlasting God,
took to himself,
by the working of the Holy Spirit,
from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary.
a very human nature
in order that he may additionally turn out to be David’s true descendant,
like his brothers in each manner
apart from sin.1
Let’s dig somewhat deeper.
One Individual
Whenever you ask the query “Who’s Jesus?” the elemental reply is that he’s God the Son. Like God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, he has at all times existed. He’s the Creator of all issues. John’s Gospel begins with a putting assertion:
At first was the Phrase, and the Phrase was with God, and the Phrase was God. (John 1:1)
In Man of Sorrows, King of Glory, Jonty Rhodes makes use of the standard classes of Jesus as prophet, priest, and king to boost the Christian understanding of his life, demise, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
Because the story unfolds, Jesus will declare to be one with the Father (John 10:30), will inform Philip that “whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), and can settle for Thomas’s acclamation of him as “my Lord and my God” (John 20:28). And John’s Gospel is hardly alone in presenting us with Jesus as God. Matthew introduces Christ as “Immanuel (which suggests, God with us)” (Matt. 1:23), Paul describes him as “the picture of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15), and the writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is “the radiance of the glory of God and the precise imprint of his nature” (Heb. 1:3). We may multiply verses virtually endlessly. We may take a look at descriptions of Jesus doing issues that solely God can do. However I think you’re on board: Jesus is God. The individual in one individual, two natures is God the Son.
Two Natures
Meaning, after all, that we’re midway to answering the two natures query. If Jesus is the Son of God, then he has a completely divine nature. Something that’s true of God is true of Jesus. God is aware of all issues, so Jesus is aware of all issues. God is omnipotent, so Jesus is omnipotent. God is omnipresent, so Jesus is omnipresent. The one distinction between God the Father and God the Son is that one is Father and one is Son. Jesus is, to make use of the language of the Nicene Creed, “of 1 substance with the Father.” Jesus just isn’t like God the Father or much like him. They’re one substance— as a result of there is just one God.
And now, maybe, questions are starting to stir. We do not forget that Jesus didn’t know when he was returning, but God is aware of all issues. We see him asleep within the boat on the Sea of Galilee, but we now have learn within the Psalms that God “will neither slumber nor sleep” (Ps. 121:4). We see Jesus getting hungry and thirsty, however God suffers neither of those weaknesses (Ps. 50:12–13). Most vital of all, we see Christ crucified, useless, and buried, however God himself is immortal, incapable of dying (1 Tim. 1:17).
At this level, varied perversions of orthodox Christianity spring up and declare that that is proof that Jesus isn’t actually God, no less than not within the truest, fullest sense. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Christadelphians all, in several methods, deny that Christ is “of 1 nature” with the Father. However Christians from the earliest centuries have understood the sorts of verses above as proof that the Son of God turned man. The Jesus we meet within the Gospels, the Jesus who sits on the throne of heaven, is totally human. Along with his divine nature, when Jesus got here to earth, he took on a second nature, a human nature.
After we regarded for proof that the Bible presents Jesus as totally divine, we started with John 1:1, “The Phrase was God.” However look how John continues: “The Phrase turned flesh and dwelt amongst us” (John 1:14). And once more, we will look past John’s Gospel. Paul speaks of “the person Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5), and Hebrews tells us that since “the youngsters share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the identical issues. . . . Due to this fact he needed to be made like his brothers in each respect” (Heb. 2:14, 17). The kids listed here are God’s folks. Jesus turned like us in “each respect” (other than sin, after all, Heb. 4:15), sharing our “flesh and blood.” Maybe most putting of all, Jesus refers to himself as “a person who has advised you the reality that I heard from God” (John 8:40).
Jesus is actually, totally human. The Son of God added to himself a human nature. The whole lot it means to be human is true, now, for Jesus. He didn’t simply “slip on a pores and skin go well with,” as I as soon as heard a preacher say. He didn’t simply seem like a person. He actually is one in all us.
The Son of God added to himself a human nature. The whole lot it means to be human is true, now, for Jesus.
The God-Man
The approaching of the Son of God to earth is called the incarnation. Carnis is Latin for flesh, so incarnation merely means “in flesh.” This incarnation was an addition, not a subtraction: the Son didn’t quit any of his divine powers when he turned man. For a begin, that is inconceivable. God doesn’t change (Mal. 3:6; James 1:17). He’s additionally not made up of “components.” As human beings, we’re made up of arms plus legs plus brains plus souls plus . . . I received’t go on. However God isn’t like that. He’s easy, to make use of the theological time period. Easy right here doesn’t imply “simple to grasp” however relatively that he’s not constructed of various bits like we’re. God’s varied attributes and traits aren’t like slices of a pizza, as if we may take away a couple of simply sufficient and nonetheless say we had a pizza left. He’s one easy being; he’s really one. Jesus stays this one true God, by no means dropping any of his powers: if he had given up any of his attributes when he got here to earth, he would have ceased to be God.
Actually, even speaking about “coming to earth” is to make use of image language. Utilizing image language to explain God and his work is okay, after all—essential even. However we have to acknowledge it for what it’s, lest we draw the fallacious conclusion from the image. With regard to the Son of God leaving heaven, John Calvin writes,
The Son of God descended from heaven in such a manner that, with out leaving heaven, he willed to be borne within the virgin’s womb, to go concerning the earth, and to hold upon the cross; but he constantly crammed the world at the same time as he had executed from the start!2
That is laborious—inconceivable—to understand. Gavin Ortlund asks us to think about J. R. R. Tolkien writing himself into his Lord of the Rings story and happening the journey to Mordor with Frodo. Would Tolkien subsequently stop to be in Oxford? Would his Oxford existence be modified in any manner by his look within the e book, his creation? No. As Ortlund concedes, this might, like all illustration, be pushed in an unhelpful course, however it maybe helps us glimpse one thing of how Jesus may stay what he was whereas additionally taking over flesh within the realm of creation.3
It’s price noting that some have tried to assert that in turning into man, Jesus did quit a few of his extra spectacular powers. Typically that is primarily based on a relatively unhelpful studying of Philippians 2:7, which in some translations tells us that Jesus “emptied himself.”
The Greek phrase for “empty,” kenoō, has given its title to what’s referred to as kenosis idea. Those that maintain to it educate that whereas Jesus retained his mercy, love, knowledge, kindness, and so forth, he emptied himself of his omnipotence, his omnipresence, and his omniscience. A number of the extra excessive advocates of this concept even declare that for this reason Jesus makes (what they view as) errors, reminiscent of claiming that Moses wrote Genesis.
However Paul’s level in Philippians just isn’t that Jesus emptied himself of sure skills, chopping off bits as he got here to earth. If we learn the verse fastidiously, we see that the textual content by no means mentions any contents which are “emptied”; we’re not advised that Jesus emptied himself of sure issues. No, the following clause explains what this emptying means: the Lord of glory turned a servant, turned a person like us. Actually, in some trendy translations, the verse above is helpfully translated as “made himself nothing.” Jesus emptied himself by “taking,” taking the type of a servant. The king threw on a beggar’s cloak, concealing his true glory.
So once you consider the incarnation, consider an addition, not a subtraction. The Son of God took to himself a very human nature. Or as one early theologian, Gregory of Nazianzus, wrote, “Remaining what he was, he turned what he was not.”4 Maintaining all the things it means to be God, he turned all the things it means to be man.
Notes:
- The Heidelberg Catechism (Grand Rapids, MI: Religion Alive, 1988), 23.
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Faith, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, Library of Christian Classics (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1960), 806 (2.18.4).
- Gavin Ortlund, “He Lay in a Manger with out Leaving Heaven,” The Gospel Coalition, December 14, 2017, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/he-lay-in-manger -without-leaving-heaven/.
- For variations of this line, see Herman Bavinck, The Great Works of God: Instruction within the Christian Faith in line with the Reformed Confession (Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 2019), 306; St. Gregory of Nazianzus, On God and Christ: The 5 Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius, Standard Patristics (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002), 86.
This text is tailored from Man of Sorrows, King of Glory: What the Humiliation and Exaltation of Jesus Imply for Us by Jonty Rhodes.
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