Mysteries of the Faith – III. The Person of Christ

All Christian Churches teach and confess this paradoxical truth: That Jesus Christ is true God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages, and He is man, born of the substance of His mother in this age. Perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh. (quoted from the Athanasian Creed). According to logic, Jesus must be man, or God, or a mixture of the two, greater than man but less than God. But this is not what the Christian Church teaches.

Rather, the Christian Church teaches that God the Son (see earlier article on the Trinity) assumed, or took on human flesh in what is called the incarnation. Specifically, that the Holy Spirit fashioned from Mary a true human body and soul for God the Son (see Luke 1:35, Matt. 1:20, Isa. 7:14). And that the fulness of the deity dwelt among us (John 1:14, Col 2:9, I Tim. 3:16). God the Son, the creator of the universe has become our brother in taking on our flesh. Indeed, He shares our humanity in all things, except sin (has human ancestry, a human body and soul, human sex (male), human needs and feelings).

As our brother, Jesus fulfilled our obligation to keep the law, which we, because of our fallen nature, have been unable to keep (Rom. 5:19, Gal. 4:4-5). Jesus suffered and died to pay the penalty for our sin (Mark 10:45, I Pet. 1:18-19, Heb 2:14, Rom 3:22-24, Col. 1:22). Jesus overcame death that we, too, can be raised from death (I Cor. 15:57, II Tim. 1:10, I Cor. 15:20).

As much as it is essential, that Jesus is true man, as shown above, it is equally essential for Him to be true God. Yes, because Jesus is true God, He reveals God to us (John 14:9). We know the Father, because we know and can see Jesus in the Bible. Again, because Jesus is true God, His death on the cross is a sufficient ransom and atonement for the sins of the world (Mark 10:45, 1 Pet. 1:18-19). The death of a perfect sinless man may pay for one other man’s life. But the death of God the Son pays for the sins of the world. Also: he is always with us; He intercedes for us with the Father; He rules over His Church, and all creation; He has authority to judge and forgive; He is worthy of divine honor and glory; and He loves us with an everlasting love.

Thus, the Christian Church has always taught that the human and divine natures are united in Jesus Christ. This personal union began when He became man (incarnation) and continues forever.

But men always try to place reason above scripture and explain away mysteries of the faith by human reason. If true God took on our nature, and was born among us, how is it that He was born in a lowly stable? How is it that He could suffer and die? For surely God is incapable of suffering, and how could the God of Life, die? One answer to this, which is still believed to this day, is to separate the Human Jesus, from the Son of God. To look upon the person of Christ as two dissimilar boards glued together as one. In essence, making them two distinct persons sharing one space (Nestorianism).

In 451 AD, at the Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon, that group of bishops settled the controversies concerning the person and natures of our Lord Jesus Christ and established confessionally the truths of the unity of the divine person and the union and distinction of the divine and human natures of Christ. It condemned especially the error of Nestorianism, which denied the unity of the divine person in Christ; the error of Apollinarianism, which denied the completeness of Christ’s human nature; and the error known as Eutychianism, which denied the duality and distinction of the divine and human natures of our Lord Jesus Christ. What was confessionally established at Chalcedon concerning the person and natures of Christ has continued to be the confession of the church universal ever since that time.

Here follows the definition set forth at Chalcedon: We, then, following the holy fathers, all with one consent teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body; coessential with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the creed of the holy fathers has handed down to us.

There are many objections to this definition, and debate continues to this day, concerning the how and the specifics of these controversies. In my 3 Volume book on the teachings of the Bible, this debate takes up 335 pages. If any of you would like to learn more of this mystery, contact me. I would be happy to offer a class on this or any other topic, if any 5 of you readers request such a class. If you have any other questions, or if you would like me to offer such a class contact me, Pastor Schnack, at (307) 343-2314.

I would leave you with two quotes. The first is from Cyril of Alexandria, one of the main authors of the definition of Chalcedon, who struggled with how God, who by definition, cannot suffer, in Christ, suffered. We read: “Without suffering, the Son of God suffered (Mansi, IV, 857).” The second is from Holy Scriptures: Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh (I Tim. 3:16).