In some previous articles, I looked at some of the historical understandings concerning the two natures of Jesus Christ. In this article, I will look at the Scriptural imperatives that show the reality of the two natures of Christ. Oliver Crisp reminds us that.

“Scripture is the norm for all theological judgements, and that creeds, including the Chalcedonian definition, are subordinate norms that depend upon Scripture as the norming norm.”[1]

Let me just say there is a communication of properties (idiomata) in these following passages when it reveals the reality about Christ as the God-Man. Here are a few examples in Scripture:

Salvific Reality of the Incarnation

The first example is where we see the full reality expressed when Paul says that God purchased the Church:

“With his own blood,” (Acts 20:28),

God certainly has no blood, suffers not, cannot be touched with hands; but since that Christ, who was true God and true man, shed his blood on the cross for us, the acts which were performed in his human nature are transferred improperly, but not ceaselessly, to his divinity.

The reality of the Lord of Glory

Paul further adds that the Jews.

“Crucified the Lord of glory”. (1Co 2:8).

The Pulpit Commentary makes a great point.

“It is “the Lord of the glory,” i.e., “the Lord of the Shechinah” (comp. Ephesians 1:17, “the Father of the glory “). The Shechinah was the name given by the Jews to the cloud of light which symbolized God’s presence. The cherubim are called, in Hebrews 9:5, “cherubim of glory,” because the Shechinah was borne on their outspread wings (see, however, Acts 7:2; Ephesians 1:17). There would have been to ancient ears a startling and awful paradox in the words “crucified the Lord of glory.” The words brought into juxtaposition the lowest ignominy and the most splendid exaltation.”[2]

The Incarnated Logos

In like manner, John the beloved says, that

“That which was from the beginning (archē), which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word (logos) of life” (1 Joh. 1:10).

Again, we see the reality of Jesus described as both the Word of Life and he was touched, heard, and seen by His Disciples! There is no disparity or dualism, rather, an essential unified embodiment of the Eternal Truth.[3] Athanasius describes this beautifully when he writes in his Letter to Epictetus (11-12),

“from Mary the Word took flesh and came forth as man, being in His nature and essence the Word of God but according to the flesh made man, as Paul said, from the seed of David and the Flesh of Mary (Rom.1:3) This is the one the Father made manifest when he said at the Jordan and on the mountaintop, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (Mat.3:17, 17:5)”[4]

John the Beloved Disciple of Jesus affirms that the beholding of His glory was after the incarnation when he wrote (John 1:14).

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Or as John already confirmed.

“The Word was God.” (Joh.1:1) [“Theos en Ho Logos”/ “God was the Word”).

Paul says it even better; (Col.2:9)

“For in Christ, all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form.”[5]

Jesus as God with us

Another affirmation of this is found when it describes Jesus as “God with us” in Isaiah.7:14 and Matthew 1:23. Paul also encourages Titus (2:13-14) with the reality that as John the Beloved Disciple the blessed hope.

“Appearing (incarnation) of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us (present tense) from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

Our eternal High Priest

Jesus prays in His High Priestly prayer in John 17:5 (ESV).

“And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you (para soi) before the world existed.”

What type of glory did Jesus assume when he said, “And now?” The eternal Divine Glory He had with the Father that is now assumed in its fullness for the very task of reconciliation as we see in verses 20-26.

Lord Jesus, God Jesus.

Another blatant instance of Christ assuming the perfectly Divine reality is seen when Thomas confesses to Christ in the flesh.

 “My Lord and My God!” (John 20:28).   

Here in plain view, we affirm both the reality of true humanity and the confession of the brilliance of Christ converging into One confession as both Lord and God.

God over Nature

Jesus clearly manifests the reality of the God-man composition when he walks on water to reveal His pre-eminence and is therefore worshipped with the confession:

“Truly you are the Son of God” (Matt.14:33). 

Please note Jesus as a man does not find it offensive to be counted as God when he is worshipped and does not rebuke them because He was a mere man as we see in the Book of Acts (14:11-13) and the book of Revelation (19:10, 22:8). Jesus does not tare His robe as a good Jew would, neither does He rebuke them!

Jesus as the I am

In John 8:24 (ESV) John describes Jesus in the Flesh calling upon the Jews to Believe in Him as an object of faith for salvation. He wrote.

“I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” (Greek: Pisteusete hoti ego eimi) Key – This is a Personal / Possessive – Nominative 1st Person Singular Pronoun.

Please note that it does not say if they believe in the Messiah as the object of faith after His ascension you will not die in your sins, no, it was even conditional before His ascension because He was the present object of Jewish devotion to the One God!

Jesus the man equal with God

John shows how the Jews affirmed this in Chapter 5:18 when they rebuke Jesus.

“This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

In Chapter 10:33 the same reality repeats itself when the Jews accuse Him.

“It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

John’s Apocalyptic Vision

John then affirms the eternality of the God man when he writes in his Apocalypse (Rev.1:8). Jesus recorded saying:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Here we see the full extent of this reality, Jesus IS (present tense) WAS (past tense) and IS TO COME (future tense) the ALPHA AND OMEGA. Please note that the Alpha and Omega is clearly Yahweh (Isaiah 44:6 and 48:12). John makes it more emphatic when he describes the Messiah in verse 17-18

“When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”

In Conclusion

In the above-mentioned passages, we see the Scriptural and historical assumption by the earliest Fathers which speak clearly of the Son as being One Person encompassing two radical perspectives, one of transcendent infinitude (Autotheos)[6] and a Man (Sarx-Anthropos)[7].

Jesus, the expected Messiah finds his assumption in both the natural and celestial realm, and not only in either one or the other accounting for the union of a twofold nature, attributed to the one what properly belonged to the other.

Christ, therefore, as God and man, possessing natures which are united, but not confused, we conclude that he is our Lord and the true Son of God, even according to his humanity, though not by means of his humanity. For we must put far from us the heresy of Nestorius, who, presuming to dissect rather than distinguish between the two natures, devised a double Christ.

 

Sources:

[1] The Word Enfleshed, Pg. 80.

[2] https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/2-8.htm

[3] We have a similar example in the passage where John says that God laid down his life for us, (1Jn 3:16). Here a property of his humanity is communicated with his other nature.

[4] St Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological controversy, John H. McGuckin Pg.388. 1966.

[5] Christ clearly called his body a temple, in John 2: 19, but would not have done so had not the Godhead distinctly dwelt in it.

[6] God-of-Himself

[7] man of flesh