🌎 He Came: Fully God, Fully Man

In the previous post, we learned of the bad news of the Bible. We’re all sinners who have rejected God, and this leads to suffering, death and judgment. In this article, we turn to the good news of the gospel of Jesus.

But why does it have to be Jesus who saves us? And why does he actually have to come? Why can’t he save us from heaven? Or, why can’t we save ourselves?

These questions lead us to our problem.

1. The problem

Our problem is twofold.

𝚯 Only God can save us from sin

Firstly, only God can save us. In Isaiah 43:11 (NIV), we read:

I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no saviour.

Salvation comes from God. Only God can save us. Apart from him, there is no Saviour. It’s too big a problem. No one else can pull it off (check out Psalm 62:1-2, Isaiah 45:21-22, Hosea 13:4 and Jonah 2:9 if you don’t believe me).

🤦‍♂️ Only humans should pay for human sin

However, secondly, it’s a human problem, meaning that only a human should pay for sin. In Romans 5:12, we read:

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned…

Sin entered through humans. So, it’s also a human problem needing a human solution.

But then, as we learned in the previous post (and in the verse above), we’re all sinners. So, how will we find a human to fix all this?

2. God’s solution

Enter God’s solution.

🌎 God sent Jesus, Jesus came

God sent Jesus, and Jesus came. As we read in Galatians 4:4–5:

4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

God the Father sent God the Son from outside of time and space into time and space. He was born of a woman, the Virgin Mary, who had never “known” a man. The Holy Spirit enabled this to happen (see Matthew 1:18, Luke 1:35). And so, Jesus came.

God Man v. Dog Man

My son recently became a huge fan of the Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey.

The story begins with two characters, a police officer named Officer Knight and his loyal dog, Greg the Dog. During an encounter with Petey the Cat, Officer Knight and Greg are injured in an explosion. Officer Knight’s head is fatally injured, and Greg’s body is also beyond saving.

Thankfully, their doctors devise an unconventional solution to save them both. They surgically attach Greg's healthy head to Officer Knight's healthy body, combining them into one new being: Dog Man! Half dog, half man, all hero.

I reckon this is how people often think of Jesus, the “God Man”: half God, half man, all hero.

But this isn’t how he’s presented in the Bible.

💯 Fully God in nature 𝚯

The Bible teaches us that Jesus is fully God in nature.

In John 1:1, we read that Jesus was “with God” and “was God” before God created anything.

This means that he was never “created” or “made”. He always existed.

We say that he was “begotten” of the Father (see John 5:26). “Begotten” means fathered. A son is fathered by his father. My three children are begotten of me. They are born of their mum, Emma, and begotten by me, their father. And they are begotten in time.

God the Son is begotten of—or “fathered by”—his Father in eternity (not in time), outside creation.

But when he entered time and space, he came in full divinity.

In Philippians 2:6–7, we read that Jesus,

6 who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

So, he was fully God in nature. Equal with God. And yet he came to us despite being fully God. (For more Bible verses saying that Jesus is fully God, see John 8:58, John 10:30, Colossians 1:15-17, Hebrews 1:3, Titus 2:13, or any place where he is referred to as “Lord”)

💯 Fully human in nature 🙆‍♂️

But, as we see in Philippians 2:7, he didn’t just come in his divine nature. He also became fully human. He took the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. When it says “human likeness”, we’re not saying Jesus is “like” humans, as dolphins or apes are “like” humans. The point is that he really became human.

As we read in John 1:14, he took on human “flesh”. Or, as we read in Galatians 4:4, he was born of a woman, under the law. Or, as we read in Hebrews 2:17, “he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God”. He really was human.

3. How this works

There has been much controversy about how exactly this works. The church took seven long councils over eight centuries to determine how this makes sense.

What does it mean for Jesus to be fully God and fully man? Is there one Jesus or two? How do they fit together?

1. First Council of Nicaea, 325 AD. This council established the doctrine of the Trinity and composed the original Nicene Creed to affirm the deity of Jesus Christ against Arianism (which taught that Jesus Christ was not divine by nature but was a created being who was superior to human beings but inferior to God the Father).
2. First Council of Constantinople, 381 AD. This council expanded the Nicene Creed to further define the nature of the Holy Spirit and affirmed the divinity of the Holy Spirit to counter Macedonianism (which taught that the Holy Spirit was created and not equal or united with the Father and the Son, denying the full divinity of the Holy Spirit).
3. Council of Ephesus, 431. This council affirmed the title "Theotokos" (God-bearer) for Mary, emphasising the unity of divine and human natures in Jesus Christ, and condemned Nestorianism (which taught that Jesus Christ was two separate persons—one divine and one human).
4. Council of Chalcedon, 451. This council defined the two natures of Christ (divine and human) in one person, forming the Chalcedonian Definition, and opposed the Monophysite teaching (which taught that Jesus has only one nature, either divine or a combo of divine and human, rather than two distinct natures, divine and human, coexisting within one person).
5. Second Council of Constantinople, 553. This council reaffirmed the decisions of the previous councils and further condemned Nestorian writings, addressing controversies arising from the Council of Chalcedon.
6. Third Council of Constantinople (680-681). This council addressed the Monothelite controversy (which taught that Jesus Christ had only one divine will, rather than two wills, one divine and one human) by affirming that Christ has both a divine and a human will corresponding to his divine and human natures.
7. Second Council of Nicaea, 787. This council resolved the first iconoclasm controversy (a dispute over the legitimacy and appropriateness of using religious images in worship) by reinstating the veneration of icons (that is, respectful reverence and honour given to special images) in churches, affirming their use as a legitimate means of Christian devotion and instruction.

One person, two natures

In the Bible, we only read of one Jesus Christ. Not two, not three, not four. Just one. And as we read the Bible, especially Philippians 2:6–7, we see that this one Jesus has two “natures”: a fully divine nature, and a fully human nature.

6 who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

He is in “very nature God” and takes on the “very nature of a servant”. That is, he takes on a human nature.

These two natures are united in one person, the man Jesus Christ. Theologians refer to this as the “hypostatic union”. In other words, there is a union of the two natures in the one “person” (or, if you prefer the jargon, “hypostasis”) of Jesus Christ.

How do we tease this out?

At the council of Chalcedon, it was decreed that the one man, Jesus, is to be recognised in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.

Let’s unpack that.

🚫 There’s no confusion 🥤

This means that Jesus’ divinity and humanity can’t be blended, combined, or merged into a new third nature (as Eutychianism and Monophysitism suggested). It’s not like a milkshake where you combine milk and chocolate to create a third new thing, “chocolate milkshake”.

🚫 There’s no change 🐛🦋

Jesus’s divine nature doesn’t change when he takes on humanity, altering his eternal and unchanging nature (which Apollinarianism suggested). He’s not like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.

🚫 There’s no division 💁‍♂️🙋‍♂️

The two natures don’t become two divided persons, a divine Jesus and a human Jesus, working towards a common goal (which Nestorianism suggested). It’s not like there is a divine Jesus working alongside a human Jesus. There is one Jesus.

🚫 There’s no separation 🐣

The union of the divine and human natures in Christ is a real union, not merely a close relationship or a role played by the divine. They’re not like a chicken and an egg, a temporary union that can later be separated. The human and divine natures are permanently and inseparably united in one person, meaning Jesus Christ will forever be both God and man.

Anhypostasia and enhypostasia

Anhypostasia and enhypostasia are two terms that Christians came up with to help us understand further how this plays out, how the two natures exist.

Anhypostasia basically means “no independent personal existence or subsistence.” So, it refers to the fact that the human nature of Jesus does not exist by itself as an independent person. Jesus’ human nature is “anhypostatic”, or, to use my made-up word, “unpersonified”. It has no “personhood” independent of the union with his divine nature.

Enhypostasia means “in a personal existence or subsistence.” It refers to the fact that Jesus’ human nature is given its existence and reality through its union with his divine nature.

The divine nature of the Son “enhypostatises” (or, to use my made-up word, “personifies”) the “anhypostatic” (or “unpersonified”) human nature of the foetus conceived in Mary’s womb, who grows up to be the man we read of in the Gospels.

In other words, Jesus' human nature is “personified” not in itself but solely in its union with the divine nature.

4. Why this matters

Now that was a lot of technical jargon. Why does this all matter?

Check out this paraphrased conversation between everyone’s favourite 11th-century monk Anselm. He has a weird writing style (he has a conversation with his imaginary friend, Boso), but he makes a helpful point.

Anselm. No one but God can fix our problem.
Boso. Looks like it.
Anselm. But no one other than man ought to do it, otherwise man does not solve his problem.
Boso. That’s right.
Anselm. So, then it’s necessary for the God-man to solve the problem.
Boso. Nice![1]

I know it’s weird that Anselm has an imaginary friend, but he makes a helpful point. Jesus had to be fully God and fully man to deal with the problem of sin. Sin is a human problem, so we need a human solution. Sin is a massive problem, meaning that only God can deal with it, so we need a divine solution.

That’s why we need the God Man. (Not Dog Man)

Hebrews 2:14–17 also details the purpose and outcome of Christ's humanity, alas with no imaginary friends.

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

He who was fully God became fully human so that he might defeat sin, death and the devil on our behalf, reconciling us to God as our faithful priest.

But for the time being …

5. How we should respond

How should we respond to the one man, Jesus, who, being fully God, became fully human?

Answer: humility.

In Philippians 2:5, we’re told to have the “same mindset” as Jesus who, though being fully God, humbled himself by becoming fully human taking on the nature of a servant.

If we’re to have the same mindset as Christ, we need to take on a humble mindset, prioritising others above ourselves, putting the needs of others before our own. How can we do otherwise?
Notes

[1] Saint Anselm, Cur Deus Homo (John Henry and James Parker, 1865), chapter 2, section 6, pp. 65–66.