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Acknowledgement

I am in great debt to the teachings of Dr. R.J. Gore as well as his notes and powerpoints on the Doctrine of Christ, which have influenced and shaped my ideas about the doctrine of Christ.  His notes were particularly important in helping me outline and construct the following paper.

We confess with Scripture and the early Church Fathers that Jesus of Nazareth is both “God and man.”  In regards to His divinity, we confess that Jesus was “eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father” (John 1:1, 18; Rom. 9:5; Heb. 1:1-3).  Hence, we refute both the detestable Arians and Jehovah Witnesses who distort the Scriptures and make the Son of God unequal with and of a different substance then the Father by their assertion that He was a created being endowed with divinity. 

In regards to Jesus’ humanity, we affirm with Scripture and the testimony of the early Church fathers that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, took upon Himself in the fullness of time a human nature.  In other words, Jesus did not always have a human nature, He assumed a human nature when “he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary” and entered into our world through the Virgin birth (Luke 1: 27, 31, 35, 2:7; Gal 4:4).  Thus Christ became fully man just as we are, “yet free from all stain of sin” (Heb. 4:15).  Since we affirm that Jesus took upon Himself a human nature, this means that He took upon Himself both a human body and a human soul (Luke 2:52; Heb. 2:14-17).  In regards to His physical body, we affirm with Scripture that Christ indeed had a physical body before and after His resurrection (Luke 24:39; Heb 2:14).  Hence, we refute the Docetists who claim that Jesus did not have a body since in their belief the body is evil, and hence to them it is impossible that the Holy Son of God could be united with an evil substance, such as the body.  Indeed, the testimony of Scripture is clear that Jesus assumed a human body (John 1:14; 1 John 1:1) and will maintain a glorified human body throughout eternity (Luke 24:39; Heb 2:14).

Furthermore, we affirm that Jesus not only has a human body but He also has a human soul.  The Scripture is clear that Jesus had to grow in “wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52), and that Jesus did not know the hour of God’s final judgment (Mat. 24:36).  If Jesus had only assumed a human body then these verses would be nonsensical.  For how can a divine soul learn? Or how can Jesus being fully equal in the divine nature with the Father not know the plans of the Father?  The only solution is that when Jesus took upon Himself a human nature, He took both a human body and a human soul.  In this regard, the human soul of Jesus could grow in wisdom and stature and not know all things even as the Father and the Son in His divine nature know all things. 

Furthermore, it is necessary for salvation that Jesus took upon Himself a human soul.  For it is human nature that is fallen, both body and soul (Gen 3:17; Jer. 17:9; Eph. 2:1-3; Ti. 1:15).  Therefore, in order for the whole person to be redeemed and saved, Christ had to take upon Himself both a human body and a human soul in order to redeem both aspects of the person (Heb 2:14-18, 4:15).  Hence we refute Apollinarianism, which asserts that Jesus had “a soul bereft of sense and reason,” and we refute Eunomius who taught that Jesus only came in the “flesh without a soul.”

Since we confess with Scripture that Jesus has both a divine and human nature, it is important that we distinguish the relationship between these two natures and discuss how they hold together.  According to the Westminster Confession of Faith, the two natures of Christ “were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion.”  It is important that we maintain that the two natures are distinct from one another, or else that which is “divine is humanized, and the human is deified.”  If we allow for a mixture of the two natures that would mean that the deity would share in human frailty, which is impossible.  Hence we refute the error of Eutychianism and Monophysitism, which argue that the human nature essentially became deified in the person of Christ.

It is also important that we note that the two natures are joined together through one person, not two persons.  Scripture never indicates that Jesus is composed of two persons.  We never see an inner dialogue in Jesus that would suggest multiple personalities, such as we see in the Scriptural references to the inner dialogue of the Trinity.  Furthermore, there are several Scriptural passages that refer to both the divine and human nature in Christ, yet it is clear that they are only talking to or about one person (Rom. 1:3-4; Gal. 4-5; Phil. 2:6-11; 1 John 4:2-3).  Therefore, Jesus is composed of two natures held together in one person.  Hence, we refute the error of Nestorianism which asserts that Jesus consisted of two natures and two persons. 

We confess that the work of Christ began with His state of humiliation, which began at the incarnation.  At the point of incarnation, Christ humbled Himself and took upon Himself a human nature (Gal. 4:4, Isa. 9:6, Heb/ 2:14, Phil. 2:7).  This is not to say that He ceased to be divine, rather it is to say that He chose to act through His human nature and not through His divine nature.  Hence, He experienced limitation.  He continued His state of humiliation by being born of woman and therefore being born under the law (Gal. 4:4).  In His state of humiliation, He became obedient to the will of the Father even to the point of suffering and death on the cross (Phil. 2:7-8).  On the cross, He experienced the wrath of God for the sin of the elect (Isa. 53; Matt. 27:46; II Cor. 5:12).  This wrath not only included physical suffering but also the suffering of the soul, since the punishment of humanity’s sin is both physical and spiritual (Matt. 10:28, 26:38, 27:46). He experienced physical death and was placed in a tomb, yet death could not hold Him and His body did not undergo decay (Matt. 27:59-60; Acts 2:23-24, 13:37). 

We confess that after three days in the tomb Christ physically arose from the dead with the same body that He had been crucified with (1 Cor 15:3-4; John 20:25,27) and hence moved from a state of humiliation to a state of exaltation.  His state of exaltation continued when He ascended into heaven (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:50-53; John 6:62) and took His place at the right hand of God our Father (Acts 2:33-36; Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:3, 10:12; I Peter 3:22), where He makes intercession on our behalf (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25).  The completion and fullness of Christ’s state of exaltation will come about when He comes again to judge humans and angels at the end of the world (Matt. 25:31-34; John 5:27; Acts 10:42; Rom. 2:16; I Cor. 6:3; II Cor. 5:10; Jude 5-6).

We confess that in Christ’s states of humiliation and exaltation He fulfills the threefold office of prophet, priest, and king.  He fulfills the office of prophet in that He reveals to humanity the will and character of God (John 1:18; Heb. 1:1-2).  Furthermore, Scripture prophesied that the Christ would be a prophet (Deut. 18:18-19; Acts 3:22-26).  And Christ was recognized as a prophet (John 4:19, 25, 26).  He fulfills the office of priest “in his once offering himself a sacrifice without spot to God, to be reconciliation for the sins of his people; and in making continual intercession for them.”  Hence, He becomes the one who offers up the sacrifice (Heb. 9:11-12, 25, 10:12) and the one who is sacrificed once for all time (Heb. 9:28, 10:5-14).  He fulfills the office of king in that all authority in heaven and earth was given to Him (Matt. 28:18), and He continues to reign until all things are brought under subjection to Him (I Cor. 15:24-28).  Furthermore, the Scriptures prophesied that the Christ would be a king (Gen. 49:9-10; Psalm 2, 89; Luke 1:33).  The importance of Christ fulfilling the threefold office of prophet, priest, and king is that He fulfills the original offices that were intended for humanity, which Adam lost through the fall.  Hence, we can see in the work of Christ as the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace a recovery of the initial covenant that God made with Adam.  Therefore, as Adam was a covenant breaker, Christ becomes the covenant keeper, and this we confess is related to Christ’s work of redemption and atonement.

We confess that in the beginning God made a covenant with Adam called the Covenant of Life.  The Covenant of Life promised life to Adam if he kept the conditions of the covenant, which was “personal, perfect and perpetual obedience.”  Adam did not keep the covenant conditions and hence he received the covenant curse of death.   Adam being the head of the covenant also subjected all of his descendants, which includes all humanity, to the power of sin and death, and hence all of humanity became completely corrupted by sin and unable to do good since their wills follow their evil nature (Rom. 3:10-18, 8; Eph 2:3).  Out of love, God sought to redeem some of humanity and therefore sent His Son to make atonement for their sins by becoming the Covenant head of the elect. 

Christ’s atonement is a substitutionary atonement and hence twofold.  First, Christ suffers the penalties of all the elect because they are all covenant breakers.  This is done in order to satisfy God’s justice (Rom. 3:26).  On the cross, Christ took on all the sins of the elect and endured the penalty of their sin, which was the true wrath of God (Rom. 5:8, 10; II Cor. 5:21).  Thus, through Christ’s death the penalty of the elects’ covenant breaking is satisfied (Heb 2:17; I John 2:2) and his resurrection is a guarantee of that satisfaction (I Cor. 15).  The second aspect of Christ’s atonement is found in his active obedience.  Christ fulfills the covenant requirements on behalf of his people through his active obedience to the covenant requirements (Rom. 5:19; Phil. 2:8).  Thus, He imputes his righteousness unto His people and they are now considered covenant keepers (Rom. 4:24-25, 5:17-19).    

We confess with Scripture and the guidance of the Westminster confession that the substitutionary atonement of Christ is limited only to the elect (Matt. 1:21, John 10:11, 26-27, 17:2; Acts 20:28; Eph. 5:25; II Tim. 2:19).  Scripture testifies that election is not based on foreknowledge, as defined as knowing ahead of time the actions or thoughts of an individual (Rom. 9:11, 18, 11:5-6).  As we have noted early, under Adam all were subjected to sin and death and all fell into a sinful corruption that always choose sin over God (Rom. 3:10-18, 8; Eph 2:3).  When God chooses to apply Christ’s work of atonement to an individual all of the person’s sins are completely forgiven and he moves from death to life and becomes apart of God’s elect who will never fall away (Rom. 8:29-30; Eph 1:13).  We should not attempt to apply some equal distribution of grace and mercy to all humanity.  Rather, we must remember that it is God who “has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills” (Rom. 9:18).

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