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THE HYPOSTATIC UNION

(From my “Bible Doctrine” mid-term exam:)

 

The “Hypostatic Union” refers to the personhood, or dual nature of Jesus, who is both fully human and fully God.  He “was” one in person and nature (divine), and who became (and remains) two in nature (divine and human), and remained one in person in His incarnation.

 

It is important for believers to understand this union as Jesus could not have been our “unblemished sacrifice” (Hebrews 9:14) or our “priestly mediator” (Hebrews 9:23-26) if He were not a man, nor could He forgive sin (Mark 2:7) or raise the dead (physically and spiritually) (1 Peter 1:21) if He were not God.

 

Here, I have notated in three sections, the truths of these natures and how they are important to how Jesus is able to relate to us, how we are to relate to Him and how these truths are often skewed.

 

 

 1 – THE HUMANITY OF JESUS

 

Throughout my studies in Apologetics, I have observed two extremes on the view of the person of Jesus.

 

On the extreme right there is a tendency to completely overlook the humanity of Jesus and focus solely on His exaltation.  On the far left, such as many within the Emergent Church, so much emphasis is placed on the humanity of Jesus that they neglect His deity, and ultimately His exclusivity.

 

There are also those within the fringes of Christianity, such as self proclaimed apostle and prophet Rick Joyner, who hold a Docetistic view stating “he was and is a spirit”. (1)

 

 

How Human Was Jesus?

 

In contemporary terms, we could say Jesus lived His life as an ordinary man working with His step-dad swinging a hammer as a carpenter. (Mark 6:3) 

 

His physical body would have functioned in every manner as ours.  The prophet Isaiah wrote that He was just a normal, average looking man. (Isaiah 53:2)

 

In the following list we will see evidences that Jesus lived His life as we do:

 

 

To quote the Reformer, Martin Luther: “You should point to the whole man Jesus and say ‘That is God’”. (3)

 

 

Attacks on Jesus’ humanity:

 

Docetism: Is the belief that Jesus’ physical body was an illusion, as was His crucifixion. The belief says Jesus only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality He was incorporeal (having no body or form), a pure spirit, and therefore could not physically die.  Docetism could be further explained as the view that, because the human body is temporary and the spirit is eternal, that the body of Jesus and His crucifixion must have been illusions.  This view was adamantly refuted by the apostle John (1 John 4:2-3), as well as being condemned as heresy at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

 

Monophysiticism: This heresy wrongly teaches that Jesus was singular in nature, and that He did not truly suffer, but only pretended to.  This error denies Jesus’ incarnation into human history as fully human, living a divine – human life in and through His human mind and body.  If a literal incarnation were untrue, He would have had no identification with our struggles.  If unable to identify with us, He would have lacked the requirements that God the Father’s will dictated.

 

 

2 – THE DIVINITY OF JESUS

 

There are many today (and throughout history) who idolize Jesus the man.  He has been the object of many books, movies, songs and pieces of apparel.  He has essentially become a pop-cultural icon.

 

The divinity of Jesus has been ignored by secular society as a whole.  Cults have twisted it, and now there are those within Christianity who are diminishing it.

 

Liberal “Christians”, such as those in the Emergent Church, say that Jesus was merely a good man, yet practically ignore Him as the God-man (4), since they’d rather just head out on a spiritual journey with non-believers instead of pointing them to the “exclusive” Jesus who convicts men of their sin and desires to save them from Hell.  They tend to see Him as a type of Mr. Rogers who is merely a model for human social justice, and who wants to take everyone to Neverland.

 

Jehovah’s Witnesses say Jesus was a created being that became a man.  Mormons believe He was only a man who became one of many gods.  Scientology teaches Jesus was an “implant” forced upon a Thetan about a million years ago.  Islam teaches Jesus was merely a man and prophet who is inferior to Muhammad. (5)

 

While we must recognize the humanity of Jesus, and emulate His love for the lost and compassion for the hurting, we cannot deemphasize the Jesus who is Savior, king, judge and, eternal God. (Isaiah 9:6)

 

In the following list we will see evidences that Jesus is divine:

 

 

 

3 – IMPORTANCE OF THE UNION

 

To truly be able to understand who the person of Jesus is, it is imperative that we look to scripture and have a balanced view on His dual nature and see Him for who He is, our most precious Savior and the “one and only” eternal God.

 

Here we will look at the importance of the Union according to scripture, and with personal insights I have obtained from various theologians such as Robert Lightner, Elmer Towns, J.I. Packer and Wayne Grudem.

 

He understands our struggles:

 

“For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people.  Because when He himself was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:17-18)

 

It was totally necessary for Jesus to come into human history as a true man, experiencing all the struggles that we do (weakness, temptation, pain).  If Jesus were not a man, He would have been unqualified to identify and help us walk through them.  Only Jesus, because of His own suffering and temptation, is able to be our complete source of strength in our own temptation.

 

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way , just as we are – yet was without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)

 

The highlighted portion of verse 15 above clearly tells us that through all of our trials, we can have unshakeable confidence that Jesus completely understands our struggles, since in His humanity he walked these roads before us, having been tempted in every way as we are, yet remaining impeccable in His divinity.

 

“Although He was a son, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.” (Hebrews 5:8-9)

 

Being God Jesus did not literally need to learn obedience since He is the author of the very command.  In His incarnate state, He humbled himself to learn so He could fully identify with us.

 

In James chapter 1, we are told that our trials and temptations are meant to cause us to humble ourselves before God, learn obedience from our suffering, and persevere to become “mature and complete” in our faith.  Jesus has promised to walk with us to the end, to complete our sanctification and make us perfect just as He is. (Philippians 1:16 and 3:12)   What a wonderful God we serve!

 

Other key observations include:

 

  • His soul became troubled (John 12:27)
  • He became troubled in spirit (John 13:21)
  • He experienced great stress, even to the point He felt it would kill Him (Matthew 26:38)
  • He felt great sorrow, even to the point of tears (Hebrews 5:7)

 

Because of His experience in suffering, Jesus never walks ahead of us so as to leave us behind.  He never walks behind us allowing us to lead the way.  He always walks beside us, walking us through the dark as our source of strength and light.

 

He did what only God can do:

 

“You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are going to name him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” (Luke 1:31-32)

 

“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)

 

If there is one thing everyone in the world can agree upon is that if a male and a female procreate they will give birth to another person.  Our very genetic make-up disallows any other possibility.  Likewise, according to scripture, all that two sinners can create is another sinner. 

 

All of humanity has descended from one couple and therefore share the same bloodline.  This couple, our first parents, sinned before God bringing a curse upon humanity.  No matter what we do, even our own salvation, cannot break the genetic chain of sin.

 

This very issue makes the Virgin Birth of Jesus so important.  If Jesus were to have been born of two human parents He would not only have not been divine, but if He were conceived by the seed of an earthly father, He would have in no way qualified to be the Savior who could free us from the bondage of our corrupted flesh.  In having been conceived by the Holy Spirit the chain was broken and our perfect Savior was born.  In His deity He broke the chain of sin that was imputed to humanity from Adam.

 

So though Jesus was fully human, in His deity He remained sinless.  If this were not true, it would have disqualified Him from being the “unblemished” sacrifice required by the Father to atone for our sin. (Hebrews 7:26)

 

“…I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

 

With the Virgin Birth, the divinity of Jesus was revealed through the Holy Spirit.  In the above verse this divinity was declared by Jesus himself.  In His declaration of being “the light of the world” Jesus pointed to His own moral purity and to Himself as the source of all truth.  In this Jesus was saying, “I am God manifest in the flesh”. (1 Timothy 3:16)

 

“For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man and be a sin offering.” (Romans 5:7)

 

In our utter depravity, there is nothing we could do to appease God.  Though Jesus was fully man, in His incarnation Jesus was only in the likeness of sinful flesh.  Only in His deity could He have been so blameless as to appease the absolute perfection the Father requires. 

 

Only God could be so loving and selfless.  I can think of no mere man who would be willing to fully sacrifice his own life for a world that hates him.  It is only because of His love for us that we are able to be changed in such a radical way that we can now love Him.

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

Being such a rich subject there is no possible way I could fully cover every aspect of the person of Jesus here.  What I have covered are those things that I believe the Holy Spirit wished me to focus on at this time to draw me into a deeper understanding of who my Savior truly is, and how much he wishes for me to identify with Him – as a God big enough to save me as well as one who wishes to weep, laugh and converse with me as one who was willing to die for a friend. (John 15:13)

 

 

CITATIONS

1.       “There Were Two Trees in the Garden” (Rick Joyner, page 70, 1986/2006, Morning Star Pub.)

2.       “Vintage Jesus: Timeless Truths to Timely Questions” (Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears, page 33, 2008, Crossway Pub.)

3.       Ibid. (page 34)

4.       Ibid. (page 14) 

5.       “The Concise Guide to Today’s Religions and Spirituality” (James K. Walker, 2007, Harvest House Pub.)

This entry was posted on July 4, 2008 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Theology . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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