The Divine and Human Nature of Jesus

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8

There were many questions that arose in the early centuries of the church’s life concerning the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One set of questions was raised by a Christian priest named Arius. He wanted to protect the unity of God. He believed that there was a time when God was all alone before the existence of the Trinity. During this time, God was not a Father because there was not yet a Son. He also believed that Jesus was not divine in the same way that God was divine. Jesus was part of creation, though of a higher order than ordinary humans. The way he put this was to assert that “there was a time when the Son was not.”

One of the negative implications of this for early church theologians was the distance it created between the Son and the Father. Arius said that the Son, as a created being, cannot fully know the Father, who is fully God. Against this view, the critics of Arius—particularly a Christian bishop named Athanasius—were able to find many scriptures that asserted the full unity of the Son with the Father. They noted that Jesus had said to Philip that whoever had seen him had “seen the Father” (John 14:9). Orthodox theologians also made the point that only God is able to save. If Jesus had not been fully God, he would not have been able to save humanity through his sacrificial death. The fact that Jesus became our Savior means he must be fully God.

But how did God become human, with all the constraints of human existence? Some early Christians asked if the Son laid aside his divinity when he became human. After much discussion, the church answered, “No.” Since the Son was God, he could not empty himself of his divine nature. He did, however, set aside his position as the exalted Son at the right hand of the Father. He emptied himself of his exaltation to become a servant. As Paul says in Philippians, he “humbled himself,” “took on the form of a servant,” and “made himself nothing.” The pinnacle of his humiliation was that he was obedient unto death, even “death on a cross.”

Christ did not abandon his divinity but retained his divine nature when he took on a human nature. The distinction between the two natures was sufficient to preserve the truth of the incarnation, that Jesus Christ is indeed Immanuel, God-with-us. He was not one who used to be God, nor was he someone who had merely been sent from God. This is crucially important because it means that we fully know God in the person of Jesus Christ. In him we see the glory of God, since Jesus was and is the exact imprint of God’s very being. In him the fullness of God dwells. This means that the divinity of the Son was in no way impaired, limited, or changed by his gracious act of assuming a human nature. In the same way, His true humanity was in no way undermined by His continued divinity.

This is a great mystery. Though we cannot fully explain it, we affirm it with joy and confidence.