Questions to be answered:

1.      How is Jesus Christ fully God and fully man, yet one person?

Statement of the Biblical
Doctrine:  The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ was
fully God and fully man in one person, and will be so forever.

Based on the evidence of the Bible, only one of three
conclusions can be drawn regarding Jesus.

·
Jesus was a liar

·
Jesus was a lunatic

·
Jesus was the incarnate Son of God

A.   The Humanity of Christ.

1.      The virgin birth.

Luke 1:26-38 – In the sixth
month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin
pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The
virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you
who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at
his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said
to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will
be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will
give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of
Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." "How will this be,"
Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the
Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her
old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing
is impossible with God." "I am the Lord's servant," Mary
answered. "May it be to me as you have said."
Then the angel left her.

·
It shows salvation ultimately comes from the Lord (e.g., the case of
Isaac and Ishmael)

·
The virgin birth made possible the uniting of full deity and full
humanity.

·
The virgin birth also makes possible Christ’s true humanity
without inherited sin.

2.      Human weakness and
limitations.

·
Jesus had a human body.

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, who came from the Father, full of grace
and truth.

1 John 4:2 – This is how you can recognize
the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh is from God.

·
Jesus had a human mind.

Luke 2:52 – And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature,
and in favor with God and men.

·
Jesus had a human soul and human emotions.

Matthew 9:36 – When he saw
the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless,
like sheep without a shepherd.

Matthew 26:38 – Then he said
to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay
here and keep watch with me."

Luke 13:34 – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed
to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
but you were not willing!

3.      Sinlessness.

John 8:46 – Can any of you
prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me?

John 15:10 – If you obey my commands, you
will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

Hebrews 4:15 – For
we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was
without sin.

1 Peter 1:18-19 – For you know that it was
not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from
the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the
precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

4.      Could Jesus have sinned?

The “impeccability” of Christ
(“impeccable” means “not able to sin.”  In Latin,
“peccare” means “to sin”).

·
Scripture clearly affirms that Christ never sinned.

·
Scripture also clearly affirms that Jesus was tempted and that these
were real temptations.

·
God cannot be tempted with evil.

Matthew 4:1-11 – Then Jesus
was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting
forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said,
"If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus
answered, "It is written: `Man does not live on bread alone, but on every
word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Then the devil took him to the
holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you
are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is
written:  "`He will command his
angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you
will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It
is also written: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Again, the
devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the
world and their splendor." All this I will give you," he said,
"if you will bow down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away
from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship the Lord your God, and serve him
only.'" Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

5.      Why was Jesus’ full
humanity necessary?

·
For representative obedience.

Adam – humanity’s first representative – sinned

Jesus – humanity’s second representative
– perfect

Adam’s temptations vs.
Jesus’ temptations.

Hebrews 2:10-18 – In bringing many sons
to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect
through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy
are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says, "I
will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I
will sing your praises." And again, "I will put my trust in
him." And again he says, "Here am I, and the
children God has given me." Since the children have flesh and blood, he
too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who
holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- and free those who all their
lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this
reason he had to be made like his brothers 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. Because he himself suffered when he
was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

·
To be a substitute sacrifice.

2 Corinthians 5:21 – God
made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.

B.    The Deity of Christ.

The Incarnation:  The act of God the Son whereby he took
to himself a human nature.

1.      Direct Scriptural claims.

·
The word “God” (Theos)
used of Christ.

John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.

1 John 5:20 – We know also that the Son of
God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is
true. And we are in him who is true; even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the
true God and eternal life.

·
The word “Lord” (Kurios)
used of Christ.

The Greek word kurios
is used in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) to translate the Hebrew
word Yhwh
(Yahweh, LORD, Jehovah).

Acts 2:36 – Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus,
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Philippians 2:9-11 – Therefore God exalted
him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under
the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father.

·
Other strong claims to deity.

Matthew 16:16 – Simon Peter
answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Matthew 17:5 – While he was
still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said,
"This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to
him!"

John 5:18 – For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to
kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his
own Father, making himself equal with God.

Acts 9:20 – At once
he [Paul] began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

2.      Evidence that Jesus
possessed attributes of deity.

·
Omnipotence.

Luke 5:17 – One day as he was
teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of
Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting
there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick.

·
Eternity.

John 17:5 – And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with
the glory I had with you before the world began.

·
Omniscience.

Matthew 9:4 – Knowing their
thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

·
Omnipresence.

Matthew 28:20 – And surely I am with
you always, to the very end of the age.

·
Sovereignty.

Acts 2:36 – Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus,
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

·
Worthy of worship.

Matthew 2:1-2 – After Jesus
was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the
east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king
of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

Matthew 14:33 – Then those who were in the
boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

3.      Did Jesus give up some of
his divine attributes while on earth (the Kenosis
theory)?

Philippians 2:5-11 – Your
attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not
consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being
made in human likeness.  And being
found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to
death—even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name
that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

No.
Jesus emptied himself of his status and role, not his essential
attributes or nature.

4.      Conclusion:  Christ is fully divine.

5.      Why was Jesus’ deity
necessary?

·
Only someone who is fully God could bear the full penalty for all the
sins of all those who would believe in him.

Hebrews 9:24-28 – For Christ
did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he
entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter
heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the
Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would
have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has
appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die
once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take
away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear
sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

·
Salvation is from the Lord.

Acts 4:12 – Salvation is
found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by
which we must be saved.

·
Only someone who was fully God could be the one mediator between God
and mankind.

1 Timothy 2:5 – For there is
one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

C.   The Incarnation:  Deity and Humanity in the One Person of
Christ.

1.      Three inadequate views of the
person of Christ.

·
Apollinarianism (Apollinarius, bishop of Laodicea ca. AD 361).

·
Nestorianism (Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople ca. AD
428).

·
Monophysitism (Eutychianism; Eutyches, a monastic leader
at Constantinople ca. AD 378 – 454).

2.      The solution to the
controversy:  The Chalcedonian
Definition of AD 451.

Following,
then, the holy fathers, we unite in teaching all men to confess the one and
only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This selfsame one is perfect both in deity and
in humanness; this selfsame one is also actually God and actually man, with a
rational soul {meaning human soul} and a body. He is of the same reality as God
as far as his deity is concerned and of the same reality as we ourselves as far
as his humanness is concerned; thus like us in all respects, sin only excepted.
Before time began he was begotten of the Father, in respect of his deity, and
now in these "last days," for us and behalf of our salvation, this
selfsame one was born of Mary the virgin, who is God-bearer in respect of his
humanness.  We also teach that we
apprehend this one and only Christ-Son, Lord, only-begotten – in two
natures; and we do this without confusing the two natures, without transmuting
one nature into the other, without dividing them into two separate categories,
without contrasting them according to area or function. The distinctiveness of
each nature is not nullified by the union. Instead, the "properties"
of each nature are conserved and both natures concur in one "person"
and in one reality {hypostasis}. They are not divided or cut into two persons,
but are together the one and only and only-begotten Word {Logos} of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Thus have the prophets of old testified; thus the Lord Jesus
Christ himself taught us; thus the Symbol of Fathers has handed down to us.

3.      Combining specific Biblical
texts on Christ’s deity and humanity.

·
One nature does some things the other nature does not.

·
Anything either nature does, the person of Christ does.

·
Conclusion:

The incarnation must rank as one of the, if not the,
most amazing miracles in Scripture.
The fact that the divine nature of God the Son could unite with human
nature in the person of Jesus will forever remain a mystery.