Let us dive into the Doctrine of the Incarnation. Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are eternally divine and have no beginning and end. They were not created, but are self-existent and self-sustaining. “God is spirit” (John 4:24). At the incarnation, Jesus Christ whom is spirit, wrapped Himself in human flesh and thus became the God-man. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word had one nature, namely His divine nature. At the incarnation, Jesus took on a second nature, namely a human nature. How did these two natures co-exist in the single person of Christ?
The Bible tells us that Jesus is both God and man, but it does not tell us how the two natures co-existed. In the early church there were discussions over this exact issue. A gathering took place in 451 known as the Council of Chalcedon. Three main views discussed were monophysitism (one single nature), miaphysitism (one united nature), and dyophysitism (two natures).
One particular position was that Jesus’ human nature was absorbed by His divine nature to form a new nature. The problem with this view is that it contradicts the fact that Jesus is fully God and fully man. It was determined at the Council of Nicaea in 325 that Jesus Christ is of one ‘substance’ with the Father in His divine nature and one ‘substance’ with man in His human nature. This monophysite position contradicts this understanding. This position is better understood with an illustration. If you take yellow paint and mix it with blue paint, you end up with green paint. If this was true of Christ, then His divine nature mixed with His human nature to form a new nature which would mean that Christ is not fully God or fully man but some nature in between. The church had to reject this view as unbiblical.
The council concluded that Jesus has two natures (or dyophysitism) beginning at the incarnation. The divine nature and human nature are united together in such a way that each nature retains its characteristics. The two natures of Christ united at the incarnation to form the single person of Christ who is fully God and fully man. Protestants, Catholics, and most Orthodox hold to the two natures of Christ while some Orthodox such as the Ethiopian and Egyptian Orthodox hold to the miaphysite position. To touch on this briefly, they believe that Jesus’ divine nature united with His human nature in such a way that Christ has one nature, yet without any change and mutation of the individual natures. If you recall the monophysite illustration with the mixing of the two paint colors to form a new color, such mixing does not apply to the miaphysite position. An illustration of the miaphysite position would be helpful. The Bible declares that through the union of marriage a man and a woman become one flesh (Genesis 2:24; Ephesians 5:31). Even though a husband and wife unite to become one flesh, the husband retains the characteristics of masculinity, and the wife retains the characteristics of femininity. When the two natures of Christ unite to form a single nature, they retain their individual characteristics. I disagree with this view and hold to the position of two natures in Christ as held by most followers of Jesus Christ.
In case all this philosophical talk has boggled your mind, which is completely normal--especially if this is your first time thinking about it--let me re-establish the widespread understanding of the two natures of Christ at the incarnation as understood by the world wide church over the span of history. Jesus Christ has always had a divine nature, but at the incarnation He received for Himself a human nature in order that He may provide salvation and forgiveness of sins to all who will receive Him. His two natures unite in such a way that Jesus Christ retains His divinity while becoming fully human, yet without sin.
Here is an illustration:
What is the nature of a square? It has four corners. Each side is the same length. It has four 90 degree angles. What is the nature of a perfect circle? It has no corners. The radius and diameter are the same from all points of the circle. When the nature of the square and the nature of the circle unite to form a single entity, do the natures of the individual shapes change? The square is still 100% square, and the circle remains 100% circle. The natures of the shapes remain distinct and unique even after they unite. The same is true with the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The divine nature and human nature of Christ unite in one person, yet each nature retains all of its characteristics.
Not only does Jesus have two natures, a divine and a human, but men and women have two natures as well. All of us are body and spirit. We have a spiritual nature and a human nature. At birth, our spirit and body are united to form us as an individual person. At death, our spirit departs from our body. At the resurrection, our spirit re-unites with our body. Without our spirit, our body is lifeless. When Jesus died on the cross, the scripture says He gave up His spirit (John 19:30). When Stephen was stoned to death, he called out for Jesus to receive his spirit (Acts 7:59). Such language describes the experience of death.
When the scripture states that Jesus ate food, drank wine, got tired, slept, and died, it is clearly referring to His human nature, namely His body. When you and I as regular humans eat, drink, and sleep, we are doing so for our bodies. Your spirit and my spirit do not eat or sleep. Our bodies do that. When Jesus ate bread and drank wine, it was not His divine spirit which ate and drank, but His body which ate and drank. The fact that Jesus did these things like other humans does not mean He can’t be God.
A moment ago I said that humans have two natures, namely a spiritual nature and a human nature. It is important for me to point out that our spiritual nature exists as either dead or alive. An unbeliever has a spiritual nature, but the spirit is dead to the things of God and can’t receive the truth of God. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). In brief, the natural person is a person whose spiritual nature is dead and unresponsive to the truth of God. What are the things of the Spirit of God? God speaks the truth and does not lie, so the things of the Spirit of God would be the truth. A natural man with a dead spiritual nature is unable to discern the truth of God for it is not discerned with the eyes, ears, mind, and body alone, but it is discerned through the spirit. Such people find the death of Christ on the cross for the sins of His people as utter foolishness and refuse to receive it. In order to understand, believe, and receive the truth of the Spirit of God you must be born-again by the Spirit so that your spirit is awakened to the truth of God. If your spiritual nature is dead then pray for mercy and guidance. If your spiritual nature has been made alive by the Spirit of Christ then set your mind on the things of the Spirit and put to death the deeds of your body (Romans 8:13).
I hope and pray that my explaining of the natures of Christ was sufficient and that my explanations and illustrations have been helpful. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He had to become a man in the likeness of sinful flesh in order to appease the wrath of God through the sacrifice of Himself in the place of repentant sinners. If Jesus was not fully God and not fully man, then His death on the cross is meaningless and we will all perish in our sins. God is glorified in the humiliation of Christ on the cross, because God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God loved His people for His own glory and He provided salvation for His people for His name’s sake. The incarnation of Christ and His death on the cross was necessary to purchase the gift of eternal life for our spiritual nature and the restoration for our human nature. Let Christ be magnified!
