CHRISTOLOGY

2005

LESSON FOUR

I. Peculiarities of Christ’s Human Nature (p.71)

A. Christ is consubstantial with us.

B. Yet, His human nature differs from ours in the possession of certain characteristics.

II. His human nature came into existence through operation of the Holy Spirit (p. 71, et.seq.)

A. All other men receive their’s by natural descent from father and mother.

B. Christ received His from Mary alone.

1. i.e. from Mary the Virgin.

2. Through the activity of the Holy Spirit.

3. Mt 1:18,20.

4. The “of” (ek)

a. In Mt 1:16 (“of whom was born Jesus”): denotes the materia (material) – i.e. in “of Mary”, the “of” denotes the substance.

b. In Mt 1:18 (“found with child of the Holy Spirit”): denotes the causa efficiens (the efficient cause), - i.e. in “of” the Spirit, the “of” denotes the operative power.

5. Is why He is called “the Seed of the Woman”. (Ge 3:15).

6. Is 7:14 and Mt 1:23.

C. Church has always defended this truth.

1. Against the Ebionites (considered Him merely a man).

a. Early in history of church.

b. Confusion of Jewish and Christian elements.

c. History generally cloaked in darkness.

d. Hagglund, History of Theology.

2. Against modern opposition (e.g. Harnack, Crapsey, et al)

3. Response to their appeal to “laws of nature” is Lk 1:37.

III. His human nature sinless (p. 73, et.seq.)

A. All men since the Fall are sinners: Ro 3:10,23.

B. Yet, Christ, also according to His human nature, is sinless.

1. 1Pe 2:22.

2. Is 53:9.

3. Da 9:24 (“the Most Holy”).

4. Lk 1:35 (“the Holy One”).

5. Jn 8:46.

6. 2Co 5:21.

7. 1Pe 1:19.

8. Heb 7:26.

9. Heb 4:15.

C. Not only fact of His sinlessness taught in Scripture, but also the necessity.

1. Heb 7:26,27.

2. Only because of His sinlessness did He accomplish our redemption.

a. The sin Christ confesses in Ps 69:5 is the imputed sin of the world.

b. The sin He feels in His conscience in Mt 27:46 and 26:37,38 are ours.

c. Is 53:6.

d. 2Co 5:21.

D. His sinlessness not caused by:

1. The preservation of a massa saneta (the group of holy people/“the redeemed”) in Israel as per Scholastics and others.

2. Nor the alleged forces of evolution as per Olshausen.

3. Nor the sinlessness of Mary (immaculata conceptio) as per Pope Pius IX, Dec. 8, 1854.

4. It is solely that fact that Mary became the mother by/through the Holy Spirit.

E. Sinfulness.

1. Lk 1:35.

2. Sin does not belong to the essence of the human nature.

3. But separation of sin from humanity is beyond human power.

4. Such separation is solely the work of divine grace and omnipotence.

5. The work of the Holy Spirit to produce from sinful Mary the sinless human nature of Christ.

F. What about “original guilt”?

1. Ro 5:12-14 says it rests upon all men.

2. Christ’s exemption from original guilt clearly revealed.

a. in passages that expressly separate Him from sinners (e.g. Heb 7:26).

b. in Ro 5:18,19, He is presented as exempt.

3. How could He be exempt?

a. His conception was through a supernatural, divine intervention.

b. His human nature never existed as a separate person.

c. His human nature belonged from the first to the Person of the Son of God.

d. The Person of the Son of God.

(1) is superior to Law and guilt.

(2) Mt 12:8.

G. Was it possible for Christ according to His human nature to commit a sin?

1. We emphatically deny this possibility.

2. Because His human nature never existed as a separate person.

3. From the beginning, constitutes one Person with the Son of God.

4. Would require assuming the Son of God could sin.

5. Some object that “impeccability” would exclude temptability

a. i.e. would make it a “sham battle”.

b. Mt 4:1ff describes a real battle.

c. Heb 2:18: suffering resulting from the temptation.

d. Though outcome never in doubt, was a real battle.

e. Assertion that “freedom” must always involve the possibility of sinning operates from false conception of freedom.

(1) Saints in heaven enjoy state of perfect freedom yet cannot sin.

(2) Satan’s foolishness and insane fury only show Satan’s folly.

H. Consequences of the Sinlessness of Christ.

1. Its immortality.

a. Death is the result of sin.

b. Ge 2:17; 3:17-19 and Ro 5:12; 6:23.

c. Christ died because He willed to die.

d. Jn 10:18 and 1Co 15:3.

e. The death of Him who in Himself is immortal is the ransom.

f. Mt 20:28 and 1Ti 2:6.

2. It possessed greater natural gifts.

a. e.g. greater natural wisdom.

b. Lk 2:47.

I. The External Appearance of Christ.

1. Some say great physical beauty based on Ps 45:2.

2. Others, great physical repulsiveness based on Is 53:2.

3. Is all pure speculation and a perversion of the texts.

a. Ps 45:2: Christ in His beauty as Redeemer.

b. Is 53:2: Christ as disfigured by His suffering.

4. No doubt He would have possessed exceptional physical beauty if had not in the state of humiliation taken upon Himself the consequences of our sin.

a. Php 2:7.

b. Ro 8:3.

5. We observe in Him those infirmities.

a. Common to all men after the Fall, e.g. hunger, thirst.

b. Not, however, personal infirmities and defects, e.g. blindness and specific diseases.

IV. The Impersonality of His Human Nature (p. 79, et.seq.)

A. It was never for a moment in existence as a separate person.

B. In the womb, He is the Lord.

1. Jn 1:14.

2. Lk 1:43.

3. He was already received into the Person of the Son of God.

C. His human nature differs from all others.

1. Negatively, by anhypostasia (having no personality of its own).

2. Positively, by enhypostasis (subsisting in the divine personality).

D. The Incarnation

1. Is that the Person of the Son of God took a human nature into His Person.

2. Heb 2:14.

3. Jn 1:14.

E. To teach otherwise.

1. Is to take the position of the Unitarians.

2. Unitarians insist that the human nature which lacks its own personality lacks the essentials of a human nature.

3. Is to deny the Scriptures

a. Which teach that His human nature is the body of the Son of God.

b. Col 2:9.

c. Which informs us that His “genuinely human development” made possible by His not employing the divine glory given to His human nature through the personal union.

d. Which teach that the union was complete from the beginning (Lk 1:43).