The "Double Nature" of Jesus Christ
by Robert Schmid
Considering that the most important question man is able
to ask is: “Who is God?”, the question must be
asked if the “One God” doctrine espoused by “Biblical
Unitarians” is indeed biblical?
The basic premise of this doctrine is that there WAS, IS
and ALWAYS WILL BE (only) ONE God. In other words what Unitarians
are saying is that their Savior, Jesus was (only) a man, was
(only) human and not God!
This doctrine is, in part, the result of denying the “Double
Nature” of Jesus, as expressed by this quote from their
writings (Refuting the Double Nature of Christ): “Divine
and human qualities, as the essence of being, cannot co-exist
in the same person.” Is this a true statement?
For Unitarians, who coined the quote, it is obviously a true
statement. After all, if you believe that Jesus was ONLY a
man and ONLY possessed “human qualities”, then
no “divine qualities”, no “double nature”
could exist in the same person at the same time.
However, according to Roman Catholic/Protestant, Church of
God and BIBLICAL doctrine: Divine and human qualities, as
the essence of being, not only do, but must, co-exist
in the same person, in order to make salvation from
sin possible.
The problem is that Roman Catholicism makes the (false) claim
that Jesus was “fully God”,and
“fully man” which is an obvious
oxymoron. Where does the idea that Jesus was fully God and
fully man come from? It comes from the Trinity mystery doctrine
of Roman Catholicism which claims that God the Father, God
the Son and God the Holy Ghost existed from all eternity,
existed throughout Old and New Testament time and will exist
into all future.
According to Trinitarian doctrine, the pre-existent God the
Son, 2000 years ago, was changed into flesh via an incarnation,
remaining fully God, and was born through
Mary – now fully man. It was the Catholic
Church Council of Chalcedon (451) who declared that Jesus
Christ remained, after the Incarnation, “perfect in
Divinity and perfect in humanity… consubstantial with
the Father according to His Divinity, consubstantial with
us according to His humanity…one and the same Christ,
the Son, the Lord, the Only begotten, to be acknowledged in
two natures not intermingled, not changed,
not divisible, not separable.”
The mystery of the Incarnation, that is,
this union of the two natures in one Person, called a hypostatic
union, is a direct consequence of the mystery of the
Trinity. It is the Trinity doctrine that demands
the pre-existence of the Son of God and requires the incarnation
to make Him appear as a human being.
If “divine qualities” is defined as “fully
God”, as in Catholicism, then Unitarians would be correct,
for fully God and fully man cannot, as the
essence of being, co-exist in the same person.
However, defining “divine qualities” as meaning
“fully God”, as in Trinitarian doctrine, is simply
NOT biblical. The biblical record never makes the claim that
Jesus was “fully God” as God is God. After all,
one God Being is the eternal Father, who
knows all, and the other God Being was (only) the begotten
Son, who did not know all!
The eternal God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the
God of the Old Testament, was and is a divine Being with a
“single nature,” a pure God/Spirit nature.
Adam and Eve were created, in the image of God, as human
beings with a “single nature,” a pure physical/human
nature. Therefore, they had to choose between the two types
of trees in the garden, representing two very different and
opposite spiritual natures. One spiritual nature
was represented by the tree of life -- God,
and the other spiritual nature was represented by the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil – Satan.
As we know, they chose as their second “spiritual
nature” the evil nature of the Spirit Being Satan. Since
then, all of their progeny, beginning with Cain and Abel,
down to you and me, were human beings with a “double
nature.” We are all born with a “double nature”
a physical human nature and a spiritual
evil nature. At birth, we are ALL begotten children of our
father the Devil. It requires a calling from God, and repentance
and baptism to obtain the gift of the Holy Spirit, to change
our spiritual evil nature into spiritual
godly nature.
What about Jesus? Let it be known, that Jesus was a human
being with a “double nature”
from the point of conception and birth through Mary, “his
physical human nature,” and his begettal from
the point of conception by God His Father, “his
spiritual divine nature.”
Jesus was a born, human being with a double nature
just like you and I. The difference was that He was begotten
by God the Father from the point of conception. Humans, by
contrast, can become begotten by God the Father only after
repentance (denouncing their evil, spiritual nature), after
baptism (accepting the death and resurrection of Jesus on
their behalf) and after receiving the Holy Spirit (a new godly,
spiritual nature).
Divine and human qualities, as the essence of being,
do exist in the same person, even the person of our Savior
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, while on this earth,
was NOT God, as God is God. Jesus Christ was a son of man
by being born of Mary and was the first and only (so) begotten
Son of God, who became a “one nature”
God Being as His Father is, by a resurrection from the dead
(born again). We can follow in His footsteps and can also
become “one nature” God Beings
by a resurrection (born again), just as our elder Brother
and our heavenly Father are.
Jesus is, after all, our example and forerunner in ALL things.
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