When it comes to communicating Jesus’s work, meaning what He has done, many Christians are confident. One typically can assert, with confidence, that Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a life of sinless perfection, died on the cross for sinners, rose from the grave defeating sin and death, ascended into heaven where He sits at God the Father’s right hand, and will come back again. However, when it comes to communicating Jesus’s person, meaning who He is, there might not be so much clarity and confidence. Sometimes, Christians struggle to find the words to articulate biblical truths about who Jesus is. Given the importance of what we have to say about who Jesus is, how should we speak of Him? How can we accurately describe and define Jesus Christ?
Fully God and Fully Man
First, we must affirm that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. When we confess that Jesus is fully God, we mean that He is indeed the eternal Son of God. He is the Word who was before the beginning, through whom creation was made, and in whom all things are held together (John 1:1-5, Colossians 1:15-17). In taking on flesh, He did not become less than fully divine. He did not leave behind any of His deity.
When we confess that Jesus is fully man, we recognize that in the incarnation, Jesus assumed full humanity. He possessed, and still possesses and always will possess, a human body, mind, and soul. Jesus took on flesh and dwelt among us in the fullness of human nature (John 1:14).
One Person, Two Natures
Second, the Church must affirm that Jesus is one person with two natures. By “person,” we refer to who someone is, and by “nature” we refer to what someone is. Jesus Christ is one person; He does not exist as two separate people but as one person. Jesus Christ possesses two natures, that is His divine and His human nature.
These two natures do not combine in the person of Jesus, as some propose. Just as divinity was not lost when He took on humanity, nor does it mix with humanity. In Jesus’s divine nature exists all the attributes of God, for He is “the exact imprint of [the Father’s] nature” (Hebrews 1:3). In Jesus’s human nature exists all the attributes of man, except for man’s sin. Jesus Christ is fully God, fully man, existing in one person with two natures.
The Chalcedonian Creed
In the year 451 AD, the Council of Chalcedon met to offer a definition of who Jesus is. During this age, the Arians denied the full divinity of Jesus, the Apollinarians denied the full humanity of Jesus, the Nestorians denied that Jesus was one person, and the Eutychians denied that Jesus had two natures. Combatting these heresies, the Council proposed this definition, which helps us to articulate who Jesus is:
“Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.”
May we always be faithful to uphold and proclaim the truth about our Savior!
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