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Articles: Philosophy | The Incarnation
- Mr. KALIDASU D
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(2) The Human Nature of Jesus Christ
The title that is characteristic of Jesus in the New Testament is Son of Man; it occurs some eighty times in the Gospels; it was His Own accustomed title for Himself. The phrase is Aramaic, and would seem to be an idiomatic way of saying 'man'. The life and death and resurrection of Christ would all be a lie were He not a man, and our Faith would be vain. (I Cor.15: 14). 'For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (I Tim.2: 5). Why, Christ even enumerates the parts of His Body. 'See my hands and feet, that it is I myself; touch and see: for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me to have' (Luke 24: 39). St. Augustine says, in this matter: 'If the Body of Christ was a fancy, then Christ erred; and if Christ erred, then He is not the Truth. But Christ is the Truth; hence His Body was not a fancy'. In regard to the human soul of Christ, the Scripture is equally clear. Only a human soul could have been sad and troubled. Christ says: 'My soul is sorrowful even unto death' (Matt. 26: 38). 'Now is my soul troubled' (John 12: 27). His obedience to the heavenly Father and to Mary and Joseph supposes a human soul (John 4: 34; 5: 30; 6: 38; Luke 22: 42). Finally Jesus was really born of Mary (Matt. 1: 16), made of a woman (Gal. 4: 4), after the angel had promised that He should be conceived of Mary (Luke 1: 31); this woman is called the mother of Jesus (Matt. 1: 18; 2: 11; Luke 1: 43; John 2: 3); Christ is said to be really the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3: 16), the son of David (Matt. 1: 1).
(3) The Hypostatic Union
We all know about this one. But to be clear about it we speak here of no moral union, no union in a figurative sense of the word; but a union that is physical, a union of two substances or natures so as to make One Person, a union which means that God is Man and Man is God in the Person of Jesus Christ.
A. The Witness of the Scriptures
John says: 'The Word was made flesh' (1: 14), that is, He Who was God in the Beginning (1: 2), and by Whom all things were created (1: 3), became Man. According to the testimony of St. Paul, the very same Person, Jesus Christ, 'being in the form of God emptied himself, taking the form of a servant' (Phil. 2: 6, 7). It is always one and the same Person, Jesus Christ, Who is said to be God and Man, or is given predicates that denote Divine and human nature. The author of life (God) is said to have been killed by the Jews (Acts 3: 15); but He could not have been killed were He not Man.
B. Witness of Tradition
The early forms of the creed all make profession of faith, not in one Jesus Who is the Son of God and in another Jesus Who is Man and was crucified, but 'in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, Who became Man for us and was crucified'. The forms vary, but the substance of each creed invariably attributes to one and the same Jesus Christ the essence of the Godhead and of man.
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