The_Dual_Nature_of

Miles McKee Ministries

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The Dual Nature Of Christ

By Miles McKee

If ever we are to understand the Lord Jesus we must grasp that He is one person with two natures: He is fully human and fully divine. He is not a little bit human and a little bit God. He is fully human yet fully God. But how is that possible---- fully man yet fully God? Well, on that subject, I take sides with the old Irish preacher who said he’d not been sent to explain the gospel but rather to proclaim it.

That God became a man is something the Bible declares rather than explains. This hypostatic union, as the theologians call it, is a thrilling truth and the very heart of the Gospel. Some religions, such as Islam, reject this idea saying that God has no Son. But at the core of the Good News we discover it was the one true and living God who appeared in Bethlehem as a little baby. The angels were astonished and broke out in unrestrained praise and adoration saying, “Glory to God in the highest.” They were staggered and amazed for they could see that at the same time as this infant lay in Bethlehem’s manger, He was upholding the universe with the word of His power.

The truth is, God does not owe any of us an explanation about anything. God can declare whatever He will without any obligation to explain Himself. That the Scriptures declare Christ Jesus to be both God and man is perfectly plain. We can dismiss this idea and fly in the face of the evidence but that will not alter the truth that the invisible God has objectified Himself and become visible in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let’s say it again, to understand Christ Jesus properly it is essential to grasp that He is both God and man. He is one person with two natures. He is fully human and at the same time fully divine. In His power and wisdom, God became man without ceasing to be God. He did not become partly man and partly God but was, in the person of Christ Jesus, fully God and fully man.

But, how do we explain Jesus? A. A. Hodge writes,

“------ undoubtedly we freely admit—that in the constitution of the Person of the God-man lies the--- absolutely insoluble mystery of godliness. How is it possible that the same Person can be at the same time infinite and finite, ignorant and omniscient, omnipotent and helpless? How can two complete spirits coalesce in one Person? How can two consciousnesses, two understandings, two memories, two imaginations, two wills, constitute one Person? All this is involved in the scriptural and Church doctrine of the Person of Christ. Yet no one can explain it. The numerous attempts made to explain or to expel this mystery have only filled the Church with heresies and obscured the faith of Christians.”

A. A. Hodge: The Person of Christ

Let’s consider what the Bible says.

His Humanity

Here are some of the scriptural proofs concerning his true humanity. (I quote them here to show the scriptures declare Christ to be an actual human being and not merely some phantom appearing in the form of man.) Again let me stress, if we reject that God became human we reject the Gospel, indeed we have no Gospel. It was a man who died for us, a sinless man who was also God. Let’s see what Dr. Luke has to say on the subject of the real and genuine humanity of the Lord Jesus.

Lk 2:40: And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

Lk 2:52: And the child increased in wisdom and stature.

In both these scriptures, Christ Jesus is plainly called a child, indeed a child who was both growing and increasing. God does not grow or increase in wisdom---humans do! The cults point to these scriptures in an attempt to prove Christ was not God saying, “See, here it makes it clear, Jesus can’t be God because he is said to grow and increase”. But these verses have nothing to do with his Deity they are, rather, verses to establish His genuine humanity.

Furthermore it is vital for us to realize that Jesus was a real human. He went through all the stages of growth that children go through. He had to be fed and toilet trained. Someone had to teach Him how to read. And just like any normal child He would have played with the other children in his street. He would have run errands for His parents and have had household chores to complete. At some stage of His life He would have become aware of the opposite sex though we are not given any details of this. But this we know, He was genuinely human and was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

If we are offended by this, it’s because we do not believe that Jesus was really human. Perhaps, we still have a sanitized picture of Jesus. Our Jesus, perhaps, never got his hands dirty but floated through this life immune to the feelings and bombardments which hit human beings every day. If this is what we think, we have not yet grasped that He was a true human being. However, just as it is heresy to deny His Deity so it is equally heresy to deny His true humanity. That Christ was fully human is one of the great pillars of our faith. As J.C. Ryle says,

“One thing, however, is perfectly clear, and we shall do well to lay firm hold upon it. Our Lord partook of everything that belongs to man’s nature, sin only excepted. As man He was born an infant. As man He grew from infancy to boyhood. As man He yearly increased in bodily strength and mental power, during His passage from boyhood to full age. Of all the sinless conditions of man’s body, its first feebleness, its after growth, its regular progress to maturity, He was in the fullest sense a partaker. We must rest satisfied with knowing this. To pry beyond is useless. To know this clearly is of much importance. An absence of settled knowledge of it has led to many wild heresies.

One comfortable practical lesson stands out on the face of this truth, which ought never to be overlooked. Our Lord is able to sympathize with man in every stage of man’s existence, from the cradle to the grave. He knows by experience the nature and temperament of—the child, the boy, and the young man. He has stood in their place. He has occupied their position. He knows their hearts. Let us never forget this in dealing with young people about their souls. Let us tell them confidently, that there is One in heaven at the right hand of God, who is exactly suited to be their Friend. He who died on the cross was once a boy Himself, and feels a special interest in boys and girls, as well as in grown up people.

J.C. Ryle: Commentary on Luke 2:40

He was genuinely human! Have you ever noticed in Matthew 4:2 how we read of Christ being hungry? This was a genuine hunger that gripped his body. He was famished! Does this mean He was not God? Not at all, it simply demonstrates once more that He was human. Remember, He is fully man yet fully God.

“Hosanna to the royal Son
Of David’s ancient line!
His natures two, his person one,
Mysterious and divine”

Isaac Watts

In John 4: 6 we read of Christ being fatigued and exhausted after His long journey to Samaria. He experienced the same kind of weariness we would experience after such a long period of physical exercise. Again this goes to show He was human. The critics say, “But how could He be weary if He was God? Doesn’t the Bible say that, ‘the God of Israel faints not, neither is weary’? Of course it does! But Jesus, as God, did not get tired; it was Jesus as man who suffered the exhaustions of the human condition. The amazing truth is that although Jesus was God, He was also a genuine human, subject to human limitation. We need to write this truth large in our thinking; Christ Jesus is one person with two natures!

Furthermore, in Matt. 8:24 we discover Christ sleeping. “Wait a minute,” say His enemies, “this really proves He was not God for”, they say, “The God of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” Again, however, these would be troublers of the faith, fail to grasp that this scripture and others like it are there to establish his true humanity, not his Deity.

It was necessary that Christ should be a man for we needed someone to represent us. We needed a human being to live in our place. Why? Because all of us have sinned and have fallen short of God’s holy standard----- that’s why! When God came to earth He came as one of us. He divested Himself of His glory, veiled his Deity and became our substitute in His birth, life and death. It was a real man who lived for us; it was a real man who died in our place and it is one of us, a real man, who now intercedes for us.

We needed a life of perfect righteousness to present to God and our flawed efforts did not make the grade. That’s one of the great reasons why Christ came. He came as our substitute, the substitute man. If He were not a man, truly a man, then there is no Gospel, no redemption and no salvation. It was man who had sinned and man who was guilty before God therefore it had to be one of us, a human representative who would take the punishment on our behalf. But more than that, we needed a representative, a human to stand in our place and produce a perfect flawless righteousness which could be reckoned as ours. An angel could not represent us or become our substitute in life and death. The representative had to one of us! There is no good news if Christ was a created human-like supernatural being! For there to be any Gospel at all Christ Jesus had to be one of our race, a true human, descended from Adam.

Adam was human and as the head and representative of humanity he brought condemnation upon us all. Christ Jesus then, if He was to be the Last Adam had to be totally human, one of us. We had to be rescued by one of our own! But where would God find such a human? Where would He find someone untainted with Adam’s sin. His eyes ran throughout the whole world and his verdict was, “There is none righteous no not one, there’s none that doeth good, there’s none that understand, there’s none that seeks God” (Romans 3:10-11), “their whole head is sick” (Isaiah 1:5) and “their heart is divided” (Hosea 10:2). Man had been so totally ruined by sin and had fallen so far short of God’s glory that no qualified redeemer could be found. A qualified redeemer, by law, had to be a near kinsman therefore, since no perfect man could be found, God came here Himself and assumed a true and genuine human nature and yet remained God.

Some suggest that God merely possessed a man called Jesus and worked through him. This man, they say, was not God but a man filled completely with God. This, however, is a very foolish notion! There was no point in God taking possession of a man and filling him with Himself for that man would still be a sinful descendant of Adam, tainted with human depravity. A depraved man could, therefore, never be a suitable and sinless substitute and representative for us.

Every human, without exception, was disqualified as a fitting substitute because every one of us had sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. But, if the Redeemer was not human there could be no redemption. Likewise if the redeemer was not God then no redemption could be accomplished for no mere man could absorb the wrath of God and live again. Indeed, if He was not God, this redeemer would have need of a Saviour himself and therefore could save no one. God alone can save (Isaiah 43:11).

Someone may ask why it was necessary for Christ to have two natures. The answer is simple: if ever there was to be a redemption which upheld the integrity of God’s holy, just, righteous, and loving nature, God must become man. All humanity had sinned and deserved to suffer the weight of God's wrath but God, as a man, suffered in order that we might live. The genius of the Dual nature of Christ is this, if He was a mere man, He could not conquer death, and if He was only God He could not die: therefore, the Lord Jesus had to be both God and man in order that He could both live, die and rise again. As man he took man’s curse and condemnation and became liable for our sins. In His living He conquered life and in His dying He conquered death! In order to live for us, to die for us and to overcome death on our behalf, He must be both man and God in one person. What a glory there is in this gospel!

The great reformer, Theodore Beza, in his work “Jesus Christ the Son of God”, further explains God’s genius in giving us the dual nature of Christ,

“---the wrath of God being infinite, there was no human or angelic strength known which could bear such a weight without being crushed (John 14:10, 12, 31; 16:32; 2 Corinthians. 5:19). He who was to live again, after having conquered the devil, sin, the world and death united to the wrath of God, had to be therefore not only perfect man, but also true God.”

He goes on to state,

“in order to better manifest this incomprehensible goodness, God did not wish that His grace should only equal our crime; He willed that where sin abounds, grace superabounds (Romans 5:15-21). For this reason, while he was created in the image of God, the first Adam, author of our sin, was earthly, as his ‘frailty showed well (1 Corinthians. 15:45-47). Jesus Christ, on the contrary, the second Adam, through whom we are saved, while being true and perfect man, is nevertheless the Lord come from Heaven, that is to say, the true God. For, in essence, all the fullness of divinity dwells in Him (Colossians 2:9). If the disobedience of Adam made us fall, the righteousness of Jesus Christ gives us more security than we had previously.”

Christ Jesus is both fully God and fully man. It could have been no other way. But not grasping the essence of redemption, the opponents of the Gospel refuse to see this essential Gospel Truth. They point to matters that belong to His ministry as the representative man and try to prove from these that He was not the Eternal One.

A good example of this is when they point to His prayer life as a supposed proof that He was not God. “Surely, God does not need to pray” they say. Indeed not! God has no need of prayer, but man does. So when we see Jesus praying, we see the representative man praying. Furthermore, because we needed a perfect righteousness we needed, of a necessity, a perfect prayer life to present to God and Jesus gave us one……His own. He prayed not only for us but also prayed in our place as the substitute and representative man.

In a similar way, all of us needed a perfect obedience to present to God but, let’s face it, not one of us have come close to being perfectly obedient to God. But Christ lived as our substitute and representative. His total obedience is now ours. His was the only perfect life. He was totally submitted to the Father, His will was totally subjected to the Father’s will. This is the lifestyle that as Christians we all strive to have. We desire to have God first and foremost but alas it only sometimes works out that way. But Christ emptied Himself of the divine prerogatives, became a servant, submitted His will to that of the Father and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross (see Philippians. 2:5-11).

The opponents of Christ’s deity, not understanding the glory of the Gospel, point to every instance where Christ Jesus as our substitute and representative subjected Himself to the Father and say, “See here, this man is not equal to God because He is in submission to God.” They rise up like noisy thankless children protesting that Christ, therefore, can not possibly be God. Not understanding the Gospel, they try to argue that since Christ is subordinate He must, therefore, be a created being who had a beginning! With great delight and salivating relish they point to scriptures such as;

Luke 22:42, “not my will but thine be done”;

John 5:30, “I seek not mine own will but the will of Him who sent me”;

John 5:19, “The Son can do nothing of Himself”;

John 6:38, “I came down from Heaven, not to do mine own will but the will of Him who sent me”.

However, the barren deficiencies of their Gospel understanding are merely exposed when they hurl their insults and challenges at the Lord of Glory.

One has to ask, therefore, do these people ever read the Bible without their pre-conceived ideas! Have they any love for the truth? Don’t they know that man’s redemption had to be undertaken by a kinsman redeemer…a member of the same family, another human?

Furthermore, have they not grasped that we need a perfect righteousness to present in Heaven? Don’t they know where to find it? If they are not looking to Christ alone then they must look for this righteousness, not in a substitutionary representative but within themselves. Have they not grasped, it is beyond our ability to render to God a standard of perfection which will satisfy His holiness? Have they no read there is ‘none righteous no not one?’

Don’t they know that, in every respect, Christ Jesus lived a life that fully glorified God? It was a life we had failed to live. Had He not become human, He could not have lived a substitutionary and representative life that could be credited to our account. Now that we are ‘in Christ’ all that He has done for us is reckoned as having been done by us. We now, in Christ, have a life of perfect prayer, perfect worship, perfect obedience, perfect submission and perfect love. If Christ was merely a spirit who looked like a man or was an angel impersonating man then we are all lost. We cannot be saved by a spook or represented by a phantom. It was a man, Adam, who had sinned and caused the human race to be lost and it therefore had to be a man who would come to the rescue. Christ the last Adam, lived, died and rose again and by His accomplishments secured Salvation for His people.

That Christ is both God and man is sheer and total wisdom. Martin Luther writes,

“I often delight myself with the thought of a fishing hook that fishermen cast into the water, putting on the hook a little worm; then comes the fish and snatches at the worm and gets the hook in his jaws and the fisherman pulls him out of the water. Even so has our Lord God dealt with the devil; God has cast into the world his only Son, as the fishing line, and upon the hook has put Christ’s humanity, as the worm; then comes the devil and snaps at the (man) Christ, and devours him, and therewith he bites the iron hook, that is, the Godhead of Christ, which chokes him, and all his

Martin Luther: The Smalcald Articles.

In summary, there would have been no salvation’ no redemption, no upholding of God’s justice had there been no God/Man. But, in the Lord Jesus Christ the justice, holiness, love, goodness and saving power of invisible God is made visible in a genuine and true man. From this revelation of Christ we see, above all, that God is personal. He is not just some great power or mighty force; He is the God who has displayed Himself by becoming a man. And as a man, Jesus the Christ, He was hungry (Matthew 4:2); thirsty (John 19:28); exhausted (John 4:6); He slept (Mark 4:38); was inundated with sorrow, (John 11:35); and tortured in His body with frightful wounds at the hands of Pilate's soldiers (John 19:1—3); All these were evidences that Jesus was truly human.

And yet this same human Person could command trees to wither, storms to cease, loaves and fish to multiply, water to become wine, the blind to see, the lame to walk, the demons to flee, and the decaying dead to come forth from the grave fully restored.. And the reason he could do this was that He was fully God.

This is part of “The Gospel Truth Trilogy” by D.G. Miles McKee

Permission is given by the author, Miles McKee, to copy this article if it is done in its entirety without any changes.

Permission is also given post this article in its entirety on Internet WebPages.

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