Classical Affirmations of the Person of Jesus Christ
Jesus is fully human
New Testament portrays Jesus as a concrete human being in no
uncertain terms except in doing sin (alienation from and hostility to the grace
of God). He was limited and finite and did everything. As a first century Jew,
he was influenced by his surroundings especially by the culture and religious
heritage of his people. He grew and matured physically, intellectually,
spiritually. He was an itinerant preacher with no home. He experienced hunger,
thirst. He was pained at the loss of dear ones. He was tempted. He was
rejected, insulted, betrayed, humiliated, tortured and finally crucified. His
real humanity is rejection of Docetists who were embarrassed by it. Docetism
comes from the Greek word dokeô, ‘to seem’ or ‘to appear.’ According to
them, Christ was fully divine, but his humanity was merely an appearance. He
did not really suffer or die. Some even contended that Jesus never left
footprints and never blinked his eyes. Docetism was related to Gnosticism.
Gnosticism created a dualism between matter and spirit. It regarded spirit as
higher and purer part of creation whereas matter represented frailty and even
sinfulness. Gregory of Nazianzus said, “That which he has not assumed, he has
not healed.” If he is not fully human then what he said and did cannot be saving
event for us. We remain then without deliverance and without hope. His fully
humanity is the precondition of the inclusiveness of his salvation. Jesus’
humanity is a new humanity. Migliore writes,
The intimacy of his relation with God
and his solidarity with sinners and the oppressed are unique and shocking. He
is the human being radically free from God’s coming kingdom and therefore
radically free for communion with and service to the neighbour. … [He extends
the welcoming love of God to those who are thought least deserving of it (Luke
15:11ff.). Thus when Christians call Jesus fully human, the claim is not simply
that he is a human being but that he is the norm and promise of a new humanity
in relation to God and to others.
Jesus is fully divine.
New Testament affirms that: “God was in Christ reconciling the
world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:19). It means that what Jesus does and suffers is
also the doing and suffering of God. He is God preaching to us. His forgiveness
of sinners is not just the pardon of a human being; it is also God’s forgiveness
expressed and embodied in this human being. He is Emmanuel – the God with us.
His passion and death for us is not just the martyrdom of another innocent
victim in an unjust world; it is also God’s suffering, God’s taking death into
the being of God and there overcoming
it for our salvation.4 His resurrection is not the victory of a
solitary human being over death; it is God’s victory over sin and death for us
all in raising up of this man Jesus. Jesus’ godship or lordship is to be
understood in a radical way. Chalcedonian Christology speaks of his divinity in
an abstract manner that is not in line with the gospel narrative. It describes
the coming of God’s Word, or God’s Son, in the actions and sufferings of a servant
who humbles himself and becomes obedient even to the death on a cross (Phil.
2:5ff.). The gospel story unexpectedly redefines the meaning of true divinity
and genuine lordship by depicting the actions and sufferings of a humble
servant who gives his life unconditionally for the renewal of the world.
Mystery of the unity of his person.
Classical Christological formulations affirm the two natures
(divine and human) of Christ are ‘hypostatically’ united in one person without confusion,
change, division, or separation. How are these united in one? How can two
subjects be perfectly united? How can there be two agents of the same act?
Baillie has rightly pointed out that it is a paradox. However, this can be
analogically explained from our Christian experience. At the heart of Christian
existence is the experience of divine grace that precedes and enables human
freedom. In every age Christians have testified that we are most truly human,
most fully ourselves, most profoundly free when we live in response to God’s
grace. Divine grace and human freedom are not mutually exclusive. “Human
nature, at the contact of God, does not disappear; on the contrary, it becomes
fully human.”
Richard calls this unity, the ‘kenotic unity’ of God and
humanity in Christ. In Jesus Christ, God and humanity are united in mutual
self-giving love. It is a union of the Spirit in which there is reciprocal
self-limitation and total openness of each to the other. It is neither confused (monophysitism)
nor separated (Nestorianism).
.jpg)
.jpg)