THE CHRISTOLOGY DEBATE:

THE DEITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST

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Introduction: A Theological Mystery

The idea that Jesus Christ is both God and man is a great mystery. Many insist that Jesus
Christ is nothing but a great religious leader of Judaism and Christianity like Buddha, Confucius,
and Muhammad. For example, Iconoclasm, which started during the Byzantine Empire, taught
that Christ could not be rendered as God, and that the portrayals of Christ can only show Him as
a man and so were not suitable objects of faith and worship.1 Others believe that God simply
possessed a particular person on earth, and therefore did not truly become a human being at all.
Subsequent to the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, the early church, nevertheless, held fast to
the confession of the faith that Jesus Christ is both God and man in one. However, many
rationalistic and philosophical controversies have attacked this confession. Confused, people
started shifting from a biblically-based reasoning towards human reasoning. It became unworthy
of any person to believe on the authority of the Scripture when it does not conform to human
rationality.2 Indeed, this hypostatic union of two natures is inconceivable. Even today, many
Christians have a shallow understanding of Christs incarnation. It is, therefore, necessary to
consider essential arguments and thoughts concerning this matter in light of the Christian faith.
Looking at the Scriptures, Jesus Christ is completely God and completely man in one person,
without any conversion, composition or confusion between the two natures.
The Necessity of the Matter to the Christian Faith
Rational arguments pertaining to Christs incarnation should be related to the essential
Christian faith. Any position nullifying other essential truths of the Christian faith is definitely
wrong. It should conform to the entire Christian doctrine. The following discussion includes a
1. Steven Runciman, The Medieval Manichee: A Study of the Christian Dualist Heresy
(UK: Cambridge University Press, 1961), 182.
2. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth Trust, 2000), 316.
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number of theories and opinions regarding the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, including the
necessity of this union in the Christian faith.
1. Diverse Views Regarding the Matter
The confession of faith holds that God came to earth as an actual and complete human
being, without ceasing to be the eternal and infinite God.3 It affirms that Jesus Christ is fully God
and fully man. However, there are opposing views regarding the relation between the divinity
and humanity of Christ, as well as the extent of Christs divine and human nature.
1.1 The Heresies of the Manichees and Marcionites
In the ancient times, the truth that Christ was clothed with the true substance of human
nature was challenged by the Manichees and Marcionites.4 The former maintained that Christs
physical presence on earth was simply endowed with celestial flesh. They implied that Christ did
not possess the actual physical body of a human being. The latter, on the one hand, speaks of a
phantom of Christ instead of the human body of Christ. Marcion imagined that Christ, instead of
having a human body, assumed a phantom, and (quoting Philippians 2:8) said that He was made
in the likeness of man or was found in the fashion of a man.5
However, both beliefs have numerous and strong contradictions. The promise of the
Messiah was not bestowed upon an aerial seed or a phantom, but the seed of Abraham and Jacob.
The covenant given to David referred not to a celestial man, but to the Son of David. When the
Bible speaks of Christs humanity, He is referred to as the Son of David and Abraham. Romans

3. Brian Hebblethwaite, The Incarnation: Collected Essays in Christology (New York:

Cambridge University Press, 1987), 21.
4. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Michigan:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1989), 409.
5. Ibid., 410.
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1:3 (NASB) reads, ...concerning His Son [Jesus], who was born of a descendant of David
according to the flesh (emphasis added). Galatians 4:4 (NASB) adds, But when the fullness of
time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Further, Marcion
entirely overlooks what Paul actually said in Philippians 2 which Marcion, apparently, used in
his argument. Marcion interpreted the passage saying that although God could have displayed
His full glory to the world, He gave up that right and voluntarily exhibited nothing but the
attributes of a human being. He implied that God contended with that humble condition and
suffered the concealment of His divinity under the veil of human flesh.6 However, the context of
the passage clearly tells that Christs humility was not seen in the expression of human attributes
through a phantom. Rather, it was in His being in the true nature of man susceptible to death and
suffering that Christ humbled himself. This affirms the actual human nature of Christ.
1.2 Apollinaris of Laodicea
After the Council of Nice in 325 A.D., the church universally held the doctrine of the
Trinity and of Christs absolute divinity. However, men began to question how the substance of
God and the substance of man could be united as one in Christ. Apollinaris explained this based
on 1 Thessalonians 5:23. He taught that one complete human person is composed of three
distinct elements: soma (body), psyche (soul), and penuma (spirit). The psyche refers to the life,
desires, emotions, and logical understanding of a human being, while the pneuma pertains to the
reason, will, and the moral/spiritual nature. Apollinaris held that in Christ the soma and psyche
are of human nature, while the pneuma is divine.7

6. Ibid.
7. A.A. Hodge, Evangelical Theology (Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1990),
193.
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While this view secures the unity of Christs person, it obscured the integrity of Christs
humanity. If Christ did not possess the complete human nature, which includes the pneuma, then
He cannot be the High Priest who, having been tempted like us as Hebrews 4:15 says is able
to sympathize with mans spiritual weaknesses.8 The Apollinarian view implied that the eternal
God took an irrational human body into union with His divine spiritual nature. However, the
Bible is clear that Jesus Christ had a complete human nature, only that He is perfect and sinless.
1.3 The Nestorian Controversy
In nearly 450 AD, people began heralding Mary by the name theotokos meaning
Mother of God. Nestorius took an opposition to this, arguing that theotokos compromises the
divinity of Jesus. He argued that the name implies a degradation of Christs divine nature into
being a mere human; the idea that God was born of a woman reduces God into an equivalent of a
human being. Instead of using theotokos for Mary, he deemed it more appropriate to use
christokos which means Mother of Christ. In all his propositions, however, Nestorius made a
false distinction between Christs human and divine nature.
The Nestorian principle suggests that the Son of God dwelt in the human flesh in such a
way that He is not in the same time man.9 Instead of distinguishing the two natures of Christ,
Nestorius dissected it. In other words, Nestoriuss idea resulted into a double Christ. However,
the Scripture is very clear that there are no two Christs, but only one. In Luke 1:31-32, the angel
who visited Mary speaks of Jesus as the Son of the Most High, but referred to the Son of God as
her child. In verse 43, Elizabeth acknowledged Mary as the mother of the Lord. Nestorianism
could not confess the hypostatic union of the two natures in Christ, and therefore, does not
conform to the Scriptures.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., 419.
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1.4 Eutychianism
In the 15th century, the school of Antioch (led by Theodore and Nestorius) and the school
of Alexandria (led by Cyris and Eutychius) generated Eutychianism. Unlike Nestorianism,
Eutychianism could not determine the distinction between the divine nature and human nature of
Christ. Without a doubt, Eutychians also maintained that the two natures are not the same.
Nevertheless, seeking to correct Nestorianism, they were led to view that the combination
Christs divinity and humanity resulted in a new nature. The resulting union of the two natures,
based on Nestorianism, was not equally identifiable as divine and human, but rather in a mostly
divine Christ.10 Since the divine nature is higher than the human nature, the emphasis was given
more on the divine nature of Jesus.
This view implied that this [new] nature of Christ was not consubstantial with humanity.
It is unclear whether this unbalanced view affirms that this nature is simply divine by having the
human nature absorbed by the divine, or that it is completely another thing (a new nature)
produced by the mixture of divinity and humanity. In general, this view was regarded similar to
the Apollinarian view of Christ, wherein His full humanity was taken out of consideration.
1.5 The Lutheran Doctrine of the Communication of Attributes
After the Reformation, the Lutherans established a new view on the doctrine of Christ.
While Eutychians taught that the humanity of Christ was absorbed in His divinity, Lutherans
maintained that Christs humanity was exalted to a state of equality with His divine nature.11
This is called the communicatio idiomatum. Lutherans taught that in the incarnation of Christ the
attributes of one nature are ascribed to the other on the basis of an actual transference, and that
10. Fred Sanders and Klaus Issler, Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory
Christology (Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group, 2007), 22.
11. Hodge, Evangelical Theology, 195.
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only by this transference that the unity of the person of Christ is secured.12 They implied that
what can be said of the divine nature of Christ can also be said of His human nature. For
instance, the operative attributes of God (omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience) were
transferred to the humanity of Christ. They based this from Scripture. Colossians 2:9 reads, For
in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form (emphasis added). John 3:13 speaks of
Christ as the Son of Man being identified as a heavenly being. Further, Lutherans interpreted
John 1:14 to say that the incarnation included the divine substance of God.
However, there are strong oppositions to this view. For instance, if this view should be
inferred from the statement of John then it should also be concluded from 1 Corinthians 2:8 that
the ability of the human nature to suffer and be humiliated was transferred to the divine nature.13
The verse speaks of the Lord of glory crucified and chastised by men. Lutherans, however,
deny that conclusion. Moreover, speaking of a fusion of the two natures by means of
transference of its attributes, the Lutheran view implied that the attributes can be abstracted from
the nature while the natures remained separate from each other. This principle is inaccurate since
attributes and natures cannot be separated from each other. For instance, omnipresence is clearly
incompatible with the mortal body. Further, the humiliation of Christ, which Isaiah 53 depicts, is
not a picture of an omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient human being. From His prayer in
Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-36; Matthew 26:36), to His arrest and trials, and to His death on the
cross, Jesus Christ was a suffering servant.
1.6 The Kenosis Doctrine

12. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 325.

13. Ibid., 326.
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The Kenotic Theory was taken from the passage of Philippians 2:6-8 which states that
God emptied Himself and became human. The term used in the passage means to make
void, or to be of no account. In general, the Kenotic theory holds that while retaining His
divine self-consciousness, the Logos put aside His essential divine attributes and temporarily
stopped from His cosmic functions and eternal awareness during the incarnation. In other words,
it implies that He who formerly was the eternal God turned Himself temporarily into a mortal
creature, or replaced His divinity with humanity during His life here on earth.14 This, they argue,
is how God was able to take full humanity to Himself.
However, we see that this is inconsistent with the doctrine of the immutability of God as
explained in Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, and other passages in the Scripture. That God transformed
from being God to man is not supported by the Bible. Moreover, if the Logos became the
humanized Son, having emptied Himself of divine attributes, then the Logos could no longer be
a divine person in the Trinity.15 If Christology will be concluded by way of this principle, then
apparently, it is not the true and eternal God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.16
Difference between Nature and Person of Christ
The Reformed Confession regarding Christology holds that there are two natures in one
person of Christ. While nature pertains to the sum of all the essential qualities of a thing or
being, person refers to a complete substance equipped with reason and consciousness. As the
Westminster Confession puts it, the incarnation included two whole, perfect and distinct natures

14. Steve Holmes, Murray Rae, and Lindsey Hall, Christian Doctrine (London: SCM
Press, 2010), 160.
15. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 329.
16. G.C. Berkouwer, The Person of Christ (Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., 1954), 30.
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united together without any conversion, composition or confusion in one person of Jesus Christ
as Mediator between God and man.17
In Philippians 2:6-8, the reference provided is the form both of God and of man. The
term form refers to the parts of a thing or being. As John 4:24 explains, God is spirit and that
He cannot be reduced into any physical form (cf. Rom. 1:23). During the incarnation, God
simply took the form of the human body since the form of a spirit is incompatible with the form
of a human being. Nevertheless, He remained as fully God. Though fully human as from the seed
of David, Jesus Christ was still the pre-existent and divine Lord of all.18 Moreover, the
emptying of Christ as a servant refers to His humility, not to an abandonment of essential
attributes. In Christ, God came to earth in the state of rendering obedience on behalf of mankind,
rather than in the state in which He is to command and condemn. It denotes a difference not on
Gods mode of being, but on the state or purpose of His action (cf. John 3:17). Thus, just as
Scripture affirms it, Jesus Christ is fully man and fully God (cf. Luke 1:35; Col. 2:9; Rom. 9:6; 1
Pet. 3:18; 1 Tim. 3:16).
Scripture attests to the necessity of the union of two whole, perfect, and distinct natures
in one person in Christ. Christ had to be born human to be the exact representative for mankind
(Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:17). In the same way, He had to be God unblemished by Adams sin and so
become the perfect substitute for mankind. Christ had to be fully man to undergo normal human
development (Luke 2:52), and this made Him able to sympathize with us (Heb. 4:15). At the
same time, He had to be fully God able to render perfect obedience even in the midst of human
17. Joel Beeke and Sinclair Ferguson, Reformed Confessions Harmonized (Michigan:
Baker Books, 1999), 67.
18. Richard Longenecker, Studies in the Hermeneutics, Christology and Discipleship
(UK: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2004), 178.
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suffering including death (Rom. 5:19). In Christs humiliation, He had to be fully man in order
to receive the due penalty of the sins of man by an actual death in the cross (cf. Rom. 6:23). In
the same way, He had to be fully God so as to bear the sins of many (not just one), and having
been made sin and led to death, to remain perfectly righteous and powerful over sin and death as
the risen Lord. It is by such union that His work of redemption became perfectly sufficient and
complete (1 Cor. 5:21; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; 1 Peter 2:22-24; Acts 2:24; Heb. 9:28; 10:1-18; Rom. 8:1,
38-39).

Bibliography
Beeke, Joel and Sinclair Ferguson. Reformed Confessions Harmonized. Michigan: Baker Books,
1999.
Berkhof, Louis. Systematic Theology. Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth Trust, 2000.
Berkouwer, G.C. The Person of Christ. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1954.
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Translated by Henry Beveridge. Michigan:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1989.
Hebblethwaite, Brian. The Incarnation: Collected Essays in Christology. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1987.
Hodge, A.A. Evangelical Theology. Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1990.
Holmes, Steve, Murray Rae, and Lindsey Hall. Christian Doctrine. London: SCM Press, 2010.
Longenecker, Richard. Studies in the Hermeneutics, Christology and Discipleship. UK: Sheffield
Phoenix Press, 2004.
Runciman, Steven. The Medieval Manichee: A Study of the Christian Dualist Heresy. UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1961.
Sanders, Fred and Klaus Issler. Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory Christology.
Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group, 2007.

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