THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST

It is quite common to hear well-meaning believers

and preachers say that Jesus is part God and part
human, half God and half human, or 50% God and
50% human. Some might also describe Him as
having a human person and a divine person or
possessing a human side and a divine side.
However, these definitions fail to maintain the unity
of full divinity and full humanity within the one
person of Christ.

Defining the hypostatic union as the union of a

"human person of Christ" and a "divine person of
Christ" is theologically incorrect because It
undermines the fundamental unity of Christ’s
personhood, making it a union of two persons
rather than the union of divine and human natures
in one person. It distorts the doctrine of the
incarnation, and introduces the heresy of
Nestorianism, which divides Christ into two
separate persons.

In the one person of Jesus Christ, there exist two

distinct but inseparable natures: a divine nature
(fully God) and a human nature (fully human). He
is one person with two natures, not two persons.
The Incarnation is about God becoming human,
not joining a pre-existing human person. If the Son
of God had assumed a pre-existent human person
in the Incarnation, He would have become both a
divine person and a human person. However, the
humanity He assumed at the Incarnation was not a
pre-existent human person, but a human nature.
As such, it is inaccurate to say, "The man Jesus
has always existed." Rather, the Son of God has
always existed, and upon His assumption of
human nature in the Incarnation, the Son of God,
who is Fully God became fully human in the
person of Jesus Christ. The humanity of Jesus had
no independent reality apart from the Incarnation
of the Son, but does have real and personal
existence in the person of the Son. In other words,
the humanity of Jesus only came into existence
with the
Incarnation of the Son; He assumed human nature
into union with His divine nature, not a pre-existing
individual human person.

Additionally, saying that Jesus is "part God and

part human," "half God and half human," or "50%
God and 50% human" is theologically incorrect
because it fundamentally misunderstands the
nature of the Incarnation and the hypostatic union.
Jesus Christ is not humanity divinized or divinity
humanized; He is 100% God and 100% man, fully
God and fully human united in one person.

Ancient Eutychianism is similar to the modern

heresy that Jesus is 50% God and 50% man or
half God and half human. Eutychianism was a
heresy of the 4th and 5th centuries introduced by
Eutyches of Constantinople who taught that Jesus
had neither a fully human nature nor a fully divine
nature, but a different nature that was part-human
and part-divine. Eutyches taught that the divine
nature and the human nature in Christ merged to
form another entity which is neither fully human
nor fully divine.

However, the hypostatic union is not a mixing or

blending of God and humanity, which would imply
that Jesus is neither fully God nor fully human. The
Bible affirms that Jesus is fully God (John 1:1, 14;
Colossians 2:9). He possesses all the attributes
and qualities of deity. The Bible also affirms that
Jesus is fully human (John 1:14; Hebrews 2:14-18;
4:15). He experienced the full range of human
emotions, limitations, and experiences.

Each nature (divine and human) is a complete and

whole reality in itself. They are not parts of
something that are combined. Reducing his
natures to percentages suggests that each nature
is compromised and not fully present. The true
doctrine affirms the full presence of both natures
within the one person of Christ.

As Thomas F. Torrance notes, He who reveals

God to man and
reconciles man to God must be both God and
Man, Truly and Fully God, Truly and Fully man.

Jesus's atoning sacrifice on the cross is

considered to be of infinite value because he is
fully God. Reducing his divine nature to a
percentage would undermine the efficacy of the
atonement. His full humanity is also essential for
him to be a representative of humanity before
God. Reducing his humanity to a percentage
would diminish his ability to act on behalf of
humankind.

Understanding Jesus's natures in terms of parts,

halves, or percentages misrepresents the fullness
of both his divine and human natures, implying a
division within the person of Christ, and ultimately
undermining the doctrine of the Incarnation and
the very nature of God. The goal is to
acknowledge the full divinity and full humanity of
Christ, united in one person.

Jesus Christ is truly and fully God, truly and fully

human—the perfect man of God, and the perfect
God to man; 100% God and 100% human. Jesus
is God as if he were not a man, and man, as if he
were not God, yet truly and fully God, truly and
fully human.
Throughout the history of the church, different
forms of heresies such as: Gnostic docetism,
Ebionism, Arianism, Apollinarianism, Nestorianism,
Eutychianism, monophysitism, modalism, and
reductionism have made attempts to corrupt this
ancient Apostolic and patristic orthodoxy by
denying either the full humanity or the full divinity
of Christ. But in accordance with the Scriptures,
the early church affirmed that Jesus Christ is truly
and fully God, truly and fully man, one person with
two natures unmingled and without confusion.
Against Arius, the church affirmed that Jesus was
truly and fully God, and against Apollinaris, they
affirmed that He was truly and fully man. Against
Eutyches, it confessed that Jesus' deity and
humanity were not changed into something else,
and against
Nestorius, they affirmed that Jesus was not divided
but one person.

The early church fathers emphasized that Jesus

Christ was perfect both in deity and in humanness,
with a rational soul and body. With respect to His
deity, He is of the same reality with the Father
(homoousios to Patri). With respect to His
humanity, He is same with us (homoousios to
anthropos). These two natures in the one person
of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, was
affirmed by the early church to be without
confusion, without transmuting of one nature to
another, without division, and without contradiction
or separation. The distinction of the two natures
does not cancel the unity, neither does the unity
cancel the distinction; both are maintained at the
same time.

The divine and human natures in the person of

Christ are united in such a way that one does not
absorb the other, nor do they combine to form a
third entity which is neither fully divine nor fully
human. As Thomas F. Torrance notes, In the
Hypostatic Union, God remains God and man
remains man, and yet God who remains God is
forever joined to man, and man who remains man
is forever joined to God. In this union, God
becomes man without ceasing to be God, and
man is taken up into the very being of God without
ceasing to be man. The hypostatic union
established in the incarnation means that there is
now a permanent union of God and man in the
person of Christ. Because Jesus is and always will
be fully divine and fully human, God and man,
Trinity and humanity, the creator and creation, are
fully represented and remain united in Him for all
time.