Doctrine of Christ Part 2: His Incarnation for the Office of Mediator Section 5: The Mysterious...

Doctrine of ChristPart 2: His Incarnation for the Office of

Mediator

Section 5: The Mysterious Complexity

of the Mediator

Part 2: Review—Overview of Par 2

• Introduction: Overview of the Confession• Section 1: The Specific Personality of the

Mediator• Section 2: The Unqualified Deity …• Section 3: The True Humanity …• Section 4: The Sinless Integrity …• Section 5: The Mysterious Complexity …

Section 5: The Mysterious Complexity of Christ(The Hypostatic Union)

• Introduction:• A. The Meaning of Hypostatic Union • The reference is not to static electricity of any kind!• But to the Greek, hypostasis = a real person• The hypostatic union = The union of the divine and human natures

in the person of Christ.• B. The Debt to Charles Hodge• Hodges’ treatment (Systematic Theology, 2:387-397) has strongly

influenced this lecture.• The final results are my responsibility.

Section 5: The Mysterious Complexity of Christ(The Hypostatic Union)

• Introduction:

• C. The Outline of This Lecture

• I. The Reality of the Hypostatic Union

• II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union

I. The Reality of the Hypostatic Union• A. The Fact of the Union—Two natures (the human

and divine) are united.• The Confession says: “two whole, perfect, and distinct

natures.”• B. The Character of the Union—These two natures

remain different.• The Confession says: “without conversion,

composition, or confusion.”• C. The Means of the Union—These two natures are

united by the person.• The Confession says: “inseparably joined together in

one person.”

I. The Reality of the Hypostatic Union• A. The Fact of the Union—Two natures (the human

and divine) are united.

• The Confession says: “two whole, perfect, and distinct natures.”

• The evidence for Christ’s deity has been reviewed.

• He is “over all, God blessed forever” (Rom 9:5)

• The evidence for Christ’s humanity is clear.

• He is “the man, Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5)

I. The Reality of the Hypostatic Union• B. The Character of the Union—These two natures

remain different.• 1689: without conversion, composition, or confusion• The divine nature is not relinquished or converted into

something else.• Christ emptied Himself (Phil 2:7) means He exposed

Himself to shame—not that He relinquished divinity.• Fullness of deity dwelt in Christ bodily (Col 2:9), • The human nature is not deified. • Though united with God, the human nature did not know

the day of His return (Mark 13:32).

I. The Reality of the Hypostatic Union• B. The Character of the Union—These two natures

remain different.• Hodge: “Christ’s person is theanthropic, but not His nature;

for that would make the finite infinite and the infinite finite.”• Hodge: “…no attribute of one nature is transferred to the

other…There are those who admit that the two natures in Christ are not mixed…who yet maintain that the attributes of the one are transferred to the other. But the…attributes of a substance constitute its essence…if they be removed or if others of a different nature be added to them, the substance itself is changed.…If divine attributes be conferred on man, he ceases to be God.

I. The Reality of the Hypostatic Union• C. The Means of the Union—These two natures are

united by the person.• 1689: “inseparably joined together in one person.”• 1st, Christ is one person. • This is seen in the fact that singular pronouns, never plural,

are used to refer to Him. • In passages where reference is made to both natures, it

remains clear there is only 1 person. • 2nd, that person is the eternal Son of God. • Gal 4:4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent

forth His Son, born of a woman …

I. The Reality of the Hypostatic Union• C. The Means of the Union—These two natures are

united by the person.

• Hodge: “…it is not a mere indwelling of the divine nature analogous to the dwelling of the Spirit of God in his people. Much less is it a mere moral or sympathetic union…”

• Hodge: “As the union of the soul and body constitutes a man one person, so the union of the Son of God with our nature constitutes Him one person. And as in the man the personality is in the soul and not in the body, so the personality of Christ is in the divine nature.”

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Hodge specifies 6 consequences or results of the

hypostatic union.

• Communion of Attributes

• The Acts of Christ

• The Man Christ Jesus the Object of Worship

• Christ Can Sympathize with His People

• The Incarnate Logos the Source of Life

• The Exaltation of the Human Nature of Christ

• I will comment on only the first two of these.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes

• 1. The Lutheran View

• 2. The Reformed Response

• 3. The True Doctrine


• 1. The Lutheran View

• a. Its Conscious Orthodoxy--Chalcedonian

• Luther consciously holds to the traditional dogmas of Chalcedon with respect to the Person of Christ.

• There is no attempt to be innovative.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 1. The Lutheran View• b. Its Distinctive Character—Eastern rather than

Western• Notwithstanding his consciously orthodox stand, Luther's

approach to Christology is distinctive. • It has a soteriological importance. • It tends to unite the human and divine in Christ.• Luther tends to an Eastern, his opponents to a Western

Christology. • Berkhof says that Cyril of Alexandria and John of Damascus

held a view of the communicatio idiomatum (the communion of attributes) similar to Luther's.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 1. The Lutheran View• c. Its Specific Application—The Ubiquity of Christ’s

Human Nature• Christ’s human nature is endowed with the attributes of His

divine nature, but not the other way around.– Gonzales: "Through the incarnation, the body of Christ has not

ceased to be a physical body; but it has been endowed with the predicates of the divine nature.“

• This is intimately connected to Luther’s view of the real, physical presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.– Berkhof: "But his doctrine of the real presence in the Lord's

Supper necessitated the view that, after the ascension, the human nature of Christ is omnipresent.“

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 1. The Lutheran View• c. Its Specific Application—The Ubiquity of Christ’s

Human Nature• Christ's flesh is, then, omnipresent, omnipotent, and spirit. • This seems to confuse the 2 natures and violate Chalcedon. • But Luther held to Chalcedon and defended his view with the

orthodox terminology of communicatio idiomatum.• This terminology has been understood variously.• The Lutheran view is (from Neve's Lutheran Symbolics) "that

each of Christ's natures permeates the other … and that His humanity participates in the attributes of His divinity.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 2. The Reformed Response• a. Its Relation to Previous Historical Development• The Western Church tended to a different view of the

communicatio idiomatum. • Leo the bishop of Rome, in his Tome and Thomas Aquinas

are representative. • Thomas' view is described by Berkhof: • "There is no communication of attributes between the natures

in the abstract, but both human and divine attributes may be ascribed to the Person.“

• Thomas' view is that of Luther's opponents.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 2. The Reformed Response• b. Its Explanation in relation to Lutheranism• Zwingli, Calvin, and the Reformed tradition rejected the

ubiquity of Christ's human nature. • They held a different view of the communicatio idiomatum

(the communion of attributes). – The Lutheran view = The divine attributes may be predicated of

the human nature. – The Reformed view = The attributes of both natures may be

predicated of the Person of Christ.• This entailed what was called the extra-calvinisticum.• This is the view that Christ’s divine nature was in some

places where His human nature was not.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 3. The True Doctrine• The 1689 Baptist Confession follows the Western and

Reformed view of the communicatio idiomatum.• The true doctrine regarding the communion of attributes is

stated in the 1689 Baptist Confession at chapter 8, paragraph 7.

• 7 Christ, in the work of mediation, acteth according to both natures, by each nature doing that which is proper to itself; yet by reason of the unity of the person, that which is proper to one nature is sometimes in Scripture, attributed to the person denominated by the other nature.



• Hodge: “As of a man can be affirmed whatever is true of his body and whatever is true of his soul, so of Christ can be affirmed whatever is true of his human nature and whatever is true of his divinity; as we can say of a man that he is mortal and immortal…so we may say of Christ that He is finite and infinite that He is finite and infinite; that He is ignorant and omniscient…It is on this principle…that a multitude of passages are to be explained.”

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 3. The True Doctrine• “1. Those in which the predicate belongs to the whole

person…when Christ is called our Redeemer, our Lord, our King, Prophet,or Priest, our Shepherd, etc., all these things are true of Him not as the Logos…nor as the man…but as…the God-man”

• “2. There are passages in which the person is the subject but the predicate is true only of the divine nature…As when our Lord said, “Before Abraham was I am…”

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 3. The True Doctrine• “3. Passages in which the person is the subject, but the

predicate is true only of the human nature.”• “4. … the denomination is derived from the divine nature,

when the predicate is not true of the divine nature, but only of the theanthropos.”

• “It is instuctive to notice here how easily and naturally the sacred writers predicate of our Lord the attributes of humanity and those of divinity, however his person may be denominated.”

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 3. The True Doctrine• Take particular notice of Hodge’s third statement.• “3. Passages in which the person is the subject, but the

predicate is true only of the human nature.”• This is particularly what the 1689 has in mind when it says: • by reason of the unity of the person, that which is proper to

one nature is sometimes in Scripture, attributed to the person denominated by the other nature.

• Two kinds of passages illustrate this principle.



• (1) Passages in which the person is designated from the divine nature when the predicate is true only of the human nature.

• 1 Cor 2:8: …they would not have crucified the Lord of glory…

• Mark 13:32: But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 3. The True Doctrine• (1) Passages in which the person is designated from the

divine nature when the predicate is true only of the human.• Acts 20:28: …to shepherd the church of God which He

purchased with His own blood.• Acts 20:28 is quoted to support this point, but may not.• A textual variant, “church of the Lord,” might refer to Christ.• Metzger prefers “church of God,” but gives it a C reading. • The phrase, “with His own blood,” might mean “in connection

with the blood of His own (Son).”• If either of these is correct, it eliminates the support this text

gives to the doctrine of the communion of attributes.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 3. The True Doctrine• Hodge comments: “The forms of expression, therefore,

long prevalent in the Church, “the blood of God,” “God the mighty maker died,” etc. are in accordance with the Scriptural usage. … The person born of the Virgin Mary was a divine person. He was the Son of God. It is, therefore, correct to say that Mary was the mother of God.”

• In support of this Hodge cites Turretin.• The difficulty with asserting that Mary was the Mother of

God is not that it is strictly untrue, but that it is often used to wrongly exalt Mary.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes• 3. The True Doctrine• (2) … passages … in which the person is denominated

from the human nature when the predicate is true only of the divine nature.

• John 3:13 "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.”

• John 6:62 "What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?”

• Rom 9:5 “To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.”

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes: the person named from 1

nature—described in terms of the other

The DivineNature

The HumanNature

The Person of God’s Son



The DivineNature

The HumanNature

The Lord of Glory WasCrucified



The DivineNature

The HumanNature

The Son of Man Descended

From Heaven

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• The Acts of Christ

• The acts of Christ especially His saving death were the acts of His mysterious and complex person.

• Hodge: “…it follows that although the divine nature is immutable and impassible, and therefore neither the obedience nor the suffering of Christ was the obedience or suffering of the divine nature, yet they were none the less the obedience and suffering of the divine person.”

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• The Acts of Christ• Christ had to be both God and man in two distinct natures for men

to be redeemed by His death.• He had to be a man to be a substitute for men.• He had to be God for the human nature to sustain the weight of

eternal suffering for sin in a few hours.• He had to be God’s Son to give preciousness to His sufferings in

the eyes of the God the Father.• He had to be one person to bring these essential qualities

together.• He had to be a theanthropic person—the God-man—in order

to redeem men.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• The Acts of Christ• Gal 4:4-5 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent

forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

• Hebrews 1=Christ is God• Hebrews 2=Christ is man.• Why?• Hebrews 2:14-18

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• The Acts of Christ• Heb 2:14-18 14 Therefore, since the children share in

flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil … 17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• The Acts of Christ• The Canons of Dort: 2nd Head—Article 4. • This death is of such infinite value and dignity because the

person who submitted to it was not only really man and perfectly holy, but also the only begotten Son of God, of the same eternal and infinite essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit, which qualifications were necessary to constitute Him a Savior for us; and, moreover, because it was attended with a sense of the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin.

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Communion of Attributes in the Acts of Christ

• Especially His Saving Death

The DivineNature(Divine Power)

The HumanNature

(HumanSuffering)

The One, Precious

Person of God’s Son

II. The Results of the Hypostatic Union• Conclusion: • The Person of Christ is what it is so that the work of Christ

could be what it would be!• Anselm: Cur Deus Homo?• Why the God-man?• The Creed of Chalcedon: “because of us and our salvation”

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