Doctrine of Jesus

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The Incarnation: Deity and Humanity in the One Person of Christ
SUMMARY
The question Jesus asked his disciples is still alive and well today: “Who do people say that I am?”
(Mark 8:27). As in the first century, so today, there is much confusion regarding Jesus’ identity, even
though everyone admits that Jesus is one of the most towering figures of history. The disciples
responded to Jesus’ question by listing some of the diverse answers of their day, yet every answer only
viewed Jesus in the category of a mere human. Today, similar to Jesus’ day, people continue to answer
Jesus’ question with diverse and confused answers.
However, in total contrast to these views of Jesus, whether from the first century or today, Scripture,
along with the Confessional standards of Nicaea (325) and Chalcedon (451), present a different answer
to Jesus’ question.
Who is Jesus?
Jesus is the divine Son, the second person of the triune Godhead, the Lord of Glory, who in time
assumed a human nature, so that now and forevermore he is the eternal “Word made flesh” (John
1:14). For this reason, Jesus is in a category all by himself as the unique, exclusive, and only Lord and
Savior (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). This is also why confusion about Jesus’ identity is no small matter. There
is nothing more important than knowing who Jesus is. This is not merely an academic debate,
something for theologians to ponder; it’s a question vital for all people and especially for the church.
Let’s think through who Jesus is as God the Son incarnate from Scripture and confessional orthodoxy by
unpacking summary statements about him.
(1) Jesus is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, who has eternally shared the one,
undivided divine nature with the Father and Spirit and is thus fully God.
John makes this point when he reminds us that the “Word with God” (thus a distinct “person”) yet also
“was God” (thus equal with God), thus underscoring the triune person-relations and a fully shared
divine nature within God (John 1:1). Jesus, then, is the divine Son, and as the Son, he is not a created
being. Instead, he is the eternal Son through whom all things were created and are now sustained (Col.
1:15-17; Heb. 1:1-3). It’s this Son, who became flesh (John 1:14) and by virtue of the incarnation and
his work becomes our Redeemer and Lord.
To account for what Scripture teaches about Jesus and his relation to the Father and Spirit, the Church
distinguished between the person (or subject) of the incarnation, and he nature(s) the person subsisted
in. The “person-nature” distinction was a theological distinction necessary to account for Scripture’s
presentation of the one God who is triune.
To explain all the biblical data, the Church distinguished the Father, Son, and Spirit without separating
them into three Gods. Instead, Christian theology affirmed that there are three distinct divine
“persons” who fully share the one, undivided divine “nature” and that the one divine nature wholly

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subsists in each of the three persons so that each person is fully and equally God (contra Arianism that
denied Christ’s deity).
“Nature” (Gk: ousia; Latin: essentia, substantia), then, referred to what an object is. A divine nature
is what God is in his one, undivided essence, which we describe in terms of God’s attributes.
A human nature is what constitutes humanity, namely, a body-soul composite with corresponding
capacities, such as a will, mind, and emotions.
In Christ, there is one “person” (Gk: hypostasis; Latin: persona), the Son, who is the subject of two
“natures” that subsists in both natures and acts through them. The “person” is the “acting subject”;
natures are not. Yet, what is true of each nature is true of the one person (known as “communication
of attributes”).
(2) Jesus is God the Son incarnate.
The word “incarnation” comes from the Latin (in + carnes [flesh]), which means “in the flesh.” Scripture
teaches that the divine Son (person), who eternally shares the divine nature with the Father and Spirit,
acted to assume a human nature without a human “person/subject” (contra Nestorianism that
affirmed two “persons” in Christ). As a result, God the Son became incarnate.
Incarnation is the term that refers to the supernatural act of the triune God, whereby the eternal,
divine Son, from the Father, by the agency of the Spirit, took into union with himself a complete
human nature apart from sin. As a result, the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, now and forevermore exists as
one person in two natures, our only Lord and Savior.
It’s crucial to think of the incarnation as an act of addition, not subtraction, by the sovereign, effectual
means of a virgin conception (Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38). The Son, from the Father and by the
supernatural and sanctifying agency of the Spirit, without change or loss of his deity, added a second
nature to himself consisting of a human body and soul (John 1:14, Phil. 2:6-8). As a result, the Son
permanently added a human dimension to his personal, divine life, and became present to us in a new
mode of existence as the incarnate Son. The Son’s subsistence and action is now in both natures so
that the Son is able to act in both natures and produce effects consistent and proper to each nature.
Thus, as the incarnate Son, Jesus is able to render human obedience (Luke 2:52; 22:29-44; Heb. 5:8-10)
for us as the last Adam (Heb. 2:5-18; Rom. 5:12-21), and to do a divine work by securing our eternal
redemption (Eph. 1:7-10), and justifying us before God as covenant representative and substitute
(Rom. 3:21-26; 4:25; 1Pet. 3:18).
(3) As a result of the incarnation, the divine Son now subsists and acts in two natures without
changing the integrity of either nature, confusing them, or making them a hybrid of divine and
human. Yet, the Son was not limited to acting through his human nature alone since he continued to
act through his divine nature as he has from eternity.
In and through his human nature, the Son lives and acts within the normal physical, mental, volitional,
and psychological capacities of an unfallen, sinless human nature. As the Son, he experienced the
wonder and weaknesses of a human life. He grew physically and mentally (Luke 2:52), experienced

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tears and joy, and suffered death and a glorious resurrection for his people and their salvation (John
11:33, 35; 19:30; 1Cor. 15:3-4).
At this point it seems necessary to say that Jesus had two distinct wills, a human will and a divine will,
and that the wills belong to the two distinct natures of Christ, not to the person.
Hodge explains that the church thought that “to deny Christ a human will, was to deny he had a human
nature, or was truly a man. Besides, it precluded the possibility of his having been tempted, and
therefore contradicted the Scriptures, and separated him so far from his people he could not
sympathize with them in their temptations.”
Moreover, Hodge notes that along with the idea that Christ had two wills is the related idea that he
had two centers of consciousness or intelligence: “As there are two distinct natures, human and divine,
there are of necessity two intelligences and two wills, the one fallible and finite, the other immutable
and infinite.”
This distinction of two wills and two centers of consciousness helps us understand how Jesus could
learn things and yet know all things. On the one hand, with respect to his human nature, he had
limited knowledge (Mark 13:32; Luke 2:52). On the other hand, Jesus clearly knew all things (John 2:25;
16:30; 21:17). Now this is only understandable if Jesus learned things and had limited knowledge with
respect to his human nature but was always omniscient with respect to his divine nature, and
therefore he was able any time to “call to mind” whatever information would be needed for his
ministry. In this way we can understand Jesus’ statement concerning the time of his return: “But of
that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”
(Mark 13:32). This ignorance of the time of his return was true of Jesus’ human nature and human
consciousness only, for in his divine nature he was certainly omniscient and certainly knew the time
when he would return to the earth.
The same Son who experienced these things as a man also continues to live and act as he has done
from eternity as God the Son in relation with the Father and Spirit. This truth is taught in Scripture’s
affirmation that the incarnate Son continues to uphold the universe (Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:3), alongside
Christ’s other divine actions during his life and ministry. In Christ, his two natures remain distinct and
retain their own attributes and integrity (against Monophysitism that blended Christ’s two natures),
yet he is able to act through both natures. The Son, then, is not completely “limited” by his human
nature; he is also able to act “outside” (extra) of it in his divine nature as he has always done. The Son,
who has always inseparably acted from the Father and by the Spirit, continues to do so. But now, due
to the incarnation, he acts through both natures without changing or diminishing either nature.
Conclusion: At the end of this long discussion, it may be easy for us to lose sight of what is actually
taught in Scripture. It is by far the most amazing miracle of the entire Bible—far more amazing than
the resurrection and more amazing even than the creation of the universe. The fact that the infinite,
omnipotent, eternal Son of God could become man and join himself to a human nature forever, so that

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infinite God became one person with finite man, will remain for eternity the most profound miracle
and the most profound mystery in all the universe.