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Romans 5:6
“While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
As the early church confronted false teachers, it had to clarify its position on key truths such as the nature of God and the person of Christ. Two of the earliest heresies concerning Christ were modalism and patripassianism.
Modalism is not just an error related to the incarnation but one that begins as a Trinitarian heresy. According to the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, there is one God in whom subsist three distinct persons. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each truly and fully God, possessing the entire divine nature, but the Father is not the Son or Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father or the Son. They are all the one God, but real distinctions exist between Them in terms of Their personal properties: unbegottenness or paternity (the Father), begottenness or filiation (the Son), and procession or spiration (the Spirit). Modalists deny these personal distinctions, saying that the Father is the Son is the Spirit. God in this conception is one in nature and one in person, a Being who wears three different identities as an actor might wear three different masks. Under the old covenant, He was Father. Then in the incarnation, He “took off” His Father mask and was the Son. Since Pentecost, He has been “wearing” the mask of the Holy Spirit and is the Spirit.
Scripture denies the heresy of modalism in passages where we see all three persons of the Trinity distinctly present. For example, at the baptism of Jesus, the Father’s voice was heard, the Son was baptized, and the Spirit descended like a dove (Matt. 3:13–17). This was not one divine person creating an illusion of three different persons but rather the manifestation of three distinct persons.
Modalism inevitably leads to patripassianism. This heresy says that the Father and the Son both suffered on the cross because the two are the same divine person. Suffering is possible only in a human nature, however, and Scripture is clear that only the Son took on a human nature (John 1:14). Only the Son became incarnate, so only the incarnate Son possesses a human nature in which He could suffer. We remember here Westminster Confession 8.7, which reflects the Definition of Chalcedon: “Christ, in the work of mediation, acts according to both natures, by each nature doing that which is proper to itself.” Suffering is proper to a human nature, so Christ’s sufferings are the sufferings of the incarnate Son alone. He suffered not in His divine nature, which is impossible, but only in His human nature.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The Son of God could never suffer as God, for deity cannot suffer. The Son of God could and did suffer as a man, however. By His suffering and death, He endured the wrath of the Holy Trinity. In other words, God Himself satisfied His own justice in the person of His Son as the Son offered Himself in His perfect humanity. Such incredible love should move us to wonder and praise.
For further study
- Psalm 102:25–27
- Matthew 16:21
- John 10:17–18
- Romans 5:6–11
The bible in a year
- Job 40–42
- Acts 15:22–41