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John 1:14
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Perhaps the greatest mystery of the Christian faith is the mystery of the incarnation, how it is that the Lord Jesus Christ can be at the same time both truly God and truly man. Mystery here, of course, refers not to something wholly beyond our understanding but something that ultimately we cannot fully explain even if we can say much about it. With respect to the incarnation, the church has found time and again that people run into serious error whenever they try to say more about it than Scripture actually says. As we consider how Christ can be both God and man, we must endeavor to say all that—but not more than—Scripture says about it.
No summary of the biblical doctrine of the incarnation has been more important to the church than the Definition of Chalcedon, produced in AD 451. This definition has proved to be a sound exposition of who and what the incarnate Christ is, so we will keep coming back to it as we consider various heretical views of Jesus and the ways that they inadequately reflect the biblical data. The Definition of Chalcedon does justice to both the true humanity and true deity of Christ, establishing doctrinal fences to keep us away from serious errors. Dr. R.C. Sproul writes: “Chalcedon established the boundaries beyond which we dare not tread in our speculations, lest we plunge ourselves into serious error. If we move away from Chalcedon in either direction (exaggerating either the divinity or the humanity of Christ at the expense of the other), we fall into heresy.”
The Definition of Chalcedon, drawing on texts such as John 1:14, states that Christ is one in person and two in nature. More specifically, Jesus is “one and the self-same Son and only-begotten God, Word,” who from all eternity has possessed the divine nature and since the incarnation has also possessed a human nature. With respect to the “who” of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the person of the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. In the incarnation, He assumed a human nature with all the properties essential to humanity. In other words, since the incarnation, the Word or Son of God has everything that makes a human being a human being. “The Word became flesh” (v. 14). Yet He has taken on our humanity without losing anything essential to deity. Thus, the Lord Jesus Christ is both truly God and truly man, which is absolutely required for our salvation.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Jesus took on everything necessary to be a true human being without becoming a sinner because sin is not essential to human nature. Adam and Eve were human beings before the fall, but they were not sinners. We will be human beings for all eternity even after the presence of sin is fully removed from us in our glorification. Because Christ took on our nature and purchased redemption, God even now enables us to war against sin.
For further study
- 1 Samuel 1:1–20
- Micah 5:2
- Galatians 4:4–5
- Philippians 2:5–11
The bible in a year
- Job 36–37
- Acts 14