Jesus Christ is unique. There is no one like Him. He is God incarnate, both God and Man, theanthropic. In the incarnation, the eternal Son of God took on true humanity without surrendering His deity, becoming the God-Man forever. This is the hypostatic union: undiminished deity and true humanity united in one Person. He is fully God and fully man, with two distinct natures, neither mixed nor altered. His deity is eternal. His humanity was added in time. From the incarnation forward, both natures are permanently united in one Person, Jesus. Chafer states:
Christ is God in His divine nature and man in His human nature, but in His Personality as the God-man He is neither one nor the other apart from the unity which He is. Isolation of either nature from the other is not possible, though each may be separately considered. The divine nature is eternal, but the human nature originates in time. It therefore follows that the union of the two is itself an event in time, though it is destined to continue forever.[1]
Before time, before creation, God the Son already existed. Micah foretold a ruler from Bethlehem whose “goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Mic. 5:2). The writer of Hebrews says of the Son, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Heb. 1:8a). John states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). As God, He did not begin; He already was. John further states, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3; cf. Col. 1:16). Because He is the Creator, He is not part of creation, for “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). He sustains what He created. Time does not age Him. History does not limit Him, for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). He is self-existent, immutable, sovereign, possessing every attribute of deity.
The incarnation was planned in eternity past. Before entering history, God the Son addressed God the Father, saying, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired… but a body You have prepared for Me” (Ps. 40:6; Heb. 10:5). The Father sent the Son on a specific mission to be the Savior of the world. Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). He came as the Servant foretold in Scripture (Isa. 53:3–12). As He stated of Himself, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), and “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). When the mission was completed, He could say, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:4–5)
At a point in time, without surrendering deity, God the Son added true humanity to Himself. John wrote, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14a). Paul states, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col. 2:9). Jesus was “born of a woman” (Gal. 4:4), born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14; Luke 1:35), entering the human race without inheriting Adam’s sin. He lived under genuine human limitations while perfectly relying on the Father and the Spirit. He “emptied Himself” not of deity, but of the independent use of His divine attributes, taking “the form of a bond-servant” (Phil. 2:6–7). According to Fruchtenbaum, “The kenosis does not imply that He divested Himself of the form of deity. Rather, it means that He laid aside the independent exercise of His divine attributes by which the form of God expresses itself.”[2]
Jesus is a Jew, born under the Law and within the covenant promises given to Israel (Gal. 4:4; Rom. 9:4–5). The Abrahamic covenant promised a specific Seed through whom universal blessing would flow, for “in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 22:18), and Paul identifies that Seed as Christ, writing, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed… that is, Christ” (Gal. 3:16). He arose from the tribe of Judah, concerning which it was said, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah” (Gen. 49:10), and He stands in the legal and royal line of David, fulfilling the covenant in which God declared, “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam. 7:13). The prophets anticipated this anointed ruler, “His Anointed” (Ps. 2:2), and Daniel fixed the time of Messiah’s coming (Dan. 9:25). When Andrew confessed, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41), and Nathanael declared, “You are the King of Israel” (John 1:49), they rightly identified Him as Israel’s promised King.
Jesus’ earthly life displayed perfect righteousness in thought, word, and deed. Scripture affirms, “in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5; cf. 2 Cor. 5:21). Peter testifies, “Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22). Though He faced real temptation, He was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). He fulfilled the Law in its entirety, for He said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets… but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17), and Paul states, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). His obedience was active and continuous, grounded in love for the Father’s will, for of the Son it is written, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness” (Heb. 1:9).
As our substitute on the cross, Jesus bore divine judgment in our place. Peter states, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24). His death was substitutionary and sufficient, for “Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). John identified Him as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), language rooted in the sacrificial system yet fulfilled in a single act. Unlike repeated Levitical offerings, “He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:12). The seated posture signifies completion. The atonement is accomplished, the ransom paid, and salvation rests entirely upon His finished work.
Jesus’ saving work was substitutionary, sufficient, and final. On the cross, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). The penalty of sin is death (Rom. 6:23a), and He bore that penalty in our place. Paul states, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The issue for salvation is not human merit or reform, but faith in Jesus to save. Scripture states, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31), “For by grace you have been saved through faith… not as a result of works” (Eph. 2:8–9). Because Jesus’ work is complete, forgiveness is secured, for “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Eph. 1:7), and eternal life is granted to all who believe, for “He who believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36a).
The risen Christ did not abandon His Davidic claim. After His resurrection He declared, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18), and He ascended to the Father’s right hand (Ps. 110:1; Acts 2:33–35). He now awaits the appointed time when He will return visibly and bodily. The angelic promise stands: “This Jesus… will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). At His second coming He will sit on “His glorious throne” (Matt. 25:31) and fulfill the covenant made with David, for God swore, “I will raise up your descendant after you… and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam. 7:12–13). He will reign from Jerusalem as King over all the earth, for “The Lord will be king over all the earth” (Zech. 14:9), and “the government will rest on His shoulders… on the throne of David and over his kingdom” (Isa. 9:6–7). The One who came in humility will return in glory, and His kingdom will be righteous, visible, and everlasting.
Steven R. Cook, D.Min., M.Div.
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[1] Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1993), 350–351.
[2] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Messiah Yeshua: Divine Redeemer, Second Edition (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2019), 5.
When God the Son added perfect humanity to Himself, this enabled Him to experience suffering and death with, and on behalf of, humanity. The suffering of Christ may be viewed in at least two ways: 1) His suffering during His time on earth prior to the cross, and 2) the suffering of the cross. As the God-Man, Jesus was perfectly holy in all His thoughts, words, and actions. Such perfect holiness brought with it a special form of suffering in this world that the rest of us could never know, since we are capable of yielding to the pressures of sinful temptation. When the time of His death was nearing, Jesus told His disciples “that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day” (Matt 16:21; cf., Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22). It’s noteworthy that Jesus said His suffering, dying, and resurrection were things that “must” happen to Him. The use of the Greek verb dei (δεῖ) here denotes divine necessity, which meant it was the will of God the Father that these things happen to Christ. Thomas Constable notes, “Jesus said that it was necessary (Gr. dei) for Him to go to Jerusalem. He had to do this because it was God’s will for Messiah to suffer, die, and rise from the dead. He had to do these things to fulfill prophecy (Isa 53; cf. Acts 2:22–36).”
At a point in time, the eternal Son of God added humanity to Himself, simultaneously becoming God and man, Creator and creature, the unique theanthropic person (John 1:1, 14, 18; 8:58; 10:33; 20:28; Col 2:9; Heb 1:8). Jesus is the God-man and exists in hypostatic union, as a single Person with a divine and human nature (John 1:1, 14; 1 John 4:2-3), both natures being distinct and preserved, not mixed or confused, fully God and fully man. The hypostatic union is forever, from conception onward. Jesus was supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary (parthenogenesis – Isa 7:14; Matt 1:23; Luke 1:26-38), who is the mother of Jesus’ humanity (Christotokos – bearer of Christ). Some see Mary as the mother of God (Theotokos – bearer of God), and though Jesus is God, His divine nature is without origin and eternal. Being the mother of Jesus’ humanity honors Mary without elevating her to a place beyond what the Scriptures teach. And Jesus was a Jew, born a son of Abraham, in the line David (Matt 1:1), the promised Messiah (Matt 1:17). Jesus grew in wisdom (Luke 2:40, 52), and lived a perfectly righteous life before God and man. The record of Scripture is that Jesus “knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21), was “without sin” (Heb 4:15), “committed no sin” (1 Pet 3:22), and “in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). In His humanity, Jesus walked in perfect conformity to God the Father’s holy character and divine revelation. Cults such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witness deny the full humanity and deity of Jesus, and for this reason are not within the true Christian community. Henry Thiessen states:
The apostle John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). At a point in time, God the Son added to Himself humanity, forever uniting His divine nature with a perfect sinless human nature, becoming the God-man (John 1:1, 14, 18). In the field of systematic theology, this is called the hypostatic union. Lewis Chafer states, “Though His deity is eternal, the humanity was gained in time. Therefore, the theanthropic Person—destined to be such forever—began with the incarnation.”