THE PERSON AND NATURE OF CHRIST
THE PERSON AND NATURE OF CHRIST
The early church debated the person and nature of Christ:
1. Arius of Alexandria contended that Jesus was less than or different from God, because Jesus was created (born), thus has a beginning, and because Jesus said, “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), Arius said that Jesus was similar to God but not the same as God.
2. Athanasius, also of Alexandria, insisted that Jesus was one with God from all eternity, Jesus said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:10-11) and “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30). Athanasius said that if Jesus were not God, he could not be our Savior, which was Arius’s downfall.
The Arian-Athanasian controversy was resolved at the council of Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381), which stated that Jesus is “very God of very God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father.” (Arius refused to sign the Nicene Creed and was excommunicated and sent to exile.)
Arguments also rose about Jesus’ nature. Was Jesus part God and part human? And if there were “parts,” were they equal or different, and were separate or mixed? The nature of Jesus was one person with two natures, one divine (“conceived by the Holy Spirit”) and one human (“born of the Virgin Mary”), and that these “natures” were neither separate nor mixed. This came to be known as the Chalcedon Definition.
So Jesus was fully human - human so that we can identify with him (“one like us”), and also fully divine, because only God can save us. As to his humanity, Jesus was born of a woman, was rested in the wilderness, ate with friends and sinners and went to weddings, preached to the crowds and debated the Pharisees, was often weary and sorrowful and at times even angry, and he suffered, died and was buried. As to his divinity, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit (thus by God himself), performed miracles, which pointed to his divinity, had foreknowledge, as in knowing what others were thinking (Mark 2:6-8).
A Handbook of the Christian Faith
John Schwarz pp 193
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