29. The Lord Made His Human Nature Divine out of the Divine Nature within Himself, and in This Way Became One with the Father

According to the church’s doctrinal statement accepted throughout the Christian world,

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and a human being. Although he is God and a human being, yet he is not two, but one Christ. He is one because the divine nature took the human nature to itself. Indeed, he is one altogether, because he is one person. Therefore as the soul and the body make one human being, so God and a human being is one Christ .

These words are quoted from the Athanasian statement of faith, which is accepted throughout the Christian world. These are that statement’s essential points concerning the oneness of what is divine and what is human in the Lord. Other points concerning the Lord in that statement will be explained in their proper places.

This shows us very clearly that according to the statement of faith of the Christian church, the divine and human natures in the Lord are not two but one, just as the soul and the body is one human being, and that the divine nature took the human nature to itself.

[2] It follows from this that the divine nature cannot be separated from the human or the human from the divine, because separating them would be like separating soul and body. Everyone will acknowledge this who reads the passages about the Lord’s birth cited above (see 19, 21 ) from two Gospels (Luke 1:26-35 and Matthew 1:18-25). It is obvious from these passages that Jesus was conceived by Jehovah God and borne by the Virgin Mary. This means that there was something divine within him, and that this was his soul.

Now, since his soul was the actual divine nature of the Father, it follows that his body or human side was made divine as well, for where the one is, the other must also be. In this way and in no other way the Father and the Son are one, the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father, and all that is the Son’s is the Father’s, and all that is the Father’s is the Son’s, as the Lord himself tells us in the Word [John 17:10].

[3] But how this union was brought about I need to explain in the following sequence:

1. The Lord from eternity is Jehovah.

2. The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, took on a human nature for the purpose of saving us.

3. He made the human nature divine from the divine nature within himself.

4. He made the human nature divine by the trials to which he made himself vulnerable.

5. The complete union of the divine nature and the human nature in him was accomplished by the suffering on the cross, which was his last trial.

6. Step by step he took off the human nature he had taken on from his mother and put on a human nature from what was divine within him, which is the divine human nature and the Son of God.

7. In this way, God became human on both the first [or innermost] level and the last [or outermost] level.

21. Many people these days think of the Lord only as an ordinary person like themselves because they think only of his human nature and not at the same time of his divine nature, when in fact his human and divine natures cannot be separated. “The Lord is both God and a human being; and God and a human being in the Lord are not two but one person. He is one altogether, as the soul and the body are one human being”-this is according to what is taught throughout the Christian world, a teaching that has been ratified by councils and is called the Athanasian statement of faith. So that people will not keep thinking of the divine nature and human nature in the Lord as separate, I would ask them to read the passages from Luke cited above, and also this from Matthew:

The birth of Jesus Christ was like this. His mother, having been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together was found to be carrying a child from the Holy Spirit; and Joseph her husband, being an upright man and not wanting to disgrace her, decided to divorce her secretly. But while he was considering this, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what is being born in her is from the Holy Spirit; and she will give birth to a son, and you will call his name ‘Jesus.’ He will save his people from their sins.” And Joseph woke from his dream and did as the angel of the Lord had commanded, and took [Mary] as his wife. But he did not have intercourse with her until she had given birth to her firstborn son. And he called his name “Jesus.” (Matthew 1:18-25)

We are assured by this passage and by what Luke says about the circumstances of the Lord’s birth, as well as by the passages cited earlier, that the Son of God is the Jesus who was conceived by Jehovah the Father and born of the Virgin Mary, the one of whom all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John [Matthew 11:13; Luke 16:16].