Nestorianism

Give a brief introduction to myself

My name is Philip, my wife, Grace, and I have been married for a little over 2 years now

Recently graduated from Cedarville University with my Masters of Divinity

Currently working as a GED and ESOL teacher in Dayton, with the hope of one day being in vocational ministry as a missionary

With that said, let’s open with a word of prayer to our gracious God who delights in hearing and answering his people.

PRAY

Transition: So over the last several weeks we have been discussing the Chalcedonian Creed. We are now on our fifth week of discussion.

Up to this point, what have we discovered so far?

We have discussed the history behind the Chalcedonian creed

Why the two natures of Jesus matter

Adoptionism

Docetism (or Gnosticism)

Introduction: A week ago, Grace and I had the opportunity to visit a church in North Carolina following a vacation we went on. At this church, the preacher gave an illustration that was incredibly helpful in understanding why we seek precision in our doctrine. He illustrated this by explaining a rule in aviation called the 1/60 rule.

This rule states that after 60 miles, a one-degree error in heading will result in straying off course by one mile. He went on to explain that although one degree off doesn't sound like a lot, in aviation terms, even one degree is huge. That's why pilots must be so careful and precise as in their direction.

Similarly when we talk about doctrine, even though sometimes it may sound redundant or maybe even unimportant, if we are off even one degree in our understanding of doctrine, especially the doctrine of Christ, we could eventually move in a direction that is actually completely off from what the Word of God has revealed to us.

I recognize that this is not an easy endeavor, there are many secret things and mysteries to doctrine that need to be entrusted to the Lord. God even tells us this in Deuteronomy 29:29

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

There are aspects to doctrine that are not just tricky, but mysterious to us. We may not know all the whys or hows of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, it is okay to feel like this is hard to understand because it is. There are some nuances to the doctrine of Christ that we simply will not be able to understand, and thus let us trust the Lord with that, and seek to understand what he has graciously revealed to us.

With this being said, thankfully, we have about 2,000 years of Christian church history behind us that we can and should refer back to. As someone wisely said, “those who do not know history are destined to repeat it”. This is why we spend an 8 week series on the historical understanding of the doctrine of Christ. We want to look back at the mistakes that were made, the corrections that were made, so that we can faithfully stand on the shoulders of the faithful saints who have gone before us and in so doing not make the same mistakes that were made along the way.

Needless to say, we will be discussing the doctrine of Christ today.

We will first discuss a heresy called “Nestorianism”. We will try to not just understand what it is, but how it came to be.

Secondly, we will read through the Chalcedonian Confession in small groups together, identifying where this creed corrects Nestorianism and why it is important that we do so.

Thirdly, we will, in groups again, look at a few passages and discuss how Nestorianism actually contradicts these passages, and in so doing why it

Lastly, we will discuss some final applications as to why Nestorianism is such a big deal, and how we may see similar arguments like this even in our current day.

Let’s get into it.

Nestorianism was started by a guy by the name of Nestorius. Nestorius was born in 386 AD and died around 450 AD. This man was a native of Syria, became a monk in Antioch, and then actually became the bishop of Constantinople in 428 AD.

When he became the bishop there, his views of Christ became more known to the other bishops at the time and the Christian church at large. Nestorius used his high standing in the church to voice his understanding that Christ is actually not just one person, but rather two.

He is not the God-man, rather God and man, not in union but separated into two persons. Whereas the rest of the bishops and the Christian church at large believed that understood Christ to be one person with two natures, which is what we would call the hypostatic union in the one person of Christ.

This understanding by Nestorius started when he first argued that Mary was not the “Theotokos” which means the “mother of God”. He argued this because it is impossible that God be born of a woman, for we know that the second person of the Trinity has always existed alongside the Father and was never created. He is also uncomfortable with the idea that God could suffer and die. He believes that saying God the Son incarnate died is not appropriate because God can not die nor change because he tells us in his Word that he is impassible and immutable.

He argues that in order for Christians to rightly understand the Christ, they must understand the Christ acted and appeared as one person, but the divine and human persons remained distinct.

Illustration: How many of us have been to a marriage lately? Our very own Kyle and Mallory are getting married this weekend. We know that when two persons get married, they are considered one flesh in their covenant union. This is the way that Nestorius saw the two persons of God the Son and Jesus coming together. That way when something particular was happening to Christ like human emotions, suffering, or even death, he would argue that Jesus of Nazareth was acting, whereas when miracles, the transfiguration, and even the resurrection of Jesus, he would argue that God the Son was acting.

One author says this about Nestorius...

When Christ died, it was not the incarnate Son of God suffering according to His human nature; it was the human person who died. When Christ performed a miracle, it was not the incarnate Son of God acting according to His divine nature to manifest His power; it was the divine Logos acting independently of the human person in Jesus.

Nestorius once said “I hold the natures apart, but unite the worship”. Yet, it was clear through his writings and the opposition of Cyril, an early church father, that he was not merely keeping the natures apart, but was actually splitting apart the unity of Christ entirely by making him two people.

Transition: Let’s look at a few passages of Scripture. Break up into groups at your tables and look and discuss them together. This table will do John 1:1-18, you all will do Phil. 2:5-11, and you all Col. 1:15-20.

What does this passage say about God the Son? be asking this question while you read.

Secondly, I want you to ask how is what this passage is saying different from what Nestorius argues and why these differences matter?

John 1:1–18 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And 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. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Sinclair Ferguson says:

He is the Son of God eternally begotten by his Father but also made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Therefore, he is one person, not two. It is not that Mary gave birth to a divine nature, but that the One who emerged from her womb was the One who was at the Father’s side, himself God. The Christ is not two persons but “one and the same.” Within the womb of a teenage girl was the One who upholds the entire universe

Philippians 2:5–11 (ESV)

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Stephen Wellum says:

It is not the divine nature that became flesh or assumed a human nature, as if “natures” are acting personal subjects. Nor did the Father or the Spirit become flesh; instead it was God the Son the second person of the Godhead, who became flesh.

Colossians 1:15–20 (ESV)

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Transition: The Chalcedonian creed was written to clear up the doctrine of Christ, that was causing so much confusion and error across the world. I printed out a bunch of Chalcedonian creeds so that we can each look at them. Let me read this and together let’s point out the way that this creed corrects Nestorius. I want us to look for where are they clarifying the truth.

Chalcedonian Creeds (written in 451)

We, then, following the holy fathers, all with one consent teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body; coessential with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the creed of the holy fathers has handed down to us.

This creed focuses heavily on combatting Nestorianism. They wanted to make clear that the one person of Jesus Christ was in fact the second person of the Trinity, the Word, God the Son. Jesus Christ is the Word that became flesh.

Final Application:

The splitting of person of Christ into Jesus and God the Son gives us one enormous problem. If Jesus, the human person died, and not also the person of God the Son, then mankind can not be redeemed. For if a mere human suffers and dies for sins, what is that? A mere human sacrifice can offer no sort of salvation to anyone, but maybe the person himself.

R.C. Sproul says:

The errors of Nestorianism become evident when we reflect on the atonement. If Christ is two persons, who died on the cross? It cannot be the infinite divine person of the Son, for He has not assumed a human nature. He possesses only a divine nature, which cannot experience suffering. So, it must have been the human person who suffered and died because the human person in Christ has a human nature, which can experience suffering. But then we have the death only of a finite person, for human persons are finite. And the merit of a finite human sacrifice could hardly be applied to anyone besides the finite person who offers it. Thus, the Westminster Larger Catechism 38 says that Christ had to be God—He had to be a divine person with a human nature so as to give His human suffering sufficient worth to atone for many (Heb. 5:9). Nestorianism gives us an insufficient atonement.

The Son of God did this, by taking a human nature, with all its capacities, into his own divine person alongside his divine nature which he already possessed from eternity past.

We can happily and truly say that God the Son incarnate was born, lived perfectly, performed miracles, transfigured on a mountain, died, rose again, ascended at the right hand of the Father and will one day come back to judge the living and the dead gathering all who are his into a sinless and joy-filled eternity where we will dwell with Triune God forever.

One author says:

“What makes this possible is that the person of the Son, who possesses the divine nature, is able to act in and through both natures. He continued to live on the divine level as he had done from all eternity- sharing fellowship with the Father, maintaining the universe (Col. 1:17), and whatever else God does. But now he began to live on a human level at the same time- being conceived and born as a baby, growing up in Nazareth, learning Scripture as any other Jewish boy would, becoming hungry, thirsty, and tired, and even dying.”

Another author adds this:

In reading the correspondence between Cyril and Nestorius, it becomes clear that one of the reasons why Nestorius was afraid to affirm that Jesus is one divine person who possesses a divine nature and a human nature was that he thought it would mean that deity could undergo suffering and change. But this was never what Cyril believed, and the orthodox view of the person of Christ has never held that deity can suffer. When we say that the one person of the Son of God suffered and died, we do not mean that He experienced this suffering and change from life to death in His divine nature. Cyril, and later, Leo the Great, whose writings also influenced Chalcedon, insisted that the divine nature cannot change and therefore cannot suffer. Only a human with a human nature can do that. So, when the Son suffered, it was only according to His humanity.

God is the giver of salvation. God the Father, sent the divine person of God the Son to come into the world and take on a complete human nature, alongside of his eternally obtained divine nature. In so doing, God the Son incarnate lived a truly human life, following the law of God perfectly, and approached the cross as an unblemished subsititutionary atonement.

God the Son incarnate suffered, died, was buried, and by rose again according to the Scriptures. So that all who look to Christ as their Savior from sin and death, will be forgiven of their sins and be reconciled to God through the power of the Spirit.

Let us rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ today as we get ready to enter into our Sunday morning gathering.

Let’s pray together.