A: John 1:1 Third Sermon

“Hypostatic Union is the union of the two natures (Divine and human) in the person of Jesus. Jesus is God in flesh (, , , , , ). He is fully God and fully man (), thus, He has two natures: God and man. He is not half God and half man. He is 100% God and 100% man. He never lost His divinity. He continued to exist as God when He became a man and added human nature to Himself ().”

There are other views of the divine nature that we must guard from.

One view states that Christ's natures were so thoroughly combined--in a sense scrambled together--that the result was that Christ was not really truly able to relate to us as humans.

Another states that Jesus' two natures are combined into one new one. The problem here is that neither God nor man was represented in Christ but a new third thing.

Another states that the divine and human natures of Christ were so separated from each other that they were "not in contact." The problem here is that worship of the human Jesus would then not be allowed.

Again, explained from Carm.org.

Christ Alone Fellowship believes:

Article 4 - God The Son

4-1. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Word, the eternal and true God who is of one substance and equal with the Father. He took on Himself man's nature, with all of its essential properties except sin: Being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, He embodied two perfect and distinct natures in one person. He is truly God and truly man, the only mediator between God and man.

Question: Why does this matter?

I want to give some reasons as to why this matters because there is a lie out there that speaks of doctrine or theology as incompatible with or inconsequential to practice.

This matters. It eternally matters that we believe rightly about the person of Jesus Christ!

So here are some reasons for why believing Jesus as truly God and truly man matters.

1. A rejection of the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ proves that one has not come to saving faith.

Question: What do I mean when I say rejection? Answer: It doesn’t mean

1 John 4:1–3 ESV

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Rejecting Jesus (who is Divine and Human), denying His incarnation, is to deny who He revealed Himself to be. It is to deny .

1 John 2:22–23 ESV

22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

1 John 2:21–23 ESV

1 John 2:21–25 ESV

21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.

Philip Schaff “John makes the denial of the incarnation of the Son of God the criterion of Antichrist, and consequently the belief in this truth the test of Christianity.”

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Category:Christ

Philip Schaff

You cannot be saved and believe that Jesus is not divine. A rejection of His humanity proves that you have not believed in Jesus as taught in Holy Scripture.

This does not mean that we have all the answers as to how this happened. But a denial of it proves that one has not come to saving faith.

But a denial of it proves that one has not come to saving faith.

Of course, we cannot know as God knows of someone’s salvation. People can ascent to this and not be saved.

A life of obedience to His commands that comes from a faith in Jesus Christ proves that we have come to saving faith. Proving this comes from being in fellowship with one another in the local church.

This matters eternally. To believe that Jesus is both God and Man!

The second reason as to why this matters:

2. A wrong view of the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ will directly affect your practice.

One pattern I have noticed with those who deny Jesus divinity and humanity is that it produces legalism.

Matt Slick, a Christian apologist noted this:

“In Christianity, legalism is the excessive and improper use of the law (10 commandments, holiness laws, etc). This legalism can take different forms. The first is where a person attempts to keep the Law in order to attain salvation. The second is where a person keeps the law in order to maintain his salvation. The third is when a Christian judges other Christians for not keeping certain codes of conduct that he thinks need to be observed.”

If one does not believe with assurance that Jesus was truly God and truly Man they are only left with laws that cannot be kept.

God demands us to be holy. But without belief in Christ as God come in the flesh, we cannot adhere to the law perfectly.

James 2:10 ESV

10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

If Jesus was just a man, then he would have been a part of being fallen like the rest of mankind.

But because He was God, He was without sin. Born of the virgin Mary.

And because He was God, He lived a sinless life.

And because He lived a sinless life without blemish, He was able to give His life as an offering to satisfy all the requirements of the law. Fulfilling them all which completely and eternally takes our guilt away!

A denial of this leaves one with their own efforts. Which produces a man dependent gospel.

Our works are a result of the Gospel not a means to be righteous. Our righteousness comes from Christ and in His completed work.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The cause to us being righteous was not our works. It was the work of God.

3. It matters because if Christ was not God in the flesh then He was not raised from the dead. And if He did not raise from the dead then we are still in our sins.

Everything we believe comes from Jesus Christ and on the reality of who He said He was.

Was He there in the beginning? Yes.

Was He there in the beginning with God? Yes.

Was He always God? Yes.

Even in the incarnation? Yes.

And now He sits at the right hand of the Father eternally reigning over all things!

This matters eternally. To believe that Jesus is both God and Man!

John 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

3. The Holy Scriptures clearly teach that Jesus was God in the flesh.

ISLAM: Jesus is only a prophet, second in importance to Muhammad. Jesus, according to Islam, was a Muslim.

Jesus was God come into the flesh who lived a perfect life so that we who were guilty of sin could be declared righteous.

ISLAM: Jesus is only a prophet, second in importance to Muhammad. Jesus, according to Islam, was a Muslim. JW: They deny that Jesus is God in flesh (deny the Trinity). They teach that Jesus was Michael the archangel who became a man, (The Watchtower, May 15, 1963, p. 307, The New World, 284), creating all other things," (Aid to Bible Understanding, pp. 390-391). LDS: Jesus is the literal son of God who, according to Brigham Young, the second prophet of the LDS church, is the product of sexual relations between God the Father and Mary. NAM: Jesus is an avatar, a way-shower to the cosmic Christ consciousness which culminates with declaring that the human being is divine. RC: Roman Catholicism holds to the orthodox doctrine of Jesus and affirms the hypostatic union (the two natures of Jesus), his death, burial, and physical resurrection.

JW: They deny that Jesus is God in flesh (deny the Trinity). They teach that Jesus was Michael the archangel who became a man, (The Watchtower, May 15, 1963, p. 307, The New World, 284), creating all other things," (Aid to Bible Understanding, pp. 390-391).

"There is no mystery in heaven or earth so great as this; a suffering Deity, an almighty Saviour nailed to a Cross." Samuel M. Zwemer

LDS: Jesus is the literal son of God who, according to Brigham Young, the second prophet of the LDS church, is the product of sexual relations between God the Father and Mary.

NAM: Jesus is an avatar, a way-shower to the cosmic Christ consciousness which culminates with declaring that the human being is divine.

RC: Roman Catholicism holds to the orthodox doctrine of Jesus and affirms the hypostatic union (the two natures of Jesus), his death, burial, and physical resurrection.

John is pointing out without question the greatest mystery in heaven and in earth.