The Hypostatic Union: The Humanity of Christ

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The Hypostatic Union: The Humanity of Christ

Jesus is unique in that He is one person with two natures, one nature being divine, and the other nature being human.  This description of Jesus’s two natures is referred to as the hypostatic union.  This description of Jesus is firmly rooted in Scripture and was defended throughout church history.  Denial of either Jesus’s divinity or humanity causes errors in theology and diminishes interrelated doctrines concerning Christ’s work.  The goal of this post is to provide biblical evidence that Jesus was fully human and argue the necessity of Jesus’s humanity.  There are more in-depth questions relevant to the discussion regarding Christology, but they are beyond the scope of this post.  One must also humbly admit that there is some divine mystery present in this doctrine.        

Jesus’s humanity or the fact that He was a man should not be dismissed as common sense.  For some still error in their perception of Christ.  It is beneficial to put up some theological guardrails to prevent one from driving off the biblical road of sound doctrine. 

Jesus was conceived via the Holy Spirit in the womb of a human mother and although His conception was unique, He experienced a real human birth (Mat. 1:18, 2:1).  God became “flesh” (John 1:14) and became flesh as a human child (Mat. 2:11, Phil. 2:7).  Jesus’s human nature grew in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52).  Jesus had a real human body that the disciples physically touched, and His body was not a manifestation or a spirit (Luke 24:39).  Jesus physically ate food and drank fluids (Luke 7:34, 24:41-43).  Jesus’s human nature became physically tired from a long day of walking (John 4:6).  Jesus was human in every respect (Heb. 2:17).  When Jesus was run through with a spear at His crucifixion it revealed that He had a circulatory system and blood came out of the wound (John 19:34).  Jesus had a real bodily death (John 19:34).

Jesus’s humanity had died, but his divine side resurrected Him. Jesus had a real bodily resurrection and His disciples physically touched his body (John 20:17, 20:27-28).  Once Jesus ascended into heaven He did not lose his human body. Millard Erickson refers to this as “continuing incarnation.”[1]  Paul the Apostle states, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5, italics mine for emphasis). In other words, Jesus is still active as a mediator and still a man (still incarnate).  This assertion of continuing incarnation can be further supported with 1 John 4:2, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (italics mine for emphasis).  John states that Jesus Christ has “come in the flesh” and it is important to note that this is present tense.  The Greek that this was originally written in also reflects this present tense nuance.  The majority of Bible translations also translate this verse as “come” (ESV, CSB, NIV, KJV, NASB, RSV, and NET).    

Jesus, being fully man and fully God, is a first-order theological issue.  Jesus being fully man is also theologically necessary according to Scripture.  The author of Hebrews explains Jesus was fully man “in every respect,” so that he would be a faithful “high priest,” to make “propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17).  In other words, Jesus being fully human was necessary to make atonement for sins.  Jesus being fully human means that believers have a great “high priest” who is able to sympathize with our humanity (Heb. 4:14).  “God becoming flesh,” means that God directly revealed Himself in Jesus and one can have real knowledge of God through faith in Jesus (John 14:9).        

Post on the Divinity of Christ:
https://musingsfromnightshift.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-hypostatic-union-divinity-of-christ.html

Resources for further study:

Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 2013.

Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994.


[1]Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 2013), 706.

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