Vera Homo, Vera Deus
Jesus is vera homo (truly man) and vera Deus (truly God) Christ is the God/man as reveled in holy scriptures. Many groups today deny this, J.W.’s, Mormons, Christian Science, and a host of others, but nothing is more dangerous than to deny the true humanity and deity of Jesus Christ. It’s easier to demonstrate that Jesus was a man because he was tired, hungry, thirsty, angry, and He wept, bled and died. It takes a little more effort to demonstrate that Christ was divine, but it’s very clear if you take the time to look. In John 10:31-33, the Jews pick up stones again to stone Him. Jesus asked, “I have shown you many good works from the Father, for which one of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “it is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God.”
We need to establish that there is only One God, Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Romans 3:30, “...God is one.” I Corinthians 8:6, “…there is one God…” Ephesians 4:5-6, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God…” James 2:19. “You believe that God is one…” The Bible is clear there is only one God, yet three persons are called God in the Bible. The Father is God, The Son is God, and The Holy Spirit is God. All co-equal, of the same essence and eternal. We call our understanding of this, the Trinity. To not believe in the Holy Trinity means that one is not a Christian and excluded from the kingdom of God. The Son has always existed as the Word (Logos) as described in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Jesus said in John 17:5, “And now Father, glorify Me in your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the World was.“ To say that Christ is lower than the Father means that you are not a Christian. Christ is God, with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
At the incarnation of Christ, the Holy Spirit came upon the virgin Mary, and she conceived the Christ child. The eternal Word became flesh and Jesus grew having a truly human nature and a truly Divine nature in His one body. If Jesus were only God and not truly man, He could not save us. Christ is called the Second Adam because He fulfilled all righteousness for us, which the first Adam failed to do, and then took upon Himself our very sins to suffer in our place and die for our sins. If Jesus were not human, He could not have been our penal substitution on the cross and we would be left to pay for our own sins.
People sometimes confuse the two natures of Christ by thinking that the humanity of Christ was energized by His divine nature. Not true, His two natures are never mixed, confused, divided or separated. Jesus wasn’t like the fable Hercules as a divine human, he was truly human, and truly divine, two natures in one body. Let me explain through questions; Did God die on the cross? Of course not, for if God died then everything in the universe would implode. Jesus the Man died. Did God ever get hungry? No, never, but the human Jesus did. If Jesus did miracles, was it His human side or His divine side? It was His divine side. As God spoke to the prophets of old and told them the things that would take place in the future (Prophesies) in the same way God spoke to the human Jesus telling Him what God wanted said, in John 12:49, Jesus said, “I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent Me, (tells Me) what to say and what to speak.” This is why in Mark chapter 13, Jesus doesn’t know the day no hour of His return, only the Father knows.”
After Jesus was laid in the borrowed tomb what happened to His divine nature? We know that His spirit went to be with the Father and His divine nature never left the human body of Jesus and was with Him in the tomb, for Jesus said, “After three days I will raise again.” How do I know the Divine nature of Christ was with Him in the tomb? Because as the Chalcedon creed states, “The two natures of Christ are within His one body and cannot be confused, mixed, separated or divided.” Christ’s deity never left His dead body, for He was not to see corruption and His body would be raised again.
If anyone doesn’t believe in the two natures of Christ in His one body, that person is not a genuine believer and is in danger of eternal death. I hope I’ve given enough information for you to study more.
A Slave of Christ, John
