Since Jesus has two natures, and those natures are within the person of Christ. Then, what is person? Based on his book, Berkhof (1949), person is in what exists in and for itself, the owner, possessor, and master of the nature, a completion of existence, sustaining, and determining the existence of a nature. The person is also the subject who lives, wills, and acts though nature with all its abundant context, by which nature becomes self-existent and is not an accident of another entity. The nature is part of the person. The nature was owned, and determined by the person. However, many people don’t understand clearly about this. Some people often understand it that the two natures are fused into a mixture (Millard, 1983). So, this chapter
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No proof of dual personality in scripture.
Scripture never told that Jesus has two persons. ¬Although there is verses that how Himself with I (as singular) and Thou (as plural), but they have the same meaning as the Mediator. This relationship is like the unity between the Father and Jesus. It is shown in the piece of John 17: 21 that state, “Father, are in me and I am in you.”
2. Both natures are represented in scripture as united in one Person.
Jesus Christ indeed has two natures. However, it is evident that only one person is included, as Rom 1:34; Gal 4:4 and Phil 2: 6-11 stated. From those passages, we can look that both natures are united. However, we are not allowed to think like this. Actually, not the divine power was manifested in human nature, but, the divine person of the Son of God was united to a human nature.
3. The one person in spoken in terms true of either one of the natures.
This means that in one time, the attributes of one nature will be the predicated (to affirm subject) of the person, while that person is labeled by a title, as subject, derived from other nature. The table below will illustrate this …show more content…
It also can be called gratia eminentiae, by which the human nature is elevated high above all creatures, and even becomes the object of adoration
• the gratia habitualis
This consists of those gift of Spirit particularly of the intellect, of the will, and of the power, by which the human nature of Christ was exalted high above all intelligence creatures. He is non posse peccare.
3. The God-Man is the object of prayer
So that is why He is to whom we pray. It is due to that the honor adoration does not belong to the human nature, but belongs to only in virtue of its union with the divine Logos. The truth that we must understand is that God-man Jesus Christ is only the object of our religious worship, but the ground on which we adore Him lies in the person of the Logos.
D. The Implication of the Unity of the Person of Christ
How two natures in one person of Christ works? Wayne in his book, Grudem (2004) explained this with 3 ways.
1. One Nature Does Some Things That the Other Nature Doesn’t
No proof of dual personality in scripture.
Scripture never told that Jesus has two persons. ¬Although there is verses that how Himself with I (as singular) and Thou (as plural), but they have the same meaning as the Mediator. This relationship is like the unity between the Father and Jesus. It is shown in the piece of John 17: 21 that state, “Father, are in me and I am in you.”
2. Both natures are represented in scripture as united in one Person.
Jesus Christ indeed has two natures. However, it is evident that only one person is included, as Rom 1:34; Gal 4:4 and Phil 2: 6-11 stated. From those passages, we can look that both natures are united. However, we are not allowed to think like this. Actually, not the divine power was manifested in human nature, but, the divine person of the Son of God was united to a human nature.
3. The one person in spoken in terms true of either one of the natures.
This means that in one time, the attributes of one nature will be the predicated (to affirm subject) of the person, while that person is labeled by a title, as subject, derived from other nature. The table below will illustrate this …show more content…
It also can be called gratia eminentiae, by which the human nature is elevated high above all creatures, and even becomes the object of adoration
• the gratia habitualis
This consists of those gift of Spirit particularly of the intellect, of the will, and of the power, by which the human nature of Christ was exalted high above all intelligence creatures. He is non posse peccare.
3. The God-Man is the object of prayer
So that is why He is to whom we pray. It is due to that the honor adoration does not belong to the human nature, but belongs to only in virtue of its union with the divine Logos. The truth that we must understand is that God-man Jesus Christ is only the object of our religious worship, but the ground on which we adore Him lies in the person of the Logos.
D. The Implication of the Unity of the Person of Christ
How two natures in one person of Christ works? Wayne in his book, Grudem (2004) explained this with 3 ways.
1. One Nature Does Some Things That the Other Nature Doesn’t