Short Essay on Christology

For me, the basis of Jesus' humanity begins in the Book of Saint John 1:14 (ESV), "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." Here we see that John, one of Jesus' disciples, reveals the humanity of Christ. Jesus Himself declared His humanity: "but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did (John 8:40)." The Apostle Paul also testified of His humanity when he said to the Romans, "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3)."

Now concerning His deity, we go back to the Book of Saint John 1:1-2, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." John, Jesus' disciple is claiming Jesus as God. Jesus also claimed He was God when He stated, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58)." He was claiming to be the I AM from the Book of Genesis, the God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Jesus claimed to be one with the Father (John 10:30). Paul says of Christ, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Phil. 2:6)."

Jesus can be both God and Man because He was the Seed of God and was birthed through Mary. He is perfect in both natures, as God and Man. The Hypostatic Union states: "In the incarnation of the Son of God, a human nature was inseparably united forever with the divine nature in the one person of Jesus Christ, yet with the two natures remaining distinct, whole, and unchanged, without mixture or confusion, so that the one person, Jesus Christ, is truly God and truly man."(p.583). Jesus had all the components of God and all the components of humanity, except the sinful nature.

Jesus is both God and man. First God, He came from God. The only way for humanity to be saved was only through the purest of sacrifice. Since the sinful nature in humans couldn't allow them to obtain perfection, God sent His only Son to do so. As a Man, Jesus came to this Earth like a normal person; He was born through Mary. He had a spirit, soul and body. As God, He was able to do supernatural things, like forgive sins, calm storms, and miraculous signs. As a Man, He felt pain, He was thirsty, and He got tired.

Jesus was the only medium God could use to save humanity. Only His blood was perfect enough to satisfy God's judgment and His mercy. Without the shedding of His blood, there would be no forgiveness of sins. He only had to die once in order to save humanity.

If you overemphasize the deity of Christ, then you deny