Concerning the Human Nature of Christ

Q. Does Christ have a human nature?

A. Yes!

Q. Where was He already promised?

A. In Genesis 3:15, God was the first preacher of this: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” The Lord also promised it to Noah, and afterwards to Abraham. He swore to him that He would give him a son, from whom the Messiah would come forth. Isaac was born, which seemed to be most improbable, and regarding which Sarah laughed, since she had become old.

Nevertheless he came, as evidence of God’s faithfulness and as proof that the Messiah would also come. Isaac also had but one to whom God gave the promise, and that was Jacob. And Jacob begat Judah, and in Genesis 49:10, he said, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come.” In Genesis 49:18, he said, “I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.”

After this these people were oppressed in Egypt for four hundred years. One would say, “Now it is ended; now the Messiah will not come.” Nevertheless, He appeared to Moses in the burning bush and said, “I remember My covenant,” and He went to deliver His people. In Isaiah 7, the sun rose still higher. A Son would be born, and a virgin would bear Him (Isaiah 7:14).

Q. Did Christ appear in the Old Testament?

A. Yes! once to Abraham when He went to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, once to Moses in the burning bush, once to Jacob when He wrestled with him at Peniel, and once to Joshua, at which time Joshua asked, “Art Thou for us, or for our adversaries?” and He answered, “Nay, but as Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.”

Q. Why did God postpone the coming of the Messiah such a long time?

A. (1) For a reason from the side of God the Father; (2) for a reason from the side of God the Son; and (3) for a reason from the side of man.

Q. What was the reason from the side of God the Father?

A. (1) Undoubtedly He wanted to let His wisdom appear that He, by such insignificant shadows, could represent such a great matter. (2) It was because the unchangeable God, in His decree determined from eternity, had established this time. (3) It was because His faithfulness, in the fulfillment of His promise already made in Paradise, would, after so many years, appear to His glory and to the comfort and strength of His people.

Q. What was the reason from the side of God the Son?

A. It was because He would be so much the more desirable.

Q. What was the reason from the side of man?

A. (1) It was in order that their impotence in delivering themselves would be so much the more revealed. (2) It was in order that they would be so much the more diligent to search the Scriptures. (3) It was in order that they would long for it, saying, “O that Thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find Thee without, I would kiss Thee” (Song of Solomon 8:1). It was so they would thus, by faith, with their burden of sin, approach unto Him and cast themselves before Him! He is the only Name. They have sought throughout the entire world and found none like Him. In this way the Lord desired to allure their faith and love.

Q. Was it the Son of God who became man?

A. Yes! “The Word was made flesh” (John 1:14), and in addition to its being God’s good pleasure, this was the reason that the Son became man, and not the Father nor the Holy Ghost. (1) Thus He is the natural Son of God, and therefore it was also to the honor of God that He made many children of God. (2) He is the Word, by whom God had created the world, and now He was also competent to recreate it. (3) He is the express image of God, and therefore He is also qualified to restore in us that image which we had lost. (4) It is to confirm God’s great love, that He did not spare His only begotten Son, but delivered Him up for us all (Romans 8:32).

Q. Did He truly become man?

A. Yes! We prove this from God’s Word, for to Him is attributed body and soul.

Q. Prove that He has a body.

A. He said to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side” (John 20:27); and to His disciples, “For a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have” (Luke 24:39). “But a body hast Thou prepared Me” (Hebrews 10:5). His body was nailed to the cross and buried.

Q. Prove that He had a soul, distinct from His divine nature.

A. “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38), and “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46). To Him a mind was attributed, distinct from His divine omniscience. He grew in knowledge and understanding. And He possessed a will distinct from His divine will: “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

Q. Did He also have human weaknesses?

A. He had human, but not sinful, weaknesses, such as hunger: “He was afterward an hungered” (Matthew 4:2); thirst: He requested a drink from the Samaritan woman (John 4:7), on the cross He said, “I thirst” (John 19:28); weariness: being wearied with His journey, He sat on the well (John 4:6), He slept in the ship (Matthew 8:24).

Q. Did He also have human passions?

A. Yes, for example, joy, sadness, anger, and love, but these were not sinful.

Q. Was He ever joyful?

A. Yes, but we do not find anywhere in Scripture that He laughed. In Luke 10:21, it is recorded that He rejoiced in spirit after the seventy disciples returned and informed Him of the great deeds which they had performed. He also attended a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and these are not meals of sadness, but of joy; however, of moderate joy.

Q. Where do we find that He also had sorrow?

A. In Matthew 26:38: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” We also find that He wept.

Q. How often do we read that Jesus wept?

A. Three times. (1) When He saw that His friend Lazarus had died, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35); this is the shortest verse in the Bible, but of great significance. (2) When He came near to the city of Jerusalem and the people were joyful and cried, “Hosanna; Blessed is He” (Mark 11:9), Jesus wept and said, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!” (Luke 19:41-42). (3) He wept in the garden of Gethsemane. The apostle also said of Him, “Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears” (Hebrews 5:7). He often looked up to heaven and sighed deeply, and then once said, “Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say?” and then again, “How am I straitened.”

Q. Did He also have anger?

A. Yes! when He preached, but saw that it had no effect, He looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for their unbelief and hardness of heart (Mark 3:5).

Q. Did not this go too far?

A. No, He knew His limitation. With the agitation of Christ, it was as with clear water and muddy water. When all is calm, both of them are clear. However, if one shakes and stirs them, the clear water still remains clear. Thus it was with Christ; whereas with us, as persons, it is as with the muddy water, which at once becomes clouded. Thus He remained holy, harmless, and undefiled (Hebrews 7:26).

The Union and Distinction of the Two Natures in the Person of Christ

We believe that by this conception the person of the Son is inseparably united and connected with the human nature, so that there are not two Sons of God, nor two persons, but two natures united in one single person; yet that each nature retains its own distinct properties. As then the divine nature hath always remained uncreated, without beginning of days or end of life, filling heaven and earth, so also hath the human nature not lost its properties, but remained a creature, having beginning of days, being a finite nature, and retaining all the properties of a real body. And though He hath by His resurrection given immortality to the same, nevertheless He hath not changed the reality of His human nature, forasmuch as our salvation and resurrection also depend on the reality of His body.

But these two natures are so closely united in one person that they were not separated even by His death. Therefore that which He, when dying, commended into the hands of His Father, was a real human spirit departing from His body. But in the meantime the divine nature always remained united with the human, even when He lay in the grave; and the Godhead did not cease to be in Him, any more than it did when He was an infant, though it did not so clearly manifest itself for a while. Wherefore we confess that He is very God and very man: very God by His power to conquer death, and very man that He might die for us according to the infirmity of His flesh.

— The Confession of Faith Article 19

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