In Parts I-III
of this series we considered Scriptural evidence for the deity of Christ, some
ancient and modern heresies concerning the deity of Christ, and some specific
Scriptures used to support heretical teachings concerning the deity of Christ.
In Part IV we considered Scriptural evidence for the humanity of Christ. We now
conclude this series of articles by describing some ancient and modern
Heresies Concerning the
Humanity of Christ.
The Docetic
(Gnostic) Heresy. “Docetic” is from the Greek word meaning “to seem, to
appear.” This is the teaching that Christ had no real body; His appearance was
only an apparition, His body a phantom, His birth and death visions. This way
of thinking was present in the 1st century A.D. and was refuted in 1 John 4:2
and 2 John 7. Many variations of this heresy developed during the first few
centuries of Christianity; it was a common teaching of the Gnostics. An example
of docetic thinking was the teaching of Basilides of Egypt that it was Simon of
Cyrene who was crucified in disguise of Jesus. (This is similar to the notion
incorporated into the Islamic Qu’ran several centuries later that it wasn’t
really Jesus who died on the cross but one who was made to look like Him, while
Jesus was taken directly to heaven without dying.)
It is somewhat
understandable why people would want to deny that Jesus Christ is
divine—co-equal with the eternal God the Father. But why would people want to
accept the deity but not the humanity of Christ? The Gnostics, following the
Greek philosopher Plato, believed that matter was evil, subject to change and
decay, whereas ideas had permanence and perfection. Thus God could not become
man with a physical body, for in so doing He would become tainted with evil.
Some “Gnostic Christians” handled this dilemma by denying Christ’s deity;
others—the docetic Gnostics—dealt with it by saying that Christ didn’t really
become man at all but only appeared to have a body.
The answer to
this apparent dilemma is that the whole premise is wrong:there is nothing
inherently evil in matter or in the human body. After creating Adam’s body,
soul, and spirit, “God saw every thing that He had made, and behold, it was
very good” (Gen. 1:31). Christ died to redeem our body (Rom. 8:23) as well as
our soul and spirit (Psa. 31:5; 49:15; 69:18). Our present physical body is
called “a natural [literally, ‘soulish’] body” (1 Cor. 15:44), that is, a body
that is ideally suited to the soul of man. In the same verse, our future,
resurrection body in heaven is called “a spiritual body,” that is, a body that
is ideally suited to the spirit of man—the part of us that sets us apart from
all of the animal kingdom and fits us to communicate with and enjoy God.
When a believer
dies, he is “absent from the body and present [in soul and spirit] with the
Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). But a few verses earlier, the apostle Paul states that
there is something better than dying and having our soul and spirit go to
heaven:“For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our house which is from heaven…. For we who are in this tabernacle do groan,
being burdened:not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon” (2 Cor.
5:1-4). The “unclothed” state is having our soul and spirit in heaven and our
body in the grave. The “clothed” state is having our resurrection body joined
with our soul and spirit in heaven. This will happen at “the coming of the
Lord” for His own (1 Thess. 4:15-17) when “the dead shall be raised
incorruptible” (1 Cor. 15:52).
We have taken
this brief side trip to illustrate that matter and body—far from being evil—are
given great honor by God. The greatest honor of all placed upon man’s physical
body was for the eternal Son of God to take upon Himself such a body in His
Incarnation. Christ as Man has given expression to the ideal Man, the perfect
Man, the One who delighted always to do the will of the Father (Psa. 40:8; Heb.
10:7) and in whom the Father found all His delight (Matt. 3:17 JND).
The
Apollinarian Heresy. Apollinarius, a leader of the Church in Syria in the
4th century A.D., was a strong opponent of the Arian Heresy (see Part II of
this series in the Jan-Feb 2001 issue) that denied the deity of Christ. But He
went too far in the opposite direction:he taught that Christ had a human body
but not a human soul and spirit. Christ’s divine nature took the place of soul
and spirit, he taught. His argument was that if Christ had been fully human in
body, soul, and spirit, He would have been sinful. But it is just as wrong to
assume that the human soul and spirit are inherently sinful as to assume that the
human body is such. As Christians we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2
Pet. 1:4) which “cannot sin” (1 John 4:9). As fallen men and women of Adam’s
race, we also possess a sinful nature (Rom. 7:17,18). But in heaven we will “be
conformed to the image of [God’s] Son” (Rom. 8:29). That is, our old, sinful
nature will be taken away from us. We will still be human in body, soul, and
spirit, but clothed with a new, incorruptible and immortal body (1 Cor.
15:52-54), and with our sinful nature removed.
On earth,
Christ Jesus as Man was just like us, “yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). In heaven
we shall be like the Man Christ Jesus (1 John 3:2) in our humanity:that one
difference—the sin nature—will be removed, whereas we shall retain our new
nature that “cannot sin” (1 John 3:9).
In Part IV of
this series in the previous issue, we considered a number of ways in which
Christ showed that He was human. In addition to many physical or bodily
expressions of His humanity, we gave examples of His human emotions, including
His affection, sympathy, compassion, mental agony, and loneliness. His human
soul and spirit are referred to in the following verses:“Then said He unto
them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matt. 26:38); “When Jesus
had thus said, He was troubled in spirit” (John 13:21). Surely, Jesus could not
have cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46) without
having a human soul and spirit.
The teaching of
Apollinarius was rejected as heterodox (that is, not true to Scripture) by the
Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. and has continued to be rejected by
orthodox Christians up to the present time. This error was taught by a man
named F. E. Raven about a hundred years ago and is still taught by his
followers today. Also, in the 1930’s the Apollinarian teaching of a man named
James Boyd contributed to a division in the so-called “Grant Fellowship” of
Christians. Erwin Lutzer in his book, The Doctrines That Divide (Kregel,
1998) writes that he has met many believers who assume that the physical body
of Christ came from Mary, but that His soul and spirit were not human but
divine. This apparently comes from lack of teaching and understanding of God’s
Word rather than any concerted Apollinarian teaching today.
As stated in
the previous issue, it is important to hold the full humanity of Christ (as
well as the full deity of Christ) because He could not otherwise have made full
atonement for our sins. The Redeemer had to be a man to actually die.
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also
Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him
who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). If He were not
fully human, He could not have fully represented us on the cross. If He had had
only a human body, but not a human soul and spirit, He could have redeemed only
man’s body, and not man’s soul and spirit. With only our body redeemed, we
might live forever without disease or death, but still retaining our sin
nature.
The
Nestorian Heresy. Following the Council of Constantinople there was general
assent in the Church as to the full deity and humanity of Christ. But in the
5th century A.D. there was a concerted effort on the part of many theologians
to try to define just exactly how the divine and human natures were united in
Christ. Nestorius, a Christian leader in Constantinople around 430 A.D.,
asserted that Christ was two distinct persons—Son of Man and Son of God—rather
than having divine and human natures united in one Person. At the Council of
Ephesus in 431 A.D., Nestorius’ teaching was condemned. We can easily fall into
the Nestorian error when we say that Christ said this as Son of Man and did
that as Son of God. No doubt it would be best to say that whatever the Man
Christ Jesus said and did, He did as one divine-human Person, without trying to
separate His divine and human natures.
Other scholars,
attempting to correct the Nestorian Heresy, went too far in the opposite
direction, teaching, for example, that Christ’s deity and humanity were blended
together into a single nature. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. produced
the following statement as to the uniting of the divine and human natures of
Christ:“Christ … acknowledged in two natures, unconfusedly, unchangeable,
indivisibly, inseparably, the distinction of natures being by no means taken
away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and
concurring in one person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two
persons, but one and the same Son, Only-begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus
Christ.”
Perhaps it is
best to conclude this section with the following verse:“No man knows the Son
but the Father” (Matt. 11:27).
Will Christ
Cease Being a Man? (This question logically belongs to Part IV of this
series.) Clearly Christ was still a Man following His death and resurrection.
When He ascended to heaven, the angels said, “This same Jesus, who is taken up
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into
heaven” (Acts 1:11). Accordingly, Stephen and the apostle Paul saw Him after
His ascension (Acts 7:55,56; 1 Cor. 15:8). It is prophesied in the Word that
Christ will return, as a Man, to set up His kingdom upon the earth and reign
for 1,000 years on the throne of David (Psa. 132:11; Isa. 9:7; Zech. 14:4; Luke
1:32; Rev. 1:7). Will He cease being a Man at the end of His 1,000 year reign
over the earth? No, the following verses indicate that Christ will never
cease being Man, just as He will never cease being God:“This Man, because He
continues ever, has an unchangeable priesthood…. The Son … is consecrated
[as Priest] for evermore…. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and
forever” (Heb. 7:24,28; 13:8; see also Zech. 12:10; 13:6).
There is a Man
in the glory with whom we shall communicate, and whom we shall worship, adore,
and enjoy forevermore. Praise His holy name! “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).