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Essential Doctrine 2: Jesus is fully God and fully man

December 15, 2009 by  
Filed under AA: Steve Bruecker, Theology

3 Comments

Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

John 1:1, 14 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us…”

John 20:28 Thomas said to him [Jesus], “My Lord and my God!”

The second essential doctrine is you have to believe Jesus is fully God and fully man to call yourself a Christian. To deny Jesus is God is to deny Christianity. The above scriptures clearly teach Jesus is God. I believe Philippians 2 can help us understand how the person Jesus can have two natures, fully God and fully man.

Philippians 2:5-8 (NASB) “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Verse 6 says Jesus existed in the “form of God.” The word form (Greek “morphe”) means “nature.” Nature is the essential attributes or characteristics of a living being or thing. Paul is stating here that Jesus is fully God; He has the nature of God. Then in verse 7 he writes that Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men.” Again we see the same Greek word “morphe” for form used to say Jesus took on the nature of a human. Jesus had 2 natures, fully God and fully man but was one person.

We have a hard time grasping this truth of the incarnation (God coming to earth in the form of a man). All other religions deny this essential doctrine. They think Jesus was just a good teacher, a lesser god (Jehovah Witnesses), or another god (Mormons). However, to call yourself a Christian you have to believe Jesus is fully God and fully man, 2 natures, 1 person.

[For further discussion on this topic see December 3rd post "Jesus is God."

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Comments

3 Responses to “Essential Doctrine 2: Jesus is fully God and fully man”
  1. Christian says:
    December 15, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Christian

  2. Me!! says:
    November 14, 2011 at 11:48 pm

    Uhmm.. yeah but whats the verse that says that He is fully man and fully God??? Or is there no actual verse that says this, just a bunch of different verses put together?? Because I’ve been looking for it for ages!!!!!

  3. Steve says:
    November 15, 2011 at 6:14 am

    Caralee,
    What verse in the Bible says unless the words meet your standard they cannot be true? I have been looking for those words for ages!!!!! Please provide your scriptural support.

    Sorry for my sick humor. If you think something can only be true in the Bible, only if it has the exact words, then your going to have use the same criteria on your statement. I hope you see how absurd your request is. It is self-refuting. All Scripture has to be interpreted, and as such, people will use words that are not exactly the words of the Bible to describe theological realities. Your interpreting my post caused you to use non-Biblical words. Does that mean you were wrong?

    Steve

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