Wenstrom Bible Ministries Marion, Iowa Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom www.wenstrom.org

1. Wenstrom Bible MinistriesMarion, IowaPastor-Teacher Bill Wenstromwww.wenstrom.org

2. Sunday June 5, 2011The Unique Person of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Series: The Hypostatic Union Of Our Lord And Savior Jesus ChristLesson # 6

3. Please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 1:1.

4. This morning we will continue with our study of the unique person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by noting His hypostatic union.

5. The Scriptural evidence is overwhelming that Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ is both God and man forever.

6. The two distinct natures, which as to their attributes differ significantly, were brought together into personal union, which will continue forever.

7. In theology or specifically Christology (the study of Christ), the term “hypostatic union” is used by theologians to describe the teaching of the Scriptures that Jesus Christ is undiminished deity and true sinless humanity in one person forever.

8. The word “hypostatic” is a Bible Word meaning that it is derived from the original language of Scripture (Heb. 1:3).

9. Hebrews 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

10. 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

11. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (NASU)

12. “Nature” is the noun hupostasis, which was a word that belonged to the realm of science and medicine, and has a variety of meanings in classical Greek and means “essence,” “nature” or “substance.”

13. Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines essence, “the properties or attributes by means of which something can be placed in its proper class or identified as being what it is.”

14. The word essence refers the “nature of something.”

15. The doctrine of the hypostatic union teaches that our Lord’s divine nature and His human nature were united forever.

16. Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines the word union as, “an act or instance of uniting or joining two or more things into one.”

17. Jesus Christ unites in Himself, the essence or nature of God and the essence or nature of man.

18. The New Testament emphatically teaches that in His person, Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ was both God and man, which we established in previous classes (Romans 1:3-4; 8:3; 9:1-5; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:19-22; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 1:1-4; 4:1-3; 2 John 7).

19. John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (NASU)

20. Many of these passages such as Romans 1:3-4, 8:3, Philippians 2:6-11, John 1:14 and 1 John 1:1-3 make it clear that the eternal Son of God clothed and veiled His deity with a sinless human nature and became a human being.

21. The term “hypostatic union” means that deity and true humanity are combined in one personality, forever and that personality is Jesus Christ.

22. He did not have two personalities because He had two natures.

23. Because He is a man does not make our Lord less than God, nor, does His being God prevent Him from being truly a man.

24. The integrity of the attributes of His divine nature, were not corrupted or compromised by the fact that His divine nature was united permanently with a human nature.

25. Nor were the integrity of the attributes of His human nature corrupted or compromised by the fact that He was God.

26. His two natures, though united, retain their separate identities.

27. There was no mixture of His divine nature with that of His human nature.

28. His divine attributes are always united to His divine nature and His human attributes are always united to His human nature.

29. Deity remains deity and humanity remains humanity.

30. The infinite cannot become finite and the immutable cannot be changed.

31. No attribute of deity was altered when our Lord became a man through the incarnation and the same holds true when He died on the cross.

32. To take away a single attribute from His divine nature would destroy His deity.

33. To take away from His perfect human nature a single attribute would destroy His humanity.

34. Walvoord writes, “Though Christ sometimes operated in the sphere of His humanity and in other cases in the sphere of His deity, in all cases what He did and what He was could be attributed to His one person. Even though it is evident that there were two natures in Christ, He is never considered a dual personality. The normal pronouns such as I, You and He are used of Him frequently.” (Jesus Christ our Lord, page 112).

35. The two natures of Christ are not only united without affecting the attributes of the two natures but they are also combined in one person.

36. As Charles Hodge writes, “The Son of God did not unite Himself with a human person but with a human nature.”

37. The Lord Jesus Christ was always aware of His deity and humanity.

38. He was always aware in Himself with respect to His deity and He grew in self-consciousness with respect to His humanity.

39. There was no point in the life of our Lord when He suddenly became aware that He was the Son of God.

40. His divine self-consciousness was always fully operative when He was an infant in the arms of Mary and this was the case as a mature adult.

41. However, it is clear from the Scriptures that His human nature developed.

42. There was a corresponding development of His human self-consciousness as His human nature developed.

43. Therefore, our Lord had a divine and human self-consciousness.

44. However, there was never any conflict between the two.

45. Sometimes He spoke and acted from His divine self-consciousness and other times from His human self-consciousness.

46. The Gospels make clear that Jesus Christ’s divine consciousness was expressed in both His words and actions.

47. Jesus Christ was also conscious of being omnipotent and that He was the promised Savior of the world.

48. The question arises that since Christ had a divine and human nature, did each nature have a corresponding “will”?

49. In order to answer this question, we must define “will.”

50. If we speak of “will” in terms of a desire, then it is clear that there would be conflicting desires in the divine and human natures of Christ.