Hypostatic Union in Jesus

[noorez]

As-salam alaykum wa rahmatu l-lāhi wa barakātuh:

…(my ponderings on church teachings continue…)

A question regarding the hypostatic union of the two natures in Jesus as taught by the catholic church. I understand that the church teaches that many aspects of this are a mystery, however, I’m not sure what aspects are a mystery and what aspects I simply do not know so I will put my thoughts below:

If the church teaches that Jesus was fully human in every way (apart from ever sinning), did Jesus have a ‘human soul’ ? Or was the only ‘soul’ present the essence of ‘God the Son’ ?

(please pardon any offence in this next question. i do not mean any). Occasionally, when a man has ‘certain dreams’ he will wake up with an erection. This is obviously not his fault in any way as we cannot control our dreams. We can only control our active thoughts. So, I would expect Jesus to not commit the sin of ‘adultery of the heart’, but would Jesus have ever had the experience of a ‘wet dream’?

more thoughts:

If Jesus was fully human, would the possibility of him sinning still exist? Or would the divine nature prevent this from happening?

It someone feels like the idea of a ‘spotless victim’ is meaningless when the victim himself has been ‘pre-programmed’ (so to speak) to never blemish himself.

I may not have direct questions in the above, so responses to my thoughts would be helpful if they are distinguishable.

 

[DevotedChild]

The one thing my knowledge can suggest is that part of the reason Jesus never sinned is because, like Mary his mother, Jesus was born without original sin, humanities fallen nature, and because He did not have the fallen nature to affect him, like his mother, He had no desire to sin and so they did not sin. Also, His Divine nature has some part of it but as a human, Jesus could not fully contain all of God’s knowledge and so on since God made humanity limited in comparison to Himself. But Jesus did have enough Divine Knowledge to do all he needed to do and say all he needed to say and know what all was or was not pleasing to God the Father.

I hope this helps. God Bless.

 

[aemcpa]

As-salam alaykum wa rahmatu l-lāhi wa barakātuh:

…(my ponderings on church teachings continue…)

A question regarding the hypostatic union of the two natures in Jesus as taught by the catholic church. I understand that the church teaches that many aspects of this are a mystery, however, I’m not sure what aspects are a mystery and what aspects I simply do not know so I will put my thoughts below:

If the church teaches that Jesus was fully human in every way (apart from ever sinning), did Jesus have a ‘human soul’ ? Or was the only ‘soul’ present the essence of ‘God the Son’ ?

(please pardon any offence in this next question. i do not mean any). Occasionally, when a man has ‘certain dreams’ he will wake up with an erection. This is obviously not his fault in any way as we cannot control our dreams. We can only control our active thoughts. So, I would expect Jesus to not commit the sin of ‘adultery of the heart’, but would Jesus have ever had the experience of a ‘wet dream’?

more thoughts:

If Jesus was fully human, would the possibility of him sinning still exist? Or would the divine nature prevent this from happening?

It someone feels like the idea of a ‘spotless victim’ is meaningless when the victim himself has been ‘pre-programmed’ (so to speak) to never blemish himself.

I may not have direct questions in the above, so responses to my thoughts would be helpful if they are distinguishable.

Yes, Our Lord has a human soul. He assumed a human nature, and the nature of man is that of a body-soul unity. Hence why we speak of the Holy Eucharist being the “body, blood, soul and Divinity” of Christ.

The Church teaches that Our Lord is impeccable, i.e. incapable of committing sin. The reason for this is that sin is committed by a person, not by a nature, and Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, specifically a Divine Person with a Divine Nature and a human nature. It is, of course, impossible for a Divine Person to commit sin.

As for the concept of a “spotless victim”, I have heard it said that the reason God took on a human nature is because a finite being cannot make an infinite sacrifice to satisfy a debt to an infinite God. If the Christ were only man and not God, then his sacrifice would not have been sufficient (just like the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant were not sufficient), but because he is both true God and true man, the human race was able to offer an infinite sacrifice.

Any comment I make on possible physiological manifestations of Our Lord’s humanity would be purely speculation, so I will pass on that question.

Peace be to you.

 

[DevotedChild]

Yes, Our Lord has a human soul. He assumed a human nature, and the nature of man is that of a body-soul unity. Hence why we speak of the Holy Eucharist being the “body, blood, soul and Divinity” of Christ.

The Church teaches that Our Lord is impeccable, i.e. incapable of committing sin. The reason for this is that sin is committed by a person, not by a nature, and Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, specifically a Divine Person with a Divine Nature and a human nature. It is, of course, impossible for a Divine Person to commit sin.

As for the concept of a “spotless victim”, I have heard it said that the reason God took on a human nature is because a finite being cannot make an infinite sacrifice to satisfy a debt to an infinite God. If the Christ were only man and not God, then his sacrifice would not have been sufficient (just like the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant were not sufficient), but because he is both true God and true man, the human race was able to offer an infinite sacrifice.

Any comment I make on possible physiological manifestations of Our Lord’s humanity would be purely speculation, so I will pass on that question.

Peace be to you.

Well said.

 

[Fone_Bone_2001]

As-salam alaykum wa rahmatu l-lāhi wa barakātuh:

…(my ponderings on church teachings continue…)

Hi! Welcome to the forums, friend!

A question regarding the hypostatic union of the two natures in Jesus as taught by the catholic church. I understand that the church teaches that many aspects of this are a mystery, however, I’m not sure what aspects are a mystery and what aspects I simply do not know so I will put my thoughts below:

If the church teaches that Jesus was fully human in every way (apart from ever sinning), did Jesus have a ‘human soul’ ? Or was the only ‘soul’ present the essence of ‘God the Son’ ?

If I recall correctly - and I’m not entirely confident of this answer, so I should probably double check and get back to you - Jesus does indeed have a human soul. To say otherwise is the ancient Apollinarian heresy.

(please pardon any offence in this next question. i do not mean any). Occasionally, when a man has ‘certain dreams’ he will wake up with an erection. This is obviously not his fault in any way as we cannot control our dreams. We can only control our active thoughts. So, I would expect Jesus to not commit the sin of ‘adultery of the heart’, but would Jesus have ever had the experience of a ‘wet dream’?

Unknown, of course. I think the best guess would be that he probably did have wet dreams, since they’re not sinful but occur naturally and automatically as part of the human male development process.

more thoughts:

If Jesus was fully human, would the possibility of him sinning still exist? Or would the divine nature prevent this from happening?

Pretty sure the answer is no. Because He has a divine nature, He cannot sin. His “temptation” in the desert is not to be interpreted as if He literally were somehow inclining in His will/volition toward evil.