I believe you have this backwards. The being God, has a personhood in Christ. The other two persons in the trinity are the Father, and the Holy Ghost.
So, Jesus is a human person, but his being is God.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
The divine person of the Word assumed a human nature. He is a divine person, and must be so, for there are three divine persons in the Holy Trinity.
Here’s a simple diagram of the hypostatic union. The two natures are united in the
person. The person is the Son of God, the eternal Word. Because of this we know that He is a divine person.
Everything which can be affirmed of the natures can be affirmed of the person, but not vice versa. Imagine that there are arrows going from nature pointing toward person.
…/N(D)
…/
P(D)
…
…\N(H)
Once God became physical, he died and was resurrected, and was assumed into heaven. What happened then? Does Jesus still physically exist? Surely he isn’'t floating forever in space…has he retaken his metaphysical place with God the Father?
The Word, without change or alteration, became man. When we say this we mean that the divine person of the Word united in His person a human nature. However, the two natures remain distinct. We do not confuse the natures.
As I said before, anything we can say of the natures we can say of the person, but not vice versa. However, I may have to clarify this for you.
We can say:
Jesus died on the cross.
Equally so, we can say:
God was crucified and died.
We could say:
The Word was made flesh and born of a virgin.
And:
The man Jesus is eternal.
(Note on that last one:
Jesus is the subject, and so it is legitimate. If I had said, “Jesus’ human nature is eternal,” that would be heretical.)
Granted, we realize when we say these things that we are not affirming human things of the divine
nature nor are we affirming divine things of the human nature. We are affirming these things of the
person.
So when we say some of those things which we said above, it would also be correct to say them this way:
God was crucified and died
according to the flesh.
The Word was born of a virgin
according to His human nature.
The man Jesus is eternal
according to His divine nature.
So, when you say, “God became physical” you cannot mean that His divine nature underwent any change.
Now, the hypostatic union is permanent. So, from the point where the Incarnation occured through eternity it will hold. So:
- When the Word became man, He existed as the divine person united to the divine and human natures.
- When Jesus died on the Cross, the divine person truly died, according to the flesh.
- When Jesus was in the tomb, His body lay dead. Death, being the separation of the soul from the body, meant that His body was without His soul in the tomb. His soul, however, remained united to His divine person. The hypostatic union was not broken. (I suppose at this point it was that Christ descended to hell.)
- When Jesus rose from the dead, His human nature and divine nature were still both united in His person, except that His body was now glorified.
- When Jesus ascended into heaven, the same as #4.
Jesus is still united to His human nature, which includes his glorified body and soul united as one nature, in heaven.
Does this help?
-Rob
