Persons of the Trinity

[SarahSmile]

"God became man in the person of Jesus who is at once fully divine and fully human."
usccb.org/catechism/update/jan96.htm

 

[JimG]

“Jesus is a human person.” True or false?

False, he was a divine Person, who fully possessed a human nature as well as a divine nature.

Because of his human nature, perhaps we could say that he was a human being but not a human person.

We would have to qualify it by saying that he is also a divine being.

JimG

 

[Vincent]

SarahSmile:

The statement you’ve quoted from the *Catechism * (“Christ, being true God and true man,…”) is absolutely true. However, it addresses the *natures * that Christ possesses (*what * He is), rather than the person— the subject— (*who * He is) that possesses the fully human nature and fully divine nature of Christ.

There are three kinds of persons:

• Divine persons

• Father, Son, Holy Spirit
• Exist eternally
• Each possessing the one divine nature

• Angelic persons

• Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Satan, etc.
• Existence began at a certain point
• Each possessing his own individual angelic nature

• Human persons

• You, me, all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve
• Existence began at a certain point
• Each possessing his or her own individual human nature

Now, the Son is a divine person who possesses the divine nature and exists for all eternity, unlike angelic persons and human persons whose existences began at a certain point.

However, this same divine person assumed an individual human nature in time, which He now possesses with the divine nature He possesses for all eternity.

This divine person, in other words, in possessing the divine nature and a human nature, is fully God and fully Man. Yet, the *subject *, or person, of these divine and human natures is divine: The Son, the Second Person of the Trinity.

To simplify, Jesus is divine in *who * He is, and fully God and fully Man in *what * He is.

 

[RobedWithLight]

I disagree, Jesus was human and divine… fully human and fully divine. What is a nature?
To say that he wasn’t human is like saying that he didn’t go through all that pain, for us!

No one ever said He wasn’t human. We all agree He is likewise perfectly human and perfectly divine. To make it clearer, we can say that:

Nature is What He is.

Person is Who He is.

If you ask Jesus Christ our Lord What He is[His nature], He would have Two answers, He is Human **and **He is Divine. If you would ask Christ Who He is[His person], He would have only one answer, He is the Second Divine Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Gerry