True God and True Man

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PaulineOsinachi

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I’ve been having these discussion with a colleague of mine and i have come to realize that one of the points where we disagree is the nature of Christ. He believes Christ is only divine with only an appearance of being human, but i know that if Christ was not also true man then how could he have atoned for the sins of men:confused:

Please I need to understand the two natures in Christ better to be able to explain it, if possible maybe also materials i can read that explain it better.

Thanks in advance

Paula
 
This is a concept that is beyond our full understanding; how could Christ have two natures and be fully of both natures.

Our understanding is that Christ was, when he was here, fully God and fully man, not merely appearing as man or being some sort of apparation or ghost.

Difficult to understand, more difficult yet to explain, but that’s how we understand Christ’s nature. Anything less than fully man would mean that he did not unite himself with us, that Mary wasn’t really his mother. Anything less than fully God would lead to the problem you mentioned, that he could not have atoned for our sin.
 
It helps to understand more specifically what stand your associate takes. Nestorianism claims that Jesus was of two natures, but that the natures were separate. As a result, God never suffered on the cross, it was the human Jesus who did. Apollinarians argued that in the Incarnation the Son of God assumed a human nature, but not a human soul. Docetism is the belief that Jesus Christ did not have a physical body; rather, that his body was an illusion, as was his crucifixion. Yes, I ripped the above from Theopedia, as I don’t know the terms off the top of my head. The first is denied at the Council of Ephesus. The second is denied at the Council of Constantinople. Docetism is a belief associated with Gnostics, but can be applied to others as well and is not abscribed to by all Gnostics… And we were always arguing against docetism, even at the ecumenical councils. I understand Augustine wrote some things against docetism, but he believed Manichaeism believed that and his writings do tend to wander a bit. Sorry, no other resources are coming to mind. The only way I can see a non-human Jesus atoning for our sins is if your associate’s understanding of the Crucifixion is different from ours.
 
Newbie2 said:
Our understanding is that Christ was, when he was here, fully God and fully man, not merely appearing as man or being some sort of apparation or ghost.
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I just want to clarify a little… Jesus was AND STILL IS true God and true man. He possesses a physical body in Heaven even today, as does Our Blessed Mother, who was assumed into Heaven body and soul. Jesus is also fully divine. When He was bogotten by the Blessed Mother, He took on a physical nature, which He still possesses. That is our Catholic belief.
 
The Person of Jesus Christ is one: the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. In him subsist two natures, really distinct; the Divinity, uncreated, eternal, almighty; and a human nature, created, temporal, mortal, passible. In theological terms its called the hypostatic union.
 
PaulineOsinachi said:
I’ve been having these discussion with a colleague of mine and i have come to realize that one of the points where we disagree is the nature of Christ. He believes Christ is only divine with only an appearance of being human, but i know that if Christ was not also true man then how could he have atoned for the sins of men:confused:
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An appearance of being human? What does that even mean?
Christ was “born of the Virgin Mary and became man.” That is the testimony of Scripture, the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creed, and the ECFs. Your friend is understandably confused because he/she is apparently attempting to rely on logic alone to understand that which was revealed through divine revelation.
As others have pointed out: The eternally begotten Son - entirely divine nature - became fully human; ie took on a human nature. This was done without his losing his divine nature. Understanding those words does not mean that we can truly understand how this can be. What we can do, however, is answer some simple questions:
Does Jesus have a divine nature? Yes
Does Jesus have a human nature? Yes
Is Jesus fully divine? Yes
Is Jesus fully human? Yes
Does he merely appear human? No, he is truly human.
 
Hi all,
Thanks a lot for the posts.
Code: 
An appearance of being human? What does that even mean?
My colleague is not Catholic, i think he is Docetist (from the definition of 2nd post). He referred to the conflicting accounts about the resurrection as his reason for not believing there was a resurrection nor even that Christ died. He also said that the reason people (M. Magdalene, disciples of Emmaus) did not recognise our Lord after the resurrection was because it was not a resurrection but more like the “ghost” of Jesus.
It’s all very absurd i know, but no one has challenged me on my belief on such a topic like this so i needed to broaden my knowledge on this so that i can defend my faith and if possible get him to think of what he believes. Thanks guys the posts have really been 👍
 
PaulineOsinachi said:
I’ve been having these discussion with a colleague of mine and i have come to realize that one of the points where we disagree is the nature of Christ. He believes Christ is only divine with only an appearance of being human, but i know that if Christ was not also true man then how could he have atoned for the sins of men:confused:

Please I need to understand the two natures in Christ better to be able to explain it, if possible maybe also materials i can read that explain it better.

Thanks in advance

Paula
Click to expand...
If your friend believes in scripture,

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God {Jn 1:1]

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. [Jn 1:14]

God truly became flesh (man)… 1 Divine person, 2 natures (1 Divine nature 1 human nature, hypostatically united) newadvent.org/cathen/07610b.htm

As St Augustine said

The son of God bacame son of man so that the sons and daughters of man could become sons and daughters of God
 
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