Posts

Showing posts with the label Human nature

Did Christ have a fallen human nature?

Image
 That the Son of God assumed or took on human flesh in what we call the incarnation is beyond dispute in orthodox Christian belief. But what kind of “flesh” did the Son of God assume unto himself when he became human? Was it fallen, sinful flesh, like yours and mine? Or was it unfallen flesh, devoid of the inherent sinful impulses that we all experience? In other words, were the temptations that Jesus encountered (Heb. 4:15) entirely external to himself, or did he resist promptings and temptations that arose from a fallen human nature within? That it was a human nature or flesh susceptible to the ravages of sin is undeniable. Although it was a genuine human nature, with all its limitations, a nature that was subject to hunger, thirst, pain, fatigue, and ultimately physical death, I’m persuaded that it was a nature free from the taint of original sin, a nature that in no way was disposed to or prompted by internal sinful urges. What Did Paul Mean? So, what does Paul mean when he says th

Was Jesus a real man and God at the same time?

Image
English: A diagram showing the Monophysite view of Christ: One nature, which is neither fully human, nor fully divine. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In the year 451, the church convened the great Council of Chalcedon , one of the most important ecumenical councils of all time. It was called to combat several heresies, the most significant of which was the Monophysite heresy . The term monophysite has a prefix and a root. The prefix, mono, means "one," and the root, phusis, is translated as "nature." So monophusis or monophysite simply means "one nature." The Monophysites claimed that Jesus did not have two natures, a divine nature and a human nature , but only one nature. That one nature was neither completely divine nor completely human. It was, depending on how one looked at it, a deified human nature or a humanized divine nature. This heresy was very serious for two reasons. It denied, on the one hand, the full deity of Christ . On the other hand,