Two Natures

Pastor Martin gives the simple statement of the biblical doctrine of Christ's person from the Shorter Catechism (truly God, truly man, two distinct natures united in one person forever), traces how the Athanasian Creed and Chalcedon articulated this confession in response to heresy, and then begins the biblical basis by expounding the first category of texts — those that explicitly designate Christ as God. He handles John 1:1, John 20:28, and Romans 9:5, pressing the conclusion that only one clear witness is needed to prove Christ's deity and calling hearers to fall with Thomas before their Lord and God.

Pastor Martin opens the period of manifestation in the Gospels, demonstrating that Jesus Christ is truly man as witnessed in his conception, birth, infancy, and growth to manhood. He expounds Luke's record of the virginal conception, the normal pregnancy and birth, and the boyhood years in which Jesus genuinely grew in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and men. The sermon insists that the Gospels portray a real human development without halo or shortcut, then applies this with wonder at Christ's love and consolation that our salvation rests on a true and sinless humanity.

Continuing the witness of the Gospels to Christ's true humanity, Pastor Martin walks through evidence that Jesus possessed a true human body that hungered, thirsted, grew weary, slept, was strengthened, and ultimately could die. He then turns to the reality of a true human soul, showing it in genuine temptation in the wilderness and in a life of dependent prayer climaxing in Gethsemane. The sermon insists that without a real body and a real soul there is no real Savior, and that the person and work of Christ stand or fall together.

Pastor Martin completes the witness of the Gospels to Christ's true human soul by tracing the actings of his human mind and emotions. Using the analogy of assembling a model from every piece in the box, he insists evangelicals must include the Gospel data showing Jesus learned, reasoned, was ignorant of certain things, and felt the full sinless range of joy, sorrow, anger, zeal, agitation, indignation, and grief. He then applies this with reference to Christ as our sinless Savior and our perfect emotional and mental pattern, urging believers to abandon both stoic restraint and unbridled passion in favor of Christ-shaped humanness.

Pastor Martin moves from the Gospels into the period of explanation and application, demonstrating that the apostolic epistles continue to assert Christ's true humanity as essential to the gospel. He surveys Romans 1, Romans 9, 1 Corinthians 15, Galatians 4, 1 Timothy 2, and Hebrews 2 to show that Paul and the writer to the Hebrews never blush to call Jesus a man. He then applies the doctrine, showing that Christ's humanity authenticates him as the promised Messiah and equips him as an efficient mediator who could establish legal union with sinners, obey the law in their stead, and suffer the curse for their sins.

Drawing especially from Hebrews 2 and 4, Pastor Martin shows that because Christ is truly man he is fully qualified to be a sympathetic high priest who, having suffered being tempted, can succor his tempted people. He then expounds 1 Peter 2 and 1 John 2 to show that Christ as true man is also the perfect pattern and example for believers in the use of body, soul, mind, will, and emotions, as well as in love to God and neighbor. The closing application from 2 Corinthians 3:18 urges Christians to behold the glory of the perfect human Christ in Scripture so that they may be progressively transformed into his image.

Beginning the third great pillar of his Christology, that Jesus Christ is one person in two distinct natures forever, Pastor Martin offers a sober word of caution and exhortation before approaching the mystery itself. He urges three things: dependence on the Holy Spirit, determination not to fall short of or go beyond what is written, and patience with precise theological definition. He warns from Luke 24, Ephesians 4, and 2 Peter 3 that mental laziness about the person of Christ produces spiritual declension and unstable souls who will be tossed by every wind of doctrine.

Pastor Martin now sets out the biblical demonstration of Christ as one undivided person subsisting in two distinct, unmixed natures forever. Using a glove and hand analogy, and the witness of John 1, Philippians 2, Acts 20, Romans 1 and 9, and Colossians 2, he shows that the eternal Word became flesh without ceasing to be all that God is. He then shows from Christ's own consciousness and the apostolic witness that the natures remain distinct, with the one person speaking sometimes from the form of consciousness of his deity and sometimes from the form of his humanity, applying the doctrine to interpretation of Scripture, worship, and gospel proclamation.