Wenstrom Bible Ministries Marion, Iowa Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom www.wenstrom.org

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Wenstrom Bible MinistriesMarion,
IowaPastor-Teacher Bill Wenstromwww.wenstrom.o
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Sunday June 5, 2011The Unique Person of Our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Series The
Hypostatic Union Of Our Lord And Savior Jesus
ChristLesson 6
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Please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 11.
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This morning we will continue with our study of
the unique person of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ by noting His hypostatic union.
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The Scriptural evidence is overwhelming that
Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ is both God
and man forever.
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The two distinct natures, which as to their
attributes differ significantly, were brought
together into personal union, which will continue
forever.
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In theology or specifically Christology (the
study of Christ), the term hypostatic union is
used by theologians to describe the teaching of
the Scriptures that Jesus Christ is undiminished
deity and true sinless humanity in one person
forever.
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The word hypostatic is a Bible Word meaning
that it is derived from the original language of
Scripture (Heb. 13).
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Hebrews 11 God, after He spoke long ago to the
fathers in the prophets in many portions and in
many ways,
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2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son,
whom He appointed heir of all things, through
whom also He made the world.
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3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the
exact representation of His nature, and upholds
all things by the word of His power. When He had
made purification of sins, He sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high. (NASU)
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Nature is the noun hupostasis, which was a word
that belonged to the realm of science and
medicine, and has a variety of meanings in
classical Greek and means essence, nature or
substance.
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Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines
essence, the properties or attributes by means
of which something can be placed in its proper
class or identified as being what it is.
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The word essence refers the nature of
something.
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The doctrine of the hypostatic union teaches that
our Lords divine nature and His human nature
were united forever.
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Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines
the word union as, an act or instance of uniting
or joining two or more things into one.
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Jesus Christ unites in Himself, the essence or
nature of God and the essence or nature of man.
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The New Testament emphatically teaches that in
His person, Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ
was both God and man, which we established in
previous classes (Romans 13-4 83 91-5
Philippians 25-11 Colossians 119-22 1 Timothy
316 Hebrews 214 1 John 11-4 41-3 2 John
7).
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John 114, And the Word became flesh, and dwelt
among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the
only begotten from the Father, full of grace and
truth. (NASU)
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Many of these passages such as Romans 13-4, 83,
Philippians 26-11, John 114 and 1 John 11-3
make it clear that the eternal Son of God clothed
and veiled His deity with a sinless human nature
and became a human being.
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The term hypostatic union means that deity and
true humanity are combined in one personality,
forever and that personality is Jesus Christ.
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He did not have two personalities because He had
two natures.
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Because He is a man does not make our Lord less
than God, nor, does His being God prevent Him
from being truly a man.
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The integrity of the attributes of His divine
nature, were not corrupted or compromised by the
fact that His divine nature was united
permanently with a human nature.
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Nor were the integrity of the attributes of His
human nature corrupted or compromised by the fact
that He was God.
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His two natures, though united, retain their
separate identities.
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There was no mixture of His divine nature with
that of His human nature.
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His divine attributes are always united to His
divine nature and His human attributes are always
united to His human nature.
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Deity remains deity and humanity remains
humanity.
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The infinite cannot become finite and the
immutable cannot be changed.
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No attribute of deity was altered when our Lord
became a man through the incarnation and the same
holds true when He died on the cross.
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To take away a single attribute from His divine
nature would destroy His deity.
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To take away from His perfect human nature a
single attribute would destroy His humanity.
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Walvoord writes, Though Christ sometimes
operated in the sphere of His humanity and in
other cases in the sphere of His deity, in all
cases what He did and what He was could be
attributed to His one person. Even though it is
evident that there were two natures in Christ, He
is never considered a dual personality. The
normal pronouns such as I, You and He are used of
Him frequently. (Jesus Christ our Lord, page
112).
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The two natures of Christ are not only united
without affecting the attributes of the two
natures but they are also combined in one person.

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As Charles Hodge writes, The Son of God did not
unite Himself with a human person but with a
human nature.
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The Lord Jesus Christ was always aware of His
deity and humanity.
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He was always aware in Himself with respect to
His deity and He grew in self-consciousness with
respect to His humanity.
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There was no point in the life of our Lord when
He suddenly became aware that He was the Son of
God.
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His divine self-consciousness was always fully
operative when He was an infant in the arms of
Mary and this was the case as a mature adult.
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However, it is clear from the Scriptures that His
human nature developed.
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There was a corresponding development of His
human self-consciousness as His human nature
developed.
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Therefore, our Lord had a divine and human
self-consciousness.
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However, there was never any conflict between the
two.
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Sometimes He spoke and acted from His divine
self-consciousness and other times from His human
self-consciousness.
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The Gospels make clear that Jesus Christs divine
consciousness was expressed in both His words and
actions.
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Jesus Christ was also conscious of being
omnipotent and that He was the promised Savior of
the world.
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The question arises that since Christ had a
divine and human nature, did each nature have a
corresponding will?
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In order to answer this question, we must define
will.
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If we speak of will in terms of a desire, then
it is clear that there would be conflicting
desires in the divine and human natures of
Christ.
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However, if by will we mean volition then we know
that one person can have only one will.
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The mark of personhood whether of an angel, a man
or God Himself is that of volition.
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Volition does not help to compose the divine
nature or human nature or the nature of angels
since it is not unique to the nature of God, the
nature of man or the nature angels for that
matter.
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God has a volition and men and angels do.
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Therefore, when we speak of our Lord having a
human nature, or that He has human attributes, we
are not including volition since it is not unique
to the divine nature, or human nature or angelic
nature for that matter rather it is the mark of
personhood.
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Therefore, our Lord had only one volition but yet
clothed His divine nature with human attributes
that do not include volition since again volition
does not help to compose the divine nature, human
nature or angelic nature but rather helps to
constitute personhood.
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Thus, when the Son of God became a man, He did
not attach Himself to another human being or add
a human will since He was already a person but
rather He clothed His divine nature with the
attributes of a human being.
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We also must not confuse Gods volition with His
attribute of sovereignty though they are
obviously related to each other.
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As applied to God, the term sovereignty
indicates His complete power over all of
creation, so that He exercises His volition or
will absolutely, without any necessary
conditioning by a finite will (volition) or wills
(volitions).
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Therefore, God exercises His volition absolutely
without any necessary conditioning by the
volition of His creatures whether men or angels,
which constitutes His sovereignty over them.
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Therefore, Jesus Christ did not have two
volitions but rather one, namely, the volition
that is related to His divine nature.
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When the Son of God clothed His divine nature
with a human nature, this did not include a human
volition since the implication of that would be
that the Son of God attached Himself to another
person.
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This leads us to the communion service and so
therefore, could we have our ushers pass out the
communion elements and let us take a few minutes
to meditate upon the Lord and prepare ourselves
for the Lords Supper.
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1 Corinthians 1123 For I received from the Lord
that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord
Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took
bread
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24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and
said, This is My body, which is for you do this
in remembrance of Me.
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25 In the same way He took the cup also after
supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in
My blood do this, as often as you drink it in
remembrance of Me.
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26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink
the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He
comes. (NASU)
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