We’ve been looking at the person of Christ Jesus, so we can see him as he really is.  In the world of theology it’s called Christology.  The apostle Paul says no other foundation can anyone lay than the foundation that is layed in Christ Jesus.  There’s so much building and innovating going on in the body of Christ.  The problem is so many are building with wood, hay, and stubble instead of the revelation of the person of Christ Jesus.  

We’re not going through this study on the person of Christ so we can have perfect concepts of Christ.  We simply want to know Christ Jesus as he really is, through the help of the Holy Spirit.  There’s grace upon grace for us within his person.  There’s a ministry of grace that pours out of the person of Christ Jesus.  Great is the mystery of godliness.  God was manifested in the flesh.   Great is the mystery of experiencing the divine nature in human flesh, and for that purpose God was manifested in the flesh. The union of God and human in the person of Jesus is the power unto godlikeness.  Within the mystery of God becoming a man in the person of Christ Jesus, is contained the power for theosis.  

Last week we left off talking about how God, the Word, the eternally begotten Son, Light from light, true God from true God, the very essence and substance of the Father’s being, assumed the likeness of sinful flesh.  He partook with us in flesh and blood.  When we say he assumed the likeness of sinful flesh we’re saying he assumed the entire human being.  He didn’t just come in a body.  He took to himself the soul, the mind, and the body of a human being.  Being God by nature, he partook in human nature through Mary.  Both the divine nature and the human nature existing in his person, united perfectly and inseparably, without confusion, without change, having distinction but not division.  

What about Philippians 2?  Didnt Jesus put off his divinity?  Well thats not exactly what it says.  What it says is Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the FORM of a servant, and was made in the LIKENESS of men:  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.  

Paul isnt saying Jesus put off his divinity in the sense that He was no longer God by nature.  He’s talking about how Jesus, who is God, was able to subject all things whether in heaven or in earth to Himself.  Paul’s talking about how Jesus was able to spoil principalities and powers, and deliver the kingdom to the Father.  

God, the Unbegotten Father, the Uncaused Cause, sat with a desire to be all in all.  He wanted to create the heavens and the earth, and out of that his desire was theosis.  His desire was for the material creation, to be deified with his divine nature, and through that He would be all in all.  Whenever the Father wants to do anything He brings forth the Son from His bosom.  So the unbegotten Father,  begat the SON; that is He brought forth His eternal Son for the purpose of Theosis.  He wanted to create the heavens and the earth, and then He wanted the heavens and the earth to be joined together in the person of His Son.  

But something happened.  Adam sold his inheritance, He sold his birthright, which was God manifested in his flesh, and all of creation.  Death entered the earth, and with the reign of death, came a different rule.  There was a principality and power ruling in the earth.  The kingdom of darkness.  The earth was under the reign of the rulers of the darkness of this world.  The prince of the power of the air.  Now in order for the Eternal Son to still bring about the will of the Father, and gather all things to himself whether in heaven or in earth, or under the earth.  He must first spoil the principalities and powers reigning in the earth through death.  And the only way he could spoil the reign of death in the earth is if he was first made subject to death.  It’s not possible for the eternal Son to upend the reign of death in the earth, without first entering into that death.  In a boxing match or a ufc fight.  You can’t become the champion, unless you first go up against the champion and unseat them.  

The thing is how can God who is impassible, immovable, unshakable.  Unable to die.  Unable to feel fear.  Immortal.  Incorruptible.  How can God who is immovable by nature be moved within a nature that is the same yesterday today and tomorrow.  How can God who cannot die; who knows no suffering, himself being immortal; incorruptible.  How can the immovable God, now be moved with suffering at the hands of sin and death?  So God, The Word, the Eternal Son, himself by nature being impassible, immovable, immortal, incorruptible.  God, the 2nd person in the Godhead, took human flesh to himself.  He assumed human flesh, he took human nature into his person, through his incarnation, so that within his flesh, he would be movable.  He lowered himself to our estate for the purpose of tasting death.  He allowed himself to partake of a nature that can be beset with weakness so he can be tempted.  He assumed human flesh, without changing who he is by nature.  He fashioned himself in the likeness of a slave.  He looked like someone who was a slave to sin; like someone in bondage to death, yet he remained free from the fear of death, because he is by nature immortal.  Within Jesus’ humanity he was moved by the suffering of death, but was kept from the fear of death, by the ministry of his divine nature to his humanity.  He emptied himself, meaning he allowed his body to be broken and he allowed his blood to pour out of him.  Yet throughout his passion, he knew himself to be the Fathers Son, equal in divine dignity, yet not making a display of this equality on the cross.   As it is written no one can take my life, I lay it down freely.  He did all that for the gathering of all things to himself, whether in heaven or in earth.  

Paul goes on to say, because the Son subjected himself to the death of the cross, to accomplish the Father’s desire for theosis.  The Father has given Jesus a name above every name.  The name the Father gave Jesus is Lord, which in Hebrew is Yahweh, or God.  As David says in the psalms the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand til your enemies are made your footstool.  The Father didn’t give the Son a name that wasn’t already his name.  Jesus didn’t become the eternally begotten Son in the resurrection.  He was always Lord.  He was always God. The coming forth of the Son in the resurrection proved Jesus is the eternally begotten Son.  Paul says in his letter to the Romans Jesus was proven to be the Son of God in the resurrection.  God the only immortal; Jesus being the only begotten Son, possessing immortality with the Father from before time began.  His immortality being veiled by the flesh and blood he assumed to himself, was proven to be Light from Light, true God from true God in the resurrection, through the veil, that is to say his flesh being torn, and the light of his immortality being made manifest for all to see, when the death of the cross couldnt hold him.

So why is this important …. The reason it’s important for both natures to remain distinct, both fully intact, without getting lost in the other is because the grace that flows from Jesus to humanity is predicated on both the divine nature and human nature fully existing in his person.  The life that flows from God to man is by nature of the union, between God and man in the eternal Son.  

John 1:16 says and of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace.  

The only way there can be a ministration of life to people who are dwelling in flesh and blood, is if God himself becomes a man.  If Jesus isnt fully God manifested in the likeness of sinful flesh.  There’s no ministration of life to human beings.  In the same way if Jesus isnt fully human, having a soul and mind and body, how can we as humans receive from the fullness of his deity.  Jesus partook with us in flesh and blood; so the frailty of our flesh; the weakness of our mortality; that aroused the passions in our souls and in our members might be healed by his divinity.  If Jesus puts off his divinity.  If taking human flesh to himself, makes him no longer God.  If he is no longer the very source of life itself; then how can we receive of his fulness.  If the word is able to change, and no longer be the eternal Son, no longer possessing in himself immortality by nature, then his flesh; his body; and his blood is of no power to minister life to us. The only way glorification can occur is if God who by nature cannot change, receives into himself the human being.  It’s within this hypostatic union between the eternally begotten Son, and humanity, that we are able to receive deification. 

There’s a ministration that comes from the person of Christ Jesus.  It’s a ministration of grace that flows from his person.  It flows from the essence of his being, from the makeup of his person.  Even within the one person of Christ Jesus, there’s a grace that flowed from his divine nature to his humanity.  There’s a communion between the divine nature and the human nature in the person of Jesus. There was a ministry of life to the humanity of Jesus, from the divinity of Jesus.  The humanity of Jesus was deified, through him being by nature, the eternal Word.  Both the body and soul, he partook of through Mary were kept from sin and death, and changed into immortality, by the fullness of Jesus’ divine grace.  

The incarnation of God.  God becoming a man, ministers God to your humanity.  It animates your bodies and your souls with Gods image.  Within the Lord’s body; within his person is a ministration of the divine nature to humanity.  As you behold the hypostatic union of God and man in the person of Jesus it ministers union to you; it causes you to abide in Jesus; it connects you to Jesus’ humanity, and through his humanity, it connects you to his divine nature.  And that ministers the divine nature to your flesh.  As you behold Jesus as he really is, the Godman, it ministers his union with the Father to you.  It becomes a river of living water from the divine nature to your human nature.  

Paul’s says in 1st Cor 15 Jesus was raised a life giving Spirit.  Through the Helper; the Holy Spirit, we abide in Jesus, and Jesus abides in us.  We abide in his flesh, the very flesh of God.  For we are members of his body, partaking in the hypostatic union between God and man, in the Godman Christ Jesus.  I’m still human by nature.  I haven’t shed my humanity, but because I’m in Christ, and Christ is in me, my humanity is deriving its subsistence from the Eternal Ones.  We’re alive to God in Jesus, in the Godman.  We are in Christ.  We are of his flesh.  We are members of his body, the body in union with the divine nature.  And just as his humanity received from the fulness of his deity …. We who are by nature human, are also receiving the deification that flows from the substance of his person.  

You see, you partake with Jesus in his humanity through faith, through seeing he possesses human nature in himself, you also being human by nature.  And through partaking with him in his humanity, you then partake with him in his divinity, him being God by nature.  You continue to be human by nature, but your human nature is dignified, by his divinity, just as his humanity was dignified through his divine nature.  It’s a decoration and an ornament so to speak.  God becomes as a decoration unto your mortality; he beautifies you; he beautifies your flesh with the glory of His immortality.  And through that you become as an ornament unto Him, whereby He is glorified, highly exalted, on account of how beautiful he has made you.  

Prayer