Made Man
Jesus came down from heaven, as a man. The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, of one substance and equal to the Father, when the fulness of time came took on flesh, taking on all the essential properties of man, yet without sin. The two whole and distinct natures, the Godhead and Manhood were inseparably joined together yet without composition, confusion or conversion. Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.
The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, was made man. This is called the hypostatic union, the moment in time when Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb of virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. John explains that “The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us” (John 1:14). The Greek word translated ‘dwelt’ is more literally translated, ‘tabernacled’ or ‘pitched his tent.’ God had promised that the Messiah would be born of a virgin and his name would be Immanuel, which means God with us. (Is 7:14).
The hypostatic union has great impact on our theology and practice. We worship a real man born in Bethlehem, sojourned in Egypt, lived in Nazareth. We worship a real man, who walked the sand covered roads in the middle east in the first century. We worship a real man who did not speak English (Started 5th C), but Aramaic. We worship a man who had callus hands from his work as a carpenter (possible boat builder). We worship a man who became tired, thirsty, hungry, wept and was even tempted like we are, yet without sin. In this man, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Col 1:19). Fully God and fully man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.
The Westminster Confession of Faith has a great chapter (8) on Christ as Mediator. They explain in section seven that Christ in his work of mediation works according to both natures, Godhead and Manhood. Each of the distinct natures doing what is proper of itself. As we explained before when the two natures were joined together, they were not missed together like paint; for example when you mix blue and yellow you get green. The person took on the human nature and they were joined together without composition, confusion or conversion. Because of the unity of the person, an action is attributed to the person of Christ, particularly one nature, but is attributed to the other nature. One example of this is found in Acts 20:28, “feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood (AV).” The Godhead did not shed his blood because God is a spirit and does not have a body like men. However, because of this union the authors of Scripture attribute it to Christ the person who has two distinct natures.
