How Is The Hypostatic Union Possible?

[HimWithin]

How can Jesus as one person be both fully human and fully divine?

[Berserk]

The most helpful answer is found in the pre-Pauline hymn in Phil. 2:6-11 in the phrase, translated literally:
''Though He was of the same essential substance as God, He emptied Himself..." To become fully human, Christ emptied Himself of all the prerogatives of His divine nature and thus became what God would be if God were merely human and no longer divine. Thus, the earthly Jesus was limited in wisdom, knowledge, and power, and had to learn by trial and error just like the rest of us. He needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit at His baptism to help compensate for His many limitations. Ss Hebrews puts it, He had to be vulnerable enough to be "tested in every way just as we are (4:15)' and had "to learn obedience through what He suffered (5:7-8)."

[HimWithin]

The most helpful answer is found in the pre-Pauline hymn in Phil. 2:6-11 in the phrase, translated literally:
''Though He was of the same essential substance as God, He emptied Himself..." To become fully human, Christ emptied Himself of all the prerogatives of His divine nature and thus became what God would be if God were merely human and no longer divine.

If Jesus was no longer divine, then He was no longer God.
And if He was no longer God, then He was only a human.

Thus, the earthly Jesus was limited in wisdom, knowledge, and power, and had to learn by trial and error just like the rest of us. He needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit at His baptism to help compensate for His many limitations. Ss Hebrews puts it, He had to be vulnerable enough to be "tested in every way just as we are (4:15)' and had "to learn obedience through what He suffered (5:7-8)."

Seems like He was only a human.

[BruceLeiter]

[Replying to HimWithin in post #9]

Yes, @HimWithin, Jesus is fully God with the Father and the Spirit as the one, only true God. But Jesus is also fully human as the Son of God the Father.

[Capbook]

The most helpful answer is found in the pre-Pauline hymn in Phil. 2:6-11 in the phrase, translated literally:
''Though He was of the same essential substance as God, He emptied Himself..." To become fully human, Christ emptied Himself of all the prerogatives of His divine nature and thus became what God would be if God were merely human and no longer divine.

If Jesus was no longer divine, then He was no longer God.
And if He was no longer God, then He was only a human.

Thus, the earthly Jesus was limited in wisdom, knowledge, and power, and had to learn by trial and error just like the rest of us. He needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit at His baptism to help compensate for His many limitations. Ss Hebrews puts it, He had to be vulnerable enough to be "tested in every way just as we are (4:15)' and had "to learn obedience through what He suffered (5:7-8)."

Seems like He was only so a human.

Jesus had acknowledged Himself as the "Son of man" and the "Son of God."
If Jesus as the "Son of man" means He was a man, why do the Scriptures explicitly write "Son of God" if it bears the same meaning as man?

Mat 26:63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God."
Mat 26:64 Jesus *said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN."

[JehovahsWitness]

How can Jesus as one person be both fully human and fully divine?

Being "divine" essentially means being "with, coming from, or belonging to God" or being "godlike" as in, having the qualities or nature of a deity. In that sense, Jesus was certainly "divine".

Who else but God has the qualities or nature of a deity?

Angels (Psalm 8:5), humans (Psalm 82:6), false Gods (Judges 11:24) ...

[JehovahsWitness]

How can Jesus as one person be both fully human and fully divine?

Being "divine" essentially means being "with, coming from, or belonging to God" or being "godlike" as in, having the qualities or nature of a deity. In that sense, Jesus was certainly "divine".

A human son shares the human nature and the human name of his human father.
A divine Son shares the divine nature and the divine name of His divine Father.

Yes but they are two different individuals and they are not the same age. There was a time when the son didn't exist but the Father did.

A divine Son shares the divine nature and the divine name of His divine Father.

Being "divine" essentially means being "with, coming from, or belonging to God" or being "godlike" as in, having the qualities or nature of a deity. In that sense, Jesus was certainly "divine". Yes but they are two different individuals and they are not the same age. There was a time when the son didn't exist but the Father did.

[JehovahsWitness]

The Father and Son share the same eternal divine nature, making them both equal in age.

Jesus as THE WORD (see John 1v1) "divine" in the sense that he is "godlike" (has the same qualities as his father) but he and his Father are certainly not the same age. The Son is a created being. In other words, there was a time when the spirit being " The Word" (later born as the human Jesus) did not exist.



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COLOSSIANS 1:15 "firstborn of all creation"" (prototokos)
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 18#p867218

COLOSSIANS 1:16 "all things were created by (dia) him" Col 1:16b
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 93#p925193
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 01#p934901

[Capbook]

How can Jesus as one person be both fully human and fully divine?

Being "divine" essentially means being "with, coming from, or belonging to God" or being "godlike" as in, having the qualities or nature of a deity. In that sense, Jesus was certainly "divine".

A human son shares the human nature and the human name of his human father.
A divine Son shares the divine nature and the divine name of His divine Father.

Yes but they are two different individuals and they are not the same age. There was a time when the son didn't exist but the Father did.

A divine Son shares the divine nature and the divine name of His divine Father.

Being "divine" essentially means being "with, coming from, or belonging to God" or being "godlike" as in, having the qualities or nature of a deity. In that sense, Jesus was certainly "divine". Yes but they are two different individuals and they are not the same age. There was a time when the son didn't exist but the Father did.

Before Jesus became flesh, He was the Word, who was with God from the beginning and was God (John 1:1), uncreated and of the same existence with the Father.

The Targum, the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, states in Genesis 3:8, "the voice of the Word of the Lord God walking in the garden," proving the Word's existence in the first book of the Scripture.

Gen 3:8 “And they heard the voice of the Word of the Lord God walking in the garden in the repose [or evening] of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from before the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

Yes, Jesus' flesh is not of the same age as the God Almighty; the Word is.
The same with the title "God the Father" is never recorded in my OT resource Bible, only in the NT.

[JehovahsWitness]

“God is love, and he who lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” (1 JOH 4:16)
“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 Joh 4:8)

God’s love requires more than one person to be expressed.

God does not require anyone or anything to be complete in himself. One should not confuse attributes with the expression of attributes. An attribute is something that is intrinsic to oneself, it is what the individual IS not simply what he DOES. God is 100% complete in all his qualities (love/power/wisdom/justice) so just as he didn't require anyone else to witness or receive his omnipotence, so he didn't require or need an external object to BE love.

To illustrate: A kind person might help an elderly woman across a busy road. Did he need the elderly woman to become a kind person only when he helped her? Did he require the elderly women to be a kind person? without the woman would he not be kind?

Just as a person's kind open patient and loving disposition is part of his personality whether or not there are old women so God is has a loving, patient, kind PERSONALITY whether or not that is expressed externally.

JEHOVAHS WITNESS

[JehovahsWitness]

All authority power has been given to the Son by His Father.

Proving they are not equal.
1. Power cannot be "given" to someone that is omninpotent (all powerful)
2. Prior to being given "all authority" the Son did not have it.
3. Even after being given "all authority" the Son cannot say his power comes from himself.

Who has more authority , the judge how appoints (gives authority) to the Deputy Marshall or the Deputy Marshall who receives the authority?

“All that belongs to the Father is mine.” (Joh 16:15)[/color]

If a son inherits from the Father does that make him equal to his Father? Or does that rather mean he owes (and will always owe) everything he has to his Father?

NOTE God is unchanging, therefore whatever he gives he must remain the Supreme Ruler of the Universe since again this ultimate authority is intrinsic to himself. Delegating, appointing or giving does not change his position it only elevates others according to His will.