The 39 Articles of Religion

Part four: the incarnation

The incarnation and heresy/error– Ebionites—1st C Jewish Christian sect; viewed Jesus as only human.– Gnosticism—mid-2nd C; viewed Christ as the divine Logos coming to impart inner spiritual

knowledge [gnosis] but not taking on human nature.– Doceticism—late 2nd C; cousin of Gnosticism, taught that the divine Christ entered union

with the human Jesus at his baptism, making the incarnation essentially an illusion.– Arianism—early 4th C; Alexandrian presbyter Arius taught that the Son was the firstborn of

creation and not eternally existent with the Father. Other Catholics viewed this as implying a lesser deity.

– Apollinarianism—late 4th C; Bishop of Laodicea Apollinaris taught that the divine personality replaced the usual human higher functions of a rational mind and soul in Jesus’ human nature.

– Nestorianism—early 5th C; taught that the man Jesus was not identical with God the Son but was “united with him” through a divine indwelling. Called Mary Mother of Christ, not Mother of God.

– Monophysitism—late 4th C; Cyril of Alexandria’s opposed Nestorius’s inadequate account of the reality of the hypostatic union. He taught that God the Son took human nature into the divine nature in total unity. Other Catholics viewed this as teaching the creation of a new single nature.

Formula of Chalcedon, 451We confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God, the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ…

Article II: Of the Word or Son of God, which was made very Man

The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took Man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.

The meaning of begetting and sonship• ‘Begotten’ is a human term to help us understand a transcendent truth. It speaks to

the relation of the Father and Son to one another, not to origins• Sonship in this context means being the embodiment of the Father’s character

Sons of Liberty violating East Indian Company Property in Boston harbor, 1773

“…took Man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance

• In biblical tradition blessings, curses, and sins descend in the father’s line

• The prominent exception is the proto evangelion

• “And I will put enmity between you and the woman,and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15

Growth in wisdom and stature

Adoration of the Infant, Filippo Lippi

• The Son did not assume the body of a pre-existing human person

• God the Son grew from conception in human flesh and nature just as we do, acquiring self-knowledge over time in the usual way

• Christ therefore “knows our every weakness,” but is without sin

The hypostatic union• “On account of the hypostatical union that of the natures is much more than a merely

nominal one, otherwise it would impossible to say, this man is God. After the incarnation the human nature belongs to the Person not less than the Divine.” E. A. Litton, Introduction to Dogmatic Theology, 212.

Late 14th C French tapestry of John’s vision of the New Jerusalem

The threefold office: prophet

• Like the Old Testament prophets, Christ came to preach, to reveal God’s word, and to recall God’s people to righteousness and the covenant

• Many of the OT prophets prefigure Christ in some way

• “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.” Deuteronomy 18:18

The threefold office: king• God promised that David’s royal line would continue forever, but also that Israel

would retain the blessings of the covenant while they obeyed the law• OT kings led Israel in sin or righteousness; none fulfilled the law perfectly

The great High Priest

Jan Van Eyck, Adoration of the Lamb

“The incarnation may be inexplicable as a psychological or ontological problem, but it satisfies the yearnings of those who are seeking after God and his righteousness.” Charles M. Mead, Irenic Theology, p. 257.