Jesus Christ, True Man
The proof that Jesus Christ, true God, is also true man, and the union of the two natures.
This very brief but important Chapter gives clear argument in proof of the fact that Jesus Christ, who is true God, is also true man. Glenn shows from the record that Christ possessed a real human body and a real human soul, and lived a genuinely human life, subject to hunger, weariness, sorrow, and death — so that the appearance of humanity was no mere seeming, as the early heretics maintained. He adds a word, which he notes is not strictly within the proper scope of Apologetics, on the manner in which the humanity and the divinity are united in Christ: not by confusion or mixture of the two natures, but in the unity of the one divine Person. The Chapter has no separate Articles and closes with a Summary of the Chapter.
Chapter III — Jesus Christ, True Man
Article 1. Jesus Christ, True Man
This Chapter gives a brief proof that Jesus Christ, who is true God, is true man also. The Chapter is added for the sake of completeness in showing the Redeemer as the God-Man. No one of any consequence now doubts the true humanity of Christ, but there were heretics in the past who denied it, just as there have been and will be heretics to deny everything and to assert every frantic folly that wild imagination and stubborn bad will can bring forward. Such heretics (like the Docetae and the Apollinarists) asserted that Christ had only the appearance of a man; that His humanity was not genuine, but a sham; that He appeared in human form, but not as a human being. Now, if Christ is not true man, then Mary is not the Mother of God; then Christ is not truly our Brother; then the Redeemer is not of the race that should atone for sin; then the Redemption loses its character as an atonement in justice; then there is no sufficient reason for Christ’s coming, and His appearance is in conflict with infinite Wisdom, which does nothing in vain.
The Chapter is not divided into Articles, but presents its brief proof in a direct and simple study.
That Christ is true man is proved simply. Christ said He was man, for He called Himself “the Son of man”; He acknowledged Mary as His Mother; He was truly conceived and born of Mary according to the revealed word; He said He would truly die, which would have been impossible if He were not true man. Now, Christ is God. What He says is divine truth. Therefore, it is divinely true that Christ is man.
If Christ is not true man, then millions are deceived by Him. But He is God, and cannot be a deceiver. Therefore, Christ is true man.
The Scriptures give the list of Christ’s human ancestors (Matthew i, 1-17) and show that He is a true descendant of David. He was truly conceived; He was truly born (Luke ii, 7); He grew up like other children (Luke ii, 52); He acted as a true man, talking, hungering, thirsting, eating, drinking, sleeping, walking, fatigued by travel, shedding blood, scourged, crucified, dead, buried. He was glad, (looking upon the good young man of means who came to Him), troubled, sorrowful even unto death, acting in all as a true man. He exercised acts of religion as man, spending nights in prayer, giving thanks to God the Father, imploring favors and graces for His Apostles. He exercised acts of obedience and humility, proper only in man, and showed human confidence in God by commending His soul into the hands of the Heavenly Father.
Christ, therefore, is true man as well as true God. Now, if He were a complete human personality as well as a divine personality, He would be two persons, and the person who is really God would not be the same person that is really man: He would not be the God-Man. Therefore, while Christ has the true and full nature of man, while He has a true human body and a true human soul with its faculties of understanding and will, He is not a human person. He has the nature of man united substantially with the nature of God, and this in the unity of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of God. Christ, therefore, has two natures (a divine and a human), but is only one Person, and that the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. The union of the two natures is effected in the Person of the Son of God; this substantial union is called the hypostatic union, a term which comes from the Greek hypostasis, used to signify a Person of the Blessed Trinity; hence the Hypostatic Union is the union of the two natures (of God and man) in the one Person of the Son of God.
Summary of the Chapter
This very brief but important Chapter has given us clear argument in proof of the fact that Jesus Christ, who is true God, is also true man. We have added a word (not strictly within the proper scope of Apologetics) on the manner in which the humanity and the divinity are united in Christ.