Sect. 169The New Testament on the Constitution of ChristThe New Testament on the Constitution of Christ

The doctrine of the New Testament concerning the Person of Christ is contained partly in the several accounts of His origin, partly in the descriptions of His concrete reality.

I. His origin is told in a threefold form.

1. The first form is exhibited in the narrative of the Synoptic Gospels, and corresponds with the form of the Apostles’ Creed. St. Matthew and St. Luke describe the origin of the man Jesus from Mary, pointing out the influence of the Holy Ghost and of the power of the Most High, and deducing from this influence that Jesus is more than man, viz. a holy being, the true Son of God, and therefore the promised Christ, Emmanuel and Lord of Mankind. The principal text (Luke 1:31 sqq.) is the message of the Angel to the Virgin: “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called (acknowledged and honoured as) the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father (= the kingdom promised to David): and He shall reign in the house of Jacob (to whom’ He was promised) for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.… The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy (Sanctum, τὸ ἅγιον) which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (cf. Isa. 7:14, as regards birth from a virgin; and 45:8, in connection with the overshadowing).

2. The second form describes the origin of Christ as a descent of the Son of Man from heaven where He was before; as a coming into the world by going forth (proceeding) from the Father or from God; and lastly, as a mission of the Son of God into the world or into the flesh: His temporal birth is represented as a secondary and relative origin. This form is used by St. John the Baptist (John 1:15, and 3:31 sqq.); by Christ Himself (John 3:13; 6:52; 17:5; 8:42, and 16:28); and by the Apostle (Rom. 8:3; Gal. 4:5; Rom. 1:3, and 9:6).

3. The manner in which the eternal Son of God came down from heaven in the temporal birth of the man Jesus is explained ex professo in the prologue of the Fourth Gospel, and in other places by St. John, and similarly by St. Paul (Phil. 2:7). Starting from the eternal and Divine existence of the uncreated Word, and God-like Image of God, they teach that the Word (ὁ Λόγος) of God, in Itself invisible, was made flesh, and thus appeared visibly among us as man; and that the God-like Image (εἰκὼν) of God took to Himself the form of a servant, and flesh and blood, and made them His own, and so became in essence equal to man. The first of these two conceptions is peculiar to St. John, and pervades all his writings; the second is proper to St. Paul: both are the basis of all later symbols of faith concerning the constitution of Christ. Their significance extends beyond the statement that the Son of God, descending from heaven, became man by taking unto Him human nature in Mary, and is thus one Person with the Son of Mary. They further imply (1) that the Incarnation was effected through the substantial union of a human nature with the Divine Son, Who is described as Word and Image of God; (2) that the Son of God, becoming man in the twofold character of Word and Image, manifests Himself to man in the most perfect manner as the Living Word of God, and, being the consubstantial Image of God, contracts an essential likeness with man, the external image of God; (3) that the humanity of Christ, as compared to His Divinity, represents only the accessory, secondary, lower, and external element of His Being. Read St. John 1:1–17, and the beginning of his First Epistle, which probably was written as an introduction to his Gospel; St. Paul, Phil. 2:6–7; cf. Col. 1:15 sqq.; Heb. 1 and 2.

II. The portrait of the Saviour, as made up from the various accounts of His origin, is completed by the Scriptural statements concerning His Person in real existence.

1. Holy Writ asserts and declares in many ways that the historical Person known as Jesus and Christ, is as really and truly man as other men are. Christ calls Himself “Son of Man” as often as “Son of God;” St. Paul compares Him to Adam (Rom. 5:17 sqq.; 1 Cor. 15:22, and 45–47), and sets forth His humanity as the condition of His mediatorship. If Christ is called “heavenly man,” (1 Cor. 15:47), this does not imply a difference of nature, but only of excellence, between the God-Man and the earthly man. Again, Scripture attributes to Christ all that belongs to a real man: human descent, birth, component parts, qualities and powers, actions and passions; “tempted in all things like as we are” (Heb. 4:15). Lastly, the Apostle repeatedly insists on the circumstance that, as our brother, Christ not only possesses the perfections of human nature, but also its “lowliness and weakness,” and shares with us the conditions of “servant” (Phil. 2:7 sqq.; Heb. 2:11 sqq., and 4:14–16).

2. Jesus, true Man, Son and Brother of man, is yet distinguished from all men, not only by the dignity of Saviour, but as a Person essentially superhuman and Divine.

(a) His Divine character is particularly set forth in the three names (embodied also in the symbol of the Apostles) under which He is proposed in the Gospels and Epistles as object of faith and adoration, viz. “Christ,” that is the Anointed, the Holy or Hallowed of God; “the Son of God;” “the Lord,” or “our Lord.” These three names express personal dignity and excellence; they are parallel and opposed to the three human names: Man, Son of Man, and Brother. Scripture uses them either conjointly or separately; like the human names, they complete and explain one another. The name Christ, in opposition to “man,” expresses the higher essence or personal constitution of Jesus; “Son of God,” as opposed to “Son of Man,” points out His Divine origin and rank; in fine, the name “Lord,” parallel to “Brother of man,” sets forth His exaltedness over men and all other creatures.

(α) The name Christ—which in the unfigured language of angels and demons is replaced by “the Holy” (sanctum, τὸ ἅγιον), or “the Holy of God” (Luke 1:35; Mark 1:24, and Luke 4:34), or “the Christ, and the Hallowed,” purely and simply—designates the man Jesus as sanctified by God in an eminent manner, or invested with God’s own dignity and sanctity; or, again, as a Being to Whom the plenitude of God’s infinite and immutable goodness is communicated, and Who is thereby made as absolutely holy and adorable as God Himself. The “Anointing” of Jesus implies more than the elevation to the dignity of king or priest in the service of God: His kingdom and priesthood are but a part and the offshoot of the hallowing of His whole being, which is such that it confers upon Him a priesthood of which the Priest Himself deserves Divine Worship, and a kingdom which gives Him the sovereign dominion over all creatures.

(β) The name “Son of God” accounts for the deep meaning of the name Christ, inasmuch as it connects the anointing or hallowing of Jesus with His generation from the Eternal Father. The Jews, however, did not give to the term Christ alone this deep signification—hence, as a rule, Scripture connects the two names: Christ, the Son of God; and Jesus Himself calls attention to the fact that the former name (Christ) includes the latter (Son of God). See Supra, § 93.

(γ) The third name, “the Lord,” or “Our Lord,” when applied to Jesus, implies Divine dignity and absolute sovereignty over all creatures; for such sovereignty is an attribute of God the Son as Saviour of mankind. Many prophecies of the Old Testament identify Christ with “the Lord,” and the faithful adore Him as “our Lord.” Moses was a servant in the house of God, Christ was in His own house (Heb. 3:2 sqq.), and He is the heir of all things because all things were made by Him (Heb. 1:2 and Col. 1).

The name “Son of God” alone is used in the Divine revelation concerning the higher character of Jesus: “This is My beloved Son” (Matt. 3:17, and 17:5). These two revelations are confirmed by their witnesses: John 1:34, and 2 Peter 1:17. In the professions of faith demanded and accepted by Jesus, the two names are usually joined: “Christ, the Son of God” (Matt. 16:17; John 6:70; John 11:27). St. Mark (7:29; cf. Matt. 16:17) has, “Thou art Christ,” and St. Luke (9:20), “the Christ of God,” instead of “Christ the Son of God”; which proves that the name Christ includes that of Son of God. In the utterances of the demons, we find instead of Christ, “the Holy one of God,” and “Son of God” (Mark 1:24; 3:11, 12; Luke 4:34). The teaching of the Apostles on the point in question is clearly set forth in Acts 9:20, 22; John 20:31; 1 John 4:15, and 5:1, 5; Acts 2:35. As to how Jesus claimed the Name, “Son of God,” see Matt. 22:41–46 and Luke 20:41–45; John 10:24 sqq. with Acts 4:27; and Heb. 5:7.

(b) The names “Christ,” “the Son of God,” and “the Lord,” predicated of Jesus in the sense just explained, clearly proclaim His Divinity. In five other places, He is expressly called God, and in three of these, with the apposition “true God, great God, God above all” (see Book II., § 93). Attributes exclusively Divine, and the most intimate and comprehensive unity and communion, are predicated of Him. “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (Χριστὸν Θεοῦ δύναμιν καὶ Θεοῦ σαφίαν; 1 Cor. 1:24). If Jesus Himself and the Apostles often ascribe His works to the Father and to the Holy Ghost, they do so to point out the source from which His power is derived, and to witness to the unity of the man Jesus with God the Father. “Amen, amen, I say unto you: The Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing: for what things soever He doth, these the Son also doth in like manner” (John 5:19). It is thus evident that the same Jesus who appears as man among men is also by essence and nature true God. The evidence is corroborated still more by the fact that Divine attributes are predicated of Jesus as man, and human attributes of the same Jesus as God (cf. Book II., § 93); e.g. “God spared not even His own Son, but hath given Him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32; cf. 1 Cor. 2:8; Acts 20:28; Col. 1:17, 18; and Heb. 1 and 2).

3. The simultaneous existence of the Divine and human natures in the same subject supposes that the essence of Christ is composed of two natures, and that these stand to one another in the closest relationship. Scripture illustrates this relationship in two ways: either as the bodily indwelling of the whole plenitude of the Divinity in Christ, or as analogical to the union of body and soul in man. From the latter point of view, the Godhead is conceived as the most pure Spirit in relation to man as flesh, or imperfect compound of mind and matter. “In Him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporally (σωματικῶς), and you are filled in Him who is the Head of all principality and power” (Col. 2:9, 10; cf. 1:19). “Christ died once for our sins, being put to death, indeed, in the flesh (σαρκί), but brought to life by the Spirit” (Πνεύματι; 1 Peter 3:18; cf. John 6:24, etc.).

The invisible Divinity of Jesus is witnessed to by God the Father, either speaking from heaven or confirming Jesus’ own testimony by miracles. To this heavenly testimony the Saviour appeals in corroboration of His own human testimony, and this He further corroborated by giving His life to support it: He was sentenced to death because He called Himself the Son of God. His death on that account gives to His evidence the greatest degree of credibility; for not even His enemies deny that He was a wise and holy man. But if He had been deceived Himself or contrived to deceive others on this point, He would be neither wise nor holy. The full and final confirmation of the evidence in favour of His Divinity is ascribed by Jesus to the promised Holy Ghost, inasmuch as the Holy Ghost, at His coming, should show innumerable miracles in the spiritual and in the physical order. St. John, in his First Epistle, sums up the testimony for the Divinity of Christ by placing side by side with the three heavenly witnesses three witnesses on earth: the water, the blood, and the Spirit (5:6–8). See St. Thomas, Contra Gentiles, iv. 27–38; Bellarmine, De Christo, lib. i.; Franzelin, De Verb. Incarn., thes. ii. sqq.