Teaching Christology and the Incarnation at Christmas
for more on this, check out our companion episode on the YPT Podcast with Griffin Gulledge
Christians believe that Jesus is the God-Man, fully God and fully human. This is historic Christian teaching, and yet, we often have misunderstandings about what that means. Since liberals and progressives over-emphasize the humanity of Christ, evangelicals often fall into the assumption that Jesus was really God with a little humanity on the side, or perhaps a super-powered human. This is where the mystery of the incarnation comes into play, to correct our understanding of the Hypostatic Union.
Far too many church kids enter the Christmas season and roll their eyes at the Christmas story.The incarnation gets little more than a shrug of the shoulders. Maybe we ourselves are even right there with our students, bored with the annual message we’re joylessly repeating.
My intention in this article is not to prompt you into theological lectures about the hypostatic union, but to help you enrich your own understanding of the nature of Christ in order to renew the awe and wonder you experience at Christmas. If we, as youth workers, are fuzzy about how to articulate the divinity and humanity of Christ, then we’re going to either avoid the topic altogether or we’ll stick to the surface-level descriptions students have heard since they were in VBS. When you rediscover the beauty of the incarnation then you’ll teach about Christmas with renewed wonder and joy.
Since this is a somewhat more technical article, a few definitions may be helpful:
Christology: The study of Christ. This is often broken into two main areas - the “person of Christ,” which addresses his divine and human nature; and the “work of Christ,” exploring his ministry and especially his death and resurrection.
Incarnation: Incarnation literally means “in flesh.” God entered the world as a human man, Jesus Christ.
Nature/Substance: the attributes and qualities of humanity or divinity. Theologically, this is sometimes referred to as hypostasis.
Hypostatic Union: The union of Christ’s human nature and divine nature. They do not merely coexist and take turns “leading” in his life, nor are the blended together to form a third nature. The human and divine are united as one.
The Chaledonian Creed was adopted by Christians in 451 A.D and has served as the standard of faithful Christology ever since. It reads, in part:
“one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ.”
The following headings reflect three statements theologians regularly highlight about Chalcedonian Christology. I trust these will help youth workers reflect upon the incarnation and Person of Christ and teach it with confidence.
The Two Natures are United
Jesus had one fully divine nature and fully human nature. They were not mixed into one another to create a new, third kind of nature. Instead, they coexisted in perfect unity while retaining the full attributes of each. This is where it’s important to remember that Jesus’ human nature was not a fallen human nature, but a sinless one that was free of original sin and any corruption.
John Calvin explains it this way,
“For we maintain, that the divinity was so conjoined and united with the humanity, that the entire properties of each nature remain entire, and yet the two natures constitute only one Christ. If, in human affairs, any thing analogous to this great mystery can be found… [it] seems to be that of man, who obviously consists of two substances, neither of which however is so intermingled with the other as that both do not retain their own properties. For neither is soul body, nor is body soul.” (Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.14.1)
There is no Transfer of the Attributes of One Nature to the Other
In my own ministry experience, this is the area where most Christians fall into Christological error. Since we know that divinity is more glorious than humanity, and we often describe the incarnation as “God became man.” This isn’t wrong, but if this is all the explanation people hear about the incarnation then it only makes sense to believe that Christ’s God-nature fused with his humanity and glorified it. This is not what historic Christian theology affirms, but it’s a very common belief among Christians who simply don’t know better. Misunderstandings like this also explain why so many Christians don’t believe Jesus actually identifies with them in their humanity - because they believe his humanity was of a different kind than their own.
Charles Hodge can help youth workers clarify the two natures by writing,
“the properties or attributes of a substance constitute its essence, so that if they be removed or if others of a different nature be added to them, the substance itself is changed.… If therefore infinity be conferred in the finite, it ceases to be finite. If divine attributes be conferred on man, he ceases to be man; and if human attributes be transferred to God, he ceases to be God. The Scriptures teach that the human nature of Christ remained in its integrity after the incarnation; and that the divine nature remained divine.” (Hodge, Systematic Theology, 2.390)
The Union is Personal
Jesus did not have split personality disorder. Miracles were not examples of his divine nature overpowering his humanity, and his hunger wasn’t an example of the opposite. His two natures didn’t take turns “in control” over him. He was one whole person, with two natures that were perfectly united within him.
Louis Berkhof describes Christ’s work as our mediator this way,
“Christ has a human nature, but He is not a human person. The Person of the Mediator is the unchangeable Son of God. In the incarnation He did not change into a human person; neither did He adopt a human person. He simply assumed, in addition to His divine nature, a human nature, which did not develop into an independent personality, but became personal in the Person of the Son of God. After this assumption of human nature the Person of the Mediator is not only divine but divine-human; He is the God-man, possessing all the essential qualities of both the human and the divine nature.” (Berkhof, Summary of Christian Doctrine)
The Importance of Biblical Christology
This isn’t mere theology for scholarship sake, or an effort to overcomplicate Christmas in order to be clever. This strikes at the heart of the gospel by addressing the question, “Who is Jesus?” Even more, it dares to ask the rather strange question, “What is Jesus?”
In a culture where the majority of people self-identify as Christians, it’s important for youth workers (and all Christians, in general) to double-down on a commitment to Christology - which asks two big questions, “Who is Jesus” and “What did Jesus accomplish?” It’s far more common for youth workers to talk about the second element of Christology (the Work of Christ) while neglecting the first (the Person of Christ). A renewed commitment to teaching biblical Christology is absolutely essential for youth workers who want to make lifelong disciples in their student ministries.
This Christmas season, as we proclaim the same message we’ve always proclaimed, let’s do so with renewed awe and wonder. It’s a truly incredible and scandalous thing to believe what we believe about the Incarnation. Teach it with confidence and with simplicity, even as you acknowledge the mystery that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
