Emmanuel’s Natures

As there is no question among professing Christians about the deity of either the Father or the Spirit, it is reasonable to suppose that there would have been no question raised about the deity of the Son had He not become incarnate in human form. The deity of the Son is asserted in the Bible as fully and as clearly in every particular as is the deity of the Father and the Spirit. On the other hand, the humanity of the Saviour is just as dogmatically set forth in Scripture.

To those who in their thinking keep these two natures of Christ separate, both with respect to substance and manifestation, there is less perplexity about Christ’s deity. Difficulty arises with those who, assuming that they must blend these two natures, attempt to strike an average in which His deity is lowered and His humanity is exalted. This error is twofold: the deity of the Lord is submerged in doubt and His humanity is deprived of all its naturalness. Under those conditions, the Scriptures which so clearly present each of these two natures must either be disputed or qualified beyond effectiveness.

The Son has ever been the manifestation of deity and never more so than in and through the incarnation. So vital is this truth that He could say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9), and “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27). It follows from John 5:23 and 1 John 2:22,23, that he who fails to see God in Christ does not see God at all.

—From Systematic Theology by Lewis Sperry Chafer