Is there an element of humanity within the Trinity?
When reflecting upon the person of Jesus Christ, it is virtually impossible to separate the incarnation, atonement, resurrection and ascension which reveal the nature of the Trinity manifested by reciprocal love. That being said, we are currently in the Advent season where we devote ourselves to the celebration of the anniversary of the incarnation. Christmas is a time the Church worships Emmanuel, God with us! The immaculate conception of divinity with humanity is a mystery which does not stop with the birth of Jesus Christ, but is carried on through the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension all of these being the glorious redemption of humanity. Irenaeus of Lyons frequently tied the incarnation with redemption. In his book, Against Heresies, he writes, “the Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul for our souls, and His flesh for our flesh, and has also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and man, imparting indeed God to men by means of the Spirit, and, on the other hand, attaching man to God by His own incarnation, and bestowing upon us at His coming immortality durably and truly, by means of communion with God”. God’s purpose of the incarnation was to be inseparably tied to humanity. We find this in the very act of the eternal Son of God assuming the nature of humanity and being assumed perichoretically. Jesus Christ is not bipolar having two persons living within His one being, nor is He a type of hybrid being chemically engineered from divinity and humanity. Jesus Christ is truly God and truly human. While this may sound like a paradox, how else may we begin to articulate who Jesus Christ is while still maintaining the mystery?
To go one step further, Jesus Christ’s role as mediator flows out of this co-indwelling of divinity and humanity, typically called the hypostatic union. The next logical step is to view Jesus Christ as mediator in its chronological order. Was Jesus Christ the mediator before the incarnation? It could be said that His mediating role flows out of His very nature which is self-giving love and is eternal since He is eternal. There is still uniformity within the Godhead, and humanity was in need of a mediator as well as a redeeming-savior before the incarnation. The incarnation made the mediating role of Jesus Christ possible. The hypostatic union that was initiated in the immaculate conception of the incarnation is continued through to the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ. There is a human element within the Trinity today. The humanity did not die off of Jesus Christ prior to the resurrection, leaving only divinity. Augustine says, “He did not so come to us, as to leave the Father. From us He went, and did not leave us”. The incarnation and the hypostatic union is vital for us to understand what it means for Jesus Christ to be our mediator.
A person might ask, “If Jesus Christ was still divine and human after the resurrection, then how is it that two of His disciples didn’t recognize Him as they walked on the road to Emmaus, or that after they had eaten together, He (Jesus) vanished before their eyes (St. Luke 24:13-35)?” I would answer that person by asking, “Why does Jesus show His disciples His hands and His feet?” and say, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have (St. Luke 24:39).” This is the same Jesus Christ that the disciples knew before the crucifixion, as far as His hypostatic union is concerned. The Anglican Article 2 says, “the Godhead and manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided”. The same Son of God who took upon Himself humanity (and humanity took on divinity) at the incarnation, being Jesus Christ (divine and human), is the same Jesus Christ (divine and human) who died on the cross for our sins, and is the same Jesus Christ (divine and human) who was resurrected from the dead. It is also the same Jesus Christ (divine and human) who ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven and mediates on our behalf. The purpose of the incarnation was to redeem humanity back into relationship with the Triune God, which is reciprocal love.
A person may go as far as saying that the reciprocal love of the Trinity can be found in relational-creational terms of the Trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit created humanity in His own image from self-giving love. The relationship is broken and the image is flawed after humanity decided to grasp equality with God. This act is the polar-opposite of the nature of self-giving love. The self-giving love of God is found again in the act of uniting Himself to humanity through the incarnation. The flawed image of God within humanity is only healed by the divine becoming incarnate. Likewise, the void in humanity from a lost relationship can only be filled by the humanity of our Mediator who truly knows our hurts, pain, loneliness, etc. Jesus Christ is still divine and human today. He is our Lord, our Savior, and our Mediator.
To go one step further, Jesus Christ’s role as mediator flows out of this co-indwelling of divinity and humanity, typically called the hypostatic union. The next logical step is to view Jesus Christ as mediator in its chronological order. Was Jesus Christ the mediator before the incarnation? It could be said that His mediating role flows out of His very nature which is self-giving love and is eternal since He is eternal. There is still uniformity within the Godhead, and humanity was in need of a mediator as well as a redeeming-savior before the incarnation. The incarnation made the mediating role of Jesus Christ possible. The hypostatic union that was initiated in the immaculate conception of the incarnation is continued through to the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ. There is a human element within the Trinity today. The humanity did not die off of Jesus Christ prior to the resurrection, leaving only divinity. Augustine says, “He did not so come to us, as to leave the Father. From us He went, and did not leave us”. The incarnation and the hypostatic union is vital for us to understand what it means for Jesus Christ to be our mediator.
A person might ask, “If Jesus Christ was still divine and human after the resurrection, then how is it that two of His disciples didn’t recognize Him as they walked on the road to Emmaus, or that after they had eaten together, He (Jesus) vanished before their eyes (St. Luke 24:13-35)?” I would answer that person by asking, “Why does Jesus show His disciples His hands and His feet?” and say, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have (St. Luke 24:39).” This is the same Jesus Christ that the disciples knew before the crucifixion, as far as His hypostatic union is concerned. The Anglican Article 2 says, “the Godhead and manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided”. The same Son of God who took upon Himself humanity (and humanity took on divinity) at the incarnation, being Jesus Christ (divine and human), is the same Jesus Christ (divine and human) who died on the cross for our sins, and is the same Jesus Christ (divine and human) who was resurrected from the dead. It is also the same Jesus Christ (divine and human) who ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven and mediates on our behalf. The purpose of the incarnation was to redeem humanity back into relationship with the Triune God, which is reciprocal love.
A person may go as far as saying that the reciprocal love of the Trinity can be found in relational-creational terms of the Trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit created humanity in His own image from self-giving love. The relationship is broken and the image is flawed after humanity decided to grasp equality with God. This act is the polar-opposite of the nature of self-giving love. The self-giving love of God is found again in the act of uniting Himself to humanity through the incarnation. The flawed image of God within humanity is only healed by the divine becoming incarnate. Likewise, the void in humanity from a lost relationship can only be filled by the humanity of our Mediator who truly knows our hurts, pain, loneliness, etc. Jesus Christ is still divine and human today. He is our Lord, our Savior, and our Mediator.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
-St. John 14:6
No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
-St. John 14:6
This article first appeared in junXion, a monthly e-journal produced by WBS online.