The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Jesus, fully God and fully Man

Can anyone shed light on a discussion some friends of mine and our Asst. Pastor were having. My understanding of Phil 2:5-11 is that while Jesus was on earth, He gave up His right to use His supernatural power and lived totally dependent on the Father's power working through Him. So all of the miracles He did, were not by His own power as God, but by the Father's power. our Asst. Pastor believes that Jesus operated using His own supernatural power while on earth.
John 14 I think also speaks to my position. Jesus said, "I do nothing apart from the Father"
What are your thoughts?

I think it is crucial to state the biblical teaching concerning the 'hypostatic union' of Christ, i.e., what was the relationship between the divine nature and the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The true Church has always embraced as biblical that which is found particularly in the Creed of Chalcedon:

Hopefully, this will shed some light on both your view and that of your pastor's view.

1) The Son, the divinity of Christ, did not divest himself of any power nor anything else. God cannot deny His very being or nature, nor can He be diminished in any of His attributes, e.g., His absolute sovereignty; authority and power (which btw, the Arminian/semi-Pelagian system unabashedly believes). The Son as God certainly exercises His authority and power as He Himself determines to do. Having taken upon Himself human flesh and becoming the person of Jesus Christ, God and man, did not in any way change either the essence of the Son nor of His manner of providentially ruling all of creation.

2) The human nature of Christ was fully man and not divine nor supernatural in and of itself. Therefore, the human nature of Jesus Christ has no inherent divine ability nor power, e.g., to perform miracles. The apostles likewise, had no inherent power to perform miracles but rather they were able to do so because of the authority given to them by God and by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. In short, Jesus the Christ was not some supernatural man, but rather as Chalcedon states most succinctly, He was fully man, not some superman, no different than you or I yet without sin. The two natures existed in the one person and cannot be intermixed nor separated.

This relationship is admittedly extremely difficult to comprehend and due to its complexity many have embraced error from one degree to another, e.g., Socinianism, Modalism (i.e. Sabellianism, Noetianism and Patripassianism), Arianism, Docetism, Ebionitism, Adoptionism, Partialism. We are told something of this relationship, even Jesus himself revealed who He was and how He functioned as the God-man, e.g., Joh 5:31; 7:17,28; 8:14,18,28,42; 10:18; 12:49; 14:10.

There are some very good articles on The Highway that deal with the divinity and two natures of Christ which you can find HERE.

Addendum: You may find Bavinck's article most helpful: The Divine and Human Nature of Christ

It helps me to look at His "emptying Himself" (Phil 2:7) not as empting Himself of anything, but rather emptying Himself into the form of a servant...

He lost none of His own divine nature in the incarnation. He simply became a servant, obedient even to the point of death on the cross.

Yes, this is part of what is known as Christ's "humiliation"; not as in ridiculed, but rather in His ultimate humility, not blatantly and arrogantly asserting Himself as God. The Son became flesh, taking upon Himself a human nature, part of that which He created, subjecting Himself to not only all manner of temptation, rejection of men, but even death itself, suffering the eternal wrath of God as a sinner, though without any personal sin, but for the sins of His people for whom He came to save.

I think I used the wrong wording when I said Jesus gave up His right to use His Supernatural power while on earth. What I really meant was, He set them aside for a time so He could be fully human. I believe Jesus showed us how to live on this earth as human beings the way God intended us to be.
These posts do help to clarify for me this issue. If Jesus was using His own supernaturlal powers to heal, to cast out demons,etc. He would not be fully Man. I think that is what I am getting from your post. If not, please clarify.
Thanks so much!

Actually, Jesus did not "give up His right...", for: 1) He was fully God in His divinity and thus had full authority and power to do all that He so willed. As the incarnate Son of God, He did submit Himself to the Father and did all that the Father desired of Him. 2) There are many instances where the God-man exhibited His divine power; healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, feeding multitudes from meager sources of food, calming storms, walking on water, etc., etc. So, there was no "setting aside" of His omnipotence. That inherent divine power and authority was not diminished in any way, shape or form. It was exercised, however, according to the eternal council and foreordination of God the Father.

Again, I would like to emphasize what is Scripturally taught and summarized in the Chalcedonian Creed concerning the two natures of Christ; 100% fully God and 100% fully man, neither of the two natures diminished in their essence. God CANNOT abrogate His "right" (authority) to exercise His power nor any other of His divine attributes. To do so would be to deny His deity.

I do realize that this is a very deep subject and one which can produce cerebral pain of the worst kind when trying to comprehend it. But what we do have revealed to us in Scripture must be held faithfully and not be subjected to our own inability to comprehend it nor changed in anyway.

Thank You Pilgrim. You showed me that I was trying to understand something which can only be taken by faith. I had read Ray Stedman's commentary on Phil2:5-11 and that is what he said. I am paraphrasing but essentially that: never once in the 33 yrs.That Jesus was on earth, did He operate out of His own power but, solely depended on the Father's power working through Him to do everything including miracles. This said to me that Jesus could still be fully God and choose not to use His own powers but operate fully as a human being totally dependent on the Father for everything. To me, this did not diminish His being fully God one bit. Obviously I and Ray Stedman are wrong.