How
did we come to understand Jesus as both fully human and fully divine?
Early
Christians spent nearly three hundred years wrestling with the question
of whether Jesus was fully human, fully divine, or some combination
of human and divine. The process was complicated by the movement
from Hebrew culture to Hellenistic, the transformation of the Jesus
sect into a separate faith apart from Judaism, numerous competing
philosophies and theologies (such as Docetism, which asserted that
Jesus only appeared to suffer), and the institutional needs of an
increasingly assertive Church.
The
Council of Nicaea (327 CE) tried to resolve this process of self-definition.
Bishops settled on a Trinitarian formula and balancing the humanity
of Jesus (being born, suffering) and the divinity of Jesus (being
raised, seated at the right hand of God). Jesus himself said that
when we see him, we see God. In his humanity and in the power of
his presence, he showed the way to God.
Every
Christian community understands these assertions differently. I
encourage you to seek out the pastor of your church and ask his
or her interpretation. Please understand that there are no absolutely
right or wrong answers. The New Testament bears contradictory witness.
Moreover, in wrestling with questions like these, we reach the limits
of our comprehension.
—Tom
Ehrich
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