The God-Man

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Colossian 1:19)

As we continue to walk through this wonderful little catechism written by Charles Spurgeon, question twenty-one asks, "How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?"  The answer given is that "Christ, the son of God, became man by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin."  Often the struggle that many have when thinking about the hypostatic union of Christ; that is, the bringing together of full deity and full humanity in the one person of Jesus Christ, is how do these two realities come together?  How is it that Christ was fully God and fully human at the same time?  Throughout the last two millennia there have been several false views that have been put forward which have all been condemned by the church at various times in church history.  But Spurgeon is correct when he says that Christ became a man "by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul,..."  In the book of Philippians, the apostle Paul describes Christ becoming human with these words, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (2:5-8).  Notice the kind of language Paul uses: "taking the form of a servant," "being born in the likeness of men," "being found in human form."  When God became man in the form of Jesus Christ, he did not put aside or diminish any of his deity, rather took on full humanity.  Jesus is 100% God and 100% man.  He is the God-man.  And he had to be fully God and fully human in order to be able to atone for our sins, according to the author of Hebrews (2:14-17).