Why This Paradox Matters for Real Faith and True Worship
Few Christian claims are more staggering—or more essential—than this:
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human.
Not half‑and‑half. Not a mixture. Not a super‑man.
One person, two complete natures, forever.
At first glance, this sounds impossible. How can one person be both truly God and truly man? Isn’t that a contradiction?
The church has always called this a mystery—but not an irrational one. Properly understood, it is a paradox: a truth that pushes our minds to the edge, but does not break logic. And it is not a side issue; it shapes how we’re saved, how we worship, and who we pray to.
In this post we’ll look at:
- Peter’s confession and Jesus’ insistence that this truth comes from the Father
- What the New Testament actually says about Jesus’ nature
- Why the early church fought so hard over Christ’s identity
- The Council of Ephesus (431) and “one composed hypostasis”
- The danger of leaning too far to either side (blending or separating the natures)
- Jesus’ two wills—divine and human, never in conflict
- Why this paradox matters for your faith and worship today
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1. “You Are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”
Peter’s Confession and the Father’s Revelation
In Matthew 16, Jesus asks the question that still confronts every human being:
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
…
“But who do you say that I am?”
—Matthew 16:13, 15
Peter answers:
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
—Matthew 16:16
Jesus’ response is crucial:
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar‑Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”
—Matthew 16:17
Two key observations:
- Jesus affirms Peter’s confession:
- Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), the anointed King and Savior.
- He is the Son of the living God—not merely a prophet or teacher.
- This knowledge is a gift:
- “Flesh and blood” (human reasoning alone) cannot grasp who Jesus really is.
- The Father must reveal this.
This sets the tone for our whole discussion: the identity of Christ is not something we invent or edit; it is something God reveals and the church confesses.
2. What the New Testament Says About Jesus’ Nature
From the start, the New Testament speaks of Jesus in ways that drive us to the fully God, fully man paradox.
A. Fully God
- Divine Names and Titles
- “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)
- Thomas confesses to the risen Christ: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)
- Paul calls Jesus “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13)
- Divine Attributes and Actions
- He shares the divine glory: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
—John 17:5 - He forgives sins, something only God can do (Mark 2:5–7).
- He calms the storm by His word, and the disciples ask, “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?” (Mark 4:39–41).
- All things were created through Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16–17; John 1:3).
- Worthy of Worship
- People worship Him (Matthew 14:33; 28:9, 17), and unlike mere angels or apostles, He does not refuse it.
- Hebrews 1:6 says of the Son: “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Athanasius (4th century) famously argued:
“If the Son is a creature, then He is not truly God;
and if He is not truly God, He cannot save.”
—paraphrased from On the Incarnation
If Jesus is not fully God, we have no divine Savior, only a religious hero.
B. Fully Human
Just as clearly, Scripture insists on Jesus’ true humanity:
- He was born of a woman (Galatians 4:4; Luke 2).
- He grew in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52).
- He experienced hunger (Matthew 4:2), thirst (John 19:28), weariness (John 4:6).
- He was tempted “in every respect as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
- He suffered and truly died (Mark 15:37–39; John 19:30, 34).
Hebrews emphasizes:
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things…”
—Hebrews 2:14
“He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest…”
—Hebrews 2:17
Gregory of Nazianzus gave a classic summary:
“What has not been assumed has not been healed.”
—Gregory of Nazianzus, Epistle 101
In other words:
If Christ did not truly take our full humanity, He did not truly redeem it.
So the New Testament presses us into this paradox:
- Jesus is truly God.
- Jesus is truly man.
- Yet He is one person.
3. Why the Early Church Fought Over Christ’s Identity
The early church understood that wrong answers about Jesus destroy the gospel.
If Jesus is less than God, He cannot save.
If He is less than human, He cannot represent us.
Various competing ideas arose, pushing too far to one side or the other:
- Arianism – Jesus as a supreme creature, not truly God.
- Apollinarianism – Christ has a human body but not a full human mind/soul (the Logos replaces a human soul).
- Nestorianism – A strong separation between the divine and human in Christ, almost two persons loosely joined.
- Monophysitism / Eutychianism – Christ’s human nature is swallowed up into His divine nature, resulting in a mixed or single nature.
By the early 5th century, a major controversy erupted around Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople. He resisted calling Mary Theotokos (“God‑bearer,” or “Mother of God”), preferring “Christ‑bearer,” fearing that “God” could not be said to be born.
Cyril of Alexandria saw the danger:
If you split Christ into two subjects—one divine, one human—
you lose the unity of the Savior and the reality that God Himself came in the flesh.
4. The Council of Ephesus (431): One Person, Two Natures
The Council of Ephesus (431) was convened to settle this dispute.
A. What Was at Stake?
The fundamental question:
- Who is the one born of Mary, crucified, risen, and reigning?
- Is He a single person (subject) who is both God and man,
or are we talking about a close cooperation between two persons (one divine, one human)?
Ephesus, following Cyril and the earlier Nicene faith, insisted:
- The eternal Son of God is one hypostasis (one individual person),
- Who has taken on a complete human nature.
So they affirmed what came to be known (and later expanded at Chalcedon) as:
One and the same Lord Jesus Christ,
the only‑begotten Son,
perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity,
truly God and truly man,
of a rational soul and body,
consubstantial with the Father according to His divinity,
and consubstantial with us according to His humanity,
one and the same Christ,
not parted or divided into two persons,
but one and the same Son and Only‑begotten.
—paraphrased from the Council’s formula and later Athanasian Creed
The later Athanasian Creed (building on this tradition) famously states:
“Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.
God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds;
and man, of the substance of his mother, born in the world;
perfect God and perfect man…
one, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God;
one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.”
—Athanasian Creed
Ephesus insisted on one composed hypostasis:
- Christ is one individual person (the Word/Son),
- In whom the divine and human natures are united without confusion and without separation.
5. Two Main Errors: Blending or Separating the Natures
From a biblical and orthodox standpoint, there are two ditches:
A. Blending the Natures (Confusion / Mixing)
Error: So emphasizing the unity that Christ becomes a hybrid—neither fully God nor fully man.
- This collapses the human into the divine (or vice versa).
- It risks saying His humanity is not truly like ours (Hebrews 2:17; 4:15).
- It obscures the reality that He truly grew, learned, suffered, and could die in His human nature.
If Jesus’ natures are blended, then:
- His human mind and will are not real;
- He cannot truly stand in for us as the “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45).
B. Separating the Natures (Division / Two Sons)
Error: So emphasizing the distinction that you end up with two Christs—a divine Word and a human Jesus loosely connected.
- This was the concern with Nestorianism.
- It threatens to make Mary the mother of “a man,” not of God the Son incarnate.
- It makes our worship unstable: Whom do we worship—only the divine part?
If Jesus’ natures are separated, then:
- The one who suffers and dies might be seen as only the human Jesus,
not truly the Son of God in the flesh (Galatians 2:20; Acts 20:28).
Orthodoxy insists, with both Ephesus and later Chalcedon:
- Christ is one person in two natures:
- without confusion,
- without change,
- without division,
- without separation.
6. Two Wills in Christ: Divine and Human, Never in Conflict
Because Christ is fully God and fully man, He has:
- A divine nature (with a divine mind and will)
- A human nature (with a human mind and will)
The church later clarified (at the Third Council of Constantinople, 680–681) that Christ has two wills (dyothelitism):
- A divine will proper to His divinity
- A human will proper to His humanity
But—this is crucial—His human will is never opposed to His divine will.
We see this vividly in Gethsemane:
“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
—Luke 22:42
- Jesus truly experiences human shrinking from suffering and wrath.
- Yet His human will is perfectly submitted to the will of the Father (and thus to His own divine will).
This matters because:
- If He did not have a true human will, He could not truly obey in our place.
- If His human will ever opposed His divine will, He would be divided and sinful.
Modern Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck puts it this way:
“In Christ the human will is not destroyed or absorbed by the divine will,
but is in perfect harmony with it, freely and gladly agreeing with the will of God.”
—paraphrased from Reformed Dogmatics
Jesus is the obedient second Adam whose whole human life—heart, mind, and will—is yielded to God. This is what secures our righteousness.
7. Why This Paradox Matters for Us Today
This is not just historical theology. It touches the core of Christian life.
A. Only a Fully God, Fully Human Christ Can Save You
- As God, Christ’s sacrifice has infinite worth to atone for the sins of many (Hebrews 10:12–14).
- As man, He can truly stand in our place, obey for us, suffer for us, die our death, and rise as our representative (Romans 5:18–19; 1 Corinthians 15:21–22).
If He is not fully God and fully man, the gospel collapses.
B. Your Mediator Truly Knows You
Because He is fully human:
“We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
—Hebrews 4:15
Because He is fully God:
“He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him…”
—Hebrews 7:25
Your Savior is near in humanity and mighty in divinity.
C. True Worship Must Match the Truth About Christ
Jesus said:
“The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.”
—John 4:23
If we:
- Reduce Jesus to a mere teacher or moral example,
- Or treat Him as a distant deity who only appears human,
then our worship is misdirected. We must worship:
- This Jesus—God the Son incarnate, crucified and risen,
- This one person in whom the fullness of deity dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9).
The Athanasian Creed is blunt:
“This is the catholic faith:
that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
And the right faith is that we believe and confess
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.”
—Athanasian Creed (paraphrased)
J.I. Packer similarly wrote:
“The proper focus of Christian devotion is the God‑man Jesus Christ…
All our thinking about God should be shaped and controlled by the fact of the Incarnation.”
—paraphrased from Knowing God
8. A Final Pastoral Word
The paradox of Christ—fully God, fully human, one person—may stretch your mind, but it is meant to steady your heart.
- When you feel your sin:
Remember a truly human Christ obeyed in your place and shed real blood for you. - When you feel weak and tempted:
Remember a truly human Christ sympathizes with your weakness. - When you fear God’s wrath or doubt your security:
Remember a truly divine Christ has finished the work and sits enthroned. - When you worship:
Remember you are not singing to an abstract idea,
but to the living Lord Jesus—
“our great God and Savior” (Titus 2:13),
“the Word became flesh” (John 1:14),
who loved you and gave Himself for you (Galatians 2:20).
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