The nature of Jesus – was He God or Man or Both or Neither – was at the center of many of the debates surrounding the formation of the Creeds, and it continues to divide people now. There are people who argue Jesus was not God (Jehovah’s Witness) and people who claim that he was not really human (just God who “looked” human), but the Creeds stand against these positions with the claim that Jesus was both fully God and fully Man. Similar to the idea of the Trinity, it’s not an easy concept, but I don’t want to write an entire book for this post (for the sake of clarity and also laziness), so our discussion here will be somewhat simplified.
Today we’ll look at the first claim: Jesus is God.
The pronouncement in the Creed that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirt makes clear that his was no ordinary human conception. The Bible repeatedly reinforces the idea that Mary was a virgin, and that even after Jesus was conceived she and Joseph had no relations until after Jesus was born.
[ Sidenote: some denominations teach that Mary was always a virgin. That is, she and Joseph never consummated their marriage. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and some Lutheran churches teach this, among others. However, most Protestant churches teach that Mary and Joseph consummated their marriage after Jesus was born and had multiple children.]
So why was Jesus conceived by the Holy Spirit? The Bible doesn’t tell us directly, but some of the theories are:
Original Sin – Not every church accepts the theory of original sin, but for those who do, they teach that when Adam sinned, his entire being was corrupted. He passed this corruption onto his children, and onto their children, and so forth, and so all of us come into the world “tainted.” This theory suggests that sin is “passed” through the father, and thus if Jesus was to be perfect, his birth had to bypass the father.
New Creation – This theory is that during a normal conception a new person is created and a new eternal soul comes into existence. If Jesus had always existed (as suggested by John 1), then how could he become a new eternal soul? Thus his conception was a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit, whereby his already existing person was conceived and born. (yeah, confusing. I know.)
A Sign – Some Christians believe that the virgin conception was primarily to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. That is to say, it was to complete the circle of prophecy and to show people that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, rather than for any spiritual or salvific reasons.
What it does not mean
Some nonbelievers, particularly Muslims, think this idea means that God and Mary came together in a kind of sexual union to produce Jesus. This is not what the Bible teaches or what orthodox Christians believe. We believe this was something unique in history, completely different than the conception of Roman/Greek gods who had sexual relationships with humans. So, in a way, we are united with Muslim believers on this particular point, despite it being a source of contention.
VERY GOD OF VERY GOD
The Bible teaches that Jesus was eternal, therefore his conception was unique. John 1 tells us that the Word (Logos) was at the beginning with God and was God, and that the Word “became” flesh. Note that it doesn’t say the Word began to exist when it became flesh – it existed prior to becoming flesh. Jesus was not “conceived” in the ordinary sense, He was incarnated.
You will sometimes hear people argue that Jesus never claimed to be God, which is partially true. He never said the words “I am God, and I am part of a three-person Godhead.” However, orthodox Christians believed Jesus claimed to be divine when he stated “before Abraham was, I AM,” using the same “name” as God used with Moses. In this instance (and others), he was using phrasing that intentionally told his listeners he was claiming to be God, and they responded accordingly (usually with violence. People. Whatcha gonna do?)
Jesus also receives worship from people throughout his time on earth. You will sometimes hear people state that people did not “worship” Jesus, they did “obeisance.” Without getting into the whole detail here, I will say that the word for worship (proskuneo) is the same when referring to Jesus or to God the Father. When other people are proskuneo-ed in the New Testament (as Cornelius does to Peter), they tell them to stand up and stop. But Jesus allows it. So make of that what you will.
DOES IT MATTER?
Jesus’s nature was consistently a point of contention throughout much of early church history. The Nicene Creed (developed after the Apostolic Creed that we’re using for this series) emphasizes his divine nature with the phrase “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, being of one substance with the Father.” At the time, there was a group of Christians (Arians) arguing that Jesus may have been a holy man or even an angel, but he wasn’t God. The idea that Jesus was not divine was declared heretical, but it persisted through hundreds of years of often violent disagreement, and continues to persist today. This is the primary reason why most orthodox Christians consider groups that teach this (most notably, the Jehovah’s Witnesses) to be outside the Church “family.”
Could Jesus have been our Redeemer if He wasn’t fully God? Would his death and resurrection still have counted? Couldn’t God have redeemed the world through Jesus even if he was just a man or an angel? I honestly don’t know. I’m sure some much wiser theologians than I can explain it in depth if you are so interested.
For myself, I’m content that the Bible teaches that Jesus was, is, and will be God in eternity past and future. That has been the consistent teaching of the Church and Creeds for almost two thousand years, and we confirm our continuing belief every time we say the Creeds today.