BALANCE

From tightrope walking to finances it is always good to have a proper balance. When kids my heavier big brother would leave me teetering on high on the teeter totter. Seesaws work better when equal weights are on opposite ends. Then there is Jesus. Some deny that He is human. Says the Apostle John, ‘By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.’ 1 John 4:2-3a. And others deny that He is God. Writes John, ‘The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.’ However, true Christianity is well-balanced in that it confesses that Jesus is both God and Man. This is where we need to be careful. Jesus is not two persons. Jesus is one divine Person with two natures forever. His God-nature does not sit on one end of the seesaw leaving His human-nature teetering in the air. Rather, each of His two natures is distinct from the other. A couple of examples? As a human being He cannot be in two places at once, but as God He can. As a human He cannot know all things, but as God He can. If you are struggling to understand how the same Person cannot be everywhere and know everything at once, then it might help you to understand some of the differences between God and man.

God made man in His own image. We did not make God in our own image. We cannot imagine a being who is omniscient and omnipresent. It did not please God to share these two of His attributes with His image. Thus a human being cannot know everything or be everywhere at once. As God’s likeness man is creative. But God alone is the Creator. He is the Creator because He alone is omnipotent. The Almighty spoke creation into being from nothing at its beginning.

Jesus is God because, before He became Man, He was the Word through which He and the Father made all things by Their Spirit: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.’ John 1:1-3 (cf. Genesis 1:1-3). It was this eternal being, (i.e., the Middle Person in the Trinity), who became also a Man. John says, ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ John 1:14a.

The following is a lengthy but accurate description of what the Bible has to say about the Word becoming flesh. ‘The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon Him man’s nature, with all the essential properties, and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.’ Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 8 paragraph 2.

If you keep the two natures of Christ in balance you will develop a well-balanced view of God and what human beings are supposed to be like. In turn this will result in you developing a well-balanced theology, cosmology, and anthropology.