Editor’s note: We’re kicking off a fantastic new Online Bible Study — A Jesus-Shaped Life — starting August 11th with Lisa Harper and you’re invited to join us! Sign up today and let’s get closer with Jesus together!
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Exploring My Orthodoxy
If the Christian faith were set on a stage, the spotlight would be on Jesus. A spotlight, by nature, reveals! And Jesus reveals to us not only the very nature of God but also the essence of our faith. According to the Gospel of Mark, lots of rumors were flying around about Jesus during His life. Jesus was healing people and performing miracles. He spoke with authority and preached to crowds. “Maybe He’s a prophet?” the people wondered about Him. But Jesus also was doing something that was exclusively left to God. He was forgiving sins! This left the crowds puzzled and the religious leaders infuriated. “Who is He to forgive sins?” they would grumble.
While such rumors were spreading through Judea, Jesus asks His disciples in Mark 8:27,
Who do people say I am?
The disciples tell Him what they’ve heard. A prophet? Elijah? John the Baptist? (Everyone was certainly confused.) But Jesus goes on to ask in verse 29, “But what about you? . . . Who do you say I am?” Peter answers,
You are the Messiah.
Wow, Peter! He gets it. In that moment, he declares the truth of Jesus.
Hold that question in your mind: “Who do you say I am?” Picture Jesus asking you, nudging you, to continue to consider that question. As we dig into theological terms and seek to understand Jesus’ divinity and humanity, treat each moment of study and treat each nugget the Spirit gifts you as another clue to the answer to Jesus’ question: “Who do you say I am?”
Reflect
Imagine the people listed below trying to describe who you are. How do you think someone from each category would describe you?
A stranger you pass on the street...
A coworker or neighbor...
One of your friends…
Someone in your family…
Helpful Handlebars
Homoousios — describes the reality that Jesus is of the same substance as the Father. It is a way to ensure Jesus’ divinity is kept intact in our theology!
- Homo — from the Greek adjective homos, meaning “same”
- Ousios — from the Greek noun ousia, meaning “substance” or “being”
Hypostasis — Greek word for “subsistence” — although in the Patristic Era (the first five centuries AD), it was used as a technical term for “person.”
Hypostatic union — refers to the supernaturally symbiotic relationship between Jesus’ divine and human natures. Jesus is fully God and fully human. Jesus has two natures but is fully one. This term relates to the fact that Jesus is the “exact imprint” of God the Father and is somehow both fully divine and fully human. (This is a great and beautiful mystery.)
Reorient Yourself to Scripture
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Sometimes it feels like it would be so much easier to understand the identity of Jesus if the Father had sent some sort of top ten list to us about Him. Imagine a headline falling from the heavens that reads: “The top ten things you need to know about the Son of God, brought to you by God the Father.” That would be so helpful! Instead, though, we get stories. And while it is tempting to wish for theological treatises or bullet-pointed lists, stories paint pictures in ways lists and headlines cannot. Stories invite us into the narrative to walk with Jesus as He encounters people in His life. The way Jesus walked in the world gives us clues as to His identity.
In this Scripture passage we meet Jesus as He arrives to His friend Lazarus’s tomb. Lazarus had just died, and his sisters Martha and Mary are beside themselves with grief and frustration that Jesus hadn’t gotten there in time to prevent his death. When Jesus sees Mary’s grief and contemplates Lazarus in the tomb, Jesus weeps. Jesus fully enters into the human experience, and He is filled with sorrow. Jesus’ humanity is on full display. But then Jesus raises him from the dead! And His full divinity is on display. Yes, God could have just told us outright, “Jesus is divine; Jesus is human.” But, in this story, we see it.
Exploring My Orthopathy
The term “hypostatic union” refers to the harmonious coexistence of humanity and divinity in the person of Jesus.
Hypostatic union —— Divinity —— Humanity
How is the identity of Jesus compromised if we only emphasize His divinity?
How is the identity of Jesus compromised if we only emphasize His humanity?
- Put yourself in the shoes of Mary and Martha in the story. What do you think they are thinking and feeling when Lazarus dies? How do you think they are feeling after he is raised from the dead? How do you think they would answer the question, “Who do you say I am?” if Jesus were to ask them?
- Some have purported Jesus’ tears were fake because He knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. How would you respond if someone tried to convince you Jesus’ tears were not real? How might you utilize your knowledge of Jesus’ nature to combat this inaccurate interpretation of the story?
The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man — that the second person of the Godhead became the “second man” (1 Corinthians 15:47), determining human destiny, the second representative head of the race, and that he took humanity without the loss of deity, so that Jesus of Nazareth was as truly divine as he was human. ~ J. I. Packer1
Exploring My Orthopraxy
For today’s application section, spend some time praying and journaling about Jesus’ question: “Who do you say I am?” What aspects of Jesus’ identity do you readily accept? What do you struggle to believe? Do you tend to emphasize either Jesus’ humanity or Jesus’ divinity more than the other?
After a time of journaling, write a prayer asking God to reveal to you the identity of Jesus even more fully than before!
1. Packer, Knowing God, 53.
Excerpted with permission from A Jesus-Shaped Life Study Guide by Lisa Harper, copyright Lisa Harper.
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Your Turn
Are you joining us for the upcoming A Jesus-Shaped Life OBS? It starts on August 11th and we would love to have you join us! Grab a friend or two and register here. ~ Devotionals Daily