VIII. The Person of Christ
[1] A controversy has also arisen among the theologians of the Augsburg Confession about the person of Christ. This did not arise among them first but sprang originally from the Sacramentarians.
Status of the Controversy
[2] In opposition to the Sacramentarians, Dr. Luther maintained the true, essential presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Supper with solid arguments from the words of institution. The objection was raised against him by the Zwinglians that, if Christ’s body were present at the same time in heaven and on earth in the Holy Supper, it could be no real, true human body. For such majesty was said to be peculiar to God alone. They said Christ’s body was not capable of it.
[3] Dr. Luther contradicted and effectively refuted this, as his doctrinal and polemical writings about the Holy Supper show. We publicly confess ‹approve› these writings, as well as his doctrinal writings ‹and we wish this fact to be publicly attested›. [4] After Luther’s death, some theologians of the Augsburg Confession sought—though still unwilling to do so publicly and clearly—to confess that they were in agreement with the Sacramentarians about the Lord’s Supper. Nevertheless, they introduced and used precisely the same “basic argument” [reference to Crypto-Calvinist tract Grundfeste] about Christ’s person by which the Sacramentarians dared to remove the true, essential presence of Christ’s body and blood from His Supper. They said that nothing should be credited to the human nature in the person of Christ that is above or contrary to its natural, essential property. On account of this they have accused Dr. Luther’s doctrine (and all those who follow it because it conforms with God’s Word) of almost all the ancient monstrous heresies.
[Affirmative Statements]
[5] We want to explain this controversy in a Christian way, in conformity with God’s Word, according to the guidance of our simple Christian faith. By God’s grace we want to entirely settle this. Therefore, our unanimous doctrine, faith, and confession are as follows:
[6] We believe, teach, and confess that God’s Son from eternity has been a particular, distinct, entire, divine person. Yet He is true, essential, perfect God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In the fullness of time He received also the human nature into the unity of His person. He did not do this in such a way that there are now two persons or two Christs. Christ Jesus is now in one person at the same time true, eternal God, born of the Father from eternity, and a true man, born of the most blessed Virgin Mary. This is written in Romans 9:5, “from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.”
[7] We believe, teach, and confess that now, in this one undivided person of Christ, there are two distinct natures: the divine, which is from eternity, and the human, which in time was received into the unity of the person of God’s Son. These two natures in the person of Christ are never either separated from or mingled with each other. Nor are they changed into each other. Each one abides in its nature and essence in the person of Christ to all eternity.
[8] We believe, teach, and confess also that both natures mentioned remain unmingled and undestroyed in their nature and essence. Each keeps its natural, essential properties to all eternity and does not lay them aside. Neither do the essential properties of the one nature ever become the essential properties of the other nature.
[9] We believe, teach, and confess that it is the property of the divine nature to be almighty, eternal, infinite, everywhere present at the same time, and all-knowing. In other words, it agrees with the properties of [the divine] nature and its natural essence. These are essential attributes of the divine nature. Never in eternity do they become essential properties of the human nature.
[10] On the other hand, these are properties of the human nature: being a bodily creation or creature, flesh and blood, finite and located in one place; it suffers, dies, ascends, and descends; it moves from one place to another, suffers hunger, thirst, cold, heat, and the like. These properties never become properties of the divine nature.
[11] We believe, teach, and confess that now, since the incarnation, each nature in Christ does not exist by itself so that each is, or makes up, a separate person. These two natures are so united that they make up one single person, in which the divine and the received human nature are and exist at the same time. So now, since the incarnation, there belongs to the entire person of Christ personally not only His divine nature, but also His received human nature. So without His divinity, and also without His humanity, the person of Christ or the incarnate Son of God is not complete. We mean the Son of God who has received flesh and become man [John 1:14]. Therefore, Christ is not two distinct persons, but one single person, even though two distinct natures are found in Him, unconfused in their natural essence and properties.
[12] We also believe, teach, and confess that the received human nature in Christ has and retains its natural, essential properties. But over and above these, through the personal union with the Deity, and afterward through glorification, Christ’s human nature has been exalted to the right hand of majesty, power, and might, over everything that can be named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come [Ephesians 1:21].
[13] Consider this majesty, to which Christ has been exalted according to His humanity. He did not first receive it when He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. He received it when He was conceived in His mother’s womb and became man, and the divine and human natures were personally united with each other. [14] However, this personal union is not to be understood (as some incorrectly explain it) as though the two natures, the divine and the human, were united with each other, like two boards are glued together. Some say that (in deed and truth) they have no communion whatsoever with each other. [15] This was the error and heresy of Nestorius and Samosatenus. As Suidas and Theodore, presbyter of Raithu, testify, they taught and held that the two natures have no communion whatsoever with each other. In this way, the natures are separated from each other, and the two Christs are constituted. So Christ is one, and God the Word (who dwells in Christ) is another.
[16] This is what Theodore the Presbyter writes:
At that time the heretic Manes lived, and also one by the name of Paul. Though born in Samosata, he was a bishop at Antioch in Syria. He wickedly taught that the Lord Christ was nothing other than a mere man in whom God the Word dwelt, just as in every prophet. Therefore, he also held that the divine and human natures are apart from each other and separate. In Christ they have no communion whatever with each other, just as though Christ were one, and God the Word, who dwells in Him, the other.
[17] Against this condemned heresy the Christian Church has always simply believed and held that the divine and the human nature in the person of Christ are so united that they have a true communion with each other. The natures are not mingled in one essence. But, as Dr. Luther writes, they come together in one person [LW 37:212–13]. [18] So, on account of this personal union and communion, the ancient teachers of the Church, before and after the Council of Chalcedon, frequently used the word mixture, in a good sense and with ‹true› discrimination. To prove this, many testimonies of the Fathers, if necessary, could be quoted. These are to be found frequently also in the writings of our divines, and they explain the personal union and communion using the illustration of the soul and body, and of glowing iron. [19] For the body and soul, as also fire and iron, have communion with each other. This is not by a phrase or mode of speaking, or in mere words, that is, so that it is merely a form of speech or mere words. But the communion is true and real. Nevertheless, there is no mixing or equalizing of the natures introduced like when mead is made from honey and water, which is no longer pure water or pure honey, but a mixed drink. It is far different in the union of the divine and the human nature in the person of Christ. It is a far different, more grand, and ‹altogether› indescribable communion and union between the divine and the human nature in the person of Christ. Because this union and communion, God is man and man is God. Neither the natures nor their properties are intermingled, but each nature keeps its essence and properties.
[20] This personal union does not exist nor can be thought of without such a true communion of the natures. Not just the mere human nature—whose property it is to suffer and die—has suffered for the sins of the world, but the Son of God Himself truly suffered. However, He suffered according to the received human nature. In accordance with our simple Christian faith, He truly died, although the divine nature can neither suffer nor die. [21] Dr. Luther has fully explained this in his Confession concerning Christ’s Supper in opposition to the blasphemous alloeosis, or interchange, of Zwingli, who taught that one nature should be taken and understood for the other. Dr. Luther has committed that teaching, as a devil’s mask, to the abyss of hell [LW 37:206–14].
[22] For this reason, the ancient teachers of the Church combined both words, communion and union, in the explanation of this mystery and have explained the one word by the other. (See Irenaeus, Book 4, chap. 37; Athanasius, in the Letter to Epictetus; Hilary, Concerning the Trinity, Book 9; Basil and Gregory of Nyssa, in Theodoret; Damascus, Book 3, chap. 19.)
[23] On account of this personal union and communion of the divine and the human nature in Christ we believe, teach, and confess what is said about the majesty of Christ according to His humanity, according to our simple Christian faith: He sits at the right hand of the almighty power of God. We also confess what ‹follows from that›. All of this would mean nothing and could not stand if this personal union and communion of the natures in the person of Christ did not exist (in deed and truth).
[24] On account of this personal union and communion of the natures, Mary, the most blessed Virgin, did not bear a mere man. But, as the angel ‹Gabriel› testifies, she bore a man who is truly the Son of the most high God [Luke 1:35]. He showed His divine majesty even in His mother’s womb, because He was born of a virgin, without violating her virginity. Therefore, she is truly the mother of God and yet has remained a virgin.
[25] He did all His miracles by the power of this personal union. He showed His divine majesty, according to His pleasure, when and as He willed. He did this not just after His resurrection and ascension, but also in His state of humiliation. For example:
(a) At the wedding at Cana of Galilee [John 2:1–11]
(b) When He was twelve years old, among the learned [Luke 2:42–50]
(c) In the garden, when with a word He cast His enemies to the ground [John 18:6]
(d) In death, when He died not simply as any other man, but in and with His death conquered sin, death, devil, hell, and eternal damnation [Colossians 2:13–15]
The human nature alone would not have been able to do these miracles if it had not been personally united and had communion with the divine nature.
[26] The human nature, after the resurrection from the dead, is exalted above all creatures in heaven and on earth. This is nothing other than that He entirely laid aside the form of a servant [Philippians 2:7–11]. He did not lay aside His human nature, but retains it to eternity. He has the full possession and use of the divine majesty according to His received human nature. However, He had this majesty immediately at His conception, even in His mother’s womb. As the apostle testifies [Philippians 2:7], He laid it aside. As Dr. Luther explains, He kept it concealed in the state of His humiliation and did not always use it, but only when He wanted to use it [LW 15:291].
[27] Now He has ascended to heaven, not merely as any other saint, but as the apostle testifies [Ephesians 4:10], above all heavens. He also truly fills all things, being present everywhere, not only as God, but also as man. He rules from sea to sea and to the ends of the earth, as the prophets predict [Psalm 8:1, 6; 93:1–4; Zechariah 9:10] and the apostles testify [Mark 16:20]. He did this everywhere with them and confirmed their word with signs. [28] This did not happen in an earthly way. As Dr. Luther explains, this happened according to the way things are done at God’s right hand [LW 37:55–58; 37:228]. “God’s right hand” is no set place in heaven, as the Sacramentarians assert without any ground in the Holy Scriptures. It is nothing other than God’s almighty power, which fills heaven and earth. Christ is installed according to His humanity (in deed and truth), without confusing or equalizing the two natures in their essence and essential properties. [29] By this communicated ‹divine› power, according to the words of His testament, He can be and is truly present with His body and blood in the Holy Supper. He has pointed this out for us by His Word. This is possible for no other man, because no man is united with the divine nature the way Jesus, the Son of Mary, is. No man is installed in such divine almighty majesty and power through and in the personal union of the two natures in Christ. [30] For in Him the divine and the human nature are personally united with each other. So in Christ “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9). In this personal union the two natures have such a grand, intimate, indescribable communion that even the angels are astonished by it. As St. Peter testifies, they have their delight and joy in looking into it [1 Peter 1:12]. All of this will soon be explained in order and somewhat more fully.
[31] This personal union, as it has been stated and explained above, is the basis of a further teaching. Another doctrine flows from the way in which the divine and the human nature in the person of Christ are united with each other. The two natures not only have the names in common, but they also have communion with each other (in deed and truth) without commingling or equalizing their essences. From this point flows teaching about the true communion of the properties of the natures. More will be said about this below.
[32] This is certainly true: properties do not leave their subjects. In other words, each nature keeps its essential properties. These are not separated from the nature and poured into the other nature, as water from one vessel into another. So there could not be any communion of properties if the personal union or communion of the natures in the person of Christ were not true. [33] Next to the article of the Holy Trinity this is the greatest mystery in heaven and on earth. Paul says, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). [34] The apostle Peter testifies in clear words [2 Peter 1:4] that we also, in whom Christ dwells only by grace, on account of that great mystery, are “partakers of the divine nature” in Christ. Therefore, what kind of communion of the divine nature must that be of which the apostle says, “in [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” so that God and man are one person? [35] It is highly important that this doctrine about the communion of the properties of both natures be treated and explained with proper discrimination. There are many ways and modes of speaking about the person of Christ and of its natures and properties. When these are used without proper distinction, the doctrine becomes confused and the simple reader is easily led astray. Therefore, the following explanation should be carefully noted. For the purpose of making it plainer and simpler, it may be organized under three headings:
[36] 1. In Christ two distinct natures exist and remain unchanged and unconfused in their natural essence and properties. Yet there is only one person consisting of both natures. Therefore, that which is an attribute of only one nature is attributed not to that nature alone, as separate. It is attributed to the entire person, who is at the same time God and man (whether the person is called God or man).
[37] In this way of speaking, it does not make sense that what is attributed to the person is at the same time a property of both natures. But its nature is distinctively explained by what is ascribed to the person. So “His Son… was descended from David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3). Also: Christ was “put to death in the flesh” (1 Peter 3:18) and “suffered in the flesh” (1 Peter 4:1).
[38] However, beneath the words—when it is said that what is peculiar to one nature is attributed to the entire person—secret and open Sacramentarians conceal their deadly error. They do this by naming the entire person, but meaning only the one nature, and entirely excluding the other nature. They speak as though the mere human nature had suffered for us, as Dr. Luther in his Confession concerning Christ’s Supper has written about the alloeosis of Zwingli. We will present here Luther’s own words, in order that God’s Church may be guarded in the best way against this error:
[39] [Zwingli] calls it alloeosis when something is said about the divinity of Christ which after all belongs to His humanity, or vice versa–for example, in Luke 24[:26], “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and so enter into His glory?” Here he [Zwingli] performs a sleight-of-hand trick and substitutes the human nature for Christ. [40] Beware, beware, I say, of this alloeosis, for it is the devil’s mask since it will finally construct a kind of Christ after whom I would not want to be a Christian, that is, a Christ who is and does no more in His passion and His life than any other ordinary saint. For if I believe that only the human nature suffered for me, then Christ would be a poor Savior for me, in fact, He Himself would need a Savior. In short, it is indescribable what the devil attempts with this alloeosis! [LW 37:209–10]
[41] And shortly afterward:
Now if the old witch, Lady Reason, alloeosis’ grandmother, should say that the Deity surely cannot suffer and die, then you must answer and say: That is true, but since the divinity and humanity are one person in Christ, the Scriptures ascribe to the divinity, because of this personal union, all that happens to humanity, and vice versa. [42] And in reality it is so. Indeed, you must say that the person (pointing to Christ) suffers, and dies. But this person is truly God, and therefore it is correct to say: the Son of God suffers. Although, so to speak, the one part (namely, the divinity) does not suffer, nevertheless the person, who is God, suffers in the other part (namely, in the humanity). [LW 37:210]
For the Son of God truly is crucified for us, i.e., this person who is God. For that is what He is—this person, I say, is crucified according to His humanity. [LW 37:211]
[43] And again, shortly afterward:
If Zwingli’s alloeosis stands, then Christ will have to be two persons, one a divine and the other a human person, since Zwingli applies all the texts concerning the passion only to the human nature and completely excludes them from the divine nature. But if the works are divided and separated, the person will also have to be separated, since all the doing and suffering are not ascribed to natures but to persons. It is the person who does and suffers everything, the one thing according to this nature and the other thing according to the other nature, all of which scholars know perfectly well. Therefore we regard our Lord Christ as God and man in one person, “neither confusing the natures nor dividing the person.” [LW 37:212–13]
[44] Dr. Luther also says in his book On the Councils and the Church [1539]:
We Christians should know that if God is not in the scale to give it weight, we, on our side, sink to the ground. I mean it this way: if it cannot be said that God died for us, but only a man, we are lost; but if God’s death and a dead God lie in the balance, His side goes down and ours goes up like a light and empty scale. Yet He can also readily go up again, or leap out of the scale! But He could not sit on the scale unless He become a man like us, so that it could be called God’s dying, God’s martyrdom, God’s blood, and God’s death. For God in His own nature cannot die; but now that God and man are united in one person, it is called God’s death when the man dies who is one substance or one person with God. [LW 41:103–4]
[45] Thus far Luther.
It is clear that it is incorrect to say or write that the above-mentioned expressions (“God suffered, God died”) are only verbal assertions, that is, mere words, and that it is not so in fact. For our simple Christian faith proves that God’s Son, who became man, suffered for us, died for us and redeemed us with His blood.
[46] 2. In fulfilling Christ’s office, the person does not act and work in, with, through, or according to only one nature. It works in, according to, with, and through both natures. As the Council of Chalcedon expresses it, one nature works in communion with the other what is a property of each. [47] Therefore, Christ is our Mediator, Redeemer, King, High Priest, Head, Shepherd, and so on, not according to one nature only (whether it be the divine or the human), but according to both natures. This teaching has been treated more fully in other places.
[48] 3. However, it is a much different thing when the question, declaration, or discussion is about whether the natures in the personal union in Christ have nothing else or nothing more than only their natural, essential properties. It has been mentioned above that they have and keep these.
[49] Regarding the divine nature in Christ, in God there is no change (James 1:17). His divine nature, in its essence and properties, suffered no subtraction or addition by the incarnation. It was not, in or by itself, either diminished or increased by it.
[50] Regarding the received human nature in the person of Christ, some have wished to argue that even in the personal union with divinity it has nothing else and nothing more than only its natural, essential properties according to which it is in all things like its brethren [Hebrews 2:17]. On this account, they argue that nothing should or could be attributed to the human nature in Christ that is beyond, or contrary to, its natural properties, even though the testimony of Scripture speaks that way. [51] This opinion is false and incorrect. This is so clear from God’s Word that even their own associates rebuke and reject this error. For the Holy Scriptures and the Ancient Fathers from the Scriptures forcefully testify: The human nature has been personally united with the divine nature in Christ. It was glorified and exalted to the right hand of God’s majesty and power. After the form of a servant and humiliation had been laid aside, the human nature did receive—apart from, and over and above its natural, essential, permanent properties—special, high, great, supernatural, mysterious, indescribable, heavenly privileges and excellences in majesty, glory, power, and might above everything that can be named. It has them not only in this world, but also in that which is to come [Ephesians 1:21]. So we conclude about the work of Christ’s office: the human nature in Christ is equally used [at the same time] in its measure and mode. It also has its power and efficacy. This is true not only from, and according to, its natural, essential attributes, or only so far as their ability extends, but chiefly from, and according to, the majesty, glory, power, and might that it has received through the personal union, glorification, and exaltation. [52] Today, even the adversaries can or dare scarcely deny this. Except they still dispute and contend that those are only created gifts or finite qualities, as in the saints, with which the human nature in Christ is endowed and adorned. According to their thoughts or from their own argumentations or proofs, they want to measure and calculate what the human nature in Christ could or should be capable of or incapable of without becoming annihilated.
[53] The best, most certain, and surest way in this controversy is this: according to His received human nature through the personal union, Christ has glorification, or exaltation. What His received human nature is capable of beyond the natural properties, without becoming annihilated, no one can know better or more thoroughly than the Lord Christ Himself. He has revealed this in His Word, as much as is needful for us to know about it in this life. We must simply believe everything for which we have clear, certain testimonies in the Scriptures in this matter. We should in no way argue against it, as though the human nature in Christ could not be capable of the same.
[54] What has been said about the created gifts that have been given and imparted to the human nature in Christ is indeed correct and true. The nature possesses them in or of itself. But these do not reach the majesty that the Scriptures, and the Ancient Fathers from Scripture, attribute to the received human nature in Christ.
[55] To make alive, to have all judgment and all power in heaven and on earth, to have all things in His hands, to have all things subject beneath His feet, to cleanse from sin, and so on, are not created gifts. These are divine, infinite properties. Yet, according to the declaration of Scripture, these have been given and communicated to the man Christ. (See John 5:27; 6:39; Matthew 28:18; Daniel 7:14; John 3:35; 13:3; Matthew 11:27; Ephesians 1:22; Hebrews 2:8; 1 Corinthians 15:27; John 1:3.)
[56] This communication is not to be understood as a phrase or way of speaking, or just words about the person according to the divine nature alone, but according to the received human nature. The following three strong, irrefutable arguments and reasons show this:
[57] 1. First, here is a unanimously received rule of the entire ancient orthodox Church. Holy Scripture testifies that what Christ received in time He did not receive according to the divine nature. (According to this nature He has everything from eternity.) But the person of Christ has received attributes in time by reason of and with respect to the received human nature.
[58] 2. Second, the Scriptures testify clearly (John 5:21, 27; 6:39–40) that the power to give life and to execute judgment has been given to Christ because He is the Son of Man and since He has flesh and blood.
[59] 3. Third, the Scriptures speak not merely in general of the Son of Man, but also indicate clearly His received human nature, “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). This is true not only according to the merit ‹of Christ’s blood› that was once attained on the cross. But in this place John means that in the work or act of justification, not only the divine nature in Christ but also His blood actually cleanses us from all sins [1 John 1:7]. So in John 6:48–58 Christ’s flesh is a life-giving food. The Council of Ephesus also concluded from this statement that Christ’s flesh has power to give life. Many other glorious testimonies of the ancient orthodox Church about this article are cited elsewhere.
[60] Now Christ, according to His human nature, has received this. It has been given and communicated to the received human nature in Christ. We shall and must believe this according to the Scriptures. But, as said above, the two natures in Christ are united in such a way that they are not mingled with each other or changed one into the other. Each retains its natural, essential property, so that the properties of one nature never become properties of the other nature. Therefore, this doctrine must be rightly explained and diligently guarded against all heresies.
[61] We, then, invent nothing new by ourselves, but receive and repeat the explanations that the ancient orthodox Church has given about this from the good foundation of Holy Scripture. This divine power, life, might, majesty, and glory was given to the received human nature in Christ. This did not happen the way the Father from eternity has communicated to the Son (according to the divine nature) His essence and all divine attributes, by which He is of one essence with the Father and is equal to God. (For Christ is equal to the Father only according to the divine nature. According to the received human nature, He is beneath God. From this it is clear that we make no confusion, equalization, or abolition of natures in Christ.) So the power to give life is not the same in Christ’s flesh as it is in His divine nature, where it is an essential property.
[62] Furthermore, this communication or impartation has not happened through an essential or natural infusion of the properties of the divine nature into the human. In other words, Christ’s humanity would not have these by itself and apart from the divine essence. Nor has the human nature in Christ entirely laid aside its natural, essential properties. It is not transformed into divinity. In and by itself, it does not become equal to divinity with these communicated properties. Nor does it mean that there should now be identical or equal natural, essential properties and operations for both natures. For these and similar erroneous doctrines were rightly rejected and condemned in the ancient approved councils on the basis of Holy Scripture. For in no way is conversion, confusion, or equalization of the natures in Christ or of their essential properties to be made or allowed.
[63] We have never understood that the impartation or communion that happens (in deed and truth) applies to any physical communication or essential transfusion. In other words, we have never talked about an essential, natural communion or effusion, by which the natures would be commingled in their essence and their essential properties. Some have craftily and wickedly, against their own conscience, perverted these words and phrases in order to make the pure doctrine suspected. But we have only contrasted these words with verbal communication. We have applied them to this doctrine when such persons assert that it is only a phrase and way of speaking; that is, nothing more than mere words, titles, and names. They have laid so much stress on this that they would know of no other communion. Therefore, for the true explanation of Christ’s majesty, we have used such terms of real communion. We wanted to show by them that this communion has happened (in deed and truth) without any confusion of natures and their essential properties.
[64] This is what we hold and teach, in conformity with the ancient orthodox Church, as it has explained this teaching from the Scriptures: the human nature in Christ has received this majesty through the personal union. This happened because the entire fullness of the divinity dwells in Christ [Colossians 2:9], not as in other holy men or angels, but bodily, as in its own body. The divinity shines forth with all its majesty, power, glory, and effectiveness in the received human nature. It does this voluntarily when and as Christ wills. In, with, and through the human nature, Christ shows, uses, and acts on His divine power, glory, and efficacy, as the soul does in the body and fire in glowing iron. (By means of these illustrations, as was also mentioned above, the entire Ancient Church has explained this doctrine.) [65] This power was concealed and withheld at the time of the humiliation. But now, after the form of a servant has been laid aside, it is fully, powerfully, and publicly exercised before all saints, in heaven and on earth. In the life to come we shall also behold His glory face-to-face (John 17:24).
[66] There is and remains in Christ only one divine omnipotence, power, majesty, and glory, which is peculiar to the divine nature alone. But it shines, manifests, and exercises itself fully—yet voluntarily—in, with, and through the received, exalted human nature in Christ. In glowing iron there are not two kinds of power to shine and burn. But the power to shine and to burn is a property of the fire. Since the fire is united with the iron, it manifests and exercises this power to shine and to burn in, with, and through the glowing iron. From this union also the glowing iron has the power to shine and to burn without changing the essence and the natural properties of fire and iron.
[67] This guides how we understand the testimonies of Scripture that speak of the majesty to which the human nature in Christ is exalted. We do not understand them to mean that the divine majesty, which is peculiar to the divine nature of God’s Son, is in the person of the Son of Man to be ascribed to Christ simply and purely according to His divine nature. Nor do we understand them to mean that this majesty is to be in Christ’s human nature in such a way that His human nature would only have the title and name by a phrase and manner of speaking (i.e., only in words, but [in deed and truth] doesn’t have any communion whatever with it). [68] For in that way it might also be said truthfully that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in all the creatures in whom God dwells (especially believers and saints). (God is a spiritual, undivided essence. Therefore, He is present everywhere and in all creatures. Wherever He is dwelling—but especially in believers and saints—there He has His majesty with Him.) We could say that all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid, and all power in heaven and earth is given, because the Holy Spirit, who has all power, is given to believers. [69] In this way, then, no distinction would be made between Christ, according to His human nature, and other holy men! So Christ would be deprived of His majesty, which He has received above all creatures, as a man or according to His human nature. [70] For no other creature—neither man nor angel—can or shall say, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” [Matthew 28:18]. For although God is in the saints with all the fullness of His Godhead that He has everywhere with Himself, He does not dwell in them bodily. Nor is He personally united with them as in Christ. For from such personal union it follows that Christ says, even according to His human nature, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18). Also John 13:3 says, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands.” Also Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Also Scripture says, “You have crowned Him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under His feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, He left nothing outside His control” (Hebrews 2:7–8[; see also Psalm 8:6]). “He is excepted who put all things in subjection under Him” (1 Corinthians 15:27).
[71] By no means, however, do we believe, teach, and confess an infusion of God’s majesty and of all its properties into Christ’s human nature by which the divine nature is weakened, or anything that belongs to it is surrendered to another nature that it does not keep for itself. Nor do we say that the human nature in its substance and essence should have received equal majesty, separate or distinct from the nature and essence of God’s Son, like when water, wine, or oil is poured from one vessel into another. For the human nature, and no other creature in heaven or on earth, is capable of receiving God’s omnipotence in such a way that it would become in itself an almighty essence, or have in and by itself almighty properties. Then the human nature in Christ would be denied and would be entirely converted into the divinity. Such teaching is contrary to our Christian faith and also to the teaching of all the prophets and apostles.
[72] We believe, teach, and confess that God the Father has given His Spirit to Christ, His beloved Son, according to the received humanity. (Because of this He is called also Messiah; i.e., the Anointed.) He has not received His gifts with limits as other saints. For on Christ the Lord, according to His received human nature, rests “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge ‹and the fear of the LORD” (Isaiah 11:2; see also Colossians 2:3; Isaiah 61:1›). (According to His divinity, He is of one essence with the Holy Spirit.) [73] This not in such a way that, as a man, He knew and could do only some things, like other saints know and can do things by God’s Spirit, who works in them only created gifts. According to His divinity, Christ is the Second Person in the Holy Trinity. And from Him, as also from the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds [John 15:26]. So the Spirit is and remains Christ’s [1 Peter 1:11] and the Father’s own Spirit to all eternity, not separated from God’s Son. Therefore, as the Church Fathers say, the entire fullness of the Spirit has been communicated by the personal union to Christ according to the flesh, which is personally united with God’s Son. [74] This voluntarily manifests and shows itself with all its power ‹in, with, and through Christ’s human nature›. So ‹Christ according to His human nature› not only knows some things and is ignorant of others [Matthew 24:36], but He also can do some things and is unable to do others. Yet even now ‹according to the received human nature›, He knows and can do all things. For on Him the Father poured the Spirit of wisdom and power without measure. So as man, Christ has received all knowledge and all power (in deed and truth) through this personal union. And so all the treasures of wisdom are hidden in Him. All power is given to Him. He is seated at the right hand of God’s majesty and power. [75] From history it can be learned that at the time of the Emperor Valens there was among the Arians a peculiar sect that was called the Agnoetae. They had this name because they imagined that the Son, the Father’s Word, knew all things, but that His received human nature is ignorant of many things. Gregory the Great wrote against them.
[76] The divine and the human nature have this personal union with each other in the person of Christ and have the communion resulting from it (in deed and truth). For this reason, there is attributed to Christ (according to the flesh) what His flesh, according to its nature and essence, cannot be by itself. Apart from this union, His flesh cannot have these attributes: His flesh is a truly life-giving food and His blood a truly life-giving drink [John 6:55]. The two hundred Fathers of the Council of Ephesus have testified that Christ’s flesh is a life-giving flesh. Therefore, this man only, and no man besides, either in heaven or on earth, can say with truth, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). Also, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” [Matthew 28:20].
[77] We do not understand these testimonies to mean that only Christ’s divinity is present with us in the Christian Church and congregation, and that such presence does not apply to Christ according to His humanity in no way whatever. For in that way Peter, Paul, and all the saints in heaven—since divinity, which is everywhere present, dwells in them—would also be with us on earth. However, the Holy Scriptures say this only about Christ, and no other man. [78] We hold that by these words the majesty of the man Christ is declared. Christ has received this majesty, according to His humanity, at the right hand of God’s majesty and power. So also, according to His received human nature and with the same, He can be, and also is, present where He wants to be. He is present especially in His Church and congregation on earth as Mediator, Head, King, and High Priest. This presence is not a part, or only one half of Him. Christ’s entire person is present, to which both natures belong, the divine and the human—not only according to His divinity, but also according to, and with, His received human nature. He is our Brother [Hebrews 2:17], and we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone [Genesis 2:23]. [79] He has instituted His Holy Supper for the certain assurance and confirmation of this, so that He will be with us, and dwell, work, and be effective in us also according to that nature from which He has flesh and blood.
[80] Upon this firm foundation Dr. Luther, of blessed memory, has also written about Christ’s majesty according to His human nature.
[81] In the Confession concerning Christ’s Supper he writes this about the person of Christ:
Now, since He [Christ] is a man who is supernaturally one person with God, and apart from this man there is no God, it must follow that according to the third supernatural mode, He is and can be wherever God is and that everything is full of Christ through and through, even according to His humanity–not according to the first, corporeal, circumscribed mode, but according to the supernatural, divine mode. [82] Here you must take your stand and say that wherever Christ is according to His divinity, He is there as a natural, divine person and He is also naturally and personally there, as His conception in His mother–s womb proves conclusively. For if He was the Son of God, He had to be in His mother–s womb naturally and personally and become man. But if He is present naturally and personally wherever He is, then He must be man there, too, since He is not two separate persons but a single person. Wherever this person is, it is the single, indivisible person, and if you can say, “Here is God,” then you must also say, “Christ the man is present too.”
And if you could show me one place where God is and not the man, then the person is already divided and I could at once say truthfully, “Here is God who is not man and has never become man.” [83] But no God like that for me! For it would follow from this that space and place had separated the two natures from one another and thus had divided the person, even though death and all the devils had been unable to separate and tear them apart. [84] This would leave me a poor sort of Christ, if He were present only at one single place, as a divine and human person, and if at all other places He had to be nothing more than a mere isolated God and a divine person without the humanity. No, comrade, wherever you place God for me, you must also place the humanity for me. They simply will not let themselves be separated and divided from each other. He has become one person and does not separate the humanity from Himself. [LW 37:218–19]
[85] In his Treatise on the Last Words of David, which Dr. Luther wrote shortly before his death, he says the following:
According to the second, the temporal, human birth Christ was also given the eternal dominion of God, yet temporarily and not from eternity. For the human nature of Christ was not from eternity as His divine nature was. It is computed that Jesus, Mary’s Son, is 1543 years old this year. But from the moment when deity and humanity were united in one Person, the Man, Mary’s Son, is and is called almighty, eternal God, who has eternal dominion, who has created all things and preserves them “through the communication of attributes” …, because He is one Person with the Godhead and is also very God. Christ refers to this in Matthew 11:27: “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father,” and in Matthew 28:18: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” To which “Me”? “To Me, Jesus of Nazareth, Mary’s incarnate Son. I had this from My Father from eternity, before I became man, but when I became man, it was imparted to Me in time according to My human nature, and I kept it concealed until My resurrection and ascent into heaven, when it was to be manifested and glorified.” Thus St. Paul declares in Romans 1:4, He was glorified, or “designated Son of God in power.” John speaks of this as being “glorified” in chapter 7:39. [LW 15:293–94]
[86] Similar testimonies are found in Dr. Luther’s writings, but especially in the book That These Words Still Stand Firm, and in the Confession concerning Christ’s Supper. To these writings, as well-grounded explanations of Christ’s majesty at God’s right hand, and of His testament, we have referred for the sake of brevity. We have referred to them in this article, as well as in the Holy Supper, as has been mentioned before.
[87] When such majesty is denied to Christ according to His humanity, we regard it as a deadly error. For by this the very great consolation mentioned above is taken from Christians, which they have in the promise about the presence and dwelling with them of their Head, King, and High Priest. He has promised them that not only His mere divinity would be with them (which to us poor sinners is like a consuming fire on dry stubble). But Christ promised that He—He, the man who has spoken with them, who has experienced all tribulations in His received human nature, and who can therefore have sympathy with us, as with men and His brethren—He will be with us in all our troubles also according to the nature by which He is our brother and we are flesh of His flesh.
[Negative Statements]
[88] We unanimously reject and condemn, with mouth and heart, all errors not in accordance with the teaching presented. These are contrary to the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures, the pure symbols, and our Christian Augsburg Confession:
[89] 1. When it is believed or taught by anyone that on account of the personal union the human nature is mingled with the divine or is changed into it.
[90] 2. The human nature in Christ is everywhere present in the same way as the divinity, as an infinite essence, by essential power and property of its nature.
[91] 3. The human nature in Christ has become equal to and like the divine nature in its substance and essence or in its essential properties.
[92] 4. Christ’s humanity is locally extended in all places of heaven and earth. This should not be attributed even to the divinity. But Christ—by His divine omnipotence—wherever He will, can be present with His body, which He has placed at the right hand of God’s majesty and power. This is especially the case where He has, in His Word, promised His presence (as in the Holy Supper). His omnipotence and wisdom can well accomplish this without change or abolition of His true human nature.
[93] 5. Christ’s mere human nature has suffered for us and redeemed us, with which God’s Son is said to have had no communion whatever in suffering.
[94] 6. Christ is present with us on earth in the Word preached and in the right use of the holy Sacraments only according to His divinity. This presence of Christ does not in any way apply to His received human nature.
[95] 7. The received human nature in Christ has (in deed and truth) no communion whatever with the divine power, might, wisdom, majesty, and glory, but has in common only the mere title and name.
[96] These errors, and all that are contrary and opposed to the doctrine presented above, we reject and condemn as contrary to God’s pure Word, the Scriptures of the holy prophets and apostles, and our Christian faith and confession. Since in the Holy Scriptures Christ is called a mystery upon which all heretics dash their heads, we admonish all Christians not to arrogantly indulge their reason in crafty investigations about such mysteries. With the beloved apostles, they should simply believe. They should close the eyes of their reason and bring their understanding into captivity to the obedience of Christ [2 Corinthians 10:5], and rejoice without ceasing in the fact that our flesh and blood is placed so high at the right hand of God’s majesty and almighty power. In this way we will certainly find constant consolation in every difficulty and remain well guarded against deadly error.