NT Framework - Confusing the Union

Have you ever bought a 2-in-1 tool, or perhaps a reversible jacket? You often get in inferior product. Jesus Christ is the only successful 2-in-1 ever. And let us not confuse the two entities by mixing them.

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Have this mindset in you, which was in Christ Jesus,
right?
And the word for mindset theremeans to develop this through
careful thought about whatChrist Jesus did.
And what Christ Jesus did,right, is he humbled himself by
taking to himself a truehumanity.
We're talking about the God ofthe universe.

(00:31):
I mean the God who doesn't needyou, doesn't need me, doesn't
need to eat, doesn't need todrink, is always brimful of
energy, knows all things, neverlearned anything.
Okay, we're talking about theinfinite personal God, and this
God took to himself a truehumanity like you and I.
He came down here and he livedin the filth of this world.
He walked in this world amongpeople who were full of sin and

(00:55):
expressing sin, and in a worldthat is run by the God of this
world, who's Satan.
And yet he was tempted in allthings and he didn't sin, and
we'll talk a little bit moreabout that now as we get into
this person.
But think about what he did,think about the condescension,
how he came down to us and wentthrough what we go through Now.

(01:17):
Allah didn't do that.
Allah is this imaginative Godthat how many ever Arabs believe
in.
He never came down here andwalked among us.
He doesn't know what it's liketo go through what we go through
, but the one true God, thesecond person of the Trinity, he

(01:37):
came down here and he lived inthe same world that we lived in.
He went through all the slopthat we have to go through and
yet he didn't sin.
And so I'm going to talk aboutthat, because that's a
tremendous position for him tobe in.
Now, to get started, just toreview Doctrine of Hypostatic
Union.
We developed this over I don'tknow 15 weeks.
But Jesus Christ, this is justa statement of the doctrine.

(02:00):
Jesus Christ is undiminisheddeity, united with true humanity
in one person, without mixtureor separation, forever.
So what does all this mean?
Well, first of all, anundiminished deity means he's
fully God, right Now.
That means he has all theattributes of God he's sovereign

(02:21):
, he's righteous, he's just,he's loving, omniscient,
omnipotent, omnipresent,immutable, eternal veracity,
personal, so forth.
Okay, all the attributes of God.
So we say another way of sayingthat is he has a divine nature,
a nature.
Divine nature.
Now, that's important because,when you look at the next phrase
, he's united with true humanity.

(02:41):
True humanity means he's fullyman, but he also has a human
nature, so he has two natures.
That's the point I'm trying tomake here One divine, one human.
So as a human he has all thecharacteristics of a human
meaning, he has a true humanbody, he has a true human spirit

(03:02):
and he's a true human soul, andthese two came together in one
person.
So by doing that, of course,taking on a true humanity, he's
taking on the limitations ofhumanity in that nature.
But he's only one person.
That's the thing.
Two natures but only one person.
He's not two people, he's not asplit personality, he's only

(03:27):
one person with two natures inthat person.
Obviously that's unique, right?
I mean, nobody else hasanything exactly like that.
So he is a unique personWithout mixture.
So these two natures are notmixed together, like the divine
nature with his divineattributes does not somehow
coalesce with or interminglewith his human nature.

(03:51):
Now, some denominations havemixed, for example in
Lutheranism and I'm not tryingto be critical, but in
Lutheranism and really MartinLuther is the one who started
this in the communion, when theytake the bread, they talk about
the bread in terms of the realpresence of Christ in the

(04:12):
elements.
And so when you take theelement, the bread, in a
Lutheran church, they arethinking not that the bread
itself changes substance oranything like that, but that
there's a real presence ofChrist in connection with the
element itself.
What did they mean?
Well, they meant that the LordJesus Christ, because he's

(04:34):
omnipresent, right, he'severywhere, okay, as God, right.
I mean, he doesn't go places.
We used to say with the kids, weused to say God doesn't go
places, he's already in allplaces, right, and he's not
parted out throughout theuniverse, he's completely
present at every point in space.
I mean, if you go to I don'tknow Pluto, which they now

(04:57):
debate as a planet or not,anyway, if you go to I don't
know Pluto, which they nowdebate as a planet or not,
anyway, if you go to Pluto thesedays, is God with you there as
much as he is here on planetEarth.
Yes, he's not parted outthroughout the universe, he's
completely present at everypoint in space.
He's also completely presentoutside of space and time.
So there's that concept.

(05:22):
So the Lutherans would say thatbecause of that, there's a real
presence of Christ in connectionwith the bread that we take.
But here this is a problem,because the bread represents his
true humanity, not his deity.

(05:42):
It represents his true humanity, his flesh, which was offered
for us on the cross, right?
Well, what they're doing isthey're bringing the
omnipresence of God into thehumanity, they're mixing them.
That's why, in their communion,they hold to what they call

(06:02):
consubstantiation, this idea ofthe real presence of Christ in
the element, because they havemixed divinity with humanity
rather than keeping themseparate, as the hypostatic
union doctrine teaches.
So I'm just saying these thingshave practical ramifications.
When you go into other localchurches, you don't know what
the Lutherans think or what theybelieve, or why they're doing

(06:23):
what they do.
All these things are tied todoctrines and things that have
been taught.
Okay, so understand that he'snot in the elements.
You know, the Roman Catholicswent even further.
They do this too.
They actually say that theelements become the body and
blood of Christ, and for most ofthe Roman Catholic Church

(06:45):
history, the blood was reservedfor the priests only and the
people could only take the bread.
There was like a wall or abarrier back at the time of the
Reformation between the peopleand the priests, because the
priests are on like a higherstatus or something like that.
We're all believer priests.
The Bible says we're allbeliever priests in 1 Peter, 2,

(07:08):
and other places, revelation 1-5, and other places.
So anyway, all that is just aconfusion.
On the hypostatic union, though, okay.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in

(07:39):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app, and until
next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.