The belief that Jesus is completely God and completely man is a major tenet of Biblical Christianity, yet it is a doctrine which has had its opponents throughout history. Around A.D. 361 the bishop of Laodicea, whose name was Apollinaris, taught that though Jesus had a human body and a human soul, he did not possess a human mind. Instead it was replaced by the “Logos”, or “Word” as mentioned in John 1.  In short, Jesus had a human body but only a divine nature. He had no human nature. Apollinarianism was condemned as a heresy by the Second General Council at Constantinople in 381.

A second heresy, which precedes Apollinarianism but was not condemned until after, was Docetism. This heresy taught that Jesus only appeared to have a human body, and that he was not really God in the flesh. Thus he was not truly human. This heresy caught on because of its belief that matter was inherently evil, which is what the Greek idea of dualism taught, and that God could not be connected to anything truly material. As such Jesus did not really suffer on the cross, nor die. It only looked like he did. The apostle John wrote against this teaching in such places as 2 John 1:7 which says, “Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.” Docetism was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

At first, these ancient heresies might not seem relevant to us today, but modern cults such as Jehovah Witnesses, who deny the deity of Christ, and Christian Scientists who deny his humanity, are nothing more than variations of these false beliefs.

The two natures of Christ, Divine and human, are important because only in him could the righteous judgment of God towards man’s sinfulness be paid (Hebrews 2:17). Today the defense of the two natures of Jesus is just as relevant a topic for us as it was for the ancient church. As Christians we believe Jesus is both God and man, without confusion or blending of those natures, and that he alone is able to satisfy God’s justice, and by that bring us into the presence of God.

Dana Arledge, Phil Meade, Kevin Farmer