You Have a Place at Grace - 4/20/2025

The Two Natures of Christ

Analyze theological endeavors of the early Church and you’ll find tremendous amounts of time and energy devoted to forming a proper and accepted confession of Jesus. Just Who is the “Word made flesh?” A mere mortal? God only appearing to be human? Was He a created being endowed with divine power or uncreated and begotten of the Father? Did He have the “same substance” with the Father or was it “like the same substance” with the Father? Councils wrangled over these and other questions, which is understandable. Theology must have a firm grasp on the Source of it all. Miss Who Jesus is, and the whole house comes crashing down.

The Creeds still do an excellent job teaching us about Jesus. I remember one time a parishioner telling me how comforted she was after hearing the Athanasian Creed articulate the Holy Trinity. She just felt better about this crucial doctrine. One of the best books I’ve read on this subject—and it’s deep—is Martin Chemnitz’ “Two Natures in Christ.” It’s the kind of book you read line by line very carefully. His precision is pristine, and you can’t miss the care and consideration he puts in every thought as he labors to faithfully articulate Jesus as true God and man. Many examples of his writings are worth mentioning here, but time permits one. Chemnitz quotes Luther in his On the Councils and the Church when speaking of a scale. If on one side of the scale is “our sins and the wrath of God which was caused by our sins” and the other side is “only the death of the human nature” then the first would “crush us to hell beneath its weight.” But if on the other side is “the suffering of God, the death of God, the blood of God…then that side of the scale would become heavier and more weighty than all of our sins and all the wrath of God” (Chemnitz, 212) [The precise words of Luther on this are found in the Lutheran Confessions]. Chemnitz says this is “the ancient simile” so we may assume it’s older than Luther. Researching its origins is another task.

God’s love finds its fullest expression in the love of Himself on the cross for our sins. The Lord of glory goes down that we go up. His holy, precious blood outweighs our sins. However heavy the burdens are we carry, we know the One Who outweighs them all and has ascended to the Father’s right hand in a glorious resurrection from the tomb that testifies to His triumph over the enemies of sin, death, and the devil. The human nature dies on the cross but is vivified in Jesus’ exit from the tomb on Easter mourning.  Being that we share in a resurrection like His, we look at the resurrection and see the outcome for the Church. We die only to live on that day our bodies, too, rise from the tombs and Jesus takes us to be with Himself the in glories of heaven He gives to His people.

--by Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz, “You Have a Place at Grace,” April 20th 2025

Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz

Grace Lutheran Church - Brenham, Texas

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod