The Union of Christ’s Two Natures (3)
The union of the two natures of Christ is a personal union. This, too, is part of the mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When we say that it is a personal union we mean, first, that He is only one person. There are not “two Christs,” one human and one divine, but one only who was born in Bethlehem, suffered and died on the cross and rose again the third day for our justification—one only in whom we believe and from whom is all our salvation.
We also mean that personally He is the only begotten and eternal Son of God. He is not a human person and a divine person, but the one divine, eternal person come in our flesh and taking our human nature to be His own.
Nor is He a human person—He has taken our human nature as His own, but He is, as a person, the second person of the Trinity. This is often denied today, especially by those who only believe that He “became” divine.
This is the hardest part of the doctrine of Christ to understand. It means that the only begotten Son suffered and died on the cross and that the person who said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34) was God.
Nor does it explain the mystery to say that He did these things “in or according to His human nature,” for it was He that did them. How incomprehensible are the ways of God!
It is very important, too, to believe that He is personally the second person of the Trinity, for it was only thus that He could make atonement for sin and bring us an everlasting righteousness. Only the Son of God could pay for all the sins of all His people by dying on the cross. Only the Son of God could suffer all the eternal wrath of God against sin in six short hours. Only the Son of God could bring us the righteousness of God Himself (Rom. 3:21-22), a righteousness that cannot be destroyed or lost again.
Only because He is personally the Son of God do His work and His death have saving value for us. What man cannot do, God does: in the person of His Son.
The words of I Corinthians 8:6 sum all this up very beautifully: “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” May God give us grace to make that confession our own and to keep it as our confession always. Rev. Ron Hanko
Baptism in the Name of the Triune God
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38).
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 28:19).
A careful reader of these two passages will immediately be struck by a seeming contradiction, which contradiction has been pointed out by one of our readers: “Is it correct to baptize in the name of Jesus or must it always be in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?”
The answer to this question is: Baptism must always be in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So the Lord has commanded us and so the church has done from the beginning of her history to the present.
But that answer does not explain the passage in Acts which seems to indicate that Peter, in his sermon on Pentecost, commanded the multitudes to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Calvin considered this question in his commentary. He writes:
But here ariseth a question, Whether it were lawful for Peter to change the form prescribed by Christ? … I deny that Peter doth speak in this place of the form of baptism; but he doth simply declare that the whole strength of baptism is contained in Christ; although Christ cannot be laid hold on by faith without the Father by whom he was given us, and the Spirit by the which he reneweth and sanctifieth us. The answer consisteth wholly in this, that he intreateth not in this place of the certain form of baptizing, but the faithful are called back unto Christ, in whom alone we have whatsoever baptism doth prefigure unto us.
Calvin is saying that we do not have in Acts 2:38 a statement of the form to be used in baptism, but rather a statement of the fact that baptism signifies and seals the fulness of salvation in Christ alone.
Calvin’s view is supported by several considerations. In the first place, it is quite striking that, although it is not obvious from the English translation, different prepositions are used in the two passages.
In Matthew 28:19 a preposition is used which means, “into.” We are baptized “into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That is, baptism is a sign and seal of our spiritual incorporation into the fellowship of the Triune God.
In Acts 2:38 a preposition is used which means, “upon.” Peter speaks of the fact that those who repent must be baptized “upon” their confession of the Lord Jesus.
F. F. Bruce writes that this refers to the fact that “the person being baptized confessed or invoked Jesus as Messiah.”
This is common in the book of Acts. In Acts 22:16 Ananias is quoted as saying to Paul: “And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (cf. also Acts 8:12; 15:17).
Further, as Calvin suggests, the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is fully and completely revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ as the God of our salvation. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God in whom the triune God dwells in all the fulness of divine perfection (Col. 2:9).
But baptism is a sign and seal of incorporation into Jesus Christ—into His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:1-9). When we are incorporated into Christ, we have fellowship with Christ. When we have fellowship with Christ, we have fellowship with the triune God, for we enter into fellowship with God only through Jesus Christ.
Fellowship with Christ, signified and sealed in baptism, is worked by the Holy Spirit of Christ whom Christ pours out upon the church. By the Spirit we are made one with Christ. And so, by the Spirit we are made one with God—through Jesus Christ.
And so the church has been correct in obeying the words of Christ in Matthew 28:19. I know that in some churches ministers feel free to use the words, “I baptize you in the use of the sacraments.” But this is a great desecration of the sacraments which will bring down the wrath of God.
Christ has instituted the sacraments in the church. He has told us how He wants these sacraments to be administered. We must, to receive the blessing of the sacraments, obey Him. Prof. Herman Hanko
Does The Bible Teach Eternal Security?
One of our readers has asked about “eternal security.” This, as many will know, is another name for the teaching “once saved, always saved.” This teaching is also called “the perseverance of the saints” (one of the “five points of Calvinism”) or “the preservation of the saints.”
As such there is nothing wrong with the name. The Bible does teach that once we are saved we cannot lose our salvation. Philippians 1:6 teaches this truth most beautifully: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,” and that is only one passage among many (cf. Ps. 37:23-24; 37:28; Isa. 54:17; Jer. 32:40; John 6:39; 10:27-29; Rom. 8:35-39; II Tim. 4:18; I Pet. 1:5).
The name “eternal security,” if properly used, emphasizes the comfort believers have from this teaching of Scripture. They are “secure” in the hands of their heavenly Father and in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 10:27-29).
However, the name “eternal security” is sometimes misused. Many who use this name mean by it, “Once saved, always saved, and so it does not matter how we live.” It is used, in other words, by those who believe that saved people cannot lose their salvation, but who use this as an excuse for continuing to live sinfully. They do not usually say, “It does not matter how I live.” But they claim to be saved while living a life that shows no interest in holiness.
For this reason we prefer to use the name “perseverance of the saints,” the name that is used for the fifth of the “five points of Calvinism.” This name emphasizes the fact that when we are saved we are made holy (“saints” means “holy ones”) and persevere (that is, continue) to live and walk in holiness to the end of our lives.
This “perseverance of the saints” is clearly taught in I John 3:2-3. After teaching that as children of God we may know that someday we will see Christ and be like Him, this passage adds: “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure,” even emphasizing the fact that we are by grace active in this work of persevering. Surely it is God that worketh in us both the willing and the doing (Phil. 2:13), but in that way we purify ourselves.
This beautiful teaching, therefore, holds God’s sovereignty and our responsibility as Christians in perfect balance. It neither denies that salvation is all by grace, nor does it deny that all who are saved are also sanctified—that “without” holiness “no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). Rev. Ron Hanko
