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Our topic for discussion:
When Mary supernaturally conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, there was a physical human child in her womb. But Jesus has always been the divine second person of the Trinity. So how does His nature change as part of the incarnation? Did anything happen at conception, or just at birth? Does Jesus now have a human nature, a divine nature, or both?
Jesus existed as the eternal second person of the Trinity long before the incarnation. So only his human nature had a beginning
In our past study of Theology proper, we went over the Son as the eternal second member of the Trinity. For example:
- All Members of the Trinity Are Coequal, Coeternal, and Consubstantial
- All Members of the Trinity Are Joint Partakers of the Same Essence
Compare also:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Ever since Jesus was born, He has possessed two full natures: He is both fully God, and fully man
At the point of the incarnation, Christ gained a human nature. This was at a definite temporal point in history:
7 I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:
He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
After Jesus gained a human nature, He was then both fully God and fully man. In theology, this is known as the hypostatic union. In Ichthys’s systematic theology, you can find this discussed in these parts of BB4A: Christology:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to
be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is
Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
The fetus in Mary’s womb did not yet have a full human nature, because the human spirit is given at birth, not conception
As Ichthys teaches, the human spirit is given by God at birth, not conception. Some links:
- SR3: The Purpose, Creation and Fall of Man, §The Human Spirit
- Email: Life begins at birth not conception
- Email: Life begins at birth not conception
Human beings are dichotomous in nature, being composed of both flesh and spirit. Properly speaking, Mary was the mother (in the biological sense) of Jesus’s flesh, and not his human spirit (since the human spirit is given directly by the hand of God at the point of birth).
It might seem sort of strange to emphasize this point, but we have done so to make the following argument:
The fact that the fetus in Mary’s womb did not yet even have a human spirit makes notions of Mary carrying the divine second person of the Trinity in her womb patently ridiculous.
Do people actually teach something along those lines? Yes, unfortunately. The Catholics and Orthodox call Mary “theotokos” (“God-bearer”), and say that she is the “Mother of God” (cf. the wording of the Catholics’ Hail Mary prayer: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners…”).
All of this is very problematic theologically. As John 3:6 puts it, “that which is born from the flesh is flesh, and that which is born from the Spirit is spirit.” How then can Mary (who was flesh) be said to be in any way mother to God (who is spirit; cf. John 4:24)? It just don’t not compute, biblically.
Another Ichthys link: