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by faith on the authority of the Word of God. For that reason it is doubly necessary to pay close
attention to the teachings of Scripture on this point.
1. NO EVIDENCE OF A DUAL PERSONALITY IN SCRIPTURE.
In the first place there is a negative
consideration of considerable importance. If there had been a dual personality in Jesus, we
would naturally expect to find some traces of it in Scripture; but there is not a single trace of it.
There is no distinction of an “I” and a “Thou” in the inner life of the Mediator, such as we find in
connection with the triune Being of God, where one person addresses the other, Ps. 2:7; 40:7,8;
John 17:1,4,5,21-24. Moreover, Jesus never uses the plural in referring to Himself, as God does
in Gen. 1:26; 3:22; 11:7. It might seem as if John 3:11 were a case in point. The plural is
peculiar, but in all probability refers to Jesus and those who were associated with Him, in
opposition to Nicodemus and the group which he represented.
2. BOTH NATURES ARE REPRESENTED IN SCRIPTURE AS UNITED IN ONE PERSON.
There are
passages of Scripture which refer to both natures in Christ, but in which it is perfectly evident
that only one person is intended, Rom. 1:3,4; Gal. 4:4,5; Phil. 2:6-11. In several passages both
natures are set forth as united. The Bible nowhere teaches that divinity in the abstract, or some
divine power, was united to, or manifested in, a human nature; but always that the divine
nature in the concrete, that is, the divine person of the Son of God, was united to a human
nature, John 1:14; Rom. 8:3; Gal. 4:4; 9:5; I Tim. 3:16; Heb. 2:11-14; I John 4:2,3.
3. THE ONE PERSON IS SPOKEN OF IN TERMS TRUE OF EITHER ONE OF THE NATURES.
Repeatedly the attributes of one nature are predicated of the person, while that person is
designated by a title derived from the other nature. On the one hand human attributes and
actions are predicated of the person while he is designated by a divine title, Acts 20:28; I Cor.
2:8; Col. 1:13,14. And on the other hand divine attributes and actions are predicated of the
person while he is designated by a human title, John 3:13; 6:62; Rom. 9:5.
C. THE EFFECTS OF THE UNION OF THE TWO NATURES IN ONE PERSON.
1. NO ESSENTIAL CHANGE IN THE DIVINE NATURE.
The doctrine of creation and the doctrine of
the incarnation always constituted a problem in connection with the immutability of God. This
was already pointed out in the discussion of that attribute. However this problem may be
solved, it should be maintained that the divine nature did not undergo any essential change in
the incarnation. This also means that it remained impassible, that is, incapable of suffering and
death, free from ignorance, and insusceptible to weakness and temptation. It is well to stress
the fact that the incarnation was a personal act. It is better to say that the person of the Son of
God became incarnate than to say that the divine nature assumed human flesh. If Reformed
theologians do occasionally speak of the divine nature as incarnate, they speak of it “not