The Nature of Jesus | Rapp Report Weekly Wrap-up 0020 | Striving for Eternity

Welcome to the Wrap Up Daily Edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications. This is the ministry of Striving for Eternity.

As a wrap up for this week, we are dealing with some questions that came in regarding the nature of Jesus via email at info at strivingforeternity .org, where we would seek to answer your questions. If you feel like emailing us, we add them to the list.

The Hypostatic Union and Why It Matters

But we had several questions that came in regarding the nature of Jesus Christ. And so there's three questions we're going to address. What is the hypostatic union? Does the Bible teach that Jesus is God?

And why must Jesus be God? Those are three important questions that get asked and answered in this week's wrap up. A question that was sent in to us, you can email us at info at strivingforeternity .org.

The question was this, what is the hypostatic union and why is it important? The hypostatic union refers to the two natures of Jesus Christ, that he was fully God and fully man. So he had two natures.

Now this becomes important because when we look at what it was that Jesus Christ did and who he was, we see that he is unique in the sense that he was fully God. The importance of that being that being an eternal being, he can pay an eternal fine.

When you look at a penalty, you must be able to pay the full amount of the fine. For Jesus to pay the full fine, and that fine being eternal punishment, he either has to pay it for all of eternity, which he can only do that for one person because it would take eternity to pay for it, or he would have to be an eternal being.

So Jesus being an eternal being is the importance of him being fully God, but being fully man, he can pay the fine for men. In other words, he had to be a human being under the law, not breaking any of the law, and therefore he would be perfect in God's sight.

Then he can act as our substitute. So the hypostatic union is that Jesus Christ was fully man, fully God, two natures, one being, this is what the hypostatic union is and its importance. A question that we got emailed into us at info at strivingforeternity .org where we will try to answer your questions is, does the Bible teach that Jesus is God?

Jesus' Claims to Deity in John 8 and John 10

The Bible does teach that Jesus is God, though it doesn't use the language that many would like it to say in our day and age where people would just like it clearly stated, Jesus is God. No, Jesus spoke in the language of his day where the followers and the people of his day understood his meanings.

In John chapter 8 and John chapter 10, there's two phrases that are used. Once he says, the Father and I are one, and look at the reaction of the Jewish people, they pick up stones to stone him. Then in John chapter 10, we see again, he says, before Abraham was, I am.

And the Jews again, pick up stones to stone him. Why? Jesus is saying, for what good works do you stone, do you do this? And they say, the Jewish people who understand the phrase that he is saying, say, not for any good works, but you being a man, call yourself God.

So the Jews at the time were reacting to what he said on two separate occasions because they knew his words were claiming to be deity. On another occasion, he had a man who was lame, who they laid him for him.

He says, your sins are forgiven. They said, no one can forgive sins, but God alone. He proved that he was God by saying, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or get up and walk. He proved he has the power to forgive sins by turning to the lame man and saying, stand up, rise and walk.

And the fact that he could heal him was the proof that he was God. A question that we had emailed in to us at info at striving for eternity dot org, where we seek to answer your questions as well, is the question, why must Jesus be God?

Why Jesus Must Be God to Pay for Sin

This was in reference to me saying that when I speak to Jehovah's Witnesses, I like to mention and ask this question. So the question was asked to me, why is it that Jesus must be God? We kind of dealt with this in a previous podcast with the Hypostatic Union.

But it is the fact that in order for Jesus to be a payment of sin, he can't be a temporal being such as an angel that became a man. He has to be an eternal being to pay an eternal fine. Therefore, to be able to pay the eternal fine of all people, he would have to be an eternal being.

Now, some would argue, but he doesn't have to be, because they would say he's an angel and they would say that the fine is not eternal. Well, if that's the case, then he would only be able to pay it for one person at one time if he's a temporal being.

Because if the punishment is annihilationism, and you're then annihilated, he would then have to be annihilated for that punishment. Therefore, again, it can only happen for one being, one person. So in order for Jesus to pay the punishment for more than one person and pay the full weight of the punishment, he had to have been God.

Now, being that he's God, this is why it's important, because that's the only way we can have the forgiveness of sins. This is what makes Christianity unique from all the other world religions out there.

Jesus is God.