THE COMMUNION OF NATURES

 

By Gary Ray Branscome

 

The communion of the natures of Christ flows from the fact that there is only one Christ, not two. Because there is only one Christ what happens to His human nature happens to His divine nature. The words, “Crucified the Lord of glory,” tell us that when Christ suffered, God suffered, when Christ was crucified, “the Lord of glory” was crucified (1Corinthians 2:8). And, that is true because Christ does not have two personalities or two consciousnesses but one. That is why He could say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). That is also why the Bible says, “God was revealed in the flesh” (1Timothy 3:16).

          The words, “That you might know the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” speak of Christ, not just one of His natures, having all the knowledge of God (Colossians 2:2-3). When Jesus was speaking to His disciples He said, “All power is given to me” Matthew 28:18). As God that power was always His, but because there is only one Christ that power belonged to Him as a unified person, not just one of His natures. When He said, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the world,” it was His body that was speaking (Matthew 28:20). And, His body could say “I will be with you” because His unified person is present with us, not just one of His natures. The same holds true for the words, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). And, because there is only one Christ, after speaking to two disciples on the road to Emmaus He was able to vanish “out of their sight” (Luke 24:31).