THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM OF THE TWO NATURES OF CHRIST

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM OF THE TWO NATURES OF CHRIST

Phil 2:5-8  "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

One determining factor in various interpretations of Philippians 2:5-8 has been the central problem of the Incarnation, namely, What is the relation of the divine to the human in the historic Christ? The Apostle Paul certainly must have known that his statement would raise this problem but, like other New Testament writers, makes no attempt to solve it. In the main, the writers of Scripture are content to assert the reality of the two natures in Christ, without attempting a rationalization of their doctrine. Perhaps it is wisdom to leave the matter as they have left it. One hesitates to enter a field of controversy where so many well-intentioned men have slipped into errors ranging from an Apollinarian denial of any human mind in the Saviour to the Nestorian doctrine of two minds -- in fact, two persons. But the church has been compelled to enter this field by reason of the deviations of those who oftentimes were numbered among her own sons At Chalcedon (451) the church declared that in the Saviour there are two natures, one divine and the other human. These two natures are perfectly and organically united in one Person, yet they remain distinct, each retaining its complete integrity. We must neither "confound the natures, nor divide the Person." The seat of personality in this Person is the Logos, the eternal Son.
The main criticism of this formula, from the standpoint of psychology, was how Christ could have but one personality, if in Him there were two distinct natures, namely, the human soul and the Logos-spirit. Did not the soul of a man consti­tute a personality in itself? The ancient church never wholly succeeded in answering this rather formidable objection, but nevertheless wisely refused to alter the formula. Her position is now being vindicated, we believe, by modern psychology. The personality -- also the mind -- we are told, is not metaphysical, but is built up by the interaction constantly taking place between the living organism and its environment. We cannot, of course, accept this statement in total. There is certainly a metaphysical basis for both mind and personality. But with this reservation, the account seems to be true, and may be of service in aiding us toward an understanding of the Person of Christ. The Logos, in becoming flesh, was united with a true human soul or spirit in the body conceived within the Virgin Mary. This soul on the human side provided a basis for the possible building  up of a human mind and personality, and the building up process was perfectly normal in all respects, except that it took place around and in vital union with the Logos-spirit now emptied of His divine form.

The word in the Philippian letter which appears today as an abstract noun in our translation is, as many of you know full well, a verb. “Have this mind in you” might be rendered, "Be thus minded," which means, Let your habit of mental activity be that of the Christ. The word there refers to an exercise of mind, an emotional exercise, and, consequently, an inspirational exercise, creating an activity: the mind of Christ, that emotional activity which was the inspiration of His self-emptying, His descent to the human level, and His final ascent to the throne of universal empire.