1. What is the importance of the Scripture teaching concerning Christ?

 "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." - 1 Corinthians 3, 11.

 The doctrine of Christ, as the teaching concerning divine grace, is a primary article of the Christian faith with which the Church stands or falls.

2. How do we know that Jesus Christ is true God?

 Because Holy Scripture gives to Jesus Christ a) the divine name; b) divine attributes; c) divine works and d) divine honor and worship.

 a) "Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God." - Saint John 20, 28.  "Christ . . . is over all, God blessed forever. Amen." - Romans 9, 5.

 b) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God." - Saint John 1, 1-2.  "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." - Saint Matthew 28, 20.

 c) "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." - Saint John 1, 3.

 d) "All men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.  He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent Him." - Saint John 5, 23.  "Let all the angels of God worship Him."- Hebrews 1, 6.

3. How do we know that Christ is also true man?

 Because Holy Scripture ascribes to Him a) human names; b) human flesh and blood; c) human reasin; d) the physical parts of a human being; e) human emotions; f) human physical wants; g) human suffering and death.

 a. "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus;

 "He gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." - 1 Timothe 2, 5-6.

 "Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man." - Saint Luke 23,47.

 b. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." - Hebrews 2, 14.

 c. Saint Luke, Chapter 2.

 d. "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; hankle Me, and see; for a spirit hath nor flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." - Saint Luke 24, 39.

 "He spake of the temple of His body." - Saint John 2,21.

 e) "He saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand! And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other." - Saint Mark 3, 5.

 f) "When He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungered." - Saint Matthew 4, 2.

 g) "Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This Man calleth for Elias." - Saint Matthew 27, 47.

 "When Jesus therefore had received thevinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost." - Saint John 19, 30.

4. In what two important respects di Christ's human nature differ from that of other human beings?

 a) In His supernatural conception by the Virgin Mary.

 "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before the came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." - Saint Matthew 1, 18.

 "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." - Saint Luke 1, 35.

 b) In Christ's perfect sinlessness:
 
 "He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth." - Isaiah 53, 9.

5. How can the true God and a true man make up one person?

 "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh." - 1 Timothy 3, 16.

 "His Son Jesus Christ our Lord was . . . declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." - Romans 1, 3-4.

 The divine nature and the human nature of Christ were from the moment of His conception, and are forever inseparably united into a complete person, Jesus Christ, the God-man.

 This mystery of Christ incarnate can never be analyzed by human nature.  In the incarnate Christ, God and man are forever one undivided and invisible person.

6. Would it be accurate to describe Christ's being as a "mixture" of the divine and human natures?

 It would not, for the divine nature of Christ is and ever was truly and essentially divine, while the human nature is and from its beginning was, essentially human.  In the person of Christ there has been a union, and not a "mixture" of the two natures.

 "When Jesus came into the coasts of Caisarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? . . . And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." - Saiont Matthew 16, 13 and 16.

7.  How, then, are Christ's human and divine natures combined?

 "As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." - Hebrews 2, 14.

 "In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." - Colossians 2, 9.

 Although the two natures personally united in Christ are and remain essentially distinct, yet there is in Christ a communion of natures, so that the divine nature is the nature of the Son of man and the human nature of the Son of God.

8. What is the necessary result of the communion of natures in Christ?

 Each nature, while retaining its distinctive character, also communicates its attributes to the other, so that the divine nature takes part in the qualities of the human nature and the human nature in those of the divine nature.

 "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth." - Saint John, 1, 14.

 "Ye killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses." - Acts 3, 15.

9. In what important respect does Christ's human nature differ from ours?

 "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?  And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?" - Saint John 8, 46.

 "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." - 2 Corinthians 5, 21.

 "Such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people's: for this He did once, when he offered up Himself." - Hebrews 7, 26-27,

 While the human nature of Christ was and is at all times truly human, it was at all times free from all taint of any kind of sin.  It is also therefore in itself not subject to death or any similar result of sin.
 
Test Paper - Lesson 9

1. Complete the following Bible passage: "Other foundation can no man lay .................................
............................................................................................................... - 1 Corinthians 3, 11.

2. Give any two reasons why we know that Jesus Christ is true God.  Because Scripture gives Him:
a. ..................................................................................................................................................
b. ..................................................................................................................................................

3. Complete the following Bible passage: "All men should honor..................................................,
......................................................................................................................... - Saint John 5, 23.

4. Give any three reasons how we know that Christ was also true man.  Because Holy Scripture ascribes to Him:
a. ..................................................................................................................................................
b. ..................................................................................................................................................
c. ..................................................................................................................................................

5. Name two ways in which Christ's human nature differs from ours.
a. ..................................................................................................................................................
b. ..................................................................................................................................................

6. Is the following statement true or false? Human reason cannot understand how true God and true man can be unite in One Person. ...........................................................

7. We use the term "communion of nature" to describe .................................................................

8. Complete the following Bible passage: "He hath made Him to be .............................................,
.............................................................................................................; .......................................
............................................................................................................ - 2 Corinthians 5, 21.

9. Why did Jesus Christ have to be true God?
.....................................................................................................................................................

10. Why did Jesus Christ have to be true Man?
......................................................................................................................................................

Made every effort to fill in the answers from memory.  If you are not sure of certain answer, you many look them up in the lesson.  Your paper will be graded according to the following standard: 10 correct: perfect; 9 correct: excellent; 8 correct: very good; 7 correct: good.