Why Christ Must Be the God-Man

Why Christ Must Be the God-Man

Why is it that in God’s plan of redemption Christ must be simultaneously God and man?

Answer:

Suppose there are three persons, A, B, and C. C has sinned, and A asks B to die for C. In so doing, A is able to express his love for C, and C is also able to answer the demand of the law, but all this will be rather unjust to B. I have sinned, and God causes Christ to die for me. Thus is manifested the love of God toward me, and in addition I have met the requirement of the law. Yet will it not be highly unrighteous to Christ? Only when Christ is both man and God at the same time can it be truly just.

First of all, then, we need to know what is forgiveness. To forgive presupposes a loss to the forgiver through the offense of the forgiven. For instance, if someone owes you ten dollars and you forgive him, it automatically means that you suffer the loss of ten dollars.

In God’s plan of redemption, Christ should not be a third party. If He be a third party, God would be being unjust to Christ since Christ has no sin and hence is not subject to death. The Bible tells us that men have sinned and God is offended. So what is involved is the relation between God and men. To ask a third party to die as a substitute may perhaps fulfill the law’s demand on men as well as fulfill God’s righteousness, but this will be most unjust to that third party. Only because Christ is simultaneously God and man can this substitution be termed just.