Bavincks Understanding of Christ the Mediators Hypostatic Union Byung Ho Moon 1.

Introduction Although Herman Bavinck had a profound knowledge in philosophy as well as in Scriptural principles and in the history of Christian Doctrines, he did not attempt to undertake any philosophical apologetics to defend his own doctrinal systematization. He founded the whole system of his theology upon, so-called, principles (principia), referred to either as principles of revelation (principia revelationis) or as principles of theology (principia

theologiae).1)
The principles of revelation consist of the principle of being (principium essendi), which says that the revealed divine knowledge exists absolutely and objectively in se or per se, and the principle of knowing (principium cognoscendi), which says that it is written in the Scripture and handed over to us as Gods word by the illumination and persuasion of the Holy Spirit.2) Bavinck regards these principles as rooted in the Trinitarian being of God, as he concludes, It is the Father who, through the Son as Logos, imparts himself to his creatures in the Spirit.3) Gods revelation is mystery, as are the being and economy of the Triune God. Christ, who came into this world, is Gods mystery revealed in a bodily form (Col. 2:2). In other words, Gods mystery revealed is the mystery of Christ (Col. 4:3). Christ Himself is a mystery and revelation. That is why the Incarnation is the climax, crown, and completion: All revelation tends toward and groups around the incarnation as the highest, richest, and most perfect act of self-revelation.4) The Incarnation is an historical event when the divinity of Jesus
1) Cf. Donald Macleod, Bavincks Prolegomena: Fresh Light on Amsterdam, Old Princeton, and Cornelius Van Til, Westminster Theological Journal 68 (2006), 261-82. 2) Cf. Abraham Kuyper, Principles of Sacred Theology, tr. J. Hendrik De Vries (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 341 ff. 3) Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 1, Prolegomena, ed. John Bolt, tr. John Vriend (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 207-214, quotation from 214. 4) Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 3, Sin and Salvation in Christ, ed. John Bolt, tr. John Vriend (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006), 278. Cf. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 379-80: The center of that[the] revelation is the person of Christ. And Christ is a historical person; his incarnation, his suffering and death, its resurrection and ascension to heaven are not susceptible of repetition. Indeed it is integral to the incarnation that he enter history and live in the form(s) of time.

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Christ the Mediator who came into the world was united with humanity in one person. The Son, the second person of the Trinity, as the eternal Word of God, became man, with His essence unchanged. In such mystery of the Incarnation lies the mystery of creation, revelation and piety. Bavinck argues that, from this point of view, Christology is at the center of all theology.5) The doctrine of Christ is not the starting point, but it certainly is the central point of the whole system of dogmatics. All other dogmas either prepare for it or are inferred from it. In it, as the heart of dogmatics, pulses the whole of the religious-ethical life of Christianity. It is the mystery of godliness (1 Tim. 3:16). From this mystery all Christology has to proceed. If, however, Christ is the incarnate Word, then the incarnation is the central fact of the entire history of the world: then, too, it must have been prepared from before the ages and have its effects throughout eternity.6) After the order where John Calvin had placed Christology in his book The Institutes of the Christian Religion,7) Bavinck treated Christology in such sections as the Covenant of Grace, the Person of Christ, and the Work of Christ, which again is divided in two sections, Christs humiliation and Christs exaltation, in his two major works: Reformed

Dogmatics (Gereformeerde Dogmatiek) and Our Reasonable Faith (Magnalia Dei).8) This order of teaching (ordo docendi) has been inherited to books
on systematic theology in subsequent generations by Francis Turretin, Heinrich Heppe, and Charles Hodge.9) We can see, from the order, the fact
5) These following theologians, although their views vary, are in agreement to find the centrality of Christology in the doctrine of the two natures of Christ. Cf. G. C. Berkouwer, The Person of Christ (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954), 21-56; Donald G. Bloesch, Jesus Christ: Savior and Lord (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1997), 11-24; Donald Macleod, The Person of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1997), 181-203; Chirley C. Guthrie, Jr., Christian Doctrine (Atlanta: John Knox, 1986), 223-225; Bernard L. Ramm, An Evangelical Christology: Ecumenic and Historic (New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1985), 15-27. 6) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.274. 7) Institutio christianae religionis, in libros quatuor nunc primum digesta, certisque distincta

capitibus, ad aptissimam methodum:aucta etiam tam magna accessione ut propemodum opus novum haberi possit, 1559, 2,6-17. 8) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.193-482; Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, tr.
Henry Zylstra (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), 260-385. 9) Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, ed. James T. Dennison, tr. George Musgrave Giger (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1994), 2.169-500.

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that

the

Reformed

Christology

dynamically

implies

the

doctrines

of

revelation and

soteriology.10)

This article will argue that some characteristics of the Reformed Christology stand out in Bavincks theology by the hypostatic union theory of the divinity and humanity of Christ the Mediator. Section 2 will discuss the significance of the Incarnation as the historical event of the hypostatic union from the perspectives of the Trinity, creation and revelation. Section 3 deals with conception by the Holy Spirit, the mystery of the hypostatic union and the communication between divinity and humanity. Section 4 argues that mediation according to hypostatic union is the fulfillment of all prophetic covenants and the mediation of union that opens the door for Gods children to commune with Him, by examining how mediation is being unfolded in His Humiliation and Exaltation and what implication it has on the expiation of our sins. Section 5 summarizes and concludes the discussion on the hypostatic union that Bavinck is arguing. 2. Three Elements of the Incarnation 2.1. The Trinity First, Bavinck points out that, in order to be Scriptural and Christian, we need to hold on to the mystery of the Incarnation, while we would lose the riches of Scripture and the honor of Christ when we lose sight of it.11) He thinks that the mystery of the Incarnation is an event that the eternal decree of the Trinitarian God has been fulfilled historically. As subject, as I, he did not descend from Adam but was the Son of the Father, chosen from eternity to be the head of a new covenant. Not Adam but God was his father. As a person he was not the product of humankind but himself came to humankind from
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3 vols., rep (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 2.354-638. Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, Set out and Illustrated from the Sources, tr. G. T. Thomson, rev. ed. (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1950), 371-509. 10) Cf. Cornelius Van Til, Bavinck the Theologian, Westminster Theological Journal 1961(24/1), 1-17. This is written as a review paper for the following work, R. H. Bremmer, Herman Bavinck als Dogmaticus (Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1961). 11) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.304. Cf. B. B. Warfield, The Two Natures and Recent Christological Speculation, in Christology and Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1932), 259: The doctrine of the Incarnation is the hinge on which the Christian system turns.

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without and entered into its ranks.12) In this respect, Bavinck finds the first meaning of the Incarnation in that the presupposition and foundation of the Incarnation lies in the Trinitarian being of God.13) The subject of the Incarnation is the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. The eternal Son of God became a man to finish the work of substitutionary atonement, according to the eternal counsel of the Trinitarian God, pactum salutis. Through the mediation of the Son, God the Father becomes the Father of His children, and the Holy Spirit their Comforter.14) Rejecting the Lutheran view of the Incarnation, which says that the divine nature in the person of the Son became human, Bavinck adopts the Reformed formulation that the person of the Son was immediately united with the human nature, and the divine nature was [therefore] mediately united with it, which regards the subject of the Incarnation as the person of the second person of the Trinity. The Incarnation is not a pantheistic emanation that forms creatures when essence or divinity of the Trinitarian God spills over, flowing out, but a personal operation (opus personale) of the second person of the Trinity. The hypostatic union between the divine and human natures is mediate in that it is through the immediate assumption of the human nature into the person of the Son.15) The mystery of the Incarnation lies in the fact that God became man without any addition or any subtraction, revealing the mystery of the Trinity. There only is (esse) one God and hypostatically there exists (subsistere) three persons. Three hypostases or hypostatic beings (subsistentiae) can be distinguished in their properties but are always the same in essence, namely, in the divinity. Therefore, the Son is God and at the same time, the Mediator between God and man. Bavinck searched for the possibility of such a mysterious incarnation in the essence of the Triune God and for its historical economy in the eternal pactum salutis. The Incarnation, which may be founded upon the essence of God, is owing to Gods own will. It is not necessary, as the pantheist would say, nor contingent, as the deist would say.16)
12) 13) 14) 15) 16) Bavinck, Bavinck, Bavinck, Bavinck, Bavinck,

Reformed Reformed Reformed Reformed Reformed

Dogmatics, Dogmatics, Dogmatics, Dogmatics, Dogmatics,

3.294. 3.274. 3.276. 3.276. 3.274-275, 277.

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The Incarnation is a proper work of the second person of the Trinity, the Son. Bavinck confirms his position from the statement produced at the sixth Synod of Toledo (AD 638). Only [the Son] assumes human nature in the singularity of the person, not in the unity of the divine nature: in what is peculiar to the Son, not what is common to the Trinity.17) The Incarnation, however, is the work jointly done by the persons of the Trinity, as are all other works of God.18) Comments by Bavinck on the Incarnation as follows, are in compliance with the standard statement of the economic trinity: Yet though subjectively and as it pertains to its end, the incarnation is peculiar only to the Son, still with respect to its origin, beginning, and effectiveness, it is a work of the whole Trinity.19) 2.2. Creation Second, Bavinck starts the discussion of the Incarnation by hinting at the possibility of the creation of human beings from the eternal begetting of the Son by the Father. Expounding the doctrine of creation, Bavinck asserts that the inward work (opus ad intra), expressed by generation (generatio) and procession (processio), reflects the outward work (opus ad extra) of the work of creation. Particularly, it is the creating of man, also called the image of the Trinity (imago trinitatis), that best represents the stamps of the Trinity (vestigia trinitatis).20) Bavinck sees that the creation of man had been planned under the presupposition of Gods incarnation, for Adam was already a type of Christ. If so, is Bavinck on the same page with Andreas Osiander, who argues that the Incarnation would have still been required, hadnt there even been the Fall? Was the Incarnation a necessary course of action to complete the imperfect humanity supernaturally?21) Such questions may arise when we try to make a tight connection between the mediation of salvation and creation by Christ. Bavinck thinks
17) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.276. 18) This refers to the principle that all the outward works of God are common and indivisible(opera ad extra communia et indivisa). Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 2, God and Creation, ed. John Bolt, tr. John Vriend (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 318. 19) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.276. Calvin, Inst. 1.13.18 (CO 2.105): patri principium agendi, rerumque omnium fons et scaturigo attribuitur; filio sapientia, consilium, ipsaque in rebus agendis dispensatio; at spiritui virtus et efficacia assignatur actionis. 20) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2.332-333, 420-423. 21) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.277-278.

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that the Incarnation reflects the creation of man and argues for the mediation of Christ, who accomplished it. Therefore, by citing Scriptural verses, which says that Christ is the firstborn over all creation (prwtotokoj pashj ktisewj) (Col. 1:15) and the Beginning of the creation of God (avrch thj ktisewj tou qeou) (Rev. 3:14), Bavinck underlines the fact that Christ is the Mediator of re-creation.22) If so, does Bavinck acknowledge that re-creation is an event that Christ takes the supernatural divine nature regardless of sin? Bavincks answer to such a question is decisively negative.23) He clearly notes the fact that Gods mind during the creation of Adam was to carry out the covenant of works by making Christ a redeemer,24) while elucidating the Reformed principle that the finite is not capable of the infinite (finitum non est capax infiniti) and rejecting the theory of the Communication of Attributes of Lutherans asserting that humans are capable of the divine nature (homo divinae naturae capax).25) Bavinck says that the Incarnation depends on Gods good pleasure to save the fallen human race, not a necessary event at the time of creation.26) Basically standing on the side of infralapsarianism and discussing both the Mediator in creation and in redemption in the same breath, Bavinck put emphasis on the fact that the church is the mediator of union (mediator unionis) regardless of the order of mans fall. Bavinck affirms that the Incarnation has already been engraved in the original creation of man and in the salvation of man, namely, in the economy of re-creation.27) Thus, Bavinck observes that, just as man became the image of the triune God through creation and rested with God, we are able to fellowship with the Trinity by being united with Christ through re-creation. Bavinck reckons the Incarnation as creation, the opus ad intra of Christ, and as re-creation, the eternal decree to His opus ad extra. Therefore, because of the Incarnation, salvation has not only a personal but also a universal significance. Such a position was also held by Calvin, who was basically a supralapsarian.28) In this matter, we can see that Bavinck is
22) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2.423. 23) On the other hand the following author will give an affirmative answer to this. Since he regards the knowledge of creation and the incarnation of Christ as precedent to that of God the Trinity. Colin E. Gunton, Christ and Creation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 71-79. 24) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.278. 25) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.277. 26) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.279. 27) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.332-333.

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taking

the

position

that

interfuses

both

infralapsarianism

and

supralapsarianism in order to encompass the economies of creation and salvation.29) In fact, it is said that a spectrum of diverse opinions on this point by Reformed theologians are due to differences in emphasis or in viewpoints.30) 2.3. Revelation Third, Bavinck adds revelation for presupposition and preparation. The Lord, who took the form of human flesh to come into this world, revealed Himself as life and light to people, which was confirmed in the beginning of the Gospel according to John (John 1:1, 5, 9). Without the Incarnation, neither the revelation of creation nor that of salvation could stand, for the world was created by the Son, who came into this world (John 1:4).31) The incarnation links up with the preceding revelation, both the general and the special. It stands and falls with them. For if God was able to reveal himself in the way Scripture testifies with respect both to the Gentile world and to Israel, then the possibility of the incarnation is inherently included in that revelation; and if the incarnation were not possible, then neither could the revelation be maintained. Revelation, after all, is based on the same idea as the incarnation: on the communicability of God, both in his being to the Son(generation) and outside his being to creatures(creation).32) From this perspective, Bavinck relates the Incarnation with the entire Biblical revelation. The union of the divinity and the humanity tells us that creation of the beginning was not by pantheistic emancipation but from nothing (ex nihilo),33) and that the Mediator of salvation is not a third being but a true-God-true-man Christ.34) The Incarnation reveals the fact
28) Calvin, Inst. 2.12.4-6. 29) J. Mark Beach, Introductory Essay, in Herman Bavinck, The Holy Spirits Work in Calling and Regeneration, tr. Nelson D. Kloosterman (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage, 2008), xvi-xx. 30) Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, Set out and Illustrated from the Sources, 133-149. 31) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.280. 32) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.280-281. 33) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.282-286. 34) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.284.

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that Christ Himself is the content of Christianity.35) In arguing about the principle of revelation, Bavinck underlines the theology became of union (theologia to us,

unionis) in Christ, that the archetypal

was recorded in Scripture as ectypal

revelation (revelatio archetypa), the internal knowledge of God, which accommodated revelation (revelatio ectypa) when we received it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.36) In the same vein he even relates the Incarnation with organic inspiration of the writers of the Scriptures.37) He also argues for the sufficiency of Scripture by considering the redemptive work under the Incarnation as the last and supreme revelation.38) 3. The Hypostatic Union of the Divinity and the Humanity in one Person 3.1. The Mystery of the Union: the Conception by the Holy Spirit The Incarnation is the work of the triune God. The Father sent His Son. The Holy Spirit created the humanity of the Son. Marys impregnation was from the supernatural conception by the Holy Spirit. That is how the holy humanity was united with the divinity of the Son. The Incarnation is also the work of the Son Himself, who became man. He was himself the acting subject who by the Holy Spirit prepared a body for himself in Marys body.39) Christ, though sent by the Father, came by his own will and dee d.40) Bavinck tries to find the mystery of the hypostatic union in the property that the supernatural impregnation by the Holy Spirit has. The Holy Spirit acts not only as the instrumental cause but also as the efficient cause (causa efficiens).41) When the time had fully come, the power of the Holy Spirit, who has worked from creation to re-creation, created the holy humanity of Christ in the body of Maria. His humanity,
Cf. Herman Bavinck, The Philosophy of Revelation (New York: Longmans, 1909), 170-202. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 1.210-214. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 1.434-435, 442-443. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 1.490-491. The three significances introduced here illuminate overarching principles of Bavincks Christology. Notably, Charles Hodge does not mention them at all in dealing with the person of Christ. Hodge, Systematic Theology, 2.378 ff., 610 ff. 39) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.293. 40) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.290. 41) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2.261-264. 35) 36) 37) 38)

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being created by the Holy Spirit, can be united to His person. This special union, enabled by the work of the Holy Spirit, forms the person of the Mediator with both divine and human natures. The supernatural impregnation by the Holy Spirit has enabled union and communion between God and man in Christ. The work of man in Christ were attributed to Gods work, which continued throughout the life of Jesus and will continue the state of exaltation.42) Here Bavinck, reflecting the ad intra, Trinitarian economy of the Holy Spirit, is expounding the mystery of the Incarnation that his humanity is united with the divinity in the Son as the subject. This kind of position is in the same thread with his emphasis on the personal property of the Holy Spirit from the perspective of union and communion by discussing about the doctrine of the Trinity as follows:43) Without the personality and deity of the Spirit there can be no true oneness between the Father and the Son. Those who deny the deity of the Holy Spirit cannot maintain that of the Son. The Trinity only completes itself in the divine person of the Holy Spirit. Only through that person does the unity of being in the threeness of the persons and the threeness of persons in the unity of being, come into being. The entire dogma of the Trinity, the mystery of Christianity, the heart of religion, the true and genuine communion of our souls with Godthey all stand or fall with the deity of the Holy Spirit.44) The Incarnation occurred by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Son by the will of the Father. The Incarnation occurred not only in the Son but also by the Son. It was the work of the Son, who, as the one that mediated God and man during creation, carried out the mediating work of redemption by becoming man himself. The humanity of the Son assumed the person of Christ when created, and at the same time, was united with His divinity. Such a mystery is due to a very special activity on the part of the Holy Spirit.45) The work of the Holy Spirit in the supernatural
42) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.291-292. 43) Concerning our union with Christ grounded on Christs union with us through the incarnation, Robert Letham, The Work of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1993), 77-87, 184-186. 44) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2.312. 45) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.292.

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conception cannot be seen only as the extension of the ad extra creation. It occurred in the midst of the ad intra economy of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit, who created the humanity, is the Spirit of the eternal Son. The Holy Spirit was working in the Son during the Incarnation, which is also the work of the Son. The person of the Son underwent no alteration during His own work.46) In short, Bavinck reads the mystery of the Incarnation from the economy of the Trinity. Conception by the Holy Spirit was not the deepest ground and final cause of Jesus sinlessness, as many theologians say, but it was the only way in which he who already existed as a person and was appointed head of a new covenant could now also in a human way in the fleshbe and remain who he was: the Christ, Son of God the Most High.47) 3.2. Christless Christology Bavinck emphasizes the fact that, if one did not acknowledge the mediation of the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ, there would be no Christian faith. There is only human Jesus in the Arian Christology, the moral Christology of rationalism, the symbolic Christology of Kant, the ideal Christology of Hegel, the aesthetic Christology of De Wette, and the anthropological Christology of Feuerbach.48) There remains only the archetype of humankind to Schleiermacher, who himself said acknowledged the divinity of Christ but who identified it with God-consciousness. Schleiermacher mentioned Gods being in Christ but did not acknowledge that Christ is God. Only the divinizing of the human (qewsij), not the Incarnation, remains here.49) All western theologies following Schleiermacher have put more emphasis on becoming rather than on being in dealing with the person of
46) In this respect Bavincks position should be differentiated from that of Spirit-Christology that are deployed in these works. Roger Haight S. J. The Case for Spirit Christology Theological Studies 53(1992), 257-287; Ralph Del Colle, Christ and the Spirit: Spirit-Christology in a Trinitarian Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University, 1994); Jurgen Moltmann, The Way of Christ (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993). 47) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.294-295. 48) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.284. 49) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.262-263. Cf. Byung-Ho Moon, A Criticism of Schleiermachers Mystical and Pantheistic Christology, Chongshin Theological Journal 16/1(2011), 64-69.

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Christ, with slight variations on whether its subject is God or God-man. This trend is common to Ritschl, Herrmann, Kaftan, and Hring, who pointed to Christs being an ethical model; Rothe, and Dorner, who argued that Christs divinity grew at the same time with the humanity; and the Kenosis doctrine, which says that it occurs, instead of looking similar, with the divinity being formally present.50) Such a trend of the time gave birth to an extreme sect, so-called Quest of the Historical Jesus. Indeed, Jesus on this earth to them was only a son who introduced the Father to us. As Harnack notes, the Gospel is not the Son but the news of the Son about the Father. It is not Jesus Himself who we believe. What is relevant to us is not Jesus Himself but faith in Jesus. According to Harnack, there is no Jesus but a religious experience about Jesus or a view of Him.51) In this respect, to Carlyle he was a hero, to Strauss a religious genius, to Renan a liberal reformer and preacher of humanity, to Schopenhauer a herald of the negation of the will to live, to Proudhon a social reformer.52) Bavinck views that such a quest of the historical Jesus, which neglects the person of Jesus Christ with the divine and human natures, will result in a Christless Christology, for the doctrine of Christ should be based on and occur within the boundaries of the Chalcedon symbol.53) The historicity of Jesus can have a Christian meaning when sought after only in the fact that he is also the eternal God. The uniqueness of Christianity, distinct from the doctrine of the Trinity, cannot be mentioned if we neglect the fact that He has become the same man as we are. Therefore, only the Trinitarianistic Christology is true. Although Bavinck did use such a language, his standing on this is firm as can be seen below:

If he[Christ] is going to be not the subject but the object and center of the Christian religion, and if this Christian religion is to preserve its uniqueness and not degenerate into an idolatrous Jesus cult, it is not enough for Christ to be in God(evnqeoj), but he must himself be
50) 51) 52) 53)

Reformed Dogmatics, 3.263-266. Cf. Hodge, Systematic Theology, 2.430-440. Reformed Dogmatics, 3.267-268. Reformed Dogmatics, 3.269. Reformed Dogmatics, 3.259. Concerning the fact that orthodox Christology is the Chalcedon creed from Calvin to Calvinists, Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, 606-622; Macleod, The Person of Christ,
Bavinck, Bavinck, Bavinck, Bavinck, based on 181-203.

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God(qeoj), the only begotten of the Father.54) The teaching on the person of Christ the Mediator, which was established by the Council of Chalcedon, presents the heart of the Trinitarianistic Christology. Christ is the object of faith, not a subject like us. He is man as God. Therefore, we must not consider Christ as a purely man, who is man. All Christian theologians are talking about Christ, but those who lack the understanding of him that he is the object of faith as the way and life will only seek after a Christless Christology.55) 3.3. Unity in Union The Council of Chalcedon professed about the person of Christ as follows: the same perfect in Godhead, the same perfect in humanhood, truly God and truly man ... one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, made known in two natures, without confusion (avsugcutoj), without change (avtreptoj), without division (avdiairetoj), without separation (avcwristoj).56) Eastern theologians stressed divinization (qewsij), prefering out of two natures (evn duo fusein) to in two natures (evk duo fusewn).57) By their influences, John of Damascus, an Eastern theologian, and other Roman Catholic theologians highlighted permeation (pericwrhsij) of the divinity into the humanity and divinization (qewsij) of the humanity into the divinity.58) The resolution of the Chalcedon Council on one person (una

persona) and two natures (duae naturae) implies the mystery of the
hypostatic union,59) which must not be investigated philosophically,60) but
54) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.273. 55) Cf. B. B. Warfield, Christless Christianity, in Christology and Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1932), 367: A Christianity to which Christ is indifferent is, as a mere matter of fact, no Christianity at all. For Christianity, in the core of the matter, consists in just, Jesus Christ and Him as crucified. Can he be of the body who no longer holds to the Head? What is, after all, the fundamental difference between Christianity and other positive religions? Does it not turn just on thisthat the founders of the other religions point out the way to God while Christ presents Himself as that Way? 56) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.255, 302. 57) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.255. 58) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.256-257. 59) Cf. The Westminster Confession of Faith, 8.2: So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably (indissolubili) joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion (sine conversione, compositione, aut confusione). Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ,

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stated only negatively (av, in)61) and biblically. The Chalcedon Council declared that our incarnated Lord is one person, in which case the neutral e`n not the masculine e`ij must be used,62) for Christ did not take the substance of the Son but His subsistence took our nature. In other words, the person of the Son, not the divinity of the triune God, became the subject of the Incarnation, and the Reformed tradition has throughly maintained this view.63) Unlike Reformed thinkers, Lutherans argue for the union or fusion of the divine and human natures without the person being the subject. Lutherans consider as humiliation, not the Incarnation itself but the fact that the humanity, which communicated with the divinity, did not use it. Lutherans distinguish the assumption of flesh from the conception in the womb. The subject of the former, the Incarnation, is the Son Himself, while that of the latter, the exinanition, is God-man. Lutherans distinguish these two not temporally but logically. Thus, the Incarnation to them is an event that its subject changes from God to God-man.64) It is a Nestorian mistake to argue for the coexistence of God and man, while its an Eutychian mistake to mix them together.65) Nestorius replaces a union (e`nwsij) with a conjuction (sunafeia),66) and Eutyches forms a third kind being (tertium genus) through mixture (mixij) or mingling (avnakrasij).67) As seen above, the hypostatic union of Christ the Mediator is firmly based on the fact that Christ is the same perfect in humanhood, truly God
the only mediator between God and man. Philip Schaff, ed., The Creeds of Christendom with a History and Critical Notes, Vol. 3, The Evangelical Protestant Creeds, rev. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983), 619-620. 60) The following author the Chalcedons formula as a product of Aristotelian philosophy. John McIntyre, The Shape of Christology: Studies in the Doctrine of the Person of Christ (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997), 87-89. 61) inconfuse, immutabiliter, indivise, inseperabiliter. Cf. Philip Schaff, ed., The Creeds of Christendom with a History and Critical Notes, Vol. 2, The Greek and Latin Creeds with Translations, rev. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983), 63. 62) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.254. 63) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.259. Here the word substance(substantia) means literally the underlying reality. On the other hand, the word subsistence(subsistentia) signifies the particular being. 64) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.257-258. 65) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.301-303. Therefore, not the subject but its economy has been changed through the Incarnation. Cf. Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, Set out and Illustrated from the Sources, 410: Christ is considered here not kata qeologian as the logoj, but as the qeanqrwpoj. 66) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.301. 67) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.254, 303.

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and truly man. The incarnated humanity created in the womb of Maria by the Holy Spirit became united with the divinity by being assumed as substance68) in the person while being created, and therefore, the humanity is only a unionized humanity. It is always the true and perfect human nature. Therefore, we cannot acknowledge the theories on the mystery of the hypostatic union by Arius, who, under the influence of the Greek dualism, argued that the noble divinity cannot assume the lowly humanity, and, even further, by Apollinaris, who, in pursuit of pantheism, saw that the Lords humanity was already included in the divinity.69) They are essentially on the same page with some Gnostics, who rejected the true humanity of Christ by considering the Lords body either as a heavenly body or a phantom body.70) They deny the creation of the triune God and the union and communion between God and man according to the redemptive economy. However, if the Son could not take on humanity, there would be no creation of man and re-creation of salvation because of it: For what is unassumable is incurable.71) Linked with this, we can see that the theological dimension in which Bavinck states the hypostatic union is related to the entire Christian revelation and the redemptive history, which includes the general and special revelations and encompasses creation and redemption. The first reason why Bavinck emphasized the centrality of Christology through the doctrine of the hypostatic union was to criticize the contemporary liberal theology, which denied that Christ is God(qeoj) and tried to replace the divinity with a subjective influence, mentioning God in Christ (evnqeoj), and to defend the Orthodox theology. He refuted R. J. Campbell, who said that humanity is divinity viewed from below; divinity is humanity viewed from above, by claiming new theology. Bavinck made sure that prototypical humanity and ectypical divinity are not the same.72) The Incarnation does not talk about the revelation or formation of divinity through an enhancement of humanity, which will idolize either divinity or humanity. The Incarnation is the culmination of a method that
68) Cf. The Westminster Confession of Faith, 8.2 signifies definitely the conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance(in utero eque substantia Mariae Virginis). Schaff, ed., The Evangelical Protestant Creeds, 619 (bold emphases are mine). 69) Cf. Aloys Grillmeier, S. J., Christ in Christian Tradition, vol. 1, From the Apostolic Age to Chalcedon (451), tr. John Bowden (Atlanta: John Knox, 1964), 238-245. 70) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.295-298. 71) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.297-298. This is quoted from John of Damascus. 72) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.299.

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the

creator

communicates

and

fellowships

with

the

creation.

The

independence of the creator and the dependence of creation are attributed to the same personal subject, namely, to the person of the Son. The Word became flesh (John 1:14), therefore fullness of deity dwells in him bodily (swmatikwj, Col. 2:9).73) The two words, fully and bodily, do not restrict each other, for the subject is the eternal son of one God. The mystery of the Incarnation lies in the fact that the subject is the Son. Therefore, it sheds light on the being and economy of the triune God, on which Bavinck says as following: Scripture ascribes all kinds of and very different predicates to Christ but always to one and the same subject, the one undivided I who dwells in him speaks out of him. It also specifically says, not that the Logos dwelt in a human being, but that the Logos became flesh(John 1:14). A person is what he or she has become. If the Son of God became a human being, he is himself human. Many things can be predicated of a person but never another person. A husband and a wife are one flesh, but the husband is never the wife or vice-versa. Therefore, if the human subject in Christ was another than the Logos, Scripture could never have said that the Logos became, and therefore is, flesh.74) The subject has diverse natures. The mystery of the Incarnation lies in the fact that the Son, who has the nature of God, took the nature of man. Human beings cant assume divinity, but the Son can assume humanity. It was according to the eternal decree of the triune God before the beginning of the time that the Son took humanity. By the eternal decree, the Son took human form. The triune God, who has the same essence, cannot naturally take humanity. Divinity and humanity can only and must be united within the Son personally. In God, there is one nature and three persons: in Christ there is one person and two natures. The unity of the three persons in the divine being is in the full sense natural (naturalis), consubstantial (sunousiwdhj), coessential (coessentialis); the unity of the two natures
73) Cf. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.298-299. 74) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.302.

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in Christ is personal (personalis).75) The door for human beings to have communion with God was made possible through the union of Christs humanity and divinity in one hypostasis. Such a mystical union was made possible through the historical fulfillment of the eternal redemptive covenant. The fulfillment was made possible when Christ carried out His own duty as Mediator between God and man.76) The Incarnation is a union of the person of the Son with an impersonal human nature, and a union of natures in the person of the Son, not a natural but personal union.77) It is not a union of persons; it is a personal and substantial union. As with the divinity of Christ, His humanity is also substantial (substantialis) in that the substratum (suppositum) by which a thing is what is.78) Bavink here confirms that the human nature is not a concrete but an abstract substance of which the union with the divine nature constitutes in the eternal person of Christ.79) The humanity in Christ is with His divinity by being united with its person. Therefore, the human nature is not in itself an independent self but from the start personal in the Logos, who as subject lived, thought, willed, acted, suffered, died, and so on in and through it with all its constituents, capacities, and energies. The human nature does not constitute a personality of its own but subordinated to the Logos. In short, the two natures are united not as avlloj kai avlloj (one person and another), but as avllo kai avllo (one thing and another). The mystery of the believers godliness (musthrion euvsebeiaj) lies in the mystery of union.80) Here Bavinck firmly sustains Chalcedons position of unity in union the fact that the human nature, like the divine nature, is not person

(avnupostasij) but belongs to it (evnupostasij).81)

Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.306. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.304-305. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.305-306. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.306. Cf. Hodge, Systematic Theology, 2.387, 391. Even though Bavinck does not pay special attention to such terms as concretum and abstractum, as Reformed theologians do, he shares the same view with them. Cf. Peter Martyr Vermigli, Dialogue on the Two in Christ, tr. & ed. John Patrick Donnelly, S. J., The Peter Martyr Library Series One (Kirksville, MO: Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies, 1995), 50-51, 74-75; Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, Set out and Illustrated from the Sources, 441-445; Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 2.316-317, 322. 80) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.307. 81) Also in this case, although Bavinck does not use such terms as enhypostatia and anhypostatia, as Reformed theologians do, he shares the same view with them. Cf. Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, Set out and Illustrated from the Sources, 416-419, 427-429; Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 2.328. This issue has been raised significantly 75) 76) 77) 78) 79)

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3.4. Communication of Properties Humanity has never been an independent self or personality, but acts personally and substantially by being united with the person of Christ. The mediation of Christs humanity and divinity in one hypostasis complies with the effects of the union (effecta unionis): the communication of proper qualities (communicatio idiomatum), the completion of a work (apotelesmatum), and the charismata (charismatum).82) The first type of communion is a mutual communion among all attributes and qualities of divinity and humanity being attributed to the one person and the one subject. Firmly standing on this Reformed view, Bavinck criticized both the Lutherans, who say that divinity is directly transferred to humanity, and the Roman Catholic Church, who says, although rejecting the Lutheran view, that God in Christ is humanized and that the human nature is deified because the communication between divinity and humanity is intrinsic and substantial, calling both sides docetic.83) According to the Reformed tradition, divinity and humanity are in communion with each other only in the respect that they co-exist in the person of the Son. The attributes of the two natures are ascribed as predicates to one and the same subject. Such communion is not by the natures, but by the person. The mystery comes from the person of the Son itself. As the Son of God, who exists in divinity, He is God-man, who took humanity, and not God and man in the strictest sense.84) He can be described by languages that express the attributes of divinity and humanity simultaneously. Gods eternal Word, who is God, became flesh (John 1:14). God of glory was born in the same flesh as ours (Heb. 1:3; 2:14). God took the form of a slave, made believers clean with His own blood, and bought the church (Phil. 2:7; Acts 20:28; 1 John 1:7). The creator, who made
with reference to the doctrine of Leontius of Byzantium. Concerning his view, Herbert M. Relton, A Study in Christology: The Problem of the Relation of the Two Natures in the Person of Christ (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1917), 226-235. 82) Cf. Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, Set out and Illustrated from the Sources, 434-447; Hodge, Systematic Theology, 2.392-397; Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 2.321-332. 83) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.308-309, 426-427, 430-431. 84) Cf. John Murry, The Person of Christ, in Collected Writings of John Murry (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977), 2.138.

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everything to be, first experienced death and resurrection (Col. 1:13-18). All the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form (Col. 2:9). Such expressions use a subject related to divinity and a predicate related to humanity. The reverse is possible; He came into flesh but is also in the bosom of God (John 1;18), is in heaven (John 3:13), is before Abraham was born (John 8:58), is the Lord of David in spite of being his descendent (Matt. 22:43), and is God to be praised forever (Rom. 9:5).85) The second type of communion is that all the works of the Mediator, depending on the joint cooperation of divinity and humanity in one person and a double working (evnergeia), has a divine human character. Of course, their sole subject is the Son, who is their efficient cause.86) This part will be discussed in the following section when we discuss the humiliation and exaltation of Christ. The third type of communion deals with the spiritual gifts that humanity united in the person of the Son communicates with divinity hypostatically.87) The communion of the spiritual gifts is meaningless according to the Communication of Attributes (communicatio idiomatum), which the Lutheran and the Kenotic Christology in subsequent years have been arguing for.88) On this, the Roman Catholic Church, despite avoiding the extreme of the Lutheran, says, under the influence of pericwrhsij and qewsij of the Eastern theology, that Jesus, as a pilgrim (viator) on this earth according to humanity, received all the spiritual gifts all at once and came to have a blessed vision (comprehensor) because of what He has received from God. His knowledge and wisdom was perfect from the Incarnation, with no more growth. He was full of the blessed knowledge (scientia beata) to have the beatific vision of God (visio Dei). Therefore, his humanity was deified, making Him the object of praise.89) Criticizing the Roman Catholic view in detail, Bavinck notes that only from the Reformed view we can hold a proper opinion on the communication of gifts, under the premise of the true and genuine humanity. While mentioning that the humanity that Jesus took had the abounding world of the mind as well as anger, sadness, pity, and compassion, which Adam did not have when he was in the state of
85) 86) 87) 88) 89) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.298, 308. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.308. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.308. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.257-258. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.256-257. 309. Concerning the Roman Catholic Churchs position on this, Berkouwer, The Person of Christ, 213-223.

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integrity

(status

integritatis),

Bavinck

emphasizes

the

fact

that

the

Incarnation is a state of humiliation because it is the assumption of a weak human nature.90) Bavinck takes notice that the weakness of the Lord is not because of sin but a way to overcome sin. Holiness by divinity is distinctly different from holiness by humanity, but there is no possibility of sinning and falling to Him, who has not only an empirical sinlessness but also a necessary sinlessness.91) Since His humanity was united with the person, He did have the beatific knowledge (scientia beata) but not immediately. The human consciousness in him, though having the same subject as the divine consciousness, only to a small degree knew that subject, that I, indeed knew it as a whole but not exhaustively. Just as behind our limited consciousness there also lies within us a world of being, so behind the human consciousness of Christ there lay the depths of God, which could only very gradually and to a limited degree shine through that human consciousness. From this, one may not infer, however, that in various domains Jesus could err.92) Bavinck finds the fact that the proper gifts of the Lords humanity communicate with divinity. From this respect, Jesus performing miracles, forgiving sins, dispatching the Holy Spirit, rewarding eternal life, and even, receiving glory all belong not only to divinity but also to humanity. Such works of Jesus were done according to divinity, but the gifts can also be attributed to the person, influencing His humanity personally or hypostatically. In this respect, although the Mediator may be the proper object of worship, the ground or foundation of mediation lies in the divinity.93) Likewise, in stating the communion of gifts, Bavinck stresses the fact that they are ways of grace to believers by emphasizing the weakness of Christs humanity, and at the same time, the oneness of the person. The Lords mediating work of humiliation and exaltation is based on such
90) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.310-311. 91) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.314. Cf. B. B. Warfield, Jesus Alleged Confession of Sin, in Christology and Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1932), 97-145. 92) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.312-313. 93) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.317-319.

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communion

of

spiritual

gifts.

However,

for

Bavinck,

this

kind

of

communication is not separated from that of the attributes, as we see definitely in the following confession of Westminster. Christ, in the work of mediation, acteth according to both natures; by each nature doing that which is proper to itself; yet, by reason of the unity of the person, that which is proper to one nature is sometimes, in Scripture, attributed to the person denominated by the other nature.94) 4. Mediation in Hypostatic Union 4.1. The Mediation of the Union: The Spirit of Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant Bavinck considers at the heart of the redemptive history the fact that believers are mysteriously united with Christ through the work of the hypostatic union of humanity and divinity and thereby ultimately reach glorification through communion and communication with God. For there was the pact of salvation (pactum salutis) between three persons of the Trinity before the creation of the world. He says that the foundation for the covenant of grace, which had the vicarious satisfaction (satisfactio

vicaria) of the Son, namely, the obedience of the Son as the material cause
and the faith of saints who believe in the Son as the formal or instrumental cause, was laid before the creation of the world.95) Adams obedience was the condition for the first covenant, in which Adam was the representative of humankind. For the new covenant, which is the fulfillment of many covenants of grace, agreed upon after the Fall, Christ is the substitute of humankind.96) The new covenant consists of two elements. The first element is the obedience of the Son, who carries out the will of the Father. It must include the obedience of keeping all the laws (obedientia activa) and of suffering the price of sin (obedientia

passiva). The other element is the love of the Father, who imputes the
righteousness of the Son by grace. Bavinck calls this pact between the
94) The Westminster Confession of Faith, 8.7. Schaff, ed., The Evangelical Protestant Creeds, 622. 95) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.405. 96) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.406.

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Father and the Son the covenant of redemption.97) As the head of the covenant in the person of His own humanity and divinity, Christ is not only the guarantor but also the key part. He is the mediator (Heb. 7:22; 8:6; 12:24).98) Christ fulfilled the covenant of works towards the Father and of the covenant of grace towards us. The new covenant is a better covenant as well as an evangelical covenant, including both obedience and imputation. Its superiority and mystery is the mystical Christ (Christus mysticus), namely, the person of Christs humanity and divinity.99) Christ fulfilled the mediatorship of union in the hypostatic union. As His office is eternal, His kingdom is also eternal. His government is personally, ecclesiastically, and universally effective by the uniting work of the Holy Spirit.100) Bavinck saw that the government of the Holy Spirit lies in the believers communion with God, namely, in the mystical union.101) Such a mysterious union is made only by the secret working of the Holy Spirit. The salvific work of the Holy Spirit is to carry out the mystery of the union of Christs humanity and divinity. Bavinck does not identify the Holy Spirit, who came down on Christ, with divinity, or with infusion into humanity, and incorporates it in the person of the God-man, divine and human natures. Particularly, this inclination is evident when interpreting the exalted Lord in Romans 1:3 according to the Spirit of holiness (kata pneuma avgiwsuvhj). In relation to this, Bavinck also mentions, not only the fact that the Lord was conceived by the Holy Spirit according to humanity (Luke 1:36), was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1), and received Him abundantly (John 3:34), but also the fact that Christ was designated as Gods Son by the work of the Holy Spirit (Acts 17:31), received the glory of old (John 17:2), is the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8) and became the power of God (1 Cor. 1:24).102) Bavinck notes that the Holy Spirit, who worked from the Incarnation, had an personal influence over the entire process of the Lords mediation, not only in the sufferings and obedience, but also in the resurrection, in the ascension, and on the throne. The fact that the Lords body became a spiritual body (swma pneumatikon) and that He Himself is a
97) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3. 98) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.227-228, 405. 99) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.225, 228 100) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.479-482. 101) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.304. 102) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.434-435.

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life-giving Spirit (swma pneumatikon) (1 Cor. 15:45) as the Spirit of life (pneuma zwhj) (Rom. 8:11) is also discussed in this perspective. Here we can see that Bavinck is handling the mystery of Christs hypostatic union in the Trinitarian perspective. The reason why he regards the Holy Spirit as the Christs spirit or the Lords spirit: The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ because he dwells in Christ himself and because through him Christ communicates himself to his own (2 Cor. 3:18). And thus Christ is now he in whom all the fullness of deity dwells bodily (Col. 2:9; 1:19). He is the visible image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). The divine glory is now manifest in his human nature and radiates from his face (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:4, 6).103)

4.2. Double States (Status Duplex): Work in the Hypostatic Union Bavinck considers the proper meaning of humiliation and exaltation of Christ the Mediator to be according to the dispensation (kat oivkonomian) of

pactum salutis before the beginning of the world for the hypostatic union.
Humiliation and exaltation do not mean a change in the attributes or dignity of divinity or humanity itself.104) Humiliation and exaltation are related to diverse modes in which divinity or humanity communicates in the same person, and therefore, are not natural but personal. The subject of humiliation and exaltation is the person of the Son. Therefore, according to Bavinck, following are those that say that humiliation and exaltation are just a process of mystification or an ideal conception: Lutherans or the Roman Catholic Church, which treat humiliation and exaltation as the abandonment of the divinity and the enhancement of the humanity; immanent theologians with Schleiermacher as their harbinger, who treat them as a process of Jesus (evnqeoj) becoming God (qeoj) as a person on whom God has descended; theologians like Dorner and Rothe, who advocate progressive incarnation, which says that humiliation and exaltation are the process of incarnation by which divinity is embodied in humanity; and Socinians, who say that they are a course of life of Jesus who performed
103) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.436. 104) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.364.

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divine miracles upon receiving divine revelation.105) Bavinck regards the Incarnation that received humanity in the person of the Son as emptying (kenwsij or exinanitio). He thinks that the Incarnation is just the beginning of his lowering (tapeinwsij or humiliatio). Humiliation includes this emptying and lowering. In humiliation, the Son with the same person put aside the divine mode of existence (morfh qeou) but took the human mode of existence, namely, the form of a servant (morfh doulou). Such a change in the mode of being is not by the nature but by the person. The Son assumed a true and perfect humanity.106) Lutherans have a view that the humanity which the Son assumed was a humanity containing divine attributes, and that, therefore, humiliation is not an assumption itself but in His humanity which does not use the divine attributes. So they distinguish the Incarnation from the humiliation characterized by emptying and lowering.107) In the meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church views that the humanity which the Son assumed was true and perfect, but it could be glorified from a moment by a special gift, and that the humiliation of the Incarnation stops at the moment of the union conceptually and Jesus becomes an object of praise because the person of the Mediator becomes precious even to the humanity.108) Bavinck thinks that the humiliation of Christ includes the Incarnation in which His true and perfect humanity is united with the person of the Son and all the obedience which Christ has suffered and carried out in it. The humanity which Jesus assumed complied with several conditions after the Fall.109) Baptism was a sign and seal that Christ, who finished everything under the union of His divinity and humanity, tries to raise us to the place where we can have communion with God, by imputing His righteousness to us.110) His descending into the hell can be understood in this sense. If it is not real, it does not mean the movement of location. It means the extreme agony of the soul suffered according to the humanity, namely death and
105) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.406-407, 426-433. Cf. Cf. B. B. Warfield, The Humanitarian Christ, in The Person and Work of Christ, ed. Samuel G. Craig (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1950), 189-208. 106) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.407-408. 107) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.431. Concerning Luthers and Lutheran views of communicatio idiomatum, Berkouwer, The Person of Christ, 272-281. 108) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.426-427. 109) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.310-311. 110) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.408.

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burial, and the proclamation according to the divinity. In many cases, reformed theologians would choose only one of two meanings, but Bavinck emphasized that the two belong to one person simultaneously.111) Erroneous views of both Roman Catholics and Lutherans on Jesus descending into the hell are caused by their incorrect understanding on the hypostatic union. While Catholic theologians regard that the subject who went down to hell as the soul, while Lutherans the subject as a certain kind of being enhanced through vivification (reviviscentia,

vivificatio)

prior

to

resurrection.112) In discussing exaltation of Christ, Bavinck once again emphasizes the fact that it was the mediation in the hypostatic union of Christs humanity and divinity. Bavinck criticized Osiander, who insisted only on the mediation according to divinity, Stancaro, who only insisted on the mediation according to humanity, and both the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutherans, who says that the two natures are the principle that performed the works of the mediator, although the human nature is the principle by which the works were accomplished by the Mediator.113) Bavinck sees that the exaltation of Christ exerts influence on both divinity and humanity.114) He sheds light of divine glory on the eyes of each human being by performing the divine power according to His divinity, and has them to participate in divine glory according to His humanity only to the extent it was capable of it, which are the characteristics of the humanity. As this work of divinity and humanity was hypostatically done, Christ, after having been raised from the dead, became the spirit who gives life according to His divinity in a spiritual body according to His humanity.115) Supernatural Christianity can become a sole historical religion from this perspective of the union of Christs humanity and divinity.116) Exaltation does not mean to form a divinity by the
111) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.415-417. Cf. Calvin, Inst. 2.16.8-12; Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 356-361; Hodge, Systematic Theology, 2.616-621. 112) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.427-428. Lutherans call the resurrection as external resurrection (resurrectio externa) and distinguish it from the vivification which they call internal resurrection (resurrectio interna). For them, not the resurrection but the vivification is the beginning of exaltation. Cf. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.414-415. 113) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.430. 114) Cf. Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 2.334, 348, 352, 364, 366, 368, 370-372; Hodge, Systematic Theology, 2.629-631. 115) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.432, 434-436. 116) Cf. B. B. Warfield, Jesus Christ, in Christology and Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1932), 165: Supernaturalistic Christianity is the only historical Christianity.

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enhanced working of the Holy Spirit.117) Bavinck considers that the views that he holds are in the Reformed tradition, giving rise to the advantage that one can understand the entire course of Christs humiliation and exaltation in the identical person.118) In this respect he expresses Christs resurrection and ascension in active mode for His divinity and in passive mode for His humanity.119) He notes that Christ can be everywhere at the same time according to His divinity, but at a specific locationor on the right hand of Godaccording to His humanity.120) 4.3. Vicarious Satisfaction (Satisfactio Vicaria): The Fruit of the Hypostatic Union The exaltation of Christ was a reward for His humiliation. The substance of exaltation is the mediatorial glory manifested in His resurrection, ascension, reign, and His second coming according to the meritorious connection between Christs humiliation and exaltation.121) Christs exaltation is attributed to his person, and therefore discloses the special grace of salvation of a believer united with God through Him. Imputing the grace to saints, Christ becomes the life-giving spirit to them. Therefore, in order to see the quality of salvation of the saints who will be in communion with God according to the eternal economy of the triune God, one has to see what kind of merits the work which Christ the Mediator performed has.122) In relation to this, Bavinck emphasizes the fact that the mediation of Christ influences not only the passive obedience (obedientia passiva) and the active obedience (obedientia activa). For forgiveness of sin (peccatum), one needs to pay the punishment (poena) that fit the guilt (reatus) and must require the satisfaction of God-man, for the forgiveness of sin is
117) So this following theory cannot be accepted. Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus God and Man, tr. Lewis L. Wilkins and Duane A. Priebe (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1968), 323: But Jesus as this man, as man in this particular, unique situation, with this particular historical mission and this particular fateas this man Jesus is not just man, but from the perspective of his resurrection from the dead(kata pneumaaccording to the Spirit) he is one with God and thus is himself God. 118) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.431. Cf. Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 2.379-384. 119) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.436-437, 444-445. 120) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.446-447. 121) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.433-434. 122) Cf. Hodge, Systematic Theology, 2.470-473.

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not possible without covenantal imputation of righteousness through the mediation of Christs divinity and humanity.123) Such an economy was decreed before the beginning of the world.124) The reason why Christs death becomes the consummation of his obedience is because He became man as the Son of eternal God.125) Christs obedience is the price of vicarious satisfaction (satisfactio

vicaria),126) which not only forgives sins and iniquities but also imputes the
righteousness of eternal life so that saints can have non posse peccare (the not-being-able to sin) and non posse mori (the not-being-able to die) in faith. Such righteousness is possible because Christ fulfilled both the obedience of suffering pains and of keeping the laws. The obedience of acting is not distinguished from the obedience of suffering, for there would be no obedience of suffering without the obedience of acting and Christ, who prepared Himself without blemishes and spots, died as a prepared lamb.127) Therefore, acting obedience is not an excess but a suitable merit. We have to find the price of the work of vicarious redemption in the person of Christ. The cause of redemption cannot be numbered by a quantitative calculation.128) Therefore, Bavinck claims that Christs entire life and work, from his conception to his death, was substitutionary in nature. Christs vicarious redemption does not stop at paying the price for sin, but includes the obedience of keeping all the law, which is the condition for the covenant of works. Acting obedience is one with suffering obedience, for they altogether fulfill Gods will in one person and at the same time, all the righteousness of salvation, which pleases God.129) By such mediation of Christs humanity and divinity, believers can have peace with God through the mysterious union with Him. Christ has fulfilled the mediation of union. As a sacrifice (i`rasmoj, i`rasthrion), He became the reconciliation (katallagh) between God and us. The subject that gives offering (i`raskesqai) is the Son, but the one who makes us at peace with Him (katallassein) is God. Atonement (Vershnung) is required for us to have peace with God (Vershnung). But since God has made His Son to be
123) 124) 125) 126) 127) 128) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.345. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.364-366. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.385. Cf. Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 426-433. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.394-396. Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.402.

129) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.378-380.

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the sacrifice of the atonement, although God is the one who makes us at peace with Him, the Lord of peace is the Son, for the Son mediates between the Father and us according to the covenant among three triune Persons. Therefore, when we deny the doctrine of the hypostatic union, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement will be in vain and all the gains for redemption presented in the Bible will come to nothing.130) 5. Conclusion In this paper, we have considered the fact that the reason why Bavinck placed the centrality of his theology in Christology was to follow the doctrine of the hypostatic union of Christ the Mediator. By the way it is evident that Bavincks theology is a product of his time. Against the liberal theology of his day, he tried to defend two doctrines: one is the fact that Scripture is Gods word and the other the fact that we can be saved only by the work of Christ. So he positioned his theology epistemologically in the principle of revelation sought after by the Reformed theologians after Calvin, and emphasized that salvation is possible only by the merit of the works done in the hypostatic union of humanity and the divinity of God the Mediator, who came into the world. Unlike Turretin, Heppe or Charles Hodge, Bavinck does not devote himself to articulating sophisticated theological jargon in treating the doctrine of the hypostatic union. For example, Bavinck does not pay special attention to such languages as enhypostatia, anhypostatia, abstratum, or

concretum, in relation to the being of His divinity and humanity in one

person. Neither does Bavinck try to describe the union of the divine and human natures by using a metaphor of the relation between the soul and the flesh in human body.131) He rather tries to defend the doctrine of Christology, following the orthodox revelatory principle. The only thing is that by analyzing in depth diverse doctrines developed since the Early Church he discusses their merits and demerits, and tries to succinctly summarize his own position as a conclusion. This aspect can be said to be the uniqueness of his theology. His theology may sound philosophical or ethical, but what he ultimately pursues is a Biblical theology.132)
130) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.447-452. 131) On the contrary, Charles Hodge frequently uses this metaphorical analogy. Systematic Theology, 2.378, 380, 389, 390, 392, 394, 397, 409 etc. 132) Cf. John Bolt, Christ and the Law in the Ethics of Herman Bavinck, Calvin Theological

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Bavinck regarded the doctrine of the hypostatic union as the loop that connects the entire theology. We can summarize what we have been talking about with a few sentences as follows: First, Bavinck states the doctrine of the hypostatic union from the Trinitarian perspective. Most of all, he emphasizes the fact that the covenant established historically according to the eternal counsel (pactum

salutis) of the Trinity before the beginning of the world was fulfilled by the
Incarnation and the work of Christ. Bavinck finds the necessity of Christs works according to the person of the Son as God-man (qeanqrwpoj) in the economy of the Trinity. Second, Bavinck emphasizes the fact that the mystery of the Incarnation does not remain in the conception but reaches the Mediators entire life from His humiliation to His exaltation, attributing it to the work of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, he closely connects the communication of works with the communication of gifts in dealing with the communication of Christs attributes. Third, Bavinck emphasizes the fact that according to the doctrine of the hypostatic union, Christs redemptive work opened the door for our communion with God through the mysterious union with Him. He seeks this from the mystery of the Trinitarian union. He discusses the hypostatic mystery of the God-man from the relationship between the Father and the Son, and also the mystery of uniting with God. The mystery can be only possible by the person of Christ the Mediator Himself. Fourth, on this account Bavinck places the vicarious satisfaction (satiafactio vicaria) in the person of the Mediator. Christs humanity is even richer than that of Adam prior to the Fall, so is the grace of substitutionary atonement. He came into the world to remove our sins, forgive us, and make peace between God and us. Soteriology treats the order or the economy of applying the righteousness of such substitutionary atonement to believers.133) Fifth, overall, Bavinck, in treating the doctrine of the hypostatic union, emphasizes the fact that Christ the Mediator is an eternal God (qeoj). The mystery of this doctrine lies in the person of the Son itself. Therefore, he altogether rejects the liberalism, which pursues internalism or ethicalism that rejects the divinity of Jesus Christ, who came into the world, and
Journal 28 (1993), 45-73. 133) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.504-506, 522-528.

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argues that only God exists in Christ (evnqeoj). The paragraph below gives a good account for the distinctive marks that the doctrine of the hypostatic union of Christ the Mediator, which Bavinck pursues. It is one single work that the Father assigned to him and that he finished in his death (John 4:34; 17:4; 19:30). His ministry was completed in the giving of his life as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28). Even Paul, who powerfully emphasizes the cross of Christ, regards his death, not as the whole, but as the consummation of his obedience. He was born under the law(Gal. 4:4), in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3), did not live to please himself (Rom. 15:3); at his incarnation he already emptied himself and assumed the form of a servant; he continually humbled himself and became obedient even to death (Phil. 2:7-8; 2 Cor. 8:9). So it is one single ministry and one obedience, which gives life-giving justification (dikaiwsij zwhj) to many (Rom. 5:18-19).134) Soli Deo Gloria in Aeterum!

134) Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3.378.

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