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Commentary

Did Jesus Always Have Two Natures?

Scriptures: Philippians 2:6 ; John 1:1-3
by Jacob Abshire on July 28, 2025

Jesus Christ is one person with two natures—fully God and fully man. However, this has not always been the case. From all eternity, the Son of God possessed a divine nature alone. His human nature is not eternal. It began in time, conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary.

The apostle John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1). This is not a reference to Jesus as the God-Man but to the eternal Son, the second person of the Trinity. He has always existed as God—without beginning, without body, without human limitation. He was not made; He is Maker. “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (Jn. 1:3).

The Word existed in the form of God (Phil. 2:6), possessing the fullness of divine glory. But at a particular moment in history, His relation to creation changed. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14). The eternal Son added to Himself a true and complete human nature. He did not cease to be God; He became what He was not. His divine nature was joined to a real human nature—truly and fully—without confusion, change, division, or separation. This is what theologians call the hypostatic union: two natures in one person, forever.

From eternity, the Son had one nature. Since the incarnation, He has two—forever united in one person.

Before the incarnation, Jesus did not have a human nature. He was not incarnate. He appeared to men in the Old Testament—walking with Abraham, wrestling with Jacob, standing in the furnace with the three Hebrews—but these were temporary manifestations, not true humanity. He appeared like a man, but He was not yet made man. As Hebrews says, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things” (Heb. 2:14). He did not partake of flesh and blood in eternity past—He did so in time.

His humanity began when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, and the Son of God was conceived in her womb (Lk. 1:35). That humanity was real. He was born. He grew. He hungered. He slept. He wept. He suffered. He died. His human nature was not a costume; it was complete and authentic. He was made like his brothers in every respect (Heb. 2:17), yet without sin (Heb. 4:15).

Even in His glorification, the humanity of Jesus remains. He didn’t shed His human nature when He rose or ascended. His resurrected body is not ethereal or symbolic. It is physical, glorified, and everlasting. “Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Lk. 24:39). He ascended bodily (Acts 1:9), and He will return in the same way (Acts 1:11). Stephen saw Him standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). Paul says there is “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). He remains the God-Man today.

This matters. If Jesus were not truly God, He could not represent God to us. If He were not truly man, He could not represent us to God. But in one person, we have both natures—divinity and humanity—united for our salvation. He obeyed as a man. He suffered in our place. He rose in our nature. He intercedes for us now, as one of us, in the presence of the Father.

So no, Jesus did not always have two natures. His human nature began at the incarnation and continues eternally. But from the moment He took on flesh, He has never ceased to be the perfect union of God and man—our Savior, our High Priest, our Lord.

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