Jesus Christ's Divine Nature Versus Created Being
The New Testament affirms that Jesus Christ is both fully divine and fully human, united in one person without confusion of natures. This union, termed the Incarnation, represents "that act of grace whereby Christ took our human nature into union with his Divine Person" [1]. The distinction between Christ's divine nature and created being hinges on recognizing that while He assumed a created human nature, His divine nature remains eternally uncreated.
The Divine Nature: Uncreated and Eternal
Scripture attributes the work of creation itself to Christ. Colossians 1:16 declares that "by him were all things created," encompassing "all things visible and invisible" and "all things that had a beginning, whether they exist in time or in eternity" [11]. John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16-17 establish Christ as the agent through whom the Father created [2, 4]. This creative role distinguishes the true God from false deities: "The fact that he is the Creator distinguishes Jehovah as the true God" [2]. A created being cannot be the source of all creation; the Creator-creature distinction is absolute.
The divine nature of Christ is uncreated, sharing the essence of the Father. Eastern Orthodox theology maintains that when we speak of Christ's subsistence or person, we must attribute to Him "the properties of both natures," such that "Christ, which name implies both natures, is spoken of as at once God and man, created and uncreated" [6]. The uncreated divine nature existed from eternity, participating in the Trinitarian act of creation "after consultation, by the Trinity" [3].
The Human Nature: Created and Assumed
In the Incarnation, Christ assumed a complete human nature—body and rational soul. Aquinas argues that "the Son of God assumed an entire human nature, i.e. not only a body, but also a soul, and not only a sensitive, but also a rational soul" [5]. This human nature, like all human nature, was created. Man was "created by God" on the sixth day, "from the dust," "in the image of God" [3]. Christ's humanity shares this created status: His flesh and humanity are not uncreated [6].
The union of these two natures is hypostatical—personal—meaning "a Divine Person was united to a human nature" [1]. Critically, "the two natures are not mixed or confounded, and it is perpetual" [1]. Each nature retains its properties. The divine nature remains omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal; the human nature remains finite, capable of growth, and subject to creaturely limitations. As Aquinas explains, "in the mystery of the Incarnation the union in person so took place that there still remained the distinction of natures, each nature still retaining what belonged to it" [8].
Predicating Properties of the Person
The key to understanding Christ's relationship to created being lies in the communicatio idiomatum—the communication of properties. What belongs to either nature can be predicated of the one person, but not of the other nature in abstraction. Aquinas states that "what belongs to one nature cannot be predicated of the other if they are taken in the abstract" [7]. We may say "Christ was created" with reference to His human nature, or "Christ is uncreated" with reference to His divine nature, but we cannot say "the divine nature was created" or "the human nature is omnipotent."
Eastern Orthodox theology emphasizes this carefully: "We do not say that His flesh or His humanity is uncreated," yet when we speak of His person, we attribute properties of both natures [6]. The person who suffered on the cross is divine, yet "the Passion is to be attributed to the Person" while recognizing that the divine nature itself is impassible [10]. Similarly, Christ's human nature exhibits subjection to the Father—"human nature from its beginning has a threefold subjection to God"—while His divine nature shares the Father's sovereignty [9].
The distinction matters profoundly for Christology. To claim Christ is merely a created being denies His divinity and His capacity to accomplish redemption. To deny His created human nature undermines the reality of the Incarnation. Orthodox Christianity confesses both: one divine person subsisting in two natures, one uncreated and eternal, the other created and assumed in time for our salvation.
Sources
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Incarnation — That act of grace whereby Christ took our human nature into union with his Divine Person, became man. Christ is both God and man. Human attributes and actions are predicated of him, and he of whom they are predicated is God. A Divine Person was united to a human nature (Acts 20:28; Rom. 8:32; 1 Cor. 2:8; Heb. 2:11-14; 1 Tim. 3:16; Gal. 4:4, etc.). The union is hypostatical, i.e., is personal; the two natures are not mixed or confounded, and it is perpetual.”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Creation — "In the beginning" God created, i.e., called into being, all things out of nothing. This creative act on the part of God was absolutely free, and for infinitely wise reasons. The cause of all things exists only in the will of God. The work of creation is attributed (1) to the Godhead (Gen. 1:1, 26); (2) to the Father (1 Cor. 8:6); (3) to the Son (John 1:3; Col. 1:16, 17); (4) to the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2; Job 26:13; Ps. 104:30). The fact that he is the Creator distinguishes Jehovah as the true God (Isa. 37:16; 40:12, 13; 54:5; Ps. 96:5; Jer. 10:11, 12). Th”
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Man — Made for God -- Pr 16:4; Re 4:11. God's purpose in creation completed by making -- Ge 2:5,7. Cannot profit God -- Job 22:2; Ps 16:2. Unworthy of God's favour -- Job 7:17; Ps 8:4. Created By God. -- Ge 1:27; Isa 45:12. By Christ. -- Joh 1:3; Col 1:16. By the Holy Spirit. -- Job 33:4. After consultation, by the Trinity. -- Ge 1:26. On the sixth day. -- Ge 1:31. Upon the earth. -- De 4:32; Job 20:4. From the dust. -- Ge 2:7; Job 33:6. In the image of God. -- Ge 1:26,27; 1Co 11:7. After the likeness of God. -- Ge 1:26; Jas 3:9. Male and female. -- Ge 1:27; 5:2. A l”
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Creation — The formation of things which had no previous existence -- Ro 4:17; Heb 11:3. Effected By God. -- Ge 1:1; 2:4,5; Pr 26:10. By Christ. -- Joh 1:3,10; Col 1:16. By the Holy Spirit. -- Job 26:13; Ps 104:30. By the command of God. -- Ps 33:9; Heb 11:3. In the beginning. -- Ge 1:1; Mt 24:21. In six normal days. -- Ex 20:11; 31:17. According to God's purpose. -- Ps 135:6. For God's pleasure. -- Pr 16:4; Re 4:11. For Christ. -- Col 1:16. By faith we believe, to be God's work -- Heb 11:3. Order of First day, making light and dividing it from darkness. -- Ge 1:3-5;”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Third Part (Tertia Pars), Of Christ's Knowledge in General, Art. 1: Article: Whether Christ had any knowledge besides the Divine? I answer that, As said above (Question [5]), the Son of God assumed an entire human nature, i.e. not only a body, but also a soul, and not only a sensitive, but also a rational soul. And therefore it behooved Him to have created knowledge, for three reasons. First, on account of the soul's perfection. For the soul, considered in itself, is in potentiality to knowing intelligible things. since it is like "a tablet on which nothing is writte”
- CCEL (Eastern Orthodox) “John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, section 50: or of His humanity the properties of divinity: for we do not say that His flesh or His humanity is uncreated. But when we speak of His subsistence, whether we give it a name implying both natures, or one that refers to only one of them, we still attribute to it the properties of both natures. For Christ, which name implies both natures, is spoken of as at once God and man, created and uncreated, subject to suffering and incapable of suffering: and when He is named Son of God and God, in reference to only one of His nature”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Third Part (Tertia Pars), Of Those Things Which Are Applicable to Christ in His Being and Becoming, Art. 5: Article: Whether what belongs to the human nature can be predicated of the Divine Nature? I answer that, What belongs to one cannot be said of another, unless they are both the same; thus "risible" can be predicated only of man. Now in the mystery of the Incarnation the Divine and human natures are not the same; but the hypostasis of the two natures is the same. And hence what belongs to one nature cannot be predicated of the other if they are taken in the abst”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Third Part (Tertia Pars), Of the Power of Christ's Soul, Art. 1: Article: Whether the soul of Christ had omnipotence? I answer that, As was said above (Question [2], Article [1]; Question [10], Article [1]) in the mystery of the Incarnation the union in person so took place that there still remained the distinction of natures, each nature still retaining what belonged to it. Now the active principle of a thing follows its form, which is the principle of action. But the form is either the very nature of the thing, as in simple things; or is the constituent of the natu”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Third Part (Tertia Pars), Of Christ's Subjection to the Father, Art. 1: Article: Whether we may say that Christ is subject to the Father? I answer that, Whoever has a nature is competent to have what is proper to that nature. Now human nature from its beginning has a threefold subjection to God. The first regards the degree of goodness, inasmuch as the Divine Nature is the very essence of goodness as is clear from Dionysius (Div. Nom. i) while a created nature has a participation of the Divine goodness, being subject, so to say, to the rays of this goodness. Secondly”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Third Part (Tertia Pars), The Passion of Christ, Art. 12: Article: Whether Christ's Passion is to be attributed to His Godhead? I answer that, As stated above (Question [2], Articles [1],2,3,6), the union of the human nature with the Divine was effected in the Person, in the hypostasis, in the suppositum, yet observing the distinction of natures; so that it is the same Person and hypostasis of the Divine and human natures, while each nature retains that which is proper to it. And therefore, as stated above (Question [16], Article [4]), the Passion is to be attributed”
- Colossians (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Colossians 1:16: For by him were all things created, etc - These two verses contain parts of the same subject. I shall endeavor to distinguish the statements of the apostle, and reason from them in such a way as the premises shall appear to justify, without appealing to any other scripture in proof of the doctrine which I suppose these verses to vindicate. Four things are here asserted: 1. That Jesus Christ is the Creator of the universe; of all things visible and invisible; of all things that had a beginning, whether they exist in time or in eternity. 2. That whatsoever was cre”