Chap. X. — Of the Person of Jesus Christ.

Q. 1. What doth the Scripture teach us of Jesus Christ?

A. Chiefly two things first, his⁴⁴⁴⁴   1. Though our Saviour Christ be one God with his Father, he is not one person with him. 2. Jesus Christ is God and man in one, — not a God and a man; God incarnate, — not a man deified. 3. The essential properties of either nature remain in his person theirs still, not communicated unto the other; as of the Deity to be eternal, everywhere; of the humanity to be born and die. 4. Whatever may be said of either nature may be said of the whole person; so God may be said to die, but not the Godhead; the man Christ to be everywhere, but not his humanity; for his one person is all this. 5. The monstrous figment of transubstantiation, or Christ’s corporeal presence in the sacrament, fully overthrows our Saviour’s human nature, and makes him a mere shadow. 6. All natural properties are double in Christ, — as will, &c., still distinct; all personal, as subsistence, single. person, or what he is in himself; secondly, his offices, or what he is unto us.

Q. 2. What doth it teach of his person?

479A. That he is truly God, and perfect man, partaker of the natures of God and man in one person, between whom he is a Mediator.
John i. 14; Heb. ii. 14, 15; Eph. iv. 5; 1 Tim. ii. 5; 1 John i. 1.

Q. 3. How prove you Jesus Christ to be truly God?

A. Divers ways; first, by places of Scripture, speaking of the great God Jehovah in the Old Testament, applied to our Saviour in the New; as, Numb. xxi. 5, 6, in 1 Cor. x. 9; Ps. cii. 25–27, in Heb. i. 10; Isa. vi. 2–4, in John xii. 40,41; Isa. viii. 13, 14, in Luke ii. 34, Rom. ix. 33; Isa. xl. 3, 4, in John i. 23; Isa. xlv. 22, 23, in Rom. xiv. 11, Phil. ii. 10, 11; Mal. iii. 1, in Matt. xi. 10.
Secondly, By the works of the Deity ascribed unto him; as, first, of creation, John i. 3; 1 Cor. viii. 6; Heb. i. 2; secondly, of preservation in providence, Heb. i. 3; John v. 17; thirdly, miracles.
Thirdly, By the essential attributes of God being ascribed unto him; as, first, immensity, Matt. xxviii. 20; John xiv. 23; Eph. iii. 17; secondly, eternity, John i. 1; Rev. i. 11; Mic. v. 2; thirdly, immutability, Heb. i. 11, 12; fourthly, omniscience, John xxi. 17; Rev. ii. 23; fifthly, majesty and glory equal to his Father, John v. 23; Rev. v. 13; Phil. i. 2, ii. 6, 9, 10.
Fourthly, By the names given unto him; as, first, of God expressly, John i. 1, xx. 28; Acts xx. 28; Rom. ix. 5; Phil. ii. 6; Heb. i. 8; 1 Tim. iii. 16; secondly, of the Son of God, John i. 18; Rom. viii. 3, &c.

Q. 4. Was it necessary that our Redeemer should be God?

A. Yes; that he might be able to save to the uttermost, and to satisfy the wrath of his Father, which no creature could perform.
Isa xliii. 25, liii. 6; Dan. ix. 17, 19.

Q. 5. How prove you that he was a perfect man?

A. First, By the prophecies that went before, that so he should be.
Gen. iii. 15, xviii. 18.
Secondly, By the relation of their accomplishment.
Matt. i. 1; Rom. i. 4; Gal. iv. 4.
Thirdly, By the Scriptures assigning to him those things which are required to a perfect man; as, first, a body, Luke xxiv. 39; Heb. ii. 17, x. 5; 1 John i. 1; secondly, a soul, Matt. xxvi. 38; Mark xiv. 34; and therein, first, a will, Matt. xxvi. 39; secondly, affections, Mark iii. 5; Luke x. 21; thirdly, endowments, Luke ii. 52.
Fourthly, General infirmities of nature.
Matt. iv. 2; John iv. 6; Heb. ii. 18.

Q. 6. Wherefore was our Redeemer to be man?

A. That the nature which had offended might suffer, and make satisfaction, and so he might be every way a fit and sufficient Saviour for men.
Heb. ii. 10–17.