Have you ever heard of the Council of Chalcedon? It was during that Council, in A.D. 451, that the Church affirmed Christ to be one person with two natures. Christ, they said, was both fully God and fully man. However, was this teaching of Chalcedon merely a 5th century invention or as some say, “a figment of pious imagination?” No, indeed no! Chalcedon took its lead from the prophet Isaiah who, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gave us the key to understanding the mysterious constitution of the person of Christ. Let’s look again at what he says in Isaiah 9:6:
“Unto us a child is born-…and His name shall be called the Mighty God”
Before we go any further, let me ask you, is a child who is born a human? Of course it is! But Isaiah goes on to plainly declare that this child is also, “the Mighty God”-in Hebrew, the ‘el gibbor.’ Only God can be called the El Gibbor as we read in Isaiah 10:20-21, "… The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God (el gibbor)."
The child of the manger was ‘el gibbor’ clothed in humanity. This child is the Mighty God. So let me ask, how many mighty Gods are there? Both the Bible and logic know of but one, and the scriptures declare that this mighty God and the Lord Jesus (the child born) are one and the same!
If we believe that Christ is human, but not the Mighty God then we are rejecting the clear record of the Bible. We are, in fact, treating the Bible like a giant cafeteria where we pick and chose the things we like!
Isaiah, in this one scripture (Isaiah 9:6), has given us the key to understanding the mystery of Christ’s identity. This promised one is to be both God and man, both human and divine. This key unlocks the door to the understanding of Christ’s person. If you throw away this key, the door of understanding concerning Christ won’t open. He is one person with two natures; He is both the child born and the mighty God.
Here’s a heart warming word from the powerful pen of Spurgeon on this matter:
“………come and put your trust in Jesus Christ, he is “the mighty God.” Oh, Christians, believe him more than ever, cast your troubles constantly on him; he is “the mighty God;” go to Him in all your dilemmas, when the enemy comes in like a flood, this mighty God shall make a way for your deliverance; take to him your griefs, this mighty God can alleviate them all; tell him your backslidings and sins, this mighty God shall blot them out.—-– CHS: His Name-The Mighty God: Sermon #258
Jesus is the Mighty God! There is no gospel if this is not so. If you do not believe in His deity and yet you are trusting Him to save you, then you have placed your trust in a Jesus who, in your estimation, is less than God. Not only do you not believe in the Bible, but you are also following a different Christ than the one revealed in God’s Word. With respect, we must conclude that your Christ is a Christ of the imagination and human concoction. The awful thing about this is that your Christ cannot save you. With a Saviour less than divine you have a toy Saviour, a supposed saviour who cannot save for He is not the Mighty God!
And that’s the Gospel Truth!