This is the last of John Webster’s three lectures on the atonement. In this talk, entitled “God with us”, Dr. Webster explores the “mystery of God” that is mentioned so many times in the New Testament. Here is one helpful quote that Dr. Webster read in this lecture:
“In His [Christ’s] humanity He was a partaker of the divine nature. . . From all eternity Christ was united with the Father, and when He took upon Himself human nature, He was still one with God. He is the link that unites God with humanity. . . It is because Christ took human nature that men and women become partakers of the divine nature. He brings life and immortality to light through the gospel. . . Christ was appointed to the office of Mediator from the creation of God, set up from everlasting . . . Before the world was made, it was arranged that the divinity of Christ should be enshrouded in humanity. . . .
This was not done by going out of Himself to another, but by taking humanity into Himself. Thus Christ gave to humanity an existence out of Himself. To bring humanity into Christ, to bring the fallen race into oneness with divinity, is the work of redemption. Christ took human nature that men might be one with Him as He is one with the Father, that God may love man as He loves His only-begotten Son, that men may be partakers of the divine nature, and be complete in Him. The Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the only-begotten Son of God, binds the human agent, body, soul, and spirit, to the perfect, divine-human nature of Christ. . . . Finite man is united to the manhood of Christ. Through faith human nature is assimilated with Christ’s nature. We are made one with God in Christ.” 1 SM 226,8; 250-1
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