then, they miss the most crucial element in the church, which is that
Jehovah God came down and took on a human manifestation. Yet our
partnership with God is possible only through this union [of Father and
Son]; and our salvation is possible only through our partnership with
God. Anyone who takes into consideration that God is everything to all
heaven, everything to all the church, and therefore everything to all the-
ology can see that salvation depends on our recognition and acknowl-
edgment of God.
First we will show that the union of the Father and the Son, or the
divine nature and the human nature in the Lord, is like the union of a
soul and a body. Next we will show that that union is reciprocal.
The concept of a union like the one between a soul and a body was
established in the Athanasian Creed—a creed accepted by the entire
Christian world as its position on God. There we read, “Our Lord Jesus
Christ is both God and a human being. Yet although he is both God and
a human being, still he is one Christ, not two. He is one because the
divine nature took on a human nature for itself. In fact, he is completely
one; he is one person. As a soul and a body is one human being, so God
and a human being is one Christ.”
Admittedly, people take this to be a union between an eternally
begotten Son of God and a Son born in time; but God is one, not
three. Therefore when this is taken to be a union with the one God
from eternity then the position in the Athanasian Creed agrees with
the Word.
In the Word we read that the Son was conceived by Jehovah the
Father (Luke 1 : 34 – 35 ). Since this was the origin of his soul and life, it says
that he and the Father are one (John 10 : 30 ), and that those who see and
know him see and know the Father (John 14 : 9 ). “If you had known me
you would have known my Father also” (John 8 : 19 ). “Those who receive
me receive the One who sent me” (John 13 : 20 ). The Word also says that
he is close to the Father’s heart (John 1 : 18 ), that absolutely everything the
Father has belongs to him (John 16 : 15 ), that he himself is called Father of
Eternity (Isaiah 9 : 6 ), and that he has power over all flesh (John 17 : 2 ) and
all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28 : 18 ).
From these and many other passages in the Word we can clearly see
that the union of the Father and the Son is like the union of a soul and a
body. For this reason even in the Old Testament he is often named Jeho-
vah, Jehovah Sabaoth, and Jehovah the Redeemer (see § 83 above).
§98 the lord the redeemer & redemption 133