Why, in God’s plan of redemption, must Christ be both God and man at the same time?
Suppose there are three persons: A, B, and C. Person C has sinned, and A asks B to die for C. This would show that A has love toward C, and that C has answered the requirements of the law; however, this is rather unjust to B. I sinned, and God caused Christ to die for me. Although this shows God’s love and although I meet the requirements of the law, this is rather unjust to Christ. Only when Christ is both God and man is this just.
First, we need to know what forgiveness is. Forgiveness means that the one who forgives takes the loss upon himself. It means that the forgiver is suffering the loss of the forgiven one. The loss is on the side of the one who forgives. For instance, if someone owes you ten dollars, and you forgive him, we can say that you bore the loss since you suffered the loss of ten dollars.
In God’s plan of redemption, Christ should not be a third party. If Christ is a third party, then God is unrighteous toward Him because He has no sin and does not deserve to die. The Bible tells us that man has sinned and that God is the One whom man has sinned against. The relationship here is a two-party relationship between God and man. Asking a third party to die in a substitutionary way may, perhaps, satisfy God’s righteousness, and it may meet the law’s demand on man, but this is rather unrighteous for the third party. It is righteous only because Christ is both God and man.
Micah 6:6 and 7 say, “With what shall I come before Jehovah/And bow myself before the high God?/Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,/With one-year-old calves?/ Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams,/With tens of thousands of rivers of oil?/Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,/The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” These verses say that when we have sinned against God, not only is an offering of rams of no avail, all the sacrifices are of no value. Even offering up our own offspring is of no avail. In order for Christ to not be a third party, He must be God since He Himself is the One being offended. The work of propitiation for sins is righteous only because Christ is God. Conversely, since the work of propitiation for sins is righteous, Christ must be God because only the one who is offended can forgive the one who offends. Who can say forgiveness is unrighteous? Christ is God; He is the offended One and, therefore, He can forgive men.
Romans 7:10 says, “And the commandment, which was unto life, this very commandment was found to me to be unto death.” Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.” These verses show us that a person has to fully keep the law in order to live; otherwise he must die. In order for the Lord to make us live, He had to suffer the penalty of sin; He had to die. However, 1 Timothy 6:16 says that God alone has immortality. Therefore, Christ must also be a man in order to die for us. He had to take a body upon Himself so that He could die for us. He is God; this makes His salvation of men righteous. He is a man; this makes His salvation of men possible.
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