Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the eternal Son of God (Luke 20:13; John 3:16; Galatians 4:4; John 8:58; Psalm 2; Hebrews 13:8; Romans 1:3-4), is the second person of the Triune Godhead (John 17:5; Philippians 2:5-7). As God the Son He exists eternally (Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1; Colossians 1:17; Revelation 1:17) being coequal (John 10:30) and coeternal (John 6:38) with the Father who makes common the undivided, eternal essence of Himself to the Son (John 1:18; John 3:16; Hebrews 11:17). Christ was the channel of creation (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Ephesians 2:18) and manifested Himself in the Old Testament as the Angel of Yahweh (Genesis 16:10-13; Exodus 3:24; Zechariah 1:12-13).

Jesus Christ by necessity of His sinlessness and personhood was conceived and born of a virgin through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:34-35). Though truly God, Christ became incarnate in human flesh/blood (John 2:21; Matthew 26:26, 28), human form (Matthew 16:13-14), and impersonal human nature (Luke 23:45; Hebrews 2:14; Romans 5:15; Matthew 1:11; John 5:27). As the God-man (John 17:23), Jesus exists forever as the one theanthropic person (John 8:18, 58; Hebrews 7:24) consisting of the hypostatic union of two distinct natures (complex of attributes), fully human (1 Timothy 2:5) and fully divine (Colossians 2:9; John 1:18; John 20:28; Romans 9:5; Hebrews 1:8) without confounding the natures nor dividing the person (Acts 20:28). By virtue of His indivisible person (John 14:30; Hebrews 1:11-12), Christ is totally without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15) and eternally incapable of sin (impeccability – Hebrews 13:8).

At the incarnation, Christ temporarily and voluntarily gave up the independent use of His divine attributes and prerogatives (Philippians 2:5-8; John 17:5). In the kenosis Jesus willingly set aside the unqualified use of his divine prerogatives and took on the form of a servant, voluntarily restricting Himself in order to achieve His objectives in redemption (John 10:10; Galatians 4:4; John 8:28-29).

Once God in grace chose to save individuals, it was necessary to accomplish redemption through the sacrificial death (shed blood) of His own Son (Hebrews 2:10, 17; Hebrews 9:23; Galatians 3:10, 13). The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself freely on the cross, bore the sin of the world, suffered the complete wrath of God against sin (1 John 2:2; Romans 1:32; Hebrews 2:2), obeyed the Law in our stead (Philippians 2:8; Romans 5:19), and provided an infinite, unlimited atonement (John 1:29; 1 John 2:2) for the sins of the whole world applicable only to those who receive Christ with repentant faith (Romans 3:25-26; Hebrews 9:22, 26; Leviticus 17:11). His death was both substitutionary and vicarious (Romans 3:25-26; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13) in that He died in the place of and for the benefit of sinners and redeemed man from bondage (Matthew 20:28) as well as reconciled man to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). His death sufficiently paid once for all the penalty for the sin of all men (1 Timothy 2:6; Hebrews 2:9), makes salvation available to all men (John 3:16; Titus 2:11), provides for a general call to all men (John 12:32), restrains sin in common grace for all men (Matthew 5:45; 2 Thessalonians 2:7), but Christ’s death is efficient for believers alone (1 Timothy 4:10; John 3:36).

Christ physically rose again from the dead the third day in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died (Luke 24:36-43; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4). After His post-resurrection ministry was complete, Jesus ascended visibly and bodily into heaven (Acts 1:11) and is now exalted at the right hand of the Father as the head of the church (Colossians 1:18), and as advocate and intercessor for the saints as our great High Priest (Hebrews 7:25). Christ will return to rapture His saints (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) and later establish His millennial kingdom (Revelation 19:11ff; Revelation 20:3-6).