A Union Carpenter

Jesus, son of God and son of man, was a carpenter by trade (Mark 6:3). I guess that makes sense, because the Logos was the builder of the universe (John 1:3) so maybe it made sense for him to be a builder when he was a human (John 1:14) also. But did you know he was a union carpenter?

Okay, not like a labor union. But he was the perfect union of God and humanity, and that's very important. It surprises me to realize that it took four centuries for the church to decide this question. But there are a lot of crucial issues hanging on the answer.

Here's the background: Jesus was obviously a man. But he claimed the title "Son of Man" from Daniel 7:13, which everyone of his day recognized as a claim of divinity. Matthew 1:22-23 says that he was Immanuel, God with us, fulfilling Isa. 7:14 and 8:8-10. Scripture gives the Messiah divine (meaning Godly) titles in Isa. 9:6. The early church recognized him as divine/authoritative/Lord/Savior, for instance in 1 Cor 8:6.

The argument arose over whether the Son of God was only divine, so that the human form he assumed was only an illusion; or whether he was only human, which kept God away from being polluted by flesh. There were good-sounding arguments for both sides, yet both sides also had scriptures contradicting them. But what became more and more clear was that Jesus had to be fully God and fully human, even though that sounds impossible to us.

Gregory of Nanzianzus wrote it this way: "What has not been assumed has not been restored; it is what is united with God that is saved." That is, if flesh had not been completely 'assumed,' or taken on, by Jesus, then flesh -- that's all of us -- could not have been saved. In 451 AD, the Council of Chalcedon decided that "Only God can save; only that which God has become is saved." So if Jesus the Messiah had not been fully God and fully human, salvation wouldn't have worked. Jesus had to be a 'union carpenter' as it were.

So by fully 'assuming' flesh, Jesus became our perfect representative before the Father; and the Father's perfect representative to humanity. Isn't that amazing? Because of Christ, our broken flesh is fully reconciled to the Father. Though we still have human weakness and sin, those don't exclude us from the Father's presence, because Immanuel (God with us) is our eternal advocate before the Father (Heb. 7:25), and his perfect death paid for all our sins. (And he's still Immanuel, God with us, by the way -- see Matthew 28:20.)

Can we fully understand that? Not really. But we can look with awe on the God who figured out how to do it, and thank him that he did it for us. And keep thanking God for a certain 'union carpenter', forever.