Are You an Apollinarianist?

During the third and fourth centuries following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the church fathers studied closely the two natures of Jesus Christ, trying to understand the mystery of His being completely God and completely human. A bishop of Laodicea in Syria named Apollinarius “the Younger” during the years centering around 376AD eagerly emphasized the deity of Jesus Christ, that He was completely, 100% God. 

Apollonarius developed the view that Jesus had a human body controlled by a divine, God-mind. Jesus was a human physically, but psychologically He was divine, holy. Think of it as a human mind implanted into a lion. The lion’s body would be controlled by the human mind. Jesus became a hybrid being that was not completely human and not completely God.

I did not realize it, but I was once an Apollinarianist and maybe you were also. I believed that Jesus was 100% God and 100% man, but tipped it more to the divine, God part. I considered that Jesus was operating out of His complete God-ness when He healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons and did miracles. He was operating out of His human-ness when Jesus was tired, got hungry and experienced pain. When Jesus told His followers that they would do greater things than He did, I acknowledged that with a skeptical, “Righhhht, like I am going to do the things Jesus did and more?!?”

Apollinarianism was declared a heresy in 381AD by the First Council of Constantinople, which affirmed Jesus Christ as fully human and fully God. Followers of Apollinarianism were accused of attempting to create a “tertium quid”, a third thing that was neither God nor human.

Since humans sinned, the penalty, substitution, atonement had to be human.

If He was not one of us, then we are not united with His Godness and not saved.

So, how did Jesus do all the supernatural things?

Consider the miracles that Jesus perform which the prophets in the Old Testament, the twelve disciples or other followers of Jesus also performed?
Healed the sick.
Raised the dead.
Cast out demons.
Performed miracles.

Jesus did those miracles through His relationship with His Father. As followers of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are given authority to do what Jesus did. We do not become God, but as adopted children, we are heirs that give us relational authority to act in His name.

Philippians 2:5-8
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made Himself nothing,
    taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    He humbled himself
    and became obedient to death --
        even death on a cross!

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