There are a number of contributions which probe the philosophical meanings and mechanics of the two natures union in Edwards’s Christology. Representative examples are: Robert W. Caldwell III, Communion in the Spirit; Seng-Kong Tan, Fullness Received and Returned; W. Ross Hastings, Jonathan Edwards and the Life of God; Steven M. Studebaker, Jonathan Edwards’ Social Augustinian Trinitarianism in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. What has not received as much attention is Edwards’s understanding of the hypostatic union in connection to the love of Christ. I observe that Edwards makes this connection in the Miscellanies. The topic, “Love of Christ,” is covered by entries 81, 180, 183, 189, 762, 898. In entry 81, Edwards discusses Christ’s love for individual believers as well as for the church as a whole. The God-man desires relationship with each believer and this is possible by way of the incarnation as God is brought near to humanity. In entry 180, it is clear that Christ’s love is demonstrated via his substitutionary death. In entry 183, Edwards explains the love the Son had to human nature and the resultant desire to join the divine nature to it. Thus, Christ’s mediatory role is made possible. In entry 189, Edwards discusses the love that human beings have and Christ has to God and others. For creatures, the human nature causes one to love the opposite sex. For Christ, the human nature causes him to love his bride, the church, indicating a higher degree of benevolence compared to human love, which then points to a higher degree of benevolence for God. In entry 762, Edwards examines the death of Christ as a murder. It was out of unwavering love for sinners that Christ suffered and died, atoning for sins. Likewise in entry 898, Christ willingly suffered and died for the elect out of his great love for them. In sum, the incarnation was needed for the Son to demonstrate his love to creatures. Only a God who took on human flesh could die a substitutionary death for fallen creatures, identify with them as their perfect mediator, and have communion with believers. Thus, the thesis of this paper is that the hypostatic union was necessary for Christ to demonstrate his love to creatures by his work of atonement, continued mediation, and union with the church.
To surface Edwards’s understanding of the love of Christ, I will first highlight his Christology and cover topics such as Edwards’s immaterialism, idealism, and role of the Spirit. While it is an “under-researched” doctrine of Edwards’s theology (S. Mark Hamilton, “The Person of Christ,” in The Oxford Handbook of Jonathan Edwards, 135), understanding Edwards’s perspective regarding the hypostatic union is necessary to see why, for Edwards, a God-man was necessary for Christ to demonstrate his love for the church. Therefore, a sketch of Edwards’s apprehension of the union of the divine and human natures will be given before covering the above Miscellany entries detailing the love of Christ.