Nature of Jesus

In Oneness Pentecostal theology, Jesus Christ is not merely the second person of a Trinity but the one God made flesh in his totality. Jesus possesses two natures — divine and human — but in Oneness theology this does not mean he is the second of three divine persons. Rather, the divine nature in Jesus is the Father himself; the human nature is the Son. When Jesus refers to 'the Father,' he is speaking of his own divine nature. When the Father speaks of 'the Son,' he is speaking of Jesus' human nature.

This Christology is sometimes described as modalist or Sabellian by critics — comparing it to the early heresy that the Father, Son, and Spirit are successive modes of the one God. The UPCI disputes this characterization, arguing that its Christology is distinct from classical Sabellianism: Jesus is not merely God appearing in human form but God genuinely becoming human, with a real distinction between the divine nature (Father) and the human nature (Son) in one person.

The resurrection and ascension of Jesus are affirmed as literal, bodily events. The glorified Jesus, now in heaven, is the one God in his eternal and glorified human form. The UPCI regards this as the permanent form in which the one God makes himself known — not a temporary incarnation from which God reverted to a purely spiritual mode, but a permanent union of divinity and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.