The first genus of the communication of attributes Hollaz describes as follows: “The first genus of communicatio idiomatum consists in this, that such properties as are peculiar to the divine or the human nature are truly and really ascribed to the entire person of Christ, designated by either nature or by both natures.” (Doctr. Theol., p. 314.) 1 Cor. 2, 8: “They crucified the Lord of Glory”; Acts 3,15: “And ye hilled the Prince of Life”; Heb. 13, 8: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and to-day and forever”; John 8, 58: “Before Abraham was, I am,” etc. In all these and similar passages peculiarities of either nature are ascribed to the whole person.
The first genus of the communication of attributes receives its importance from the fact that errorists at all times misinterpreted the Scripture-passages which ascribe human or divine peculiarities to the entire person of Christ. Thus it has been denied that the human idiomata “to be born,” “to suffer,” “to die,” may be properly predicated of the Son of God. Nestorius objected to the teaching of the Christian Church by which Mary was called ϑεοτόκος, or “Mother of God.” Zwingli resorted to a figure of speech (ἀλλοίωσις) to exclude the Son of God from the suffering and death of Christ. According to Zwingli “Christ suffered” means “The human nature suffered”; “My flesh is meat indeed” means “My divine nature is meat indeed.” In short, both Nestorius and Zwingli denied that “the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin,” 1 John 1, 7, in other words, that the suffering and death of Christ were the suffering and death of God.
Nevertheless Scripture affirms this very fact. God’s Son was made of a woman (Gal. 4, 4) and suffered and died (1 Cor. 2, 8); and it is this very fact that Qod suffered and died for us which gives to the blood of Christ the power to cleanse from sin, 1 John 1, 7. Holy Scripture thus ascribes to the entire person of Christ two kinds of properties, one divine and the other human, though in such cases it designates the nature according to which the property in question is ascribed to the whole person. Rom. 1, 3: “His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.” Sometimes the properties are predicated of the concrete of the divine nature (Son of God, Lord of Glory, Prince of Life), sometimes of the concrete of the human nature (Son of David, Son of Man), and sometimes of the concrete of both natures (Christ, Immanuel, our Lord Jesus Christ), but the attributes are always regarded as belonging to the entire Christ.
In this manner Scripture ascribes to Christ eternity (John 8, 58) and time (Luke 3, 23) ; the eternal generation from the Father (John 1, 14. 18; Rom. 8, 32) and the birth, in time, of Mary (Gal. 4, 4; Luke 1, 35; 2, 7); omniscience (John 21, 17; 2, 24. 25) and limited knowledge (Luke 2, 52; Mark 13, 32); omnipotence (Matt. 28,18; Mark 4, 39) and limited power (John 18, 12); life, essential and absolute (1 John 1, 2; John 10, 18; 5, 26), and death and resurrection (Matt. 16, 21; 1 Cor. 2, 8; Acts 3, 15). Both kinds of attributes, the divine and the human, belong to Christ equally, really, and truly, because both natures, the divine and human, really and truly belong to Him. However, the divine attributes belong to Christ according to His divine nature, while the human attributes belong to Him according to His human nature, as Scripture clearly indicates by the diacritical particles (particular diacriticae), as in Rom. 1, 3; 9, 5.
When describing Christ’s work of redemption, it is preferable to employ the concrete expressions: “The Son of God suffered and died” instead of the abstract: “Divinity suffered and died,” because these may be taken in the sense of Theopaschitism (Theopassi- anism). Yet, rightly understood, these terms may be justified. Luther and the dogmaticians of the 16th century employed them frequently in the sense of “Divinity in the flesh.” (Cp. Col. 2, 9: “the fulness of the Godhead.”) — In passing, we may add that our dogmaticians never asserted that God in His nature can suffer and die. What they taught is that Christ, the incarnate Son of God, who is true God and true man, suffered and died according to His human nature.