Jesus, fully God or fully man?

During an inter-faith dialogue which I attended a few weeks ago, one probing question that the muslims raised was concerning the dual nature of Jesus Christ. How can one be fully God and fully man at the same time? The theory of noncontradiction tells us that we cannot 'be' something and 'not be' at the same time. If Jesus is God, then he cannot be man, because man is not God.

The complexity of the trinity is indeed hard to comprehend. Even theologians over the centuries, could not give a definite description of the Godhead. One seemingly reasonable argument is as follows:

In Phi 2:7, we read that Jesus 'stripped himself of all privilege' (PHILIPS), 'made himself of no reputation' (KING JAMES) or 'emptied himself' (RS). Emptying is derived from the Greek word 'kenosis'. Bishop Gore argued that Christ emptied himself of some divine qualities (ie. omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience) when he became incarnate, while retaining his moral attributes (ie. justice, holiness, love).

However, this argument is flawed in a few ways. Firstly, if Christ has reduced some qualities of deity, he cannot be fully God. Secondly, if Jesus has renounced his divine knowledge, he could not claim that all his teaching is from God, thus rendering some of his teaching to be fallible. Besides, Jesus did show that he possessed some divine qualities by commanding the storm to cease. He also knew that Lazarus was dead before being told.

The road seems to be heading towards dead end when J.I. Packer in his book 'Knowing God' enlightened me with an interesting way of looking at the Godhead. The keyword here is 'total submission'. And I quote him, 'it is not so much one of deity reduced as of capacities restrained'.

The Son (Christ) does not act 'independently' as a divine person, but as a 'dependent' person who thinks and acts only as the Father (God) directs (John 6:38). The Son's knowledge and actions are bounded by the Father's will. Although he is co-equal with the Father in eternity, power and glory, he chooses to submit to the authority and good pleasure of the Father. The fact that he needed to eat and sleep is because the Father wills him to. Similarly, he did not know the time of his second coming because the Father wills that he does not possess that knowledge while he's still on earth. All he did was SUBMIT.

This may not be the best description of the trinity ever, but at least it sheds a new light to me on the dual nature of Christ. Is Jesus fully God or fully man? I would say, with all certainty, that he is both. And the key to this is his submission. If you are still in doubt, just marvel at the mystery....