Three Minutes in Theology: The Hypostatic Union

The Heresies That Denied Christ’s True Deity and Humanity

Welcome to Three Minutes in Theology. I'm Alan Nelson, pastor of Perryville Second Baptist Church in Central Arkansas. Today's subject is the hypostatic union. It's Christmas time. One thing you don't want to get for Christmas is the label of heretic.

Heresies were abounding in the early church. They still float around from time to time today. Heresies like Arianism, which denied the true godness, the true divinity of Jesus, saying he wasn't equal with the Father.

Other heresies like Apollinarianism said that Jesus did not have a human mind. Heresies like Nestorianism said Jesus was two persons, God and man working together. Eutychianism said that the God nature and the human nature fused into a third type of nature that was neither truly God nor truly man.

The Incarnation and the Hypostatic Union

But the Christian teaching is this, that the eternal Son of God took on human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and in so doing, he took on the human nature, two distinct natures in the one person of Christ.

The 17th century Baptist catechism sums it up this way. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man? Answer, Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, be conceded by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her yet without sin.

Now, the reality here is that Jesus in the womb of Mary takes on the human nature without giving up any of his divinity, and these two natures do not fuse together or overlap or mingle in any way. We can really sum it up this way.

Two Natures in One Person

Jesus has two natures, his divine nature and his human nature. He's equal with the Father and the Spirit, eternally God. He took on this nature in the womb of Mary. Secondly, each nature is full and complete.

He really is God, and he really became man. Thirdly, each nature remains distinct. There's no overlap, there's no mixture. Fourthly, Christ is only one person. He's not two persons. He has two natures, and these natures are in the one person of Christ.

Fifthly, things that are true of only one nature are nonetheless true of the person of Christ. That is, Christ really died because the human nature died. Christ was really hungry because the human nature got hungry.

Christ is really omniscient because the divine nature is omniscient. Willemus of Breckel, the Dutch reformed theologian, said it this way, the incarnation is that great work of God in which the wisdom, goodness, power, mercy, and glory of God shines forth in a most excellent manner.

What wisdom, goodness, and power is manifested in bringing a sinner back to a holy God by way of the most sublime manifestation of his justice, by a person who is both God and man, through such a way of suffering and by leading the sinner to such a felicity in ways which pass all understanding.

Christmas Celebration and the Hope of the Hypostatic Union

Soli Dei O Gloria. This is the wonderful truth that God became man. We celebrate this at Christmas, but we celebrate it year round because our hope lies in this precious doctrine of the hypostatic union.

God bless you as you celebrate Jesus this Christmas season and year round.