From October 8th to November 1st in A.D. 451, the city of Chalcedon was occupied by a large church council who wrestled with the natures of Jesus Christ. We know Jesus is divine (John 1:1). We also know Jesus is human (John 1:14). But how do these work together? Is Jesus a human body with divine insides (Apollinarianism)? Is Jesus two separate people (Nestorianism)? Or is Jesus a new hybrid mixture (Monophysitism).

What ensued from Chalcedon was a biblical understanding of the natures of Jesus commonly known as the hypostatic union, which the church still holds to today. So what does Scripture teach us about Jesus’ natures? Scripture teaches us that Jesus has two natures—one divine and one human— and that they exist in the one person of Christ. His divine nature is the same as God (John 1:1) and is human nature is the same as ours (Hebrews 2:14, 17). And He is always referred to as one person. We never see split personalities or Jesus referred to as multiple people.

But how are we to understand the joining of these two natures in the one person of Jesus Christ? By seeing them joined together—not mixed—and retaining their distinct qualities.

This truly is a profound mystery but one that makes theological sense. Jesus was not just human on the outside with divine insides. In this case He could not have fully represented us on the cross. Jesus was not a new hybrid mixture, for again He would not have been able to represent us as our atoning sacrifice. Rather Christ is “acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly…the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ…”

The hypostatic union helps us to understand how Jesus can be worshipped even though He was fully human and how He could be tired even though He was fully God. Moreover, we discover that both of His natures were necessary to be our Savior. As man Jesus was able to taste death for sin. And as God His sacrifice was eternal.

Jesus is the complete Savior—our complete Savior. He is everything we need to be rescued from sin, to have peace with God, and to know God while we wait for His return.

Council of Chalcedon Definition

“We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [coessential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the *Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.”