What is Hypostatic Union, and What Does It Claim about Christ?
Share
As the first century church looked at apostolic writings and began to make sense of the work of Christ, one doctrine caused a great conflict.
Many leaders taught Jesus was fully God and fully human. Looking at the Gospels and the letters from the apostles to the churches, bishops and pastors held this view. Others, however, saw a logical problem with this. Somewhat influenced by both Jewish traditional teaching and Greek religious philosophy, a sect of Christianity argued that Jesus couldn’t be both human and divine. He must have been something different, with various theories suggested.
In the end, and after a century of debate, orthodox or mainline Christianity became associated with what we call hypostatic union, that Jesus was both God and a man. Hypostatic union is foundational for an understanding of Christ’s work, our salvation, and the future promised in the Scripture.
How Did Hypostatic Union Develop?
The term hypostatic comes from the Greek hypostasis, meaning substance or person, and it points to the two natures existing in one person, Jesus: divine and human.
The theology was introduced early as Christians struggled with the mystery of Jesus’ identity. Reading the Gospels, we see that Jesus performs god-like acts, such as forgiving sins and commanding nature. The Gospels also take care to highlight his humanity through his experience with hunger, pain, and sorrow. The apostolic narratives drove these early leaders to try to explain how Jesus could be both divine and human. They seemed diametrically opposed, and this connected to the problem of the Trinity. How could Jesus and the Father both be fully God and maintain the idea of one God?
The debates over hypostatic union began in the early church. The first major challenge came from teachers who leaned too far toward one or the other: Jesus’ godhood or his humanity. Docetism claimed Jesus only seemed human, like a mirage or fake, denying his humanity. In contrast, Ebionitism taught Jesus was merely a human and rejected his divinity. These debates and similar ones continued through the first few centuries of the early church.
In 325 A.D., bishops and leaders from all of known Christianity gathered at the Council of Nicaea, and they addressed the divine nature of Christ, affirming his equality with God the Father. However, they didn’t resolve the relationship between his divinity and humanity, leading to more discussion. As a result, a heresy called Apollinarianism developed in the 4th century. This doctrine said Jesus had a human body but not a human mind, with the divine Word (Logos) replacing his human soul. Since this denied Jesus’ full humanity, the church rejected it.
By the next century, Nestorianism argued that Jesus had two separate persons, a divine and a human, dividing him into two beings. Since it undermined the unity and integrity of Christ’s person, the Council of Ephesus (431) condemned it. Eutychianism taught Christ’s divine nature consumed or absorbed his human nature, leaving only the divine. This was also rejected.
Twenty years later, in 451 A.D., the Council of Chalcedon settled the issue. In the Chalcedonian Definition, the church declared Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, “without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation.” This statement became the traditional Christian position, formalizing the church’s teachings on the identity of Jesus. Hypostatic union remains a foundation stone of Christian theology, revealing God’s abundant love in entering human history, fully embracing humanity while staying fully divine.
What Verses Support Hypostatic Union?
Over the centuries and through various challenges, hypostatic union didn’t win out because of a political ploy or social popularity. Theologians went back to the Bible to properly articulate the truth of Jesus’ nature. They had several passages to work from.
In John chapter one, the apostle says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” These inspired ideas affirm the union between the eternal, pre-existent divine arriving in a human being. The Word, or Logos, was taken from Greek philosophy, as a message for life. John asserts Jesus is both God and separate as the message of God. Jesus also made the following statement: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). This oneness describes a unity of two people together in purpose and substance, affirming Jesus as God.
The apostle Paul also declares in Colossians 2:9, “For in him the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily.” Paul teaches that in Jesus, a human body possessed the whole of God’s nature. In Philippians 2:6-7, Paul also says about Jesus, “Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking up the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Here, Paul shows Jesus’ divine preexistence and his choice to take on human life.
As stated above, the Gospels made it a point to show Jesus’ humanity. As a young man, he learned and grew. “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). After fasting for forty days, he got hungry (Matthew 4:2). Jesus experienced physical needs as all people do. After fasting, the Devil himself tempted Jesus, which Christ overcame. Christ also felt grief and sorrow, as John 11:35 says, “Jesus wept.” In his life experience, from birth to death, Jesus lived a human life but perfectly, in complete obedience to God. As such, he can be the high priest we require (Hebrews 4:15).
In dealing with Jesus’ role as mediator, Paul calls him “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). The apostle also summarizes this in Romans 1:3-4: “Concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.” As a trained Pharisee, Paul would have been familiar with the prophecy from Isaiah 9:6: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” The Son was given because he preexisted creation itself as completely God. The child was born to be fully human, as well.
Why Does Christ's Full Humanity and Divinity Matter?
As theologians discovered over the years and as Scripture states, the truth of the hypostatic union holds great importance for salvation and Christ’s work on earth and in heaven. Without this theology, Christ’s redemptive mission would be incomplete.
For salvation, a mediator needs to bridge the gap between a holy God and sinful humanity. Jesus, as fully God, represents God’s authority and power and love. As fully man, he understands human weakness and endured the penalty of sin on our behalf. As God, he reveals the divine nature to humanity, and as man, he represents humanity before God.
Connected to being a high priest, Jesus’s dual nature allowed him to become the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God. Hebrews 2:17 states, “He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest… to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Only as a human could he be a substitute for sinners under the law. However, being God, his sacrifice becomes eternal and final for all who believe (1 John 2:2).
Through being both man and God, he broke the power of sin and death through his crucifixion and resurrection (Colossians 2:15). He needed to be both God and man to reverse the curse of sin and death for those who repent (1 Colossians 15:21-22).
While on earth, his dual nature meant he could fully reveal God’s character and will while living as a human being. As God, he performed miracles and forgave sins and had power over storms. As one of us, he could have compassion and show it through genuine connections and relationships with humans. This made his teachings both authoritative and intimately loving. His perfect obedience fulfilled God’s righteousness which he imparts to all who believe in him, and his divine authority will fulfill every promise he made.
Being God, his work didn’t end with his ascension. In heaven, he continues as the God-man, mediating on our behalf (Hebrews 7:25). Since he has human experience, he has empathy when he intercedes on our behalf. He can also teach and lead us to live righteously as born-again believers, those with the Spirit within us. Christ has become the pioneer, living in heaven in a resurrected body with the Father, giving us hope for the same eternal future (1 Corinthians 15).
What Does Hypostatic Union Mean for Christians Today?
The hypostatic union imparts to us his victory over death. Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t as a ghost or mirage but real and physical, as the Gospels show us with the empty tomb. Post-resurrection, he ate food and allowed people to touch him (Luke 24:39-43). His resurrection reveals how Jesus defeated death both spiritually and physically, giving us confidence we will experience the same. We will rise in a new, spiritual body, as well.
We all want to be seen and heard, known intimately. As God, Jesus knows us through his all-knowing nature. As human, he was tempted and suffered as we are. He has knowledge through experience, allowing him to have great compassion. This should comfort us. He understands our struggles and trials. We can trust Jesus comprehends the difficulties but also offers the ability to overcome since he walked the same path.
Through repentance to the Father, we’re given the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. Christians become new creations, the divine Spirit within us to live on earth. God shares his divine nature with us to empower us to walk and obey as Christ did. When a person is born again through the Spirit, Christ is still being incarnated into humanity. While we aren’t fully God, Jesus gave the Holy Spirit for us to accomplish his mission and purpose. By the Spirit, we receive wisdom, power, and guidance to say no to sin, love people as God does, and declare the Kingdom of God. We couldn’t follow him without the Spirit within us.
Hope provides us with strength during hard times, which everyone experiences. This hope becomes an anchor for the soul. The hypostatic union provides several levels of hope. First, that Christ is with us and empowers us now. We have peace and spiritual rest in our current life despite outward circumstances. Second, we possess the hope of the bodily resurrection. Paul writes in Philippians 3:21 that Christ “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.” We will one day have immortal, glorified bodies in the new heaven and earth, living in perfect communion with God (Revelation 21:3-3).
Without the hypostatic union, none of these things are possible for us. But in Christ’s dual nature, we experience his love, his compassion, his empowerment, and a secure hope for the future.
Peace.
Further Reading
Jesus: Both God and Man
What Is the Hypostatic Union?
What Does It Mean That Jesus is God Who Became a Man?
What Is Hypostatic Union and What Does the Bible Say about It?
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/YuraDobro
