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Jesus Christ - The Hypostatic Union

The hypostatic union is the union of two distinct natures, the divine and the human, in the one Person of Christ.
Craig Blaising points out that “in the incarnation of the Son of God, a human nature was inseparably united forever with the divine nature in the one person of Jesus Christ, yet with the two natures remaining distinct , whole, and unchanged, without mixture or confusion so that the one person, Jesus Christ, is truly God and truly man.”[1]  
Kenneth Samples adds that “philosophically speaking, as the God-man, Jesus Christ is ‘two Whats’ (that is, a divine ‘what’ [or nature] and a human ‘what’ [or nature]) and ‘one Who’ (that is, a single ‘person’ or ‘self’).”[2]

One important point needs to be made here. When we talk about the hypostatic union, the union of two natures in one Person, we are not saying that Christ is half human and half God. He is not some kind of hybrid. The Bible is clear in teaching that the result of the hypostatic union is a Person who is truly and completely one hundred percent God and truly and completely one hundred percent man, now and forever.

In the incarnation, Jesus’ deity was not lost nor did His divine nature diminish in any way. His divine nature remained as the Father’s and the Spirit’s. Instead, while remaining fully divine, in the incarnation He added humanity. Human nature was added to His divine nature (Phil. 2:6-7).
This is a fundamental of the Faith. Our salvation depends on it.



[1] Craig A. Blaising, “Hypostatic Union,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984), p. 540.
[2] Kenneth R. Samples, Without A Doubt (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), pp. 122-123.

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