Hypostatic Union

Definition and Meaning

The hypostatic union is the teaching of Christology that in the one person of Jesus Christ the divine nature and the human nature are united in a single hypostasis. "Divine nature" refers to the nature of God, and "human nature" to the nature of a human being. "Hypostasis" is a Greek term denoting a single personal subject. The doctrine holds that Christ, though possessing two natures, is not two persons but one person. The church confesses that this union began at the Incarnation and continues forever. Discussions of the sinlessness of Christ, the teaching that Christ is truly human yet without sin, also presuppose this doctrine.

Biblical and Historical Background

Passages commonly cited in support of the doctrine include John 1:14 ("the Word was made flesh"), Philippians 2:6-8, Colossians 2:9, and Hebrews 4:15.

After confessing the true divinity of the Son at the Council of Nicaea (325), the early church debated at length the relationship between the divine and human natures.

• Nestorianism, criticized for effectively dividing the two natures as though they were two persons, was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431.
• Monophysite claims that the human nature is absorbed into the divine nature were likewise rejected.
• In 451 the Council of Chalcedon defined Christ as one person in two natures, "without confusion, without change, without division, without separation."

The Chalcedonian Definition became the standard accepted by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and most Protestants. Some Eastern churches, however, such as the Coptic Church, did not accept it.

After the Reformation, Lutheran and Reformed churches both confessed this union but explained differently how the attributes of the two natures are communicated.

• Lutherans emphasized that the human nature participates in the attributes of the divine nature, and they made this the basis for their understanding of the real presence of Christ's body in the Lord's Supper.
• The Reformed emphasized the distinction between the two natures, holding that Christ's human nature has been in heaven since the Ascension.

This difference forms one strand of the Eucharistic controversies.

Practice in the Korean Church

The major Korean denominations generally follow the Chalcedonian Definition. Presbyterians confess in Chapter 8 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and Methodists in their Articles of Religion, that the two natures are united in one person without division. Other denominations, including Holiness, Baptist, and Full Gospel churches, share this understanding in that they confess Christ as true God and true man. The Lutheran tradition also teaches the understanding of the communication of attributes described above.

In worship, the confession of the Apostles' Creed that Christ "was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary" expresses the substance of this doctrine. The term "hypostatic union" itself, however, appears less often in ordinary worship than in systematic theology courses at seminaries, in catechetical instruction, and in settings where denominations examine the Christology of a particular teaching in order to make heresy rulings.