What is the hypostatic union?
The phrase "hypostatic union" is the term theology uses for the joining of Godhead and manhood in the one Person of Jesus Christ. It is not a Bible word, and the writers who use it are careful to say that it labels a mystery rather than explains one — which raises the real questions: what exactly is united, what is not, and why does it matter for salvation?
The Term
Writers reach for the phrase when they need to describe how the Son, without ceasing to be equal with God, entered manhood.
James McBroomIn the second, while eternally co-equal by virtue of the hypostatic union, yet, having become Man, He is the Son of God, a Divine Human Person.
One Person, Two Natures
The union is of natures within a single Person — and neither nature loses what belongs to it by being joined to the other.
E. C. HadleyHe took up humanity into union with deity in His Person; yet His incarnation did not in the least detract from His deity nor His eternal relationship as Son to the Father, but only gave to His humanity His infinite perfection. Each of His two natures retained its own proper character without any confusion... Scripture never divides the Person nor confounds the natures. They are united in His Person by a unique and inscrutable bond.
Two Errors On Either Side
The doctrine is fenced by two mistakes it rules out: splitting Christ into two persons, or blending the two natures into a third thing that is neither.
Truth & TestimonyThe opposite error to saying that He is two persons is to say that His two natures have combined into one. It was an ancient heresy that the two natures, Manhood and Deity, merged together... He is wholly Man and wholly God. He possesses all the attributes and properties of real, unfallen, holy Manhood, and at the same time possesses all the infinite attributes and properties of Deity. The unity consists, not in the amalgamation of essence, but in the Oneness of His Person.
Commentators differ over the wording "God-man": this writer avoids it in case it suggests a half-and-half mixture, while Hadley above uses it freely as a summary of the truth.
The Person Acts, Not A Nature
Because the union is personal, everything said of Christ is said of one Person, even when our minds hold the two natures apart.
William John HockingNot that we do not in our minds separate between the divinity and the humanity; but even in separating them we think of the one Person with regard to Whom we do so. We say Christ is God, Christ is man; but it is Christ Who is the two.
Permanent In Both Directions
The union was not a temporary arrangement for thirty-three years. What He was, He kept; what He took, He keeps.
Norman AndersonIf, in coming down, He never ceased to be all that which He had ever personally been, so in going up He did not cease to be what He had become in coming down... He has gone up in Manhood — He remains a Man for ever. How necessary then it is for us all to know that in becoming flesh He did not cease to be God, and now that He has gone from earth to heaven, having by His work of redemption — His sacrificial work on the Cross — opened heaven and heavenly blessing to men, He has not, nor shall He ever, cease to be Man.
Why It Decides Everything
This is not a puzzle for specialists. The worth of the cross rests on who was hanging there.
Edward DennettEven the blood of Christ, we shall find, would have no value apart from what He was. It is the truth of His person that imparts to it its efficacy. Had He only been man, His death could not have availed for all; had He only been God, He could not have died; but being what He was, "very God and very Man," He not only was qualified as the spotless Man to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin, but His divinity added such efficacy to His precious blood that it suffices for the need of all who believe in His name.
Where Explanation Stops
The safest handling of this truth is also the humblest one — hold the words Scripture gives, and stop where it stops.
J. T. MawsonHere we have the mystery of godliness, which is very great; it goes beyond all human conception, and because of this we must keep to the words of Scripture in speaking of it. Many a fierce battle has been fought in the history of the church over this truth, and creeds have been formulated in the hope of defining and fixing the faith of men about it, and these have become in turn the subject of conflict; but we require neither creed nor formula. We will be satisfied with the words of the Holy Spirit: the Word became flesh.
Summary
- Union — One Person, two natures: manhood taken into union with deity, with each nature keeping its own character.
- Undivided — Scripture never splits the Person and never blends the natures; the oneness is personal, not a mixture of essences.
- Unlost — Becoming Man cost Him nothing of Godhead; He was wholly God and wholly Man at the same moment.
- Unending — He did not cease to be God in coming down, and will never cease to be Man in going up.
- Unlimited value — Because He is both, His death could happen at all and still avail for everyone who believes.