· Christology ·

Lecture Thirty Seven:  The Hypostatic Union I

Introduction and Christological Heresies

TH330 Systematic Theology I · Moody Bible Institute · Dr. Richard M. Weber

I. Terms and Definitions

A. Hypostasis

“Technically, hypostasis refers to each of the three concrete and distinct trinitarian persons who share a single divine nature or essence.”  (“Hypostasis, Hypostatic Union,” in Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grove, Ill.:  InterVarsity, 1999).

B. “Nature”

“The single person of the incarnate Christ retained the total complex of divine attributes and possessed all the complex of human attributes essential to a perfect human being.”  (Charles R. Ryrie, Basic Theology, 287-288).

C. “Hypostatic Union”

“At the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451 the church declared the doctrine of the hypostatic union.  The doctrine is an attempt to describe the miraculous bringing together of humanity and divinity in the same person, Jesus Christ, such that he is both fully divine and fully human.”  (“Hypostasis, Hypostatic Union,” in Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grosve, Ill.:  InterVarsity, 1999).

II. The Nature of the Hypostatic Union

2 natures, united in one person without mixture, without change, without division, without separation.

2 complete, undiminished natures united in one person (hypostasis) forever

“Theanthropic”

      Theos God

      Anthropos Man

Christ’s person was Theanthropic

Christ’s nature was/were not Theanthropic

III. The Communication of Attributes

A. Attributes Cannot Be Transferred From One Nature To Another (Calvinism)

B. An Alternative View:  Luther’s Concept of The Communicatio Idiomatum

The natures transferring back and forth.

Ex: Communion, literally “this is my body”. “ubiquity” – wherever people are doing communion, then we have to believe that His body is present (omnipresent).

“According to this teaching, Jesus’ status as both fully God and fully human implies that whatever is true of Jesus’ humanity is also true of his deity and vice versa without mixing the qualities of the divine or human nature.”  (“Communicatio idiomatum, communicatio operationum,” in Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grosve, Ill.:  InterVarsity, 1999).

IV. A Pantheon of Heretics:  Various Denials of the Hypostatic Union

A. Docetism (to seem to appear to be – δοκεω)

1 John 4:1-3.  “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.”

“Docetist theologians emphasized the qualitative difference between God and humans and therefore downplayed the human elements of Jesus’ life in favor of those that pointed to his deity.  The early church rejected docetism as an heretical interpretation of the biblical teaching about Jesus.”  (“Docetism,” in Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordlint, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1999)

(Spirit form of OBI ONE KENOBI)

B. Ebionism

“Ebionites ... understood Jesus as one who was anointed by God at his baptism because of his perfect obedience to the Mosaic law.”  (“Ebionism” in in Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordlint, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1999)

(SPIDERMAN got powers after being bit. Jesus started as a normal man)

C. Arianism

Denied the eternality of Christ.

“The central characteristic of Arian thought was that because God is one, Jesus could not have also been truly God.  In order to deal with the scriptural testimony to the exalted status of Christ, Arius and his followers proposed that Jesus was the highest created being of God.  So although Christ was fully human, he was not fully God.”  (“Arianism, Arius” in Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1999)

If Jesus was “begotten” He must have had a beginning.

(HERCULES – zuse was divine, Hercules was not, but had some qualities)

NICEA (325 ad) – condemned Arias after assembling all the bishops.

D. Apollinarianism

“If we have  a Christ that is less than fully divine, then that savior cannot save us. Took on a human body and soul, but not a human spirit, which would be sin”

Instead of a human spirit, He had divine logos, or divine mind.

(EDGER ((MIB)) Just the skin, but really the alien)

Apollinaris “declared that in his incarnation Christ took on a human body and soul but not a human mind or spirit (nous).  Apollinarius argued that to have a human spirit is to have a free will.  But where there is free will, there is also sin.  Therefore, Apollinarius concluded, Christ operated solely on the basis of a divine mind or nous.”  (“Apollinarianism, Apollinarius,” in Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordlint, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1999)

Condemn at the council of Constantinople (381 AD).

E. Nestorianism

THE INCREDIBLE HULK.

Nestorius got into trouble when he tried to go farther than scripture.

Nestorianism held “that although Jesus Christ was one person (God and man united), his two natures (one human and one divine) existed side by side and hence were separable.”  (“Nestorianism” in Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1999)

F. Eutychianism

Eutyches is concerned with nestorius’ view. He merges Christ into a single nature, not a single person.

SPOCK : half human, half Vulcan.

He’s not divine, He’s not human, He’s a third thing or “tertium quid”.  

TH300 Systematic Theology II:  Christology / Soteriology

Historical Christological Heresies

Moody Bible Institute · Dr. Richard M. Weber

From H. Wayne House, Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine, Grand Rapids:  Zondervan, 1992.  pp. 53-54.

Used by permission.