Layer 1 · 02

The Person and Work of Jesus Christ

The Common Confession

We confess that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. He is truly God and truly man — not a mixture of the two, not God appearing as man, not man promoted to divinity, but one person in two complete and distinct natures, divine and human, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary — true God taking true flesh. He lived as a man among men, subject to hunger, weariness, grief, and temptation, yet without sin. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day He rose bodily from the grave — the same body that was crucified, now glorified. He ascended bodily into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom shall have no end.

He possesses two wills — a divine will and a human will — and two natural operations, the divine and the human, acting in concert without opposition, the human will freely following and never resisting the divine will. He is the one Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), the head of the Church which is His body, and the Lord of all creation.

Scriptural Warrant

Full deity:

“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” (John 1:1, 14)
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created” (Colossians 1:15–16)
“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3)
Thomas’s confession: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)
“In Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9)

Full humanity:

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things” (Hebrews 2:14)
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15)
He hungered (Matthew 4:2), wept (John 11:35), was wearied (John 4:6), suffered (1 Peter 2:21), and died (1 Corinthians 15:3)

One person, two natures:

“The Word became flesh” (John 1:14) — the divine person took human nature; human nature did not become a separate person
“For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9) — deity in a body: two natures, one subject

Virgin conception:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23)
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy — the Son of God” (Luke 1:35)

Bodily resurrection:

“He is not here, for He has risen, as He said” (Matthew 28:6)
“He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days” (Acts 1:3)
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17)

Ascension and session:

“He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9)
“He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3)

Return in glory:

“This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11)
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne” (Matthew 25:31)

Creedal and Conciliar Anchor

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

The Nicene Creed (325/381)

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father; through whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

The Definition of Chalcedon (451)

We confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the Christological grammar of the universal Church. The four negative adverbs (without confusion, without change, without division, without separation — Greek: asynchytōs, atreptōs, adiairetōs, achōristōs) define the boundaries within which all orthodox Christology operates.

Constantinople III (681)

We proclaim equally two natural wills in Him and two natural operations, without division, without change, without separation, without confusion… His human will follows and does not resist or struggle against His divine and almighty will, but rather is subject to it.

This council rejected Monothelitism — the heresy that Christ had only one will. The affirmation of two wills (dyothelitism) completes the Chalcedonian definition: if Christ is truly God and truly man, He must have a truly divine will and a truly human will.

Patristic Witness

Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 130–202)

“There is therefore one God the Father, and one Christ Jesus, who came by means of the whole dispensational arrangements and gathered together all things in Himself. But in every respect, too, He is man, the formation of God; and thus He took up man into Himself, the invisible becoming visible, the incomprehensible being made comprehensible, the impassible becoming capable of suffering.” — Against Heresies 3.16.6

Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296–373)

“He was made man that we might be made god (theopoiēthōmen)… He assumed a body capable of death, that by offering it as His own He might destroy death in all, and through the resurrection raise us up again to incorruption.” — De Incarnatione 54.3; 8.4

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

“We do not say that the nature of the Word was changed and became flesh, nor that it was converted into a whole man… but rather that the Word, having in an ineffable and inconceivable manner personally (kath’ hypostasin) united to Himself flesh animated with a rational soul, became man.” — Third Letter to Nestorius, received at Ephesus (431)

Leo the Great (c. 400–461)

“Each nature preserves its own proper character without defect; and as the form of God does not take away the form of a servant, so the form of a servant does not diminish the form of God.” — Tome of Leo (Epistola 28 ad Flavianum), received at Chalcedon (451)

Maximus the Confessor (c. 580–662)

“The incarnate Word possesses a natural will as man, which is moved and shaped by His divine will… The human will does not oppose God… but rather it follows the divine will, wishing what the divine will wishes it to will.” — Opusculum Theologicum 3; received at Constantinople III (681)

Cross-Tradition Attestation

Roman Catholic

CCC §464: “The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.” CCC §467 receives Chalcedon verbatim. CCC §475: “Similarly, at the sixth ecumenical council, Constantinople III in 681, the Church confessed that Christ possesses two wills and two natural operations, divine and human. They are not opposed to each other, but cooperate in such a way that the Word made flesh willed humanly in obedience to his Father all that he had decided divinely with the Father and the Holy Spirit for our salvation.”

Eastern Orthodox

The Confession of Dositheus (1672), Decree 7, affirms the Chalcedonian definition and Constantinople III: Christ is one person in two natures, with two wills and two operations. John of Damascus, Exact Exposition 3.1–19, provides the standard Orthodox Christological synthesis: the hypostatic union is real, permanent, and without confusion. The divine nature remains divine; the human nature remains human; the one person of the Word is the subject of both.

Lutheran

Augsburg Confession, Article III: “The Son of God assumed human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that there are two natures, the divine and the human, inseparably joined in one person, one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried.” The Formula of Concord, Epitome VIII, further develops the Lutheran doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum (communication of attributes between the natures), which it affirms with distinctive emphasis while maintaining the Chalcedonian boundaries.

Reformed

WCF 8.2: “The Son of God, the second Person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father, did, when the fulness of time was come, take upon Him man’s nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin: being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion.” HC Q&A 35: “That the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took upon Himself true human nature from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, by the operation of the Holy Spirit.”

Anglican

Article II of the Thirty-Nine Articles: “The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took Man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man.” The BCP Collect for Christmas Day: “Almighty God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him…”

Where the Accent Differs

The communicatio idiomatum. All traditions affirm that what is said of either nature may be predicated of the one person. But the extent of the communication is disputed: Lutheranism teaches a real communication of divine attributes to the human nature (especially in the doctrine of Christ’s ubiquity, relevant to Eucharistic theology). Reformed theology teaches that the communication is verbal — true of the person, not of the natures as such (the extra Calvinisticum: the Son, even in the incarnation, continues to sustain the universe beyond the humanity). This difference drives the Eucharistic debate and belongs in Layer 3 or Layer 4.
The Theotokos. All historic branches confess Mary as Theotokos (“God-bearer” or “Mother of God”) — affirmed at Ephesus (431) against Nestorius. This is a Christological title, not a Mariological one: it asserts that the one born of Mary is God the Son, not merely a man who bore a divine nature. Rome and Orthodoxy have developed further Marian doctrine (Immaculate Conception, Assumption/Dormition, perpetual virginity) that extends beyond this Christological consensus. The Reformation affirms the Theotokos as Christologically necessary while declining further Marian development. The Theotokos itself belongs in Layer 1; further Marian developments belong in Layer 3/4.
The descent into hell (Descensus ad inferos). Confessed in the Apostles’ Creed (“He descended into hell”), but its meaning varies: triumphant proclamation (1 Peter 3:18–20, Orthodox reading), harrowing of hell (Western medieval), or simply “he truly died and entered the state of the dead” (Reformed minimalist reading). The fact of the descent is Layer 1 (it is creedal); the theology of it belongs in Layer 3.

For Further Study

Cyril of Alexandria, On the Unity of Christ — the definitive patristic case for one-person Christology
Leo the Great, Tome to Flavian — the Western pillar of Chalcedon
Maximus the Confessor, Opuscula Theologica — the theology of two wills
John Calvin, Institutes II.12–17 — the Reformer’s Christology
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, qq.1–59 — the scholastic synthesis