Сколько природ у Христа — одна или две?

In 451, the great Council of Chalcedon took place, which became one of the most important Ecumenical Councils of all time. At this council, the church condemned a number of heresies, the most serious of which was Monophysitism. The word «Monophysite» is made up of a prefix and a root. The prefix «mono» means «one» and the root «physis» translates as «nature.» Thus, the word «monophusis,» from which the term «Monophysite» is derived, simply means «one nature.»

The Monophysites held that Christ did not have two natures, divine and human, but only one. This one nature was neither fully divine nor fully human. Depending on how we look at this nature, it can be called a deified human nature or a humanized divine nature. This heresy was a serious danger to the church for two reasons. On the one hand, the Monophysites denied the full divinity of Christ. On the other hand, they also denied the true humanity of Christ. In contrast, the Council of Chalcedon declared that Christ was vere homo, vere Deus , which is Latin for “true man, true God,” having two natures in one person. 

Christ is vere homo, vere Deus , that is, “true man, true God,” having two natures in one person.

How are we to understand the union of the human and divine natures in Christ? The Bible says that at the incarnation the second person of the Trinity took on human nature. However, when Christ took on flesh, human nature, He did not deify it. This human nature remained human.

In examining the mystery of the incarnation and affirming the dogma of the two natures of Christ, the Council of Chalcedon decreed that the two natures coexist in Christ in a perfect manner – unconfused, unchangeable, inseparable and inseparable. They cannot be mixed, as the Monophysites did, deifying the flesh or humanizing the spirit. At the same time, they should not be separated. They are always and everywhere one. To the four negations affirmed by the Council of Chalcedon, the phrase is added: “The property of each nature is preserved.” That is, during the incarnation, the Son did not lose any of His qualities. His divine nature remains eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. All the qualities inherent in the divine nature are manifested in it. God did not cease to be God when He assumed human nature in Christ. At the same time, His human nature retained its distinctive qualities: it is finite, confined to a body, incapable of being in more than one place at a time, limited in knowledge and power. All these qualities of human nature are inherent in the human nature of Christ.

This article was originally published on the Ligonier Ministries Blog.