The Creed of Chalcedon

Talking Points:

• The creed of Chalcedon is a statement from the early church attempting to define the relationship between the human and the divine in Jesus.
• There were at least four positions the early church could have taken regarding the person of Jesus.
  • Jesus is fully human. He was empowered by God for his work, but he was simply human.
  • Jesus is fully God. He appeared to be human, but he did not have any kind of real human nature.
  • Jesus is a hybrid. His one nature is a combination of humanity and divinity.
  • Jesus is fully God and fully human. He has a fully human nature and a fully divine nature.

The Chalcedonian Creed:

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to 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 reasonable soul and body; 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, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; 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, as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.