In order for any of Adam’s fallen race to be saved, God must act to rescue us from the consequences of our sin. God does so in the person of his eternal son, Jesus Christ, through whom God reveals his justice and mercy. In Jesus Christ, God takes to himself a true human nature and comes to earth to do for us those very things sinners cannot do for themselves; fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law and provide an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. This is why we must believe and confess that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. We must also believe and confess that Jesus Christ remains but one person. But how can this be? How can two distinct natures–one human and one divine–co-exist in one person? This very important question brings us to a discussion of what theologians call the “hypostatic union” of Christ–two natures, yet one person.

Article Nineteen deals with the two natures in Christ (the divine and the human) and the way in which they are related and yet remain distinct. The reason this question must be addressed at this point in our confession is because the prior article dealt with the incarnation of our Lord. When the word became flesh so as to save us from our sins, the question necessarily arises, how can God truly take to himself a human nature? And if he does, how can both human and divine natures co-exist in a single person? Thus the question we seek to answer is not something theologians speculate about to give them something to do. Rather, it is a question raised by the biblical data itself. How we understand these two natures and their relationship to each other says a great deal about what God did in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins.

Click here to read this exposition: Article Nineteen: "We Profess Him to be True Man and True God"

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