We believe, teach and confess … “that the Word, that is, the Son of God [John 1:14], assumed the human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
So there are two natures—the divine and the human—inseparably joined in one person. There is one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried. Jesus Christ did this to reconcile the Father to us and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of mankind [John 1:29].
Christ Jesus also descended into hell, and truly rose again on the third day. Afterward, He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. There He forever reigns and has dominion over all creatures. (…) The same Christ Jesus will openly come again to judge the living and the dead.” (Augsburg Confession III.1-4,6)
11][1] We believe, teach, and confess also that now, since the incarnation, each nature in Christ does not so exist of itself that each is or constitutes a separate person, but that they are so united that they constitute one single person, in which the divine and the assumed human nature are and exist at the same time, so that now, since the incarnation, there belongs to the entire person of Christ personally, not only His divine, but also His assumed human nature. So without His divinity and also without His humanity, the person of Christ or the incarnate Son of God, is not complete. We mean the Son of God who has received flesh and become man (John 1:14).[2] Hence Christ is not two distinct persons, but one single person, even so that two distinct natures are found in Him, unconfused in their natural essence and properties.
12] We believe, teach, and confess also that the assumed human nature in Christ not only has and retains its natural, essential properties, but that over and above these, through the personal union with the Deity, and afterwards through glorification, it has been exalted to the right hand of majesty, power, and might, over everything that can be named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come [ Eph. 1:21 ].
13] Now as regards this majesty, to which Christ has been exalted according to His humanity, He did not first receive it when He arose from the dead and ascended into heaven, but when He was conceived in His mother’s womb and became man, and the divine and human natures were personally united with one another. 14] However, this personal union is not to be understood, as some incorrectly explain it, as though the two natures, the divine and the human, were united with one another, as two boards are glued together, so that they in deed and truth, have no communion whatsoever with one another. 15] For this was the error and heresy of Nestorius and Samosatenus, who, as Suidas and Theodore, presbyter of Raithu, testify, taught and held: that the two natures have no communion whatsoever with one another. Thereby the natures are separated from one another, and thus two Christs are constituted, so that Christ is one, and God the Word, who dwells in Christ, another.
17] Against this condemned heresy the Christian Church always and at all times has simply believed and held that the divine and the human nature in the person of Christ are so united that they have a true communion with one another.
[1] http://bookofconcord.org., SD VIII, 11-17.Note: This passage has been edited, slightly, to enhance the readability and to fit the structure of the website page.
[2] Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions © 2005, 2006 Concordia Publishing House. Used with permission. All rights reserved. To purchase a copy of Concordia, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040. SD VIII, 1, pg 611.
23][1] On account of this personal union and communion of the divine and the human nature in Christ we believe, teach, and confess also, according to our simple Christian faith, what is said concerning the majesty of Christ according to His humanity, by which He sits at the right hand of the almighty power of God, and what is connected with this follows; all of which would be nothing and could not stand if this personal union and communion of the natures in the person of Christ did not exist in reality, in deed and truth.
24] On account of this personal union and communion of the natures, Mary, the most blessed Virgin, bore not a mere man, but, as the angel Gabriel testifies, such a man as is truly the Son of the most high God, who showed His divine majesty even in His mother’s womb, because He was born of a virgin, without violating her virginity. Therefore she is truly the mother of God, and yet remained a virgin.
25] He did all His miracles by the power of His personal union. He showed His divine majesty, according to His pleasure, when and as He willed.[2] He did this not just after His resurrection and ascension only, but also in His state of humiliation; for example, at the wedding at Cana of Galilee; also, when He was twelve years old, among the learned; also in the garden, when with a word He cast His enemies to the ground; likewise in death, when He died not simply as any other man, but in and with His death conquered sin, death, devil, hell, and eternal damnation; which the human nature alone would not have been able to do if it had not been thus personally united and had not had communion with the divine nature.
26] Hence also the human nature, after the resurrection from the dead, has its exaltation above all creatures in heaven and on earth; which is nothing else than that He entirely laid aside the form of a servant, and yet did not lay aside His human nature, but retains it to eternity, and is put in the full possession and use of the divine majesty according to His assumed human nature. However, this majesty He had immediately at His conception, even in His mother’s womb, but, as the apostle testifies [ Phil. 2:7 ], laid it aside; and, as Dr. Luther explains, He kept it concealed in the state of His humiliation, and did not employ it always, but only when He wished.
27] But now He does, since He has ascended, not merely as any other saint, to heaven, but, as the apostle testifies [ Eph. 4:10 ], above all heavens, and also truly fills all things, and being everywhere present, not only as God, but also as man has dominion and rules from sea to sea and to the ends of the earth; as the prophets predict, Ps. 8:1,6; 93:1f ; Zech. 9:10, and the apostles testify, Mark 16:20, that He everywhere wrought with them and confirmed their word with signs following. 28] Yet this occurred not in an earthly way, but, as Dr. Luther explains, according to the manner of the right hand of God, which is no fixed place in heaven, as the Sacramentarians assert without any ground in the Holy Scriptures, but nothing else than the almighty power of God, which fills heaven and earth, in which Christ is installed according to His humanity, in reality, that is, in deed and truth, without confusion and equalizing of the two natures in their essence and essential properties. 29] By this communicated divine power, according to the words of His testament, He can be and truly is present with His body and blood in the Holy Supper, to which He has directed us by His Word; this is possible to no other man, because no man is in such a way united with the divine nature, and installed in such divine almighty majesty and power through and in the personal union of the two natures in Christ, as Jesus, the Son of Mary. 30] For in Him the divine and the human nature are personally united with one another, so that in Christ “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” [Col. 2:9]. In this personal union the two natures have such a grand, intimate, indescribable communion that even the angels are astonished at it, and, as St. Peter testifies, have their delight and joy in looking into it [ 1 Pet. 1:12 ].
[1] http://bookofconcord.org., SD VIII, 23-30, Note: This passage has been edited, slightly, to enhance the readability and to fit the structure of the website page.
[2] Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions © 2005, 2006 Concordia Publishing House. Used with permission. All rights reserved. To purchase a copy of Concordia, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040. SD VIII, 25, pg 614.