B. THE PERSONHOOD OF CHRIST:
TWO NATURES IN ONE DIVINE PERSON

1. HOW THE TWO NATURES ARE JOINED

Now in the Incarnation we say that there are two natures but only one Person. In the Person of Christ, the Son of God, there are two natures, one Divine, one human. Christ is God, the Supreme Being, the Omnipotent Creator and Lord of the world. The Person, Christ, is the Divine Nature. But He also has a human nature, a human body and a human soul. The one Person is both God and man. There are two  "Whats" in Christ but only one "Who." If we ask, "What is Christ?', we must give two answers: we must say, "He is God," and "He is man." But if we inquire, "Who is He?" then we must have only one reply; we must declare, "He is the Son of God." It does not matter that we might also state, "He is the Second Person of the Trinity," or "He is Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary of Nazareth," or "He is the Messiah." All these are only other names for one and the same Person. In Christ, then, we have one Divine Person Who exists in two natures, One human, the Other Divine.

In Christ the Divine Nature and the human nature are united. In what way are they united? Here we find ourselves in the very heart of this great mystery. Obviously they are not simply united in the way in which two stones lying together on the ground are united. if that were the case, then there would be two persons in Christ, the Divine Person and a human person. This would not be a union, but simply a juxtaposition, a placing together of two natures. Nor can we say that the two natures are fused together, in the way, for example, that hydrogen and oxygen are mixed together to make water. This is impossible, first of all because it would mean that the Divine Nature of Christ would have to be changed in some way, and the Divine Nature is absolutely unchangeable. If the Divine and the human natures in Christ were really fused to together, either the Divine Nature would become human, or the human nature would become Divine, or the resulting mixture would be something that was neither human nor Divine. But none of these things is possible. The Divine Nature cannot be changed at all; the human nature cannot become divine; and Christ is not something that is neither Divine nor human. He is both God and Man. In Christ we find both natures in their full perfection.

Nor can we say that the two natures are united to one another as the soul and body are united together to form one man. In this case, soul and body are two incomplete principles which complete one another in their union. But the Divine Nature is not at all incomplete or imperfect. It cannot directly unite with a human nature as one incomplete principle with another. Besides, as in the case of hydrogen and oxygen, the union of body and soul brings into being something which is different from either the body or the soul alone; it brings into being the whole man. But in the Incarnation the union of the two natures does not bring into being any third being distinct from the Divine and human natures. In the Incarnation the two natures are complete, not mixed or fused with one another, nor forming and third thing distinct from both.