Our Doctrine Concerning the Nature of Christ
In this lecture, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III deeply explains the Coptic Orthodox faith regarding the nature of Jesus Christ, affirming the Church’s belief that Christ is fully God and fully man, united in one nature without confusion, change, division, or separation.
🔹 Union of Divinity and Humanity:
His Holiness clarifies that the union of divinity and humanity took place at the moment of the divine conception in the Virgin Mary’s womb, when the Word became flesh through the Holy Spirit and from the Virgin. Thus, Christ is one nature from two, just as the soul and body together form one human nature.
🔹 Rejection of Heresies:
He reviews the heresies that deviated from the true faith—Arius denying Christ’s divinity, Apollinaris denying His full humanity, Nestorius separating the two natures, and Eutyches claiming that humanity was absorbed by divinity. The Council of Chalcedon, which declared two natures after the union, also opposed the Coptic understanding. The Coptic Orthodox Church remains faithful to St. Cyril the Great’s teaching of “one nature of God the Word Incarnate.”
🔹 Theological and Spiritual Meaning:
The Pope emphasizes that belief in the one nature is not denial of divinity or humanity but affirmation of their unity in the one incarnate Christ who became man for human salvation. Redemption can only be understood through this union since the atonement is infinite because of the divine nature.
🔹 Scriptural Evidence of Unity:
He cites verses showing that Christ is “the Lord of Glory,” “the Author of Life,” and “the Only Begotten Son,” with divine and human titles applied to one person. This proves that Scripture speaks of the incarnate Son as one, not two separate natures.
🔹 Core Message:
The one nature of Christ is the foundation of Orthodox faith and salvation. It preserves the truth of redemption and reveals God’s love through the mystery of the Incarnation—the eternal union of God and man for the life of the world.
