two-natures
+ NewThe Two Natures of Christ — Chalcedon and Colossians 1:15-20
Col 1:15-20 confesses Christ as "the image of the invisible God" in whom "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." He is at once the firstborn over creation and the one in whom all things hold together. The Chalcedonian Definition guards this with its four adverbs: without confusion, change, division, or separation — one person in two natures. Gregory of Nazianzus supplied the soteriological rule: what is not assumed is not healed. Aquinas later systematized the hypostatic union. The cosmic Christ of Colossians connects to the Logos of John 1:3 and to the exaltation of Phil 2:9-11. Athanasius's logic — God became man that man might be made divine — undergirds the whole.
The Kenosis — Philippians 2:5-11
Phil 2:5-11 traces Christ's descent and exaltation: though "in the form of God," he "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant," and was therefore "highly exalted." The hymn is the pattern of Christian humility and the map of redemption. Debate centers on the kenosis: of what did Christ empty himself? Chalcedon's two-natures grammar rules out any loss of deity; the self-emptying is the veiling of glory, not its abandonment. Barth read the passage as God's freedom to be lowly, while Bavinck guarded the immutability of the divine nature. The "form of God" language parallels Col 1:15 and John 1:1, and the universal homage of 2:10-11 fulfills the monotheistic oath of Isa 45:23. Every knee will bow to the crucified Lord.