Person of Christ

The question of the person of Christ — who he is — is the central Christological question of the New Testament and the object of two millennia of doctrinal reflection. Jesus himself raised the question explicitly: "Who do people say the Son of Man is?... But what about you? Who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16:13–15). The Gospels present Jesus making claims that presuppose divine authority: forgiving sins (Mark 2:5–7), accepting worship (Matthew 28:17; John 20:28), identifying himself with YHWH's "I AM" (John 8:58; cf. Exodus 3:14), and claiming a unique mutual knowledge with the Father (Matthew 11:27; John 10:30). His use of titles — Son of Man (drawing on Daniel 7:13–14), Son of God, Lord (Kyrios) — each conveyed different dimensions of his identity.

The early church's confessional development articulated the implications of Jesus's resurrection: the Pauline christological hymns (Philippians 2:6–11; Colossians 1:15–20) identify the pre-existent Son as the agent and heir of all creation who emptied himself in incarnation. John's Logos prologue (John 1:1–18) makes the identification of the incarnate Jesus with the pre-existent Word explicit. The ecumenical councils from Nicaea (325) to Chalcedon (451) refined the dogmatic formulations — the Son is of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father; two natures, one person; unconfused, unchanged, undivided, inseparable — in response to proposals that failed to honor either Christ's full deity or full humanity. The result is the classical Christology shared across Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Reformation Christianity as the irreducible core of faith in Jesus.