the "Chalcedonian Box"

There is much mystery to the person of Christ.  Understanding exactly how he can be God and man at the same time, how he could become a baby when he was the eternal Son, how he could be tempted by sin, how he could become a sacrifice for our sins is beyond our puny brains.

But while there is much we don't understand about the person of Christ, there are some things we can understand.  In the face of rising false teachers, the church convened a council in  Chalcedon (modern Istanbul, Turkey) in 451 to answer the Eutychians (those who believed Christ only had one nature) and Nestorians (those who believed that there were two separate persons in Christ).

You Can't Put God in a Box, But...

The "Chalcedonian Box," which comes from the Creed of Chalcedon (A.D. 451), is a helpful tool to remember four key points about the person of Christ.  The creed (see full text below), based on the teaching of the Bible, establishes four boundaries concerning the person of Christ: 1) he is one person; 2) with two natures; 3) he is fully God and; 4) fully man.  The creed does not unravel the mystery of how the two natures operate in one person, or how he can be God and man at the same time, or whether he did some things in his divine nature and others in his human nature, etc.

The creed is more about what Christ is not than exactly what he is.  These four boundaries, or four sides of the "Chalcedonian Box," help us not to over emphasize one aspect over another (E.g., emphasizing the humanity of Christ to the point of ignoring, or disavowing his deity, or, E.g., emphasizing his two natures to the point of losing the unity of his person).

 

Full text of the Creed of Chalcedon, A.D. 451:

"We then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confesss one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, [who is] perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial with the father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the dinstinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God, the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has been handed down to us."                   Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 2:62-63