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Examined Doctrine

Martin Luther on the person of Christ

1483 – 1546 · LUTHERAN
READ IN A PRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°
STANCE

One person in two natures, unconfused and undivided

I believe that Jesus Christ is truly God, born of the Father in eternity and also truly man, born of the Virgin Mary. He is my Lord!
Small Catechism II, Second Article (Robert E. Smith trans. from the Triglot German)

THE POSITION

One person, truly God and truly man. Luther states it catechetically rather than as a disputed thesis — the Son alone became man, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, and the confessing Christian says of the same subject that he is 'truly God, born of the Father in eternity and also truly man, born of the Virgin Mary.' The two natures matter to him practically: it is a man's blood that redeems, and it is God's.

12 OTHERS HOLD THIS

CalvinChalcedonJonathan EdwardsThe Church of Eleven22 Statement of FaithEphesusSecond London Baptist ConfessionJohn MacArthurPhilip MelanchthonJohn OwenR.C. SproulWestminster ConfessionZwingli
Word united to flesh, with the human soul underemphasizedATHANASIUS
Affirms both deity and humanity before the categories were fixedCHRYSOSTOM · IRENAEUS
See all 19 figures on the person of christ →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Augustinian friar whose protest over indulgences opened the Reformation, and the theologian for whom justification by faith and the bondage of the will are the whole of the gospel. This entry rests on his own writings only — The Bondage of the Will (1525), the Smalcald Articles (1537), the Large and Small Catechisms (1529), Concerning Christian Liberty (1520), the Heidelberg Disputation (1518), the Church Postil and his biblical prefaces — and deliberately excludes the Augsburg Confession and the Formula of Concord, which are not his.

17 OF 18 POSITIONS QUOTED
Everything Luther holds →
Cite this page

"Martin Luther on the person of Christ", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/luther/christology (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/luther/christology).

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