Westminster Confession on the person of Christ
One person in two natures, unconfused and undivided
So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.
THE POSITION
WCF 8.2 reproduces the Chalcedonian formula and its four negations in seventeenth-century English, insisting on 'two whole, perfect, and distinct natures' in one person, and adding 'with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin' so that the humanity is not thinned. WCF 8.7 states the communicatio idiomatum in its Reformed form: Christ acts according to both natures, 'by each nature doing that which is proper to itself', and the exchange of predicates is a way Scripture speaks of the one person rather than a transfer of properties between the natures.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
12 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
The confessional standard of English-speaking Presbyterianism, completed by the Westminster Assembly in 1646 and adopted with its Scripture proofs. This entry rests on the 1646 text from the manuscript of Cornelius Burges as edited by S. W. Carruthers (1937) for chapters 1-24, and on the 1647 text for chapters 25-33; the Assembly's own proof texts attached to each paragraph supply every reference below.
Cite this page
"Westminster Confession on the person of Christ", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/westminster/christology (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/westminster/christology).