The God-Man
There
is a single, unique, and unprecedented event in the world's history: the
incarnation of God. God and man were united in the person of Christ and became
the divine and extraordinary person of the God-man. Never before has another
such person existed, nor will again, in the history of the world and of
humanity. In Christ the God-man, two natures have been united: the divine and
the human, without confusion, distinct, separate, and independent, each
unchanged by the other. Christ, the Son of God, is also the Son of Man--perfect
God and perfect Man. He is truly the God-man in the full sense of the word. As
God, He is born of God the Father "before all ages." As human, He was
born "of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary," the place being Bethlehem
in Judea, and the time being one thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-one years
ago.
The
event of the Incarnation of the Son and Word of God and His retaining both His
divine and human natures have made a profound impression, resulting inevitably
in much debate. The Third, Fourth, and Sixth Ecumenical Councils dealt with
this matter. The Third Ecumenical Council decided with its infallibility to
call Christ "Perfect God and perfect man, with a rational soul and body .
. . one in divine essence with the Father and of the same essence as
humanity."
The
hymnologists of our Church express beautifully all that pertains to the God-man
Christ. The Theotokion of the stichera
of the third tone (Saturday Vespers) speaks about the human birth of Christ,
that "He never underwent change or mixture or division, but He guarded the
attributes of both natures."
Whereas,
the Theotokion of the stichera
of the eighth tone (Saturday Vespers) speaks on the same subject more clearly,
saying "He that was born of the Father out of time, His Only-begotten Son,
He Himself was born of you [i.e., the Theotokos], assuming flesh, God by nature
and becoming man in nature for us, not being divided into two persons, but His
two natures remaining unconfused."
A
few words should be said here about the purpose of the Incarnation of the Son
and Word of God. It is very simple. With the disobedience of Adam and Eve, man
fell and lost Grace. He was alienated from God. He was expelled from Paradise.
In order for fallen human nature to be restored, the Son and Word of God had to
assume the whole of human nature completely, to restore it to Heaven through
His Resurrection and Ascension. "Carrying deceived human nature upon Your
shoulders, O Christ, through Your Ascension You brought it before God and Father."
This was the purpose of the Incarnation of the Son of God. As St. Athanasios
writes, "God became man in order for us to become godly." No one
should think that we humans can become gods and be given a divine nature. No.
We can become godly in the moral sense. We return to our first state. The wall
of animosity has been torn down between God and Man and communication between
them is free.
This
section of our Catechism is quite long, important, and difficult to comprehend.
We must continue in the next section to see correctly how the Incarnation took
place, and what its meaning is. We shall look at quotations from the Gospel and
the Holy Fathers concerning the divine and human nature of Christ, in order to
understand the relationships between them. It is not possible of course, to
deal with this exhaustively, but at least enough can be said that the teaching
of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not seem to be arbitrary, but rather
based upon Holy Scripture and the truth that the Incarnated God has taught.
Incarnate Christ, we thank
You that You accepted to leave Heaven and Your place next to the Father to
descend to earth. To be so humiliated. To take human nature upon Yourself and
as human, to undergo the Passion and death upon the Cross. We know that You had
no other reason to do this than to do it for us. For our salvation. You took
upon Yourself all of our sins. With Your Holy Blood, You washed them away upon
the Cross. We have not power enough with which to thank You properly. Accept
our simple and humble gratitude. Hear our prayer. Make us worthy and enable us
to take advantage of Your Incarnation to change our way of life so that we may
be raised up with You and come to the Jerusalem Above in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let us always live near You.