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On Christ: Perfect God and Perfect Man


Definition of the Union of the Divine and Human Natures in the Person of Christ

Council of Chalcedon, 451 A.D., Act V

Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance (homoousios) with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer (Theotokos); one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the Fathers has handed down to us.  (Referenced in the Book of Common Prayer, page 864)

You may wonder why this matters at all.  “I believe in Christ, so why bother with this God and Man stuff?”  It turns out that it matters a great deal.  In a previous post I established how true love exists within the Trinity.  That amongst the three persons, yet in the oneness of God, there exists love and affirmation and affection, constantly being given and received throughout all of eternity.  Only God can participate in such a wonderful thing, and yet, God desires to draw such lowly creatures as us into this love.  God is not content to love us from a distance, but desires to have a loving relationship, whereby perfect love is given and received.  How can this happen?

It is safe to say that perfect love such as this rarely, if ever exists within our world.  So we need a bridge.  We need some way of connecting our broken and sinful world to the perfect live and love within the Trinity.  The great mystery of our faith is that in Jesus Christ, God the Son took up humanity itself, and united it to him.  He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became every bit as human as you or I.  At the same time he remained God, with all of the Trinitarian love that goes along with it.

The true miracle of Christ’s incarnation is that it put God in a position to draw all of humanity into the life and love of the Trinity.  If we are made in the image of God it should be our natural sate, but sin has corrupted and defiled that image.  So we look for someone to bridge the gap, to set things right.  Because of Christ, God is both imminently close to us, and still transcends our ordinary existence.  By having both, we can approach God in this world, and at the same time be drawn up to the next.

One of the lesser known legends of St. Nicholas a.k.a. Santa Claus, is that during the Council of Nicea in 325 he slapped a heretic right then and there.  The issue in question was this very duel nature of Christ.  The heretic wanted to deny the Church the complete connection.  He couldn’t wrap his mind around so great a mystery and thus sought to make God less.  Modern day heresies try to do the same thing.  They either deny Christ’s divinity, thus making Him unable to lift us out of our mess, or they deny or diminish His humanity, making Him unrelatable.  The true Christian belief is that Christ is both – perfect God and perfect man, and it’s only through Him that we are able to be drawn up into the wonder fellowship of the Trinitarian life and love.

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