Christ's Unity of Divinity and Humanity.
Holy Scripture tells us two truths about the Savior: He has
always been God, Son, and Word, and He became man. This occasionally leads to
ambiguity in passages dealing with Christ because, although He is glorified, His
human nature is underemphasized.
The Word did not simply "desire to become incarnate" or
"manifest Himself in a body." He did not descend to man, but He became man, He
made Himself the Son of Man. In this respect Athanasius sometimes uses
incomplete or inexact expressions: the Word "clothes Himself" or "dwells
within," and He is a temple, dwelling-place, or agent. However, Athanasius
carefully distinguishes the appearance of the Word in Christ from His appearance
and presence in saints. Christ became man. The visible body of Christ was the
body of God, not man. He made the body "His own," and the weakness of the flesh
became "proper" to the Word. Christ's works were not separated in such a way
that one accomplished by His divine nature and another by His human nature, but
"everything was achieved in combination" and indivisibly.
The very saliva of Christ was divine, healing, and life-giving
use the Incarnate Word "adopted" all the properties of the and made them His
own. It was He Who both grieved for us and then resurrected him. God was born in the flesh from Virgin, and Mary
is the Bearer of God, Θεοτοκος. The flesh, which was born from Mary, did not
become consubstantial with Word, and the Word was not joined to it. Mary was
chosen so the Lord could receive “from her” a body that would be "similar
to ours" and not consubstantial with the Godhead. "From Mary the Word received
flesh, and a man was engendered whose nature and substance were the Word of God
and whose flesh has from the seed of David, a man from the flesh of Mary."
Athanasius clearly emphasizes both the unity of Christ
the man and His unmerging two natures. Christ has a Divine nature, by which He
is consubstantial with the Father, and also a man nature, by which He is similar
and related to us. For this reason He is the Savior, the Word, and the Second
Adam all at once.
The Word became man so that we could "become divine," "in her
to deify us in Himself." Deification is adoption by God, and "human sons have
become the sons of God." We are "received by the Word and are deified through
His flesh" by virtue of the Incarnation. Born from the Virgin, the Word was not
united with only one man, but with the whole of human nature. Therefore
everything that was achieved in the human nature of Christ is immediately
extended to all men because they have a body in common with Him. There is no
coercion involved here. Men are more than similar to Christ; they are truly
participants in the human nature of the Word. Christ is a vine and we are the
branches, "united with Him by our humanity." In the same way that the tendrils
which grow from a grapevine are consubstantial with it, so are our bodies
consubstantial with the body of the Lord, and we receive what He has
accomplished. His body is the "root of our action and salvation." Everyone is
renewed, anointed, and exalted in Christ, for "He has taken everyone on
Himself." This is not merely similarity or substitution, but actual. Therefore
all humanity is anointed by the Spirit in the Jordan dies on the cross, and is
resurrected to immortality in Christ because "He Himself bears our body."
Humanity's Participation in Christ.
This participation in the humanity of Christ must also be
realized in the actions of men. Because the Word assumed flesh, human nature has
become "spiritual" and actually receives the Spirit. We are a "temple of God," a
temple of the Holy Spirit which lives with in us and we become "friends of the
Spirit." In receiving the gifts of the Spirit we are united with Christ. "The
Spirit gives us to drink and we drink Christ." "The Spirit anoints Christ and is
the breath of the Son," and in the Spirit "the word glorifies creation, deifies
it and adopts it, and leads it to the Father." The Word anoints and seals
everything through the Holy Spirit, and in the Spirit we be come "participants
in the Divine nature." The Spirit is the "energy" of the Word, and therefore in
receiving the Word we win the Spirit. The Word received flesh and men received
the Spirit, becoming "bearers of the Spirit." By virtue of the presence of the
Spirit in human nature sensual desires burn out, temptations to sin are driven
away, and men are given the ability "not to be deceived by worldly things."
After the coming of Christ the devil is "only a sparrow, a toy for children."
Men have been given power over demons and temptations and the sign of the cross,
as a sign of victory, can destroy all magic and charms and show demons that they
are dead.
What is most important here is that the sting of death has been
removed from creation. Because they have been received by the Word, men have
"inherited eternal life." "They do not remain sinul and dead in their passions
but they arise by the strength of the Word and become immortal and free from
decay." Death is no longer terrible, for we have been promised that we will
arise from the dead and become rulers with Christ in heaven. This is the path
followed by Christian ascetics, who conquer the mysteries and become bearers of
God. Their accomplishments testify to the victory of Christ over death, and
every day the host of martyrs laughs at death and rejoices in Christ. Let those
who doubt approach Christ with faith and they will see the feebleness of death
in His victory over it. Christ "instills strength against death in all who come
to Him." Christ is the cornerstone which has been laid "so that we can be built
up on Him, like precious stones." Deification is the foundation for the complete
union of men by love for one another in the image and by the example of Divine
consubstantiality, all by the strength of the Spirit.
Redemption, the work of the Word, is the completion and renewal
of creation. But the grace it offers man is much more than a simple return to
the original condition which was lost at the Fall. For the Word became flesh,
and man became a permanent participant in God. Decay was overcome and creation
received its final stability through the "body of God." In this way a new
creation was achieved. This was revealed in Scripture in the passages on the
"First-born" and "the beginning of His works." "From before the hills," the
Wisdom of God "was created at the beginning of His works" (Proverbs
8:22-25). Thus was announced before the beginning of time the creation and
salvation by the Word and in the Word, the saving Incarnation of the Word as the
source of a "new creation," superior to the "original creation." Every intention
of God will be fulfilled at the second Corning of Christ: Christ will come in
glory "to render to all the fruit of His Cross: resurrection and
immortality.
Source:
http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/fathers_florovsky_1.htm#_Toc3723851
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