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Christ Divinity and Humanity
ok I have a question that I don't really know if anyone know the answer for it or not. So when Christ descended to earth, he was born as fully human fully God, and He remained that way through out His life, His death, and His resurrection. My question is Christ still fully human even after He ascended into Heaven or that was only on earth and now Christ is just in His divine nature?
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ok I have a question that I don't really know if anyone know the answer for it or not. So when Christ descended to earth, he was born as fully human fully God, and He remained that way through out His life, His death, and His resurrection. My question is Christ still fully human even after He ascended into Heaven or that was only on earth and now Christ is just in His divine nature?
Yes, He is. Before the Incarnation, the Son (Word) was God only. However, as you stated, when He became incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Maria, He became fully man - identical to us in all things but sin - though this in no way changed His divinity.
His humanity and His divinity were united in a single Person of the Son of God, without confusion nor separation. He is thus rightly called the Theanthropos or God-man.
Since His Incarnation 2,000 years ago, this has been the nature of Christ's existance, and it will continue to be so for all of eternity.
Well the basic identity of a human being is something that has a body and a brain that identifies them among other species...plus a spirit that only remains with them in heaven...the identity of God and of angels is only a spirit...so when we go to heaven (or hades..God forbid), we won't have our bodies..right? we will just be spirits...so how does Christ is still fully human?
Humans were created as a unity of body and soul. Not spirit alone, like the angels. Nor body without spirit, like the animals (animals can be said to have souls, but not spirits).
Among all the creatures of God, we alone are both spirit and body - material and noetic. Separation of the soul from the body is called death - it is an unnatural state.
It was to destroy death that Christ became a man, taking all of humanity into Himself by becoming consubstantial with us and in this way restoring us to our the glory we had prior to the fall of Adam.
If our salvation lies in us departing from our bodies, and rising into heaven in spirit alone, for what reason did Christ need to become man?
But, of course, this is not what we believe. In the Creed - the Church's statement of faith - we read, "I look for the resurrection of the dead."
We believe that Christ's death and resurrection opened the way to resurrection for all of us. On this day we will literally rise from the dead, as did Christ, and our souls and bodies will be reunited.
Christ already rose from the dead, His tomb is empty - He ascended into heaven with His resurrected Body.
So He is by no means spirit only, but truly the Godman - fully God, and fully (not partially) man.
forgive my intrusion,
but Jesus as the Logos always existed in both human form and his divine form.
that is why in the conclusion of the liturgy just before communion abouna or the priest says:
"Amen, Amen, Amen, I believe....that his humanity never departed from his divinity for a single moment nor a twinkle of an eye"
which of the three natures of God spoke and said "let there be light"? it was the Logos, Jesus Christ apparent from before the beginning of creation. The nature of the Father is not to speak, nor is the nature of the Holy Spirit, in that they do not speak in the human form. Hence, Jesus, the Word, spoke, and let it be, or come into creation.
also, who do you think it was that appeared to Abram before God gave him the new name Abraham, in the form of 3 Angels?
and who do you think Jacob wrestled with and hurt his ankle on the mountain, not leaving until he received a blessing?
so it is apparent that Jesus was always human and always divine.
He is the Logos, the living Word, and He has always been and always will be both human and divine at all times, from before the creation of the world to the end of time, even in Heaven.
please forgive me
GBU all
mg
dear all,
forgive my intrusion,
but Jesus as the Logos always existed in both human form and his divine form.
This is simply untrue. If Christ was already man before the Incarnation, why was He born from the Virgin Mary? It makes no sense what so ever. This is said as a reaction to the Nestorian heresy which seperated Christ's humanity and divinity. It means that, from the time of His Incarnation His divinity never seperated from His humanity.
It does not mean that God has always been man. Indeed it was the Son (Logos) Who created all things, as John 1:3 confirms - but that is quite irrelevant since it says nothing of the Logos being flesh, which did not happen until later. The three angels were not the Son only, but the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (which is why there are three of them).
Again, this event does not suggest that the Logos was already made flesh. This is certainly a manifestation of God, but once more the Creed says that He was "Incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man" - He was not Incarnate prior to His conception in the womb of the blessed Virgin. Not so, what you are suggesting is contrary to the teaching of the Church. He is, and has always been, the Logos, the living Word. But He was not human until He was "Incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man."
Since the time of His Incarnation His his humanity never departed from his divinity for a single moment nor a twinkle of an eye.
He remains fully human and fully divine to this very day - even in heaven - and will remain so for all eternity.
It was the Son who took a physical form (not an incarnation; just like he took a physical form when he was in the furnace with the three young man), since He is the Word and rationality of God.
Christ ascended in the FLESH, and we say in the creed that we believe in the resurrection of the dead, meaning our bodies will be resurrected (we are not sure in what form exactly), nywayz, bottom line is that Christ is still fully human.
Iqbal, plz confirm ;)
this is not true, the Father cannot be seen, and it was not a manifestation of the Holy Trinity in the form of three people.
The Father cannot be seen because He was never Incarnate. The same goes for the Holy Spirit.
The Son, also, was not could not be seen prior to His taking flesh from the Virgin Maria.
The Fathers of the Church have always understood Abraham's encounter to be a shadow or type of the Holy Trinity because there were three angels, but Abraham refered to them in the singular.
Thus showing that God is One in three Persons. You are right in saying that this was not an incarnation. This is true
Yes, Christ was only incarnate of Saint Mary, but we have to keep in mind that Christ, being God and divine, has no past, present, nor future, or better said, contains and fills all of these. In that way, Christ can easily be human, whether it being in the past or the future, at all times.
Anyone feel free to correct.
because it does make sense to me why Christ would still be human...if the only purpose for Him was for our salvation..why does He still need to be human now?
I agree with everything else you have stated though.
Christ, since time eternity hypostatised divinity. At the Incarnation, He in turn hypostatised humanity, united with His divinity without mingling, without confusion, and without alteration. By virtue of the hypostatic union, His humanity became an intrinsic and real aspect and state of His very being, and one that is hence inseparable from His very being. The only difference between the pre-Resurrected and the post-Ressurected Christ, is that the post-Resurrected Christ's humanity was incorruptible - it was no longer naturally susceptible to suffering or death. In sharing in His Resurrection, we likewise can achieve this state of humanity ourselves.
any verses on that?
because it does make sense to me why Christ would still be human...if the only purpose for Him was for our salvation..why does He still need to be human now?
So that when Christ comes again on judgement day, we can see him in his glorified body, we can see the holes of the nails in his hands and feet, and the place where the spear was shot. Christ wants us to see that so that we can see his love for mankind and what he endured for us.
The Transfiguration, Matthew 17:
"1After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus."
The Ascension, Acts 1:10,11
"10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
The Stoning of Stephen, Acts 7:54-56
"54When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
After His Resurrection the Lord appeared to the Apostles, He told them He is not a ghost then they spoke with Him and touched Him, then He asked for food and ate with them.
The question is: how will we see Him coming with great glory on the clouds, if not as glorified Jesus Christ?