Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Jesus is both God and man

Happy Christmas

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 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; 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.

1 comment:

Christie M said...

Dear Martin,

I have a serious question. When Christ came to earth as a man, the eternally existant word, became man,
the creator of the universe became man; scripture says, he "emptied himself" and became obedient, obedient to the point of death in perfect obedience to the Father.

Christ said, "if you have seen me you have seen the Father", he was the perfect representation of God.
(he was God)

My question is, if Christ had emptied himself and followed in perfect trust with the Father, after his crucifixion, did HE have the power to raise himself from the Dead or did he TRUST that the FATHER would raise him from the dead?
I have heard different views on this and while I understand He is fully God, at what point did he refill himself in power and glory?

This seems like something I should KNOW, but I really don't. :(