Weekly Devotional 10.28.2024
Divine Mystery: Fully God and Fully Man
“A life without passion is not living, it’s merely existing.” This quote has been attributed to Leo Buscaglia, an author and professor who specialized in what it means to be human, who also said, “A life without love, no matter how many other things we have, is an empty, meaningless one.” When these quotes are taken together, Buscaglia says that a well-lived life must include both passion and love. By stating what something is not, he is clarifying more about what something is. There are many examples throughout novels and movies where writers describe characters and scenes by describing what they are not. This not only helps us better understand what something is, by isolating what it is not, but it also clarifies misunderstandings an audience may hold about that person or location. Throughout a story, you might begin to misunderstand the nature of a person because, through other situations in the narrative, you have conjured up a false representation of the main character. To help codify and clarify the main character, the author explicitly states who the main character is not, thus better defining the person they are describing. Perhaps the most famous example of this is found in the Caledonian Creed of 451. This creed came a century after the Nicene Creed and sought to clarify Christ's natures by explicitly stating what He was and what He was not. Even after the Council of Nicea, there were several heretical views about Jesus’ humanity and divinity, that He was both fully God and fully man. Because of the divine mystery of this idea, it is easier to say who He isn’t than to say who He is. Part of the Caledonian Creed states: “Recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation.” To put it simply, Jesus is both God and man, and He is not a mixture, nor does He change, divide, or separate. Jesus was fully God and fully man and 1) not a new thing or third thing after combining two things, 2) not split and a percent man and percent God that, when put together, equal %100, 3) not changed from God to human, but instead carried both natures and finally, 4) that this union cannot be separated and will be together into eternity. By stating who Jesus is not, the creed helped clarify who Jesus is and oppose heretical views during the 5th century.
Last week, we looked at the Trinity and understood that there is unity in God’s essence and distinction in His persons. That means there is one God in three equal and distinct persons—Father, Son, and Spirit. Jesus is God in His essence, the Son in His person, and fully God and fully man in His natures. The Son has been part of the Godhead since eternity past. He was not always God and man, but at the beginning, only God. Jesus added to His nature at the incarnation and became fully God and fully man—a doctrine known as the hypostatic union. He did not lose His deity but rather added to His nature by becoming fully man while remaining fully God—His two natures were in union with His person. The first chapter of John’s Gospel helps us understand that in the beginning was the Word, that is, Jesus, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and also that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1,14). Through the incarnation, Jesus added the nature of humanity to His nature of eternal divinity, thus having two distinct natures in the one person of Jesus. Augustine wrote, “Man was added to Him, God not lost to Him; He emptied Himself not by losing what He was, but by taking to Him what He was not.” He did not lose His divinity or become a lesser God to become more human. He was 100% God and 100% man. That is the divine mystery that our infinite and wise God has done, and we, as finite and limited beings, cannot comprehend.
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