Hi All
I am working towards an exhibition in July this year where I will exhibit 4 sculptures through which I explore the mystery of the Incarnation.
As part of my research I stumbled upon this today, and was blown away. So I had to share.
Has anyone received any personal revelation on this topic? I would love to hear about it.
Here it is:
The following ten points convey essential information about the Incarnation, and will help one think through the most important elements concerning the doctrine.
1.
Jesus Christ is one person possessing two distinct natures: a fully divine nature and a fully human nature (a unity of person and a duality of natures). The historic person of Jesus of Nazareth is therefore the God-man.
2.
While Christ has two natures, He nevertheless remains a single unified person (not two different persons). Christ’s human nature subsists only for the purpose of this union; it has no independent personal subsistence of its own. Christ is the same person both before and after the Incarnation. The difference is that before the Incarnation Christ had but one nature, namely divine. After the Incarnation, this very same Christ added to Himself an additional nature ”“ a human one ”“ that subsists together with the divine nature that He had and continues to have. While Christ has a divine and a human consciousness (and two wills as part of the two natures), He nevertheless remains one person. Christian orthodoxy rejected the Nestorian heresy that taught that there were two separate persons in Christ.
3.
Through His divine nature, Jesus Christ is God the Son, second person of the Trinity, who shares the one divine essence fully and equally with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christian orthodoxy rejected the Arian heresy that viewed Jesus merely as a God-like creature.
4.
Through His human nature, Jesus Christ is fully human, possessing all the essential attributes of a true human being. Christian orthodoxy rejected Docetism, which denied the true humanity of Christ.
5.
The properties or attributes of both natures may be properly predicated of the one Person. In other words, the one person of Jesus Christ retains all of the attributes of both natures (e.g., through His divine nature He is omniscient while simultaneously through His human nature He may lack knowledge).
6.
The union of the two natures is not an indwelling, nor a mere contact or occupancy of space, but a personal union. This is similar to the union of body and soul in human beings.
7.
The two natures co-inhere or interpenetrate in perfect union so that the human is never without the divine or the divine without the human, but the natures do not mix or mingle.
8.
The two natures, divine and human, are distinct, but inseparably united in the one person. The two natures retain their own attributes or qualities and are thus not mixed together. Christian orthodoxy rejected the Eutychian heresy that blended the two natures of Christ together to form one hybrid nature (monophysitism: one nature).
9.
The human nature is not deified, and the divine nature does not suffer human limitation.
10.
The word nature refers to essence or substance, and these two natures are inseparable, unmixed, and unchanged.
http://www.reasons.org/articles/thinking-about-the-incarnation-the-divine-word-became-flesh
Blessings