Christmas 2- The Incarnation/ The Divinity of Christ
We are still in the season of Christmas and one of the major things we think about at Christmas is the incarnation. Incarnation means ‘enfleshed’- It means to put skin on- to become ‘embodied’.
The Nicene Creed has its roots in the Council of Nicaea in 325AD. It includes the familiar lines-
“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven”The lesser known Athanasian Creed is found at the back of the Book of Common Prayer. It was probably written in southern France, in Latin, and is probably from the late 400’s or early 500’s. The name Athanasius is attached to it probably because St. Athanasius was a defender of a particular view of the divinity of Jesus at the time of the Council of Nicaea, and this creed highlights the divinity of Christ in a way that shows the equality between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity. It includes the words-
“… the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God. … The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created; but begotten….”The 39 Articles come out of the reformation in the English Church and are as close as Anglicans get to a set of statements of belief, besides the three creeds. The second of the 39 Articles of Religion says-
“The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took Man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men.”…
We can tend to be a bit suspicious of these kinds of declarations of belief. Some of us wonder if this represents a development away from the original historic reality. Perhaps it was a well-intended attempt to honour Jesus that got out of hand. Others wonder if, as the followers of Jesus entered into Pagan lands, that pagan beliefs started to influence the original teachings and pollute them. These are logical possibilities that should be considered. … But, this could also represent a deeper understanding based on years of reflection on the experiences of the original eyewitnesses and the teachings of the early church. We sometimes say that hindsight is 20/20, and that is logical too.
These ideas about the divinity of Jesus were more clearly developed during and after the 300’s, but these ideas were definitely already present, even in Scripture. The first chapter of John is definitely one of the most obvious places in Scripture that point to the divinity of Jesus as related to God’s divinity.[1]
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (Jn 1:1-3).
These lines are understandably confusing. What does it mean to be both God and with God? What does John mean by the “Word”?
There was this idea of ‘Wisdom’ like we see in our readings from the Apocrypha- from Sirach and the book of Wisdom. The way Wisdom is described in some of these readings makes Wisdom seem to do the things that God does, like dwell in the Tabernacle and the Temple, and entering Moses to save the Hebrew slaves through the divided sea. Wisdom is in some way distinct from God, but does what God does in such a way that Wisdom would seem indistinguishable from God. So, this might show us that there was already some thinking about God on the part of the Hebrews that seemed to see some kind of multiplicity within God’s oneness.
Maybe these ways of speaking about Wisdom are behind the way John speaks about the “Word”. … The first Christians tried to unpack the experiences of those original witnesses, especially the Apostles. As they sought to understand who Christ is, they said some interesting things. I’d like to read you a few examples of the kinds of things they were saying about Jesus.
St. Polycarp (69-155AD) was said to be a disciple of the Apostle John and became a bishop. In his letter to the Philippians,
There was this idea of ‘Wisdom’ like we see in our readings from the Apocrypha- from Sirach and the book of Wisdom. The way Wisdom is described in some of these readings makes Wisdom seem to do the things that God does, like dwell in the Tabernacle and the Temple, and entering Moses to save the Hebrew slaves through the divided sea. Wisdom is in some way distinct from God, but does what God does in such a way that Wisdom would seem indistinguishable from God. So, this might show us that there was already some thinking about God on the part of the Hebrews that seemed to see some kind of multiplicity within God’s oneness.
Maybe these ways of speaking about Wisdom are behind the way John speaks about the “Word”. … The first Christians tried to unpack the experiences of those original witnesses, especially the Apostles. As they sought to understand who Christ is, they said some interesting things. I’d like to read you a few examples of the kinds of things they were saying about Jesus.
St. Polycarp (69-155AD) was said to be a disciple of the Apostle John and became a bishop. In his letter to the Philippians,
“Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth...and to us with you, and to all those under heaven who will yet believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead.”[2]St. Ignatius (50-117AD) was another disciple of John the Apostle who was martyred in Rome. He too wrote letters in which he writes,
“There is only one physician, who is both flesh and spirit, born and unborn, God in man, true life in death, both from Mary and from God, first subject to suffering and then beyond it, Jesus Christ our Lord.”[3]
“For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s plan, both from the seed of David and of the Holy Spirit.”[4]St. Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) was an early defender of Christianity in the face of critics. He once wrote,
“Permit me first to recount the prophecies, which I wish to do in order to prove that Christ is called both God and Lord of hosts.”[5]St. Irenaeus (130-202AD) studied under Bishop Polycarp, so he is an inheritor of the teaching of John the Apostle as well. He once wrote,
“...Christ Jesus our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father.”[6]
St. Hippolytus (170-235AD) was a disciple of Irenaeus, so he too is in the lineage from John. The Word in John is the Logos in Greek. He wrote,
“the Logos is God, being the substance of God.”[7]I will give one more example, but there are many more we could draw from.
St. Melito of Sardis (100-180AD) was a bishop in the early church. When he was describing the crucifixion he said this-
“He that hung up the earth in space was Himself hanged up; He that fixed the heavens was fixed with nails; He that bore up the earth was born up on a tree; the Lord of all was subjected to [humiliation] in a naked body—God put to death! ... they slew God, who hung naked on the tree.... This is He who made the heaven and the earth, and in the beginning, together with the Father, fashioned man; who was announced by means of the law and the prophets; who put on a bodily form in the Virgin; who was hanged upon the tree; who was buried in the earth; who rose from the place of the dead, and ascended to the height of heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father.”[8]I know these passages are out of context, so they are a bit odd to hear all put together, but what they tell us is that well before the council of Nicaea in the 300’s, the leaders of the church spoke about Jesus as God. They are the direct disciples of the original Apostles. The idea of the divinity of Jesus didn’t drop into the church from nowhere. It came from a deep reflection on the experience with Jesus through Scripture and through the community we call the Church.
And what they tell us is that God’s purpose of this incarnation was to help us- To bless us- To adopt us as His children- To redeem us, and grant us forgiveness. St. Athanasius has said,
“The Son of God became man so that we might become God”.[9]
This is not in the egotistical sense of replacing God or making our own will replace God’s will. Rather, through what Christ has done, and through the Holy Spirit living in us, we are drawn into God’s reality, and take on the characteristics of Christ, as we learn to live intimately with God. This is what the incarnation is all about. AMEN
[1] There
are many other hints in Scripture- (e.g.
Rom. 9:5; Titus 2:13; Phil. 2:5–8; 2 Pet. 1:1; John 1:1; 8:58; 20:28)
[2] Polycarp, Letter
to the Philippians, 12:2.
[3] Ignatius, Letter
to the Ephesians, 7.2.
[4] Ignatius, Letter
to the Ephesians, 18.2.
[5] Justin
Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 36.
[6] Irenaeus, Against
Heresies, 1.10.1.
[7] Hippolytus, Refutation
of All Heresies, 10.29.
[8] Melito,
5.
[9] Migne, Patrologia Graeca, 25, 192 B De
incarnatione Verbi, 54
To learn more please see:
Bird's "How God Became Jesus"https://www.str.org/w/did-the-council-of-nicea-invent-the-deity-of-christ-
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