“For this was the very end and purpose of His Incarnation, that our human nature might in His Person obtain and receive whatever it could not otherwise have obtained, and that we might be partakers both of the same nature and of the same blessings within Him... It was necessary, therefore, that God and man should be personally united, in order that human nature might be invested with power and exalted to glory” The Orations of St. Athanasius Against the Arians (London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh), IV.6; cf. III.34, and II.70.
“As, on the one hand, we could not have been redeemed from sin and the curse, unless the flesh and nature, which the Word took upon Him had been truly ours (for we should have had no interest by his assumption of any foreign nature); so also man could not have been united to the Divine nature, unless that Word, which was made flesh, had not been, in essence and nature, the Word and Son of God. For that was the very purpose and end of our Lord’s Incarnation, that He should join what is man by nature to Him who is by nature God, that so man might enjoy His salvation and His union with God without any fear of its failing or decrease” The Orations of St. Athanasius Against the Arians (London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh), II.70; cf. III.34, and IV.6.
“For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved. If only half Adam fell, then that which Christ assumes and saves may be half also; but if the whole of his nature fell, it must be united to the whole nature of Him that was begotten, and so be saved as a whole,” Gregory Nazianzen, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, second series, vol. VII (Edinburgh: T&T Clark), Ep. CI.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Thanks for reminding us of the "TRUTH" that is so difficult to comprehend, truly a matter of the heart. Will we ever get it? Such LOVE!!!!
Baxter,
Each time we turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, with our pain, hurt, brokenness or disease, instead of reacting with our own devises, do we not break the agreements we have made with the darkness? We remove one more twig and the river begins to flow. The Holy Spirit put Ps. 107:23-30 into my consciousness to illustrate the turning to God, amidst our pain and hurt.
Yes, I think the pain comes from the agreements with darkness, which violate our identity in Jesus, and then guilt when we act out of our pain, then more pain because of guilt and shame. Down at the bottom of the beaver dam are the big logs—early wounds and agreements. Jesus has us, all of us, every war-torn fragment, every broken, unbelieving, shame-riddled part in Him, in His Father, in the Holy Spirit! This is the truth that sets us free.
Post a Comment