Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
HabteSelassie wrote:
the "In" leaves open the suggestion for the potential of a plurality where as the "from" implies the fullness of the Union.
But on the other hand, does not "from" leave open the suggestion that the human nature existed apart/before the Incarnation and that there is a mixing of the natures?
Actually it can, and folks from this forum are the ones who helped me sort that out. Initially, I had an almost Origenian conception of pre-existing humanity based on my own ignorant misinterpretation of the formula, but when you connect the "from" with the doctrine that the humanity of Jesus Christ specifically was not pre-existing before the Incarnation, then the confusion it properly mitigated.
Are you saying that Christ's divinity "fed" his humanity, making up for what is "lacking" in humanity when it comes to the natural passions?
Sort of.. Jesus Christ's humanity was 100% naturally human with all the typical human needs, food, shelter, clothing, physical contact, medicine, defecation, etc etc.. Jesus Christ the Word, Eternally Self-Existing, was not subject to these naturally human traits until the Incarnation when by Kenosis He became a human being by Hypostatic Union. That means in a scientific sense that the Hypostatic body of Jesus Christ, which was fully human including being naturally subject to hunger, to pain, and ultimately to death, and so while the Divine Word existed in Union, He experienced this inherent mortality "in His Flesh"
That is to say, the fully human flesh of Jesus Christ endured these fully human weaknesses, but His lifeforce, His existence, was perpetually maintained and sustained by His Divinity, just as we mortals are perpetually existing in God's Grace and Power of His Divinity to be the Life-Giver and Sustain all of Creation. The Incarnation then is the perfect example of Synergy, where the fully mortal humanity cooperates with the fullness of Divinity.
Jesus Christ was really hungry, really thirsty, really pained, really angered, really tempted, and ultimately really died, by His humanity. However, He endured these because of His OWN Divinity, whereas we all endure these not of ourselves, but of His Divinity, as a gift. His Divinity was not a gift to His Humanity, rather it was simply a natural and essential part of the Union. He is as much Human as Divine, and so as a human body Jesus Christ is subject to human weakness, and by His Divinity He eternally overcomes these weakness, unlike ourselves, who inevitably fail and die because we are not self-existing like God, rather we rely upon Him for our entire existence, mind, body, and soul.
Seems the human Jesus is working the mighty works of God without mention of "by one nature versus another" or "by his divinity". Man in union with God can stop tidal waves, walk on water, command the cosmos, heal the sick.
True, but that is man cooperating in synergy with God, where as in the Incarnation, Jesus Christ IS God, and so acts by His own natural faculties, will, and power of God. The Saints never acted on their own for miracles, these always came from God, Jesus Christ on the other hand, brought about His miracles by His own Divinity which was united in the Hypostatic manifestation of His Person. As I said before, the natures are not separate, they work together, by nature the body of Jesus Christ is subject naturally to weakness, however by nature His Divinity sustains Himself, just as He sustains all things. We humans can never do such, without God we would simply stop existing altogether, and technically, so to would the humanity of Jesus Christ, however by virtue of the Union His humanity was fully Himself, and therefore became part of His self-existence. Remember, that all things exist through their Hypostasis, even God the Father, exists through and by His own unique Divine Hypostasis. When the Word became Incarnate, the human-divine Hypostasis of Jesus Christ's body became the way in which the Divine Word manifests Himself in Creation.
. The Definition of Chalcedon doesn't say he became A man.
True, but the Nicene-Constantinople Creed specifically does say,"who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man" (at least in the Tewahedo translation)
I think Nicolas is talking logistics and mechanics and we're talking spirituality and theology. If I am interpreting him correctly, he isn't all wrong, just clumsy in his explanation. He has been asking all the right questions. Jesus Christ is fully human, and subject all of humanity by nature, and so is rightfully a "human person" and yet He is also mutually God, however this does not negate His being human (that is the Absorption/Adoption heresies) in the very physical sense. Ontologically, being God, He almost trumps His Humanity, however in thought and rhetoric, we can say His human body is normal like our own. As I explained above, what separates His Incarnation from our own human existence, is that our human bodies are not self-existing, and neither was the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, strictly speaking. However, ontologically, since we know He is God, we also know that He sustains Himself. His own flesh is subject to the weakness of natural laws, but unlike human beings, He at the same time He sustains the weakness of His own human body the way He sustains all the billions of our own bodies.
stay blessed,
habte selassie