Lowliness is
assured by majesty, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt
of our sinful state, a nature that is incapable to suffering was joined to one
that could suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and
the same mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, was able to die in
one nature, and unable to die in the other. He who is true God was therefore
born in the complete and perfect nature of a true man, whole in his own nature,
whole in ours. By our nature we mean what the Creator had fashioned in us from
the beginning, and took to himself in order to restore it.
He took the
nature of a servant without stain of sin, enlarging our humanity without
diminishing his divinity. He emptied himself; though invisible he made himself
visible, though Creator and Lord of all things he chose to be one of us mortal
men. Yet this was the condescension of compassion, not the loss of omnipotence.
Thus the Son
of God enters this lowly world. He comes down from the throne of heaven, yet
does not separate himself from the Father's glory. He is born in a new
condition, by a new birth. Invisible in his own nature he became visible in
ours. Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time
began, he began to exist at a moment in time. Lord of the universe, he hid his
infinite glory and took the nature of a servant. Incapable of suffering as God,
he did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be
subject to the laws of death. He who is true God is also true man.
One and the
same person--this must be said over and over again--is truly the son of God and
truly the son of man. He is God in virtue of the fact that in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is man in virtue
of the fact that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.