The True Light is Already Shining

Jesus Christ is the True Light who gives light to everyone in the world. We did not know how deep was the darkness until the Light came and shone in the world. Today, the darkness is passing away, for the True Light has come into the world and is already shining.

Eternally and Inextricably United

The Incarnation cannot be undone. If it could, it would be the undoing of our salvation, for the Cross and Resurrection would be of no benefit to anyone. Nor could it be undone for some without undoing it for all. It is all of one piece, just as humankind is, for we all partake of human being, the one and only way of being human.

When Christ the Word became “flesh” and dwelt among us (John 1:14), he did not merely put on human being as a suit, which could later be discarded when it served its purpose. No, he became human being, and is so eternally. He defines what it means to be fully human — yet he did not cease to be fully divine.

Nor did Christ become merely a singular instance of human being. That, too, would have done us no good, for his actions would have been of benefit only to himself. But he became human in such a way that in his death all died, so that in his resurrection all might be raised.

In Romans 5:18, St. Paul compares/contrasts Adam and Christ. “Consequently, just as one trespass [Adam’s] resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act [Christ’s] resulted in justification and life for all people.” Just as the connection between Adam and humankind was universal, such that Adam’s disobedience resulted in condemnation for all, so also the connection between Jesus Christ and humankind is universal, such that Christ’s obedience has resulted in justification and life for all.

Likewise, in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” Just as the connection between Adam and humankind was universal, such that in Adam all die, so also the connection between Jesus Christ and humankind is such that in him all will be made alive.

By the Incarnation, Christ is united, eternally and inextricably, with us all. For humankind, which was once headed up in Adam, is now headed up in Christ.

That We May Become What He Is

Our Lord Jesus Christ became human, that humankind may become divine. Though Christ was rich, for our sake, he became poor, just as we are, that through his poverty we might become rich. Christ had no sin, and knew no death or corruption, but he became what we are and shared in our condition, that we might  become the righteousness of God in him, escaping the power of death and know divine life. In Jesus Christ, we become partakers of, participants in, the divine nature.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

The early Church Fathers grasped this well, and taught it without hesitation. It is what they understood the Scriptures and the Gospel to mean concerning Christ, the Cross, and our Salvation.

• “Our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.” (St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies)
  
• “For we hold that the Word of God was made man on account of our salvation, in order that we might receive the likeness of the heavenly, and be made divine after the likeness of Him who is the true Son of God by nature, and the Son of man according to the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ.” (St. Gregory the Wonderworker)
• “For He was made man that we might be made God.” (St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation)
  
• “He Himself has made us sons of the Father, and deified men by becoming Himself man.” (St. Athanasius, Against the Arians)
• “For therefore did He assume the body originate and human, that having renewed it as its Framer, He might deify it in Himself, and thus might introduce us all into the kingdom of heaven after His likeness.” (St. Athanasius, Against the Arians)
• “For as the Lord, putting on the body, became man, so we men are deified by the Word as being taken to Him through His flesh, and henceforward inherit life everlasting.” (St. Athanasius, Against the Arians)
• “But the Incarnation is summed up in this, that the whole Son, that is, His manhood as well as His divinity, was permitted by the Father’s gracious favor to continue in the unity of the Father’s nature, and retained not only the powers of the divine nature, but also that nature’s self. For the object to be gained was that man might become God.” (St. Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity)
• “Believe that the Son of God, the Eternal Word, Who was begotten of the Father before all time and without body, was in these latter days for your sake made also Son of Man, born of the Virgin Mary ineffably and stainlessly (for nothing can be stained where God is, and by which salvation comes), in His own Person at once entire Man and perfect God, for the sake of the entire sufferer, that He may bestow salvation on your whole being, having destroyed the whole condemnation of your sins: impassible in His Godhead, passible in that which He assumed; as much Man for your sake as you are made God for His.” (St. Gregory Nazianzus, Oration 40:45)
• “If the divine Logos of God the Father became son of man and man so that He might make men gods and the sons of God, let us believe that we shall reach the realm where Christ Himself now is, for He is the head of the whole body, and endued with our humanity has gone to the Father as forerunner on our behalf.” (Maximus the Confessor, The Philokalia, On Theology)

Through the Incarnation, in which our Lord Jesus Christ has united divinity with humanity, God with humankind, He has become what we are, that we may become what He is.

The Last, the Least and the Lost

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted. 

Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth. 

Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled. 

Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy. 

Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God. 

Blessed are those who are persecuted
because of righteousness, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed are you when people insult you,
persecute you and falsely say all kinds
of evil against you because of me. 

Rejoice and be glad,
because great is your reward in heaven,
for in the same way they persecuted
the prophets who were before you.
(Matthew 5:3-12)

Come to me,
all you who are
weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me,
for I am gentle
and humble in heart,
and you will find rest
for your souls.
For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light.
(Matthew 11:28-30)

For the Son of Man
did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to
give his life as a
ransom for many.
(Mark 10:45)

Our Lord Jesus Christ
has come for the
Last, the Least
and the Lost.

God is Love!

Repentance and the Perception of God

God is Love, as St. John tells us (1 John 4:8). Love is not merely something God has or does under certain conditions. No, Love is what God is. We see this revealed in Jesus Christ, who is “the Image of the Invisible God,” in whom “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 1:15; 2:9). Through his self-giving, other-centered death on the Cross, we see exactly what Love looks like and so what it means to be God (and because of the Incarnation, we also see what it means to be human).

God is Simple, not a being of parts with each balancing out the others. This means that the love of God is never in tension with the holiness of God, or the justice of God, or even the “wrath” of God. These are but different ways of speaking the same thing: the love of God. 

When John declares that God is Love, there is no “but” that can walk it back even one tiny step. Everything God does is a manifestation of the love of God that is revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. God will never do what Love would not do. In 1 Corinthians 13, St. Paul gives us a wonderful description of how love behaves, and God will never do anything that is contrary to that.

God is Love, and those who are properly oriented toward God perceive Him as Love, but those who are not perceive Him in terror and dread. The real problem is the mind that has been deceived and is in bondage to dark passions. As St. Paul tells us, “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace ” (Romans 8:7). “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior” (Colossians 1:21). 

The mindset (perception, outlook, orientation) of the flesh is bondage, corrupting how we understand God, ourselves, and the world. What is needed is a new orientation, a reorientation toward God. Another word for this is repentance. Repentance is allowing our perception to be properly oriented by the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. 

We cannot reorient ourselves — that would require having the proper orientation in the first place. But it comes to us as a gift, the goodness and kindness of God leading us into a new way of seeing God. It comes to us in the word of the gospel, the message of Christ, through the Holy Spirit. For the Cross of Christ reveals to us what God is really like: self-giving, other-centered, cross-shaped Love.