The mystery of the Incarnation, the union of Divinity and Humanity, of God and Humankind is not by halves. That is, our Lord Jesus Christ is not half-God, half-human. He fully shares our humanity so He may fully heal it. This union is not partial, but complete in both natures. He was truly made man, and is said to be of the same nature with us according to the flesh. He is consubstantial — of one substance, of one being — with the Father, and he is also consubstantial with humankind. His consubstantiality with us is as real and complete as His consubstantiality with the Father, and it is for this reason that his Cross and Resurrection are of saving benefit for us.
This mystery is central to the understanding of the Church Fathers, and indeed, to the Christian message. It is enunciated in the Nicene Creed that our Lord Jesus Christ is of one being with the Father, and that for us humans, and for our salvation, he came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became Human. It is affirmed by the Fourth Ecumenical Council (Chalcedon, in AD 451) in its Definition of Faith: that our Lord Jesus Christ is at once complete in divinity and complete in humanity, truly God and truly man, of one substance with the Father regarding his divinity, and at the same time of one substance with us regarding his humanity.
Here are a couple of brief quotes from St. Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzus) and St. Athanasius, and an extended one from St. Cyril of Alexandria, whose writings on this are foundational to the theological understanding of the Christian faith.
That which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved. (St. Gregory Nazianzus, Epistle 101.5)
He became what we are, that He might make us what He is. (St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 54)
Following in all points the confessions of the Holy Fathers which they made (the Holy Ghost speaking in them), and following the scope of their opinions, and going, as it were, in the royal way, we confess that the Only begotten Word of God, begotten of the same substance of the Father, True God from True God, Light from Light, through Whom all things were made, the things in heaven and the things in the earth, coming down for our salvation, making himself of no reputation, was incarnate and made man; that is, taking flesh of the Holy Virgin, and having made it his own from the womb, he subjected himself to birth for us, and came forth man from a woman, without casting off that which he was; but although he assumed flesh and blood, he remained what he was, God in essence and in truth. Neither do we say that his flesh was changed into the nature of divinity, nor that the ineffable nature of the Word of God was laid aside for the nature of flesh; for he is unchanged and absolutely unchangeable, being the same always, according to the Scriptures. For although visible and a child in swaddling clothes, and even in the bosom of his Virgin Mother, he filled all creation as God, and was a fellow-ruler with him who begot him, for the Godhead is without quantity and dimension, and cannot have limits.
Confessing the Word to be made one with the flesh according to substance, we adore one Son and Lord Jesus Christ: we do not divide the God from the man, nor separate him into parts, as though the two natures were mutually united in him only through a sharing of dignity and authority (for that is a novelty and nothing else), neither do we give separately to the Word of God the name Christ and the same name separately to a different one born of a woman; but we know only one Christ, the Word from God the Father with his own Flesh. For as man he was anointed with us, although it is he himself who gives the Spirit to those who are worthy and not in measure, according to the saying of the blessed Evangelist John. (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Third Letter to Nestorius)
The Incarnation means that our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is of one being with the Father,
is also of one being with us.
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