The Revelation of Divinity and Humanity

What does it mean to be God — and how would we even know? We might think we have a pretty good idea by picking up hints from creation or gleaning shadows from the Mosaic Law, but do we really? And do  we even really know what it means to be human? Looking at the goings on in the world around us, it would seem that we do not. 

When we come to the Incarnation, the Word of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14), the temptation is for us to take what we think it means to be God, mix it with what we think it means to be human, and suppose that gives us a pretty good idea of what it means for God to become human. But again, not really.

Jesus Christ is the full and final unveiling of what God is like, “the radiance of his glory and the express image of his being” (Hebrews 1:3). He is “the image of the invisible God,” in whom “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:15, 19). He said of himself, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

The Incarnation is the full revelation of what it means to be God. And it is also the full revelation of what it means to be human, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness” (Colossians 2:9-10). Our completeness as humans is found only in Christ, in whom all the fullness of God dwells in bodily form. And in him we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

This is what we were made for: to participate in the divine nature, to bear the image of God — to be like God (Genesis 1:26-27). When God said, “Let Us make Humankind in Our image, to be like Us,” Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that. For he is the Image of the Living God, and God predestined us to be “conformed” (symmorphos) to the image of the Son — which is to say, formed together with him (Romans 8:29).

This understanding is echoed in the early Church, among such Fathers as St. Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Athanasius of Alexandria, and St. Maximus the Confessor.

It was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and he who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man, having been taken into the Word, and receiving the adoption, might become the son of God. (St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.19.1) 

He was made man so that we might be made God. (St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 54). 

In Christ, God is made man and man is made God, so that the Giver and the receiver might be one and the same, wholly God and wholly man, and known in both. (St. Maximus, Ambigua 5)

Yet, what does it mean to be God? And how is it revealed in Jesus Christ? St. Paul shows us in Philippians 2, where he enjoins us:

You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8) 

Our Lord Jesus, in his very form and nature, is God — eternally so. Yet, he did not consider it something to be plundered and used to his own advantage. Rather, he emptied himself, humbled himself, sharing in our humanity — and by so doing redefined it — giving himself over for our sake in cross-shaped love. He did not come to be served, but to serve and to hand his life over for ours (Mark 10:45). This is precisely what it means to be God.

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

If we would know what it means to be God, however, we must understand this: Christ’s humility on the Cross was not a means to divine glory but was the very expression of it. When we see the humility of Christ in his deep descent, we are not seeing the divine glory in recess but as it is most fully revealed. 

We see that this is also what it means to be human. It is to empty ourselves, humbling ourselves, giving ourselves in cross-shaped love for one another. For Paul entreats us to have the very same mindset toward one another that is in our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we will see what it is to be truly human, and that it is to be like God.

Were it not for the Incarnation, we would not know what God is like — or what it means to be human. These are revealed only in Jesus Christ crucified and risen.

The Humble Expectation of Hope

Do not trust in yourself or in your own strength, but put your trust in the Lord. As the wise man said, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6). 

This is humility and hope, to recognize our own weakness, inability and lack, that we may have all our confidence and expectation in God. St. Paul had a serious matter he was dealing with. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). 

Hope is not a wishy-washy maybe-so-maybe-not affair; it is a peaceful anticipation, a joyful expectation. Lord Jesus counsels us to learn of him, for he is gentle and humble in heart, and in him there is the calm assurance of rest for the weary soul. “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). 

The psalm writer captures this very well, coming humbly before the Lord, lifting up his cry for help, and  watching in patient expectation:

Listen to my words, LORD, 
    consider my lament. 
Hear my cry for help, 
    my King and my God, 
    for to you I pray. 
In the morning, LORD, 
    you hear my voice; 
    in the morning I lay my requests 
    before you and wait expectantly. 

Let all who take refuge in you be glad; 
    let them ever sing for joy. 
Spread your protection over them, 
    that those who love your name 
    may rejoice in you. 
Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous; 
    you surround them with your favor 
    as with a shield. (Psalm 5:1-3, 11-12)

The secret of humility and hope is that they go together. 
In hope, there is humility, and in humility, there is hope. 

Gratitude is Humility is Happiness

“Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His Love endures forever.” (Psalm 118:1)

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)

In the Humility of Jesus Christ

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the humility of God, and so, the glory of God revealed. For humility is not merely something God does; it is not something he endured in some passing way. God is not merely humble. God is humility itself. 

Humility is self-giving, other-centered and cross-shaped — which is exactly what Divine Love is. Humility is but another way to speak of Love, and so, of God, for God is Love. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” says the Evangelist (John 15:13), and God in Christ is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for us.

I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep ... I am the Good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:11, 14-15)

In his letter to the Philippians, Apostle Paul hymns the depth and height of this great love and humility. It is, all of it, the glory of God unveiled. The humility of Christ is not the means to divine glory but is the fullness of the divine glory made manifest. Humility is what the glory of God looks like. And so Paul exhorts us:

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

In the humility of Jesus Christ is our freedom, and Lord Jesus invites us to follow him in this humility, so to discover our peace and rest:

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) 

The Secret of Humility and Hope

All things — which is to say, everything that exists, that has being — are created by Christ, through Christ, for Christ, and in Christ (Colossians 1:15-17). So, everything is sacred, from the lowliest and most mundane to the most heavenly and exalted. All share in the same being, the one being that comes from God, who is not merely a being (not even the greatest of all beings) but is Being Himself. Further, all things in heaven and on earth share in the same destiny, set from before the foundation of the world, that, in the fullness of the times, all be brought together in unity and headed up in Christ.

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment — to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:7-10).

That being so, then whatever things we think are the most lowly and least valuable have the same source and origin, and the same destiny as do we. For we share the same stuff, the same sacred substance as they. We are a part of each other and participate in the same being with each other, sharing in the same existence with each other. This is cause for great humility, and for great honor and respect toward even those things that seem the least.

On the other hand, whatever things we think are most wonderful and exalted also share the same source and origin, and have the same destiny as do we. We share with them the same sacred substance, participating with them in the same existence. And this is cause for great hope for ourselves. 

The secret of humility and hope is that they go together. In hope there is humility, and in humility there is hope.