How can we understand the second person of the Trinity? It’s difficult to think of Jesus as both fully human and fully divine, so let’s try to put some language around it. Though this doctrine can be a challenge to wrap our heads around, “belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of the Christian faith” (CCC 463). It is the belief in the Incarnation that reveals the mystery of the Trinity, the central mystery of our faith. Since belief in the Incarnation reveals truth about Jesus as the Son of God, it also reveals His love for us and by its very nature the love that is found among the Trinity.
But what does it mean that Jesus was incarnate? A simple explanation can be understood through the story that Scripture provides. John 1 tells us that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”
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What was confessed at this council can be summarized briefly by the Catechism which says, “…we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of a rational soul and body…We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division, or separation…each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person and one hypostasis” (CCC 467). Ultimately, that which was decided upon was a cooperative effort between those in Antioch and Cyril of Alexandria. It confesses that there is a union by matter of persons, but not of natures. The Divine Word of God is a separate nature from the human of Jesus, but both natures are joined to a human. In effect, Christ is one person in whom two natures are
One of the main principles of Christianity is the belief in both the divinity and humanity of Jesus, that these two natures are combined harmoniously in one being. In general, all modern Christians believe that Jesus was human, he was considered to be “The Word was made flesh” (John, I: 14). However, Jesus was more than just a human, despite being subjected to pain, suffering and death like all other human beings, he was sinless and also possessed the power to heal and to defy death in order to ascend, both body and spirit, into heaven. He was all man and all God, a combination of these two elements, remaining distinct but united in one being. The deity of Jesus is a non-negotiable belief in Christianity, which is referred to in many parts of scripture, “God was revealed in the flesh” (I Timothy, 3:16). The Christian faith does not perceive Jesus as God but rather a reincarnation of God, a mysterious deity who is the second person of the Holy Trinity. Throughout history, controversy has surrounded the issue of the humanity and divinity of Jesus, leading to the formation of Docetism, the belief that Jesus was fully divine but not fully human, Arianism, that Jesus was superior to all of creation, but less divine than God, and Nestorius, that there were two separate persons within Jesus. This the proportion of the divine and human within Je...
“The word "Incarnation"comes from the Latin words "in" and "carnis" which means “flesh."" Flesh is the solid part of our being, the part that we can see and touch, in contrast to our mind, soul, and spirit” According to John 4:24, God in his natural form is a spirit. In God’s plan of salvation, “it was necessary for the Son of God to be revealed to humankind in ways that they could see and touch, and so the Incarnation was a part of the plan-- placing the eternal, immortal, invisible Son of God in a body of flesh”(Lehigh, David). According to the Catholic Church, “The Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human.
Three equals one. Out of all of the statements made by the Christian faith, perhaps none is more confusing. The Doctrine of the Trinity has been questioned for decades and many Christians do not even understand it. Colin E. Gunton argues that this does not have to be so. Instead, he calls the Western Church to learn from Eastern Orthodoxy and allow Trinitarian thinking to permeate every aspect of the church. It is when the Western Church embarrasses “The Forgotten Trinity” (the name of the chapter) in thinking and in worship, that we not only learn the nature of God, but how we should live in light of it.
In the fifth discourse, the Son of God is described to further reflect himself about his unique and intimate eternal activity. First the author describes the production of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is said to be the bond between the divine persons. And the Son of God wanted his own person to be the producer. This would be the bond between the human and the divine being. The author describes the Holy Spirit as being a person that proceeds from the Holy Trinity. It is the bond that creates a sense of unity among the divine Persons and that they are perfectly united in the “unity of the Holy Spirit” yet they still are able to maintain their distinct natures (pg 134). The author also mentions two mysteries. The first mystery is described as having a divine person whom we adore, uniting two persons. And the second mystery is described as having a divine person whom we adore by uniting the two natures, one which is divine and the other being human. “He contemplates, adores and imitates the unity of the Holy Spirit, who is the third Person in the order of the Holy Trinity and who, by his nature, is the eternal bond between the two Persons from whom he proceeds.” (pg 135). All together the Son of God is our personal love and sacred unity. He is uniquely expressed and distinctly represented by “the states and qualities of this divine mystery, which is in a perfect relationship with what is ineffable in eternity, as well as being a living portrait of God” (135).
The Triune God What does it mean to say the one God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit? How is God best understood? How can the Church communicate this today? D14734
...tween God and Jesus. Arius was a leader of a congregation that believed, “Christians worshiped Jesus, but at the same time came from monotheistic Jewish tradition, in which God alone is worshiped (Fisher, 2008, p. 320). In other words, Arius believed Jesus did not have the same status as God because he was a human. Others believed that “Jesus is properly worshiped as the incarnation of God” (Fisher, 2008, p. 320). In order to resolve this issue, Constantine formed a general council, called the Nicene Council. They debated the issue for decades and they finally dismissed Arius’s beliefs and created the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed states that the Father came down from heaven as the Holy Spirit and he was made man through the Virgin Mary. This creed is a “profession of faith for many Christians dominations” (Fisher, 2008, p. 320) and has helped unify all Christians.
Around the time after Jesus’ resurrection, Christians were confused and they needed answers. Jesus was just arisen from the dead. The Church now had Jesus and God to look to, but who was the leader of it all? Who were they to worship? Where does the Spirit fit into all of this? After many questions, they looked to Scripture. Christians have had the belief of Monotheism and that there is One God. Yet, it wasn’t until the Church looked to Scripture that they pieced together what is now known as the Holy Trinity.
“The practice of baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the second century propelled the development of the trinitarian theology” (LaDue 48). According to Collins, the trinity can be defined by three statements “1. There is only one true God. 2. This one true God exists as three distinct persons. 3. Each person is fully divine” (Collins 29-31). The three people that make up the trinity are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. First there is the Father. There are many Bible passages where God is referred to as the Father, this can be concluded because He alone created all things and His first human creation, Adam, was called the son of God. Jesus is God’s son and he was sent by his father, the Father, to offer humanity salvation from their sins. The “God of the Israelites reveals himself as a distinct, unique, superior deity who is always there. God’s being there is what defines him” (LaDue 14). The Israelites sometimes see the God Yahweh as an imitation of the trinity in the old testament, but they do not have distinct leveled personalities. Although God is distinct and unique, the idea that He is superior can be a false assumption as all the persons of the trinity have equal power and divinity. Another person of the trinity is the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Holy Spirit is a person. This is a common misconception of the
Incarnation means “the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form (2) the union of divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)” What this means is that in certain religions they believe that when you die you move on spiritually you become closer to the person that you are meant to be in the eyes of your God. With each incarnation, you take certain characteristics with you and lessons you learned from certain experiences in your past lives. “In Christian faith incarnation is continual in that our redemption depends on the reality that the eternal son of God came to us as a man. If he did not come fully down, then we are not fully saved (Dawson 5-6). Since Jesus became what we are, accepting our very humanity and God crossed the gap between human and deity, and he overcame our sin and came to live on our behalf. He chose to leave a faithful life that was beyond our capacity, but required by the Father. (Goodwithgod)” With Jesus giving his life all the humans would have been forced to live a life of damnation. Jesus evolved and became human took a man and God
If the factions of Christianity are joined by belief in Jesus, they have been divided since the beginning in understanding who this man is. One of the very first questions the early church had to answer as the fledgling religion distinguished itself centered around the identity of their savior. Was he human or divine or some odd combination? Thinkers such as Arius argued that he was fully human, “pre-eminent in rank within the created order, yet someone who was created rather than being divine” (McGrath 56). However, several immediate problems with this theory arose, pointed out by critics such as Ath...
Four movements, now heresies, of the past each adopted one of these four views mentioned previously. They are: Nestorianism, Eutychianism, Apollinarianism, and Arianism. Nestorianism and Eutychianism fall under the controversy of the relationship between the two natures. The controversy of Nestorianism arose over the propriety of the term theotokos (“God-bearing”) as a description of Mary. At the Council of Chalcedon in 428 Nestorius gave his view of theotokos to which he held and overly dividing view of the two natures of Christ. Nestorius felt that the term was of doubtful propriety unless the term anthropotokos (“human-bearing”) was also used. Nestorius was later condemned when Cyril of Alexandria; who held the belief in Christ having one nature got involved. Nestorius’ pronouncement towards the birth of Christ caused Cyril to oppose him. Nestorius said that God cannot have a mother; no woman can give birth to God. Cyril of Alexandria suggested that Nestorius was proposing that Jesus has two natures joined in a purely moral union. After Nestorianism came Eutychianism. Eutyches who was repeatedly summoned to the standing Synod of Constantinople in 448, finally appeared and stated his position whereas Christ has two natures before the incarnation, that was but one afterwards. The result of the Synod was the Eutyches was deposed and excommunicated and the one- nature doctrine rejected.
The Trinity is made up of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This concept is what many Catholics believe in, but other worldwide religions believe in other beliefs. Out of all the three Divine Persons, “Jesus is the most qualified to bring the renewal of creation because it was through him that creation came into being” (Pohle February 7th). We as humans will have to face the consequences for actions that we have done in the past, present and future. Jesus has come into the world as a human to show his dignity and save us from sin; he was the world and of all creation. As we come to read more about Jesus we get to know Jesus more, we learn about what he did, how he did it and why he had to do these saving actions.
The doctrine of the Trinity, as seen in the Christian bible, is primary to the Christian faith. The word “Trinity” does not actually appear in the bible; it is a theological label meant to summarize certain teachings of certain passages of scripture, and is crucial to properly understand what God is like, how He relates to us, and how we relate to Him. It may also raise many difficult questions including what does it mean that God is a Trinity? While it is difficult for us to fully understand everything about the trinity, it is quite possible to answer questions like this one and come to a solid grasp of what it means for God to be three in one.
"The elements of the Person of Christ are to be established; the faith which accompanies the theoretic process always presupposes their unity; this is for faith immediately certain, though not as yet narrowly defined, not as yet mediately cognised through the knowledge of the distinct elements, which
I am a Christian and I believe in the Holy trinity: God, the Son, the Holy Spirit.