The Humanity of Christ
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The document discusses the humanity of Christ, emphasizing the importance of faith and reason in understanding this concept. It outlines key aspects of Christ's incarnation, such as the union of divine and human natures, the grace of Christ as both a man and head of the church, and his role as mediator between God and humanity. Ultimately, it affirms that Christ fully shared in human experiences, including suffering and temptation, while still maintaining his divine nature.
The Humanity of Christ
- 1. The Humanity of Christ
- 2. In talking about the humanity of Christ we must not rely on our reason alone rather we look in the eyes of faith so that we may see the truth clearly. On the other hand, we cannot separate the reason and faith for they must go hand in hand. As St. Augustine says, faith seeks understanding. Moreover, scripture presents to us the evidences to prove the humanity of Christ. This will be our guide to have an idea on the life of Christ. In addition, the truth by which our early fathers of the church passed on to us will be part of this topic. The error of the teaching of some early Christians will The Humanity of Christ
- 3. The Incarnation 1. Fitness of the Incarnation 2. The Union of the Word and Flesh 3. The Person Assuming Human Nature 4. The Nature Assumed 5. Elements of the Nature Assumed 6. Order of the Elements Assumed 7. The Grace of Christ as a Man 8. The Grace of Christ as Head of the Church 9. Knowledge in Christ 10. The Beatific Knowledge in Christ 11. Christ’s Infused Knowledge 12. The Power of Christ’s Human Soul 13. Consequences of the Hypostatic Union 14. The Oneness of the Being of Christ 15. The Unity of Will in Christ 16. The Unity of Operation in Christ 17. The Subjection of Christ to God the Father 18. The Prayer of Christ 19. The Priesthood of Christ 20. The Adoption of Christ 21. The Predestination of Christ 22. The Adoration of Christ 23. Christ as Mediator
- 4. 1. Fitness of the Incarnation The Incarnation was necessary for man’s salvation. It was not absolutely necessary, for God is almighty, and he could have restored fallen man in other ways. But it was relatively necessary in relation to the need of bringing redemption to man in the most noble, effective, and admirable way.
- 5. 2. The Union of the Word and the Flesh Man’s essence, physically considered, is body and soul; man’s nature is the human essence as capable of living, walking, talking, thinking, willing. Now, God’s nature and essence are in all respects one and the same reality; this is because of God’s perfect simplicity. And human nature is a complete nature in its kind.
- 6. 3. The Person Assuming Human Nature It is most fitting that the Divine Son became man to redeem us, rather than the Father or the Holy Ghost. For the Son is the Word in whom is the exemplar of every creature. Now, as a craftsman restores his broken handiwork according to the original model or exemplar, so it is suitable that the restoration of God’s broken human handiwork should be accomplished through and by the Son. Again, to make men the adoptive sons of God, it was
- 7. 4. The Nature Assumed The Son of God assumed the nature of man, but not the person of a man. In Christ the human nature is hypostatically united to the divine Nature in the one Person of God the Son. Therefore, Christ is (by the human nature assumed), truly human, but he is not a human person. He is a divine Person. And that Person is the Second Person of the
- 8. 5. Elements of the Nature Assumed The human body of Christ is a true human body, not merely an apparent body. The Son of God assumed true human nature, and to this nature a real body belongs. If the body of Christ were merely an apparent body, there would have been something fictitious in the work of redemption. For if Christ had not a real body, he could not really
- 9. 6. Order of the Elements Assumed The Son of God assumed human nature entire, and therefore assumed its parts. He did not assume part after part until the whole was made up; he did not assume human nature through the medium of parts, but he assumed the parts through the medium of the whole.
- 10. 7. The Grace of Christ as a Man From the beginning of Christ’s human existence, he was in full possession and enjoyment of God, and this is the object of hope. Hence, there was neither need nor possibility of the theological virtue of hope in Christ as man. Of course, our Lord can look forward humanly to the future events of his human life: his Resurrection, for instance, and his
- 11. 8. The Grace of Christ as Head of the Church The grace of Christ as Head of the Church, called capital grace, is in reality the same sanctifying or habitual grace which is in him as a human individual (that is, personal grace), and which constitutes that fullness of grace of which “we have all received.”
- 12. 9. Knowledge in Christ As man, he has all the human perfections, including a human mind with its human or created knowledge. Even though he has perfect knowledge to begin with, he also, during his earthly life, learned things in a human way.
- 13. 10. The Beatific Knowledge in Christ Christ as man knows all things in the divine Word, for Christ is the divine Word as well as true and creatural man. The human mind of Christ does not itself know all things possible; here again we should have a case of finite encompassing infinite. But the human mind of Christ does know, in the Word, all that is actually said or thought or done by anyone at any time, past,
- 14. 11. Christ’s Infused Knowledge The infused knowledge possessed by Christ as man is more excellent than the knowledge possessed by the angels, and this, both in extent, and in the perfection of pure certitude. For the spiritual enlightenment of Christ’s human soul is more excellent, by reason of the hypostatic union, than that which is shed upon any other creature,
- 15. 12. Christ’s Acquired Knowledge There is acquired knowledge in Christ as man. It is perfect knowledge in its kind; that is, Christ knows by his acquired knowledge whatever can be humanly known through the service of the intellect. Christ’s human acquired knowledge is acquired and possessed as a perfection of his perfect human nature, not as a
- 16. 13. Deficiencies in the Body of Christ Christ could suffer in his body such things as hunger, thirst, pain, death. These hardships or defects are in themselves punishments for the sin which Christ had not. But it is suitable that he who came as man to atone for human sin should take on the nonstaining punishments consequent in man upon the original sin. By assuming human nature with these bodily deficiencies, our Lord proved his true humanity, and gave to
- 17. 14. Consequences of the Hypostatic Union To say God was made man is strictly true. But this does not mean that God was created, or made simply. It means that human nature, which is a creature, was assumed to the eternal God. To say that God was made man is not to suggest that the changeless God was changed, but that human nature was changed inasmuch as it now subsists in a divine Person without constituting a
- 18. 15. The Oneness of the Being of Christ Since oneness and being are really the same, the being of Christ is one. Human nature is not merely adjoined to the divine Nature of the Son of God, but is united to it hypostatically. Nothing new comes to the divine Person by this union, no newness or otherness of being; what occurs is a relation according to which the eternal Person of the Son now subsists in two natures. And thus the being of Christ is one being.
- 19. 16. The Unity of Will in Christ Christ had a perfect human nature, and hence he had a human will. Therefore, there are two wills in Christ, the human will and the divine will. Our Lord himself contrasts these two wills when he prays: “Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” Now, as God, Christ has the divine will undividedly with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Hence, in the prayer quoted, he speaks of “my will” as his human
- 20. 17. The Unity of Operation in Christ In Christ, the perfect man, the distinctively human operations prevailed, so that no sensitive movement took place without his will; even natural bodily (vegetal) operations belonged in some sense to his will, for, it was Christ’s will that his flesh should do and suffer what belonged to it. Hence, there was perfect unity in the operations
- 21. 18. The Subjection of Christ to God the Father Christ is God the Son, equal with the Father and one with him in essence and nature. But Christ is also man, and as man is subject to the Father. He says: “As the Father hath given me commandment, so do I.” And we also read that Christ humbled himself in obedience to the Father, “becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of
- 22. 19. The Prayer of Christ A prayer, as petition, is asking God to fulfill one’s wish or will. Now, the human will of Christ is finite, and hence not capable, without divine power, of carrying out or achieving all that it wishes. Therefore, it is fitting that Christ as man should pray. It is becoming that Christ should pray thus, for so he acknowledges the truth that God is the author of his human nature. Besides, he gives us a valuable example of making
- 23. 20. The Priesthood of Christ It is fitting that Christ be a priest. The office of a priest is to bestow sacred things on the people; to offer the prayers of the people to God; to make, in some manner, satisfaction for the people’s sins. Our Lord exercised this priestly office; hence, he was and is a priest. And fittingly so; the priestly ministry belongs essentially to what Christ came to do, as St. Paul says: “Having therefore a
- 24. 21. The Predestination of Christ The predestinated sonship of Christ as man is the exemplar of our predestinated sonship by adoption. And, indeed, the predestinated sonship of Christ as man is the cause of our predestinated sonship by adoption. For scripture says that God “hath predestinated us into the adoption of children through Jesus Christ.”
- 25. 22. Christ as Mediator As man, Christ stands between God and sinful human beings. He unites men to God by graces and gifts. He offers to God prayers and satisfaction for mankind. Hence, it is as man that Christ is mediator: “The man Christ Jesus.”
- 26. If there is any one thing of which modern Christians have been certain it is that Jesus was a true man, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, in all points tempted as we are. We need only read the Gospels to attest to the fact of Jesus' genuine humanity. There is not a limitation that humanity shares that Jesus did not fall heir. Like the rest of us, he got hungry. When at the well of Samaria he asked the women who was drawing water for a drink. When he grew tired, he needed rest and sleep. He learned obedience, in the way we must learn it. When his disciples were unfaithful it was very cutting to his heart. The blindness of the city he longed to save moved him to tears. In the garden he experienced the normal agony of any individual in the same situation. On the Cross, he added to all physical tortures the final agony of feeling God-forsaken.
- 27. Again we may notice that Jesus was by no means omniscient. His knowledge was essentially limited by human conditions. We may notice the human character of our Lord's moral and religious life. His religious experience was in the human realm. Certainly he had a human faith in God. Jesus overcame his temptations not by reliance on some inherent divine dimension, but by the constancy of his will. So we are moved to the conclusion, on the basis of peremptory evidence, that Jesus shared fully our human life.
- 28. The Humanity of Christ