Friday, November 14, 2008

Col 2, 9-10 In him dwells the whole fullness of the deity

(Col 2, 9-10) In him dwells the whole fullness of the deity
[9] For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily, [10] and you share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power.
(CCC 463) Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God" (1 Jn 4:2). Such is the joyous conviction of the Church from her beginning whenever she sings "the mystery of our religion": "He was manifested in the flesh" (1 Tim 3:16). (CCC 464) The unique and altogether singular event of 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. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man. During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it. (CCC 479) At the time appointed by God, the only Son of the Father, the eternal Word, that is, the Word and substantial Image of the Father, became incarnate; without losing his divine nature he has assumed human nature. (CCC 480) Jesus Christ is true God and true man, in the unity of his divine person; for this reason he is the one and only mediator between God and men. (CCC 481) Jesus Christ possesses two natures, one divine and the other human, not confused, but united in the one person of God's Son. (CCC 482) Christ, being true God and true man, has a human intellect and will, perfectly attuned and subject to his divine intellect and divine will, which he has in common with the Father and the Holy Spirit. (CCC 483) The Incarnation is therefore the mystery of the wonderful union of the divine and human natures in the one person of the Word.

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