The Nature of Christ
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St Mary in the
Orthodox Concept
Servants prep Winter Semester
2014
“What Christ did not
assume, He did not heal”
St Gregory Nazianzen
4 Heresies about the
Nature of Christ
Arianism
• In his view, Our Lord Jesus Christ was to be
considered as “created”, nevertheless, preeminent
among all creation.
• He argued that there is a distinction in a rank
between Christ and other creatures. He outranks all
other creatures, but shares their essentially created
nature.
St Athanasius argument:
• No creature can save another creature.
Only God can save.
The Apollinarian Heresy
• He said that our Lord Jesus Christ could not be
regarded as totally human. In our Lord Jesus
Christ case, the Divine Logos replaced the
human spirit.
• This means he didn’t possess our full humanity.
He was without a human spirit because the
divinity of the Logos provided the needed life.
• Apollinarius argued that, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
a purely human mind and soul were replaced
by a divine mind and soul.
The human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ is thus
incomplete.
The Nestorian Heresy
• Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, objected to
the title “Theotokos” (Mother of God) as applied to
Virgin Mary.
• He believed that St. Mary gave birth to a mere
human being and that the Divine Logos descended
and filled this man; thus, in his opinion, Virgin Mary
should be called “Christotokos” (Mother of Christ) or
even “Anthropotokos” (Mother of humanity)
Eutychian Heresy
 Eutyches said that the human nature
was absorbed and dissolved in the
divine nature as a drop of vinegar in
the ocean.
 He denied the human nature of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Summary

Arius denied the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and was
excommunicated by the Council of Nicea in 325 AD.

Apollinarius denied the complete humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ
and was excommunicated by the Council of Constantinople in 381
AD.

Nestorius separated the two natures of our Lord Jesus Christ denying
the hypostatic union between them and was excommunicated by
the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD.

Eutyches denied the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ claiming that it
was absorbed by His divinity and was excommunicated by the
Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD.
So what is our faith
concerning Christology?
• Our Lord Jesus Christ is God Himself, the
Incarnate Logos, who took to Himself a
complete manhood.
• His Divine Nature is united with His Human
nature in a complete hypostatic (personal)
union without mingling, confusion,
alteration, or separation
The union between iron and fire:
 in this union the iron is not changed into fire and
the iron is not changed into iron. They are both
united without mingling, confusion or alteration
The Nature Of Christ
Our Lord Jesus Christ has Two Natures:
1. The divine Nature of the Logos
2. The Human Nature that He took from the
Virgin Mary
The Human nature is composed of two
elements:
 Human Spirit
 Human Body`
Monophysite vs
Miaphysite
• The Coptic church is falsely accused by the
Chalcedonian churches as “monophysites”
offiliated with the heresy of Eutyches
• “mono” means alone- without a
companion; only
• Mia- means “one virtually by union”
• Physis- means nature, nature qualities,
powers
The Christological
Formula
• “The one incarnate nature of God the Logos”
by St Athanasius and later confirmed by St Cyril
• The proof is that both sides have together
accepted that there can be no distinction between
the natures except in thought alone
St Mary in the Orthodox
Concept
2 Doctrines of St Mary
• Perpetual VirginityAnd the LORD said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it
shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it,
because theLORD God of Israel has entered by it;
therefore it shall be shut. 3 As for the
prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat
bread before the LORD; he shall enter by way of the
vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.”
Ezekiel 44:2-3
Betrothal and Marriage
According to the Jewish Tradition, the
nuptial consists of two steps:
Betrothal and Marriage
• This betrothal was in every respect equivalent to
present day marriage but without any sexual
relationship.
• The betrothed virgin was called the man’s wife and
she would become a widow if her betrothed died
claiming the financial settlement accorded to a
wife when widowed.
• In case of infidelity she was liable to the same
punishment as an adulterous wife and like a wife
she could not be dismissed without a bill of divorce.
• Now we can understand why Virgin Mary was
called St. Joseph’s wife even though they were only
betrothed and not married.
•
20 But
while he thought about these things, behold,
an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,
saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to
take to you Mary your wife, for that which is
conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 1:20
Objection # 1: Lord Jesus was called “her firstborn
Son” (Mt 1:25; Lk 2:7) therefore; she must have had
other children.
Refutation
• It is the custom of Holy Scripture to designate with
the title “firstborn” not the one who subsequently
has brothers or sisters, but the one who is born first: ·
“Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens
the womb among the children of Israel, both of
man and beast; it is Mine.” (Ex 13:2)
‡ Objection # 2
•
It is written that St. Joseph “did not know her till she
had brought forth her firstborn” (Mt 1:25) this must
imply that he knew her after the Lord’s birth.
Refutation:
The word ‘till or until’ by no means necessarily implies
that St. Joseph knew her after the birth of Lord Jesus
Christ.
• For the word ‘till’ does not in any way imply the
opposite of what is mentioned before it; this word in
Holy Scriptures means eternally. For example: · “The
Lord said to my Lord. Sit at my right hand till I make
Your enemies Your footstool” (Ps 110:1)
• Could it be that this means that our Saviour Lord
Jesus Christ won’t sit at the right hand of the Father
and reign with Him unto the ages of ages? We well
know that “of His Kingdom there shall be no end”
(Lk 1:33)
• · “Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to
and fro until the waters had dried up …” (Gen 8:7)
Does this mean that the raven returned at one point to
the ark? But we know that the raven never returned.
The Name of Theotokos
• And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy
Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that
Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of
God. Luke 1:35
• But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my
Lord should come to me? Luke 1:43
Nestorian heresy
• Anastasius saying: “Let no one call Mary
“Theotokos”, for Mary was but a woman, and it is
impossible that God should be born of a woman”.
• St. Cyril sent two letters to Nestorius in which he
explains the nature of Christ, as the Incarnate Son of
God, one Person and declared St. Mary’s right to
be called “Theotokos”.
St Cyril’s response
Nor was He first born of the Holy Virgin as an ordinary
man, in such a way that the Word only afterwards
descended
upon Him; rather He was united (with flesh) in the womb
itself....
For this reason the (Holy Fathers) confidently called the
Holy Virgin “Theotokos”; not meaning that the nature of the
Word or His Godhead received its beginning from the Holy
Virgin, but that, inasmuch as His rationally animated body,
to which the Word was personally united, was born of her,
He is said to have been born after the flesh.