Due to Adam's transgression in the Garden of Eden, all of humanity has been plagued with a fallen nature. This fallen nature has a tendency to sin. It also possesses mortality. It dies.
In Psalm 50, it says:
For, behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 50:5, LXX)
From the moment of conception in the Fallopian tube, there exists in man a tendency to sin.
Everyone also receives mortality from the moment of conception. In Ecclesiasticus, it says:
In Psalm 50, it says:
For, behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 50:5, LXX)
From the moment of conception in the Fallopian tube, there exists in man a tendency to sin.
Everyone also receives mortality from the moment of conception. In Ecclesiasticus, it says:
Rejoice not over thy greatest enemy being dead, but remember that we die all. (Ecclesiasticus 8:7)
All flesh waxeth old as a garment: for the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the death. (Ecclesiasticus 14:17)
Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die. (Ecclesiasticus 25:24)
and in Romans, St. Paul said that "death passed upon all men." (Rom. 5:12) In Hebrews, the apostle said:
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. (Heb. 9:27)
That part of man that dies is the body and not the soul. God creates our souls at the moment of conception. In Zechariah, it says:
The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel; saith the Lord, that stretches out the sky, and lays the foundation of the Earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. (Zech. 12:1, LXX)
Forasmuch as he knew not his Maker, and Him that inspired into him an active soul, and breathed in a living spirit. (Wisdom 15:11)
In Jeremiah, it says:
Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee; I appointed thee a prophet to the nations. (Jer. 1:5, LXX)
God knew Jeremiah before He formed Him in his mother's womb. God knew the prophet at the moment of conception. We should not interpret this verse to be teaching the doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul. Instead, we should be interpreting it to mean that God creates our souls at the moment of conception. In its Anathemas against Origen, the Fifth Ecumenical Council of the Church said:
If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema. (First Anathema against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 318, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
The immortality of the soul is taught in the Psalms. In the 29th Psalm, it says:
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to Thee for ever. (Psalm 29:12, LXX)
In God will we make our boast all the day, and to Thy name will we give thanks for ever. (Psalm 43:8, LXX)
I will dwell in Thy tabernacle for ever. (Psalm 60:4, LXX)
King David believed that he would continue to thank God even after his death. He believed that he would live in God's heavenly tabernacle forever. So then, the death of his body is not the cessation of his existence as a person. His soul continues to exist after his body has died and deteriorated.
The immortality of the soul is also taught in the Book of Revelation. The souls of the martyrs still have consciousness. They are said to be under the altar in Heaven crying out to God for justice.
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth? (Rev. 6:9,10)
St. Paul, while in prison, wrote to the Philippian Christians and said that if he were to die, he would be with Christ.
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. (Phil. 1:23,24)
The apostle clearly believed that his soul would survive the death of his body.
The mortality that "has passed upon all men" is transmitted to the bodies of all of Adam's descendants and not to their created souls.
In the Book of Proverbs, it says:
Wisdom has built a house for herself, and set up seven pillars. (Prov. 9:1, LXX)
St. Gregory of Nyssa interpreted this verse to refer to the Incarnation of the Word of God.
But we say that in the earlier part of the book, where he says that “Wisdom has builded herself a house” (Prov. 9:1), he refers darkly in, these words to the preparation of the flesh of the Lord: for the true Wisdom did not dwell in another’s building, but built for Itself that dwelling-place from the body of the Virgin. (Against Eunomius, Book III, chapter 2, by St. Gregory of Nyssa, 331-395 A.D., vol. 5, p. 140, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
There are other Church Fathers who, likewise, interpreted this verse to be a prophecy of in the Incarnation of God the Word.
The Second Person of the Trinity took mortal flesh from the Virgin Mary and fashioned Himself a body in her womb. He also created for Himself an immortal soul. He went through all the stages of physical development that we do.
Wherefore also He passed through every stage of life, restoring all to communion with God. (Against Heresies, Book III, chapter 18, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202, A.D., vol. 1, p. 448, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
So then, Christ developed in His mother's body as a single one-celled zygote possessing a human soul. His human soul did not exist before His mother conceived Him. He created it at the moment of His conception.
If anyone says or thinks that the soul of the Lord pre-existed and was united with God the Word before the Incarnation and Conception of the Virgin, let him be anathema. (Second Anathema of the Emperor Justinian against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 320, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
If anyone says or thinks that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was first formed in the womb of the holy Virgin and that afterwards there was united with it God the Word and the pre-existing soul, let him be anathema. (Third Anathema of the Emperor Justinian against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 320, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
He developed in His mother's womb as any other human baby would.
Human babies sin from a day old.
For who shall be pure from uncleanness? Not even one; if even his life should be but one day upon the Earth. (Job 14:4,5, LXX)
Although human in every respect that we are, Jesus never sinned even as a baby.
For before the Child shall know good or evil, He refuses evil, to choose the good. (Isaiah 7:16, LXX)
St. Paul said that He "knew no sin." (II Cor. 5:21) St. Peter said He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (I Peter 2:22) St. John said that "in Him is no sin." (I John 3:5)
Jesus Christ upbraided the Pharisees for being self-righteous.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (St. Matt. 23:25-28)
He told a young, rich man:
Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but One, that is, God. (St. Matt. 19:17)
Yet, He told the Jews who refused to follow Him.
And He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him. (St. John 8:29)
He even claimed to be God. (St. John 8:56-58; 10:27-33)
So, the Second Person of the Trinity assumed a human nature, but He did not assume sin. The human nature that He assumed was in all respects like ours.
In the epistles of St. Paul, we learn that Jesus Christ took human flesh that is like ours in all respects. In Romans, the apostle wrote:
For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Rom. 8:3,4)
Jesus' body was in the "likeness of sinful flesh." However, it was not sinful flesh. In Hebrews, St. Paul wrote:
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Heb. 2:14,15)
He partook of the same flesh and blood that we have. St. Paul also wrote in this epistle that He was made like us in all respects.
For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted. (Heb. 2:16-18)
In Philippians, he said:
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. (Phil. 2:4-8)
Jesus Christ was made in the "likeness of men" and was "found in fashion as a Man." He was human like we are. He assumed our humanity and He healed it. That is one of the things He did for our salvation through the Incarnation. This is the teaching of the ancient Christian writer Tertullian and the Church Fathers.
Thus, then, was the Word of God made man, as also Moses says: “God, true are His works.” (Deut. 32:4, LXX) But if, not having been made flesh, He did appear as if flesh, His work was not a true one. But what He did appear, that He also was: God recapitulated in Himself the ancient formation of man, that He might kill sin, deprive death of its power, and vivify man; and therefore His works are true. (Against Heresies, Book III, chapter 18, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 448, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
We maintain, moreover, that what has been abolished in Christ is not carnem peccati, “sinful flesh,” but peccatum carnis, “sin in the flesh,” — not the material thing, but its condition; not the substance, but its flaw; and (this we aver) on the authority of the apostle, who says, “He abolished sin in the flesh.” (Rom. 8:3) Now in another sentence he says that Christ was “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” (Rom. 8:3), not, however, as if He had taken on Him “the likeness of the flesh” in the sense of a semblance of body instead of its reality; but he means us to understand likeness to the flesh which sinned, because the flesh of Christ, which committed no sin itself, resembled that which had sinned, — resembled it in its nature, but not in the corruption it received from Adam; whence we also affirm that there was in Christ the same flesh as that whose nature in man is sinful. In the flesh, therefore, we say that sin has been abolished, because in Christ that same flesh is maintained without sin, which in man was not maintained without sin. (On the Flesh of Christ, chapter 16, by Tertullian, 145-220 A.D., vol. 3, p. 535, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Moreover, the capital element of our salvation is the incarnation of the Word. We believe, therefore, that it was without any change in the Divinity that the incarnation of the Word took place with a view to the renewal of humanity. (A Sectional Confession of Faith, Article VI, by St. Gregory the Wonder-Worker, 205-265 A.D., vol. 6, pp. 41-42, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
For the good which “the law” of nature “could not do, in that it was weak,” being overcome by the lust which lies in the body, God gave strength to accomplish, “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3); so that sin being condemned, to its destruction, so that it should never bear fruit in the flesh, the righteousness of the law of nature might be fulfilled, abounding in the obedience of those who walk not according to the lust of the flesh, but according to the lust and guidance of the Spirit; “for the law of the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2), which is the Gospel, being different from earlier laws, leading by its preaching to obedience and the remission of sins, delivered us from the law of sin and death, having conquered entirely sin which reigned over our flesh. (From The Discourse on the Resurrection, A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words on the Same Discourse, chapter 3, by St. Methodius of Patara, 260-312 A.D., vol. 6, p. 373, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
For therefore did He assume the body originate and human, that having renewed it as its Framer, He might deify it in Himself, and thus might introduce us all into the Kingdom of Heaven after His likeness. (Four Discourses Against the Arians, Discourse II, by St. Athanasius the Great, 296-373 A.D., vol. 4, p. 386, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Hence it is evident that our Lord assumed the natural affections to establish His real incarnation, and not by way of semblance of incarnation, and that all the affections derived from evil that besmirch the purity of our life, He rejected as unworthy of His unsullied Godhead. It is on this account that He is said to have been “made in the likeness of flesh of sin” (Rom. 8:3); not, as these men hold, in likeness of flesh, but of flesh of sin. It follows that He took our flesh with its natural afflictions, but “did no sin.” (I Pet. 2:22) Just as the death which is in the flesh, transmitted to us through Adam, was swallowed up by the Godhead, so was the sin taken away by the righteousness which is in Christ Jesus, so that in the resurrection we receive back the flesh neither liable to death nor subject to sin. (Letter CCLXI, paragraph 3, by St. Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D., vol. 8, p. 300, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Yet who of those who are conversant with the oracles of God does not know with regard to what point of time it was said of Him by the mighty Paul, (and that once for all), that He “became obedient”? (Phil. 2:8) For it was when He came in the form of a servant to accomplish the mystery of redemption by the Cross, Who had emptied Himself, Who humbled Himself by assuming the likeness and fashion of a man, being found as man in man’s lowly nature — then, I say, it was that He became obedient, even He Who “took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses” (St. Matt. 8:17), healing the disobedience of men by His own obedience, that by His stripes He might heal our wound, and by His own death do away with the common death of all men, — then it was that for our sakes He was made obedient, even as He became “sin” and “a curse” by reason of the dispensation on our behalf (II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13), not being so by nature, but becoming so in His love for man. (Against Eunomius, Book II, chapter 11, by St. Gregory of Nyssa 331-395 A.D., vol. 5, p. 121, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
The fact, therefore, that at the time appointed, according to the purpose of His will, Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, and buried was not the doom necessary to His own condition, but the method of redeeming us from captivity. For “the Word became flesh” (St. John 1:14) in order that from the Virgin’s womb He might take our suffering nature, and that what could not be inflicted on the Son of God might be inflicted on the Son of Man. For although at His very birth the signs of Godhead shone forth in Him, and the whole course of His bodily growth was full of wonders, yet had He truly assumed our weaknesses, and without share in sin had spared Himself no human frailty, that He might impart what was His to us and heal what was ours in Himself. For He, the Almighty Physician, had prepared a two-fold remedy for us in our misery, of which the one part consists of mystery and the other of example, that by the one Divine powers may be bestowed, by the other human weaknesses driven out. Because as God is the Author of our justification, so man is a debtor to pay Him devotion. (Sermon LXVII, chapter V, by St. Leo the Great, 390-461 A.D., vol. 12, part 1, p. 179, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
The very human nature that was made spiritually ill through Adam's fall into sin was restored to health when Christ assumed it. St. Leo the Great said that our humanity could not have been healed unless the Word of God had taken flesh from the Virgin Mary's womb.
To set food before the hungry denotes human kindness and a philanthropic spirit: but with five loaves and two fishes to satisfy 5,000 men, besides women and children, who would dare deny that to be the work of Deity? A Deity which, by the co-operation of the functions of true flesh, showed not only itself in Manhood, but also Manhood in itself; for the old, original wounds in man’s nature could not be healed, except by the Word of God taking to Himself flesh from the Virgin’s womb, whereby in one and the same Person flesh and the Word co-existed. (Sermon XLVI, chapter II, by St. Leo the Great, 390-461 A.D., vol. 12, part 1, p. 159, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
St. John of Damascus, speaking of the Incarnation, said:
For what has not been taken cannot be healed. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book III, chapter 6, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, p. 50, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
So, if Jesus Christ did not assume a fallen human nature like ours, then He did not heal it. Since He did heal our fallen human nature through the Incarnation, He did assume a fallen human nature like ours. He did not assume sin, however. He took fallen, mortal human flesh from His Virgin Mother and sanctified it.
This brings me to comment on another point in which we disagree with Western Christians: the Roman dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary and the Protestant view of Christ's Incarnation.
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is rejected by the Orthodox Church for two basic reasons. For one thing, it is unnecessary. We inherit death and a tendency to sin from Adam but not the guilt of Adam's sin. (Ezek. 18:20) So, the Most Holy Theotokos could not transmit the guilt of Adam's sin to her Son Jesus Christ. It is unnecessary, therefore, to have a dogma that says that her conception in her mother's womb is in some way different than everyone else's.* The other reason for rejecting this dogma is that if the Virgin Mary did not possess a fallen human nature, then she could not have transmitted that to her Son so that He could heal it of sin through His Incarnation. "For what has not been taken cannot be healed." The teaching of the Church Fathers is that Jesus Christ healed our human nature through the Incarnation. He assumed a fallen human nature like ours, healed it, and sanctified it. He did not assume sin, but He "healed our disobedience through His obedience."
The Protestants, on the other hand, say that the guilt of Adam's sin is transmitted to children by the father and not by the mother. So, in their view, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin woman in order to avoid being guilty of Adam's sin. The Orthodox Church says that the only one guilty of Adam's sin is Adam. Therefore, no one but Adam himself is guilty of his sin. The transmission of a fallen nature and mortality comes from women as well as from men. The Virgin Mary possessed both and transmitted them to her Son so that He could save us.
Jesus Christ had to assume a fallen human nature in order to heal it. He had to assume mortality in order to abolish death (II Tim. 1:10) through His death. (St. John 10:15; Rom. 5:8; II Cor. 5:15)
Steve
* What I have written should in no way be interpreted as demeaning our Lady. The Orthodox Church sees her as being the Great Example and not the Great Exception. She is the Most Exalted of God's creatures and the Chief of Saints. It is the teaching of the Orthodox Church that she fully cooperated with God. She is "full of grace." (St. Luke 1:28) She is the best of all humanity. She is like us, but the best of us.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
All flesh waxeth old as a garment: for the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the death. (Ecclesiasticus 14:17)
Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die. (Ecclesiasticus 25:24)
and in Romans, St. Paul said that "death passed upon all men." (Rom. 5:12) In Hebrews, the apostle said:
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. (Heb. 9:27)
That part of man that dies is the body and not the soul. God creates our souls at the moment of conception. In Zechariah, it says:
The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel; saith the Lord, that stretches out the sky, and lays the foundation of the Earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. (Zech. 12:1, LXX)
Forasmuch as he knew not his Maker, and Him that inspired into him an active soul, and breathed in a living spirit. (Wisdom 15:11)
In Jeremiah, it says:
Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee; I appointed thee a prophet to the nations. (Jer. 1:5, LXX)
God knew Jeremiah before He formed Him in his mother's womb. God knew the prophet at the moment of conception. We should not interpret this verse to be teaching the doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul. Instead, we should be interpreting it to mean that God creates our souls at the moment of conception. In its Anathemas against Origen, the Fifth Ecumenical Council of the Church said:
If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema. (First Anathema against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 318, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
The immortality of the soul is taught in the Psalms. In the 29th Psalm, it says:
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to Thee for ever. (Psalm 29:12, LXX)
In God will we make our boast all the day, and to Thy name will we give thanks for ever. (Psalm 43:8, LXX)
I will dwell in Thy tabernacle for ever. (Psalm 60:4, LXX)
King David believed that he would continue to thank God even after his death. He believed that he would live in God's heavenly tabernacle forever. So then, the death of his body is not the cessation of his existence as a person. His soul continues to exist after his body has died and deteriorated.
The immortality of the soul is also taught in the Book of Revelation. The souls of the martyrs still have consciousness. They are said to be under the altar in Heaven crying out to God for justice.
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth? (Rev. 6:9,10)
St. Paul, while in prison, wrote to the Philippian Christians and said that if he were to die, he would be with Christ.
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. (Phil. 1:23,24)
The apostle clearly believed that his soul would survive the death of his body.
The mortality that "has passed upon all men" is transmitted to the bodies of all of Adam's descendants and not to their created souls.
In the Book of Proverbs, it says:
Wisdom has built a house for herself, and set up seven pillars. (Prov. 9:1, LXX)
St. Gregory of Nyssa interpreted this verse to refer to the Incarnation of the Word of God.
But we say that in the earlier part of the book, where he says that “Wisdom has builded herself a house” (Prov. 9:1), he refers darkly in, these words to the preparation of the flesh of the Lord: for the true Wisdom did not dwell in another’s building, but built for Itself that dwelling-place from the body of the Virgin. (Against Eunomius, Book III, chapter 2, by St. Gregory of Nyssa, 331-395 A.D., vol. 5, p. 140, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
There are other Church Fathers who, likewise, interpreted this verse to be a prophecy of in the Incarnation of God the Word.
The Second Person of the Trinity took mortal flesh from the Virgin Mary and fashioned Himself a body in her womb. He also created for Himself an immortal soul. He went through all the stages of physical development that we do.
Wherefore also He passed through every stage of life, restoring all to communion with God. (Against Heresies, Book III, chapter 18, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202, A.D., vol. 1, p. 448, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
So then, Christ developed in His mother's body as a single one-celled zygote possessing a human soul. His human soul did not exist before His mother conceived Him. He created it at the moment of His conception.
If anyone says or thinks that the soul of the Lord pre-existed and was united with God the Word before the Incarnation and Conception of the Virgin, let him be anathema. (Second Anathema of the Emperor Justinian against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 320, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
If anyone says or thinks that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was first formed in the womb of the holy Virgin and that afterwards there was united with it God the Word and the pre-existing soul, let him be anathema. (Third Anathema of the Emperor Justinian against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 320, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
He developed in His mother's womb as any other human baby would.
Human babies sin from a day old.
For who shall be pure from uncleanness? Not even one; if even his life should be but one day upon the Earth. (Job 14:4,5, LXX)
Although human in every respect that we are, Jesus never sinned even as a baby.
For before the Child shall know good or evil, He refuses evil, to choose the good. (Isaiah 7:16, LXX)
St. Paul said that He "knew no sin." (II Cor. 5:21) St. Peter said He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (I Peter 2:22) St. John said that "in Him is no sin." (I John 3:5)
Jesus Christ upbraided the Pharisees for being self-righteous.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (St. Matt. 23:25-28)
He told a young, rich man:
Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but One, that is, God. (St. Matt. 19:17)
Yet, He told the Jews who refused to follow Him.
And He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him. (St. John 8:29)
He even claimed to be God. (St. John 8:56-58; 10:27-33)
So, the Second Person of the Trinity assumed a human nature, but He did not assume sin. The human nature that He assumed was in all respects like ours.
In the epistles of St. Paul, we learn that Jesus Christ took human flesh that is like ours in all respects. In Romans, the apostle wrote:
For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Rom. 8:3,4)
Jesus' body was in the "likeness of sinful flesh." However, it was not sinful flesh. In Hebrews, St. Paul wrote:
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Heb. 2:14,15)
He partook of the same flesh and blood that we have. St. Paul also wrote in this epistle that He was made like us in all respects.
For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted. (Heb. 2:16-18)
In Philippians, he said:
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. (Phil. 2:4-8)
Jesus Christ was made in the "likeness of men" and was "found in fashion as a Man." He was human like we are. He assumed our humanity and He healed it. That is one of the things He did for our salvation through the Incarnation. This is the teaching of the ancient Christian writer Tertullian and the Church Fathers.
Thus, then, was the Word of God made man, as also Moses says: “God, true are His works.” (Deut. 32:4, LXX) But if, not having been made flesh, He did appear as if flesh, His work was not a true one. But what He did appear, that He also was: God recapitulated in Himself the ancient formation of man, that He might kill sin, deprive death of its power, and vivify man; and therefore His works are true. (Against Heresies, Book III, chapter 18, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 448, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
We maintain, moreover, that what has been abolished in Christ is not carnem peccati, “sinful flesh,” but peccatum carnis, “sin in the flesh,” — not the material thing, but its condition; not the substance, but its flaw; and (this we aver) on the authority of the apostle, who says, “He abolished sin in the flesh.” (Rom. 8:3) Now in another sentence he says that Christ was “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” (Rom. 8:3), not, however, as if He had taken on Him “the likeness of the flesh” in the sense of a semblance of body instead of its reality; but he means us to understand likeness to the flesh which sinned, because the flesh of Christ, which committed no sin itself, resembled that which had sinned, — resembled it in its nature, but not in the corruption it received from Adam; whence we also affirm that there was in Christ the same flesh as that whose nature in man is sinful. In the flesh, therefore, we say that sin has been abolished, because in Christ that same flesh is maintained without sin, which in man was not maintained without sin. (On the Flesh of Christ, chapter 16, by Tertullian, 145-220 A.D., vol. 3, p. 535, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Moreover, the capital element of our salvation is the incarnation of the Word. We believe, therefore, that it was without any change in the Divinity that the incarnation of the Word took place with a view to the renewal of humanity. (A Sectional Confession of Faith, Article VI, by St. Gregory the Wonder-Worker, 205-265 A.D., vol. 6, pp. 41-42, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
For the good which “the law” of nature “could not do, in that it was weak,” being overcome by the lust which lies in the body, God gave strength to accomplish, “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3); so that sin being condemned, to its destruction, so that it should never bear fruit in the flesh, the righteousness of the law of nature might be fulfilled, abounding in the obedience of those who walk not according to the lust of the flesh, but according to the lust and guidance of the Spirit; “for the law of the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2), which is the Gospel, being different from earlier laws, leading by its preaching to obedience and the remission of sins, delivered us from the law of sin and death, having conquered entirely sin which reigned over our flesh. (From The Discourse on the Resurrection, A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words on the Same Discourse, chapter 3, by St. Methodius of Patara, 260-312 A.D., vol. 6, p. 373, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
For therefore did He assume the body originate and human, that having renewed it as its Framer, He might deify it in Himself, and thus might introduce us all into the Kingdom of Heaven after His likeness. (Four Discourses Against the Arians, Discourse II, by St. Athanasius the Great, 296-373 A.D., vol. 4, p. 386, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Hence it is evident that our Lord assumed the natural affections to establish His real incarnation, and not by way of semblance of incarnation, and that all the affections derived from evil that besmirch the purity of our life, He rejected as unworthy of His unsullied Godhead. It is on this account that He is said to have been “made in the likeness of flesh of sin” (Rom. 8:3); not, as these men hold, in likeness of flesh, but of flesh of sin. It follows that He took our flesh with its natural afflictions, but “did no sin.” (I Pet. 2:22) Just as the death which is in the flesh, transmitted to us through Adam, was swallowed up by the Godhead, so was the sin taken away by the righteousness which is in Christ Jesus, so that in the resurrection we receive back the flesh neither liable to death nor subject to sin. (Letter CCLXI, paragraph 3, by St. Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D., vol. 8, p. 300, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Yet who of those who are conversant with the oracles of God does not know with regard to what point of time it was said of Him by the mighty Paul, (and that once for all), that He “became obedient”? (Phil. 2:8) For it was when He came in the form of a servant to accomplish the mystery of redemption by the Cross, Who had emptied Himself, Who humbled Himself by assuming the likeness and fashion of a man, being found as man in man’s lowly nature — then, I say, it was that He became obedient, even He Who “took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses” (St. Matt. 8:17), healing the disobedience of men by His own obedience, that by His stripes He might heal our wound, and by His own death do away with the common death of all men, — then it was that for our sakes He was made obedient, even as He became “sin” and “a curse” by reason of the dispensation on our behalf (II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13), not being so by nature, but becoming so in His love for man. (Against Eunomius, Book II, chapter 11, by St. Gregory of Nyssa 331-395 A.D., vol. 5, p. 121, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
The fact, therefore, that at the time appointed, according to the purpose of His will, Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, and buried was not the doom necessary to His own condition, but the method of redeeming us from captivity. For “the Word became flesh” (St. John 1:14) in order that from the Virgin’s womb He might take our suffering nature, and that what could not be inflicted on the Son of God might be inflicted on the Son of Man. For although at His very birth the signs of Godhead shone forth in Him, and the whole course of His bodily growth was full of wonders, yet had He truly assumed our weaknesses, and without share in sin had spared Himself no human frailty, that He might impart what was His to us and heal what was ours in Himself. For He, the Almighty Physician, had prepared a two-fold remedy for us in our misery, of which the one part consists of mystery and the other of example, that by the one Divine powers may be bestowed, by the other human weaknesses driven out. Because as God is the Author of our justification, so man is a debtor to pay Him devotion. (Sermon LXVII, chapter V, by St. Leo the Great, 390-461 A.D., vol. 12, part 1, p. 179, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
The very human nature that was made spiritually ill through Adam's fall into sin was restored to health when Christ assumed it. St. Leo the Great said that our humanity could not have been healed unless the Word of God had taken flesh from the Virgin Mary's womb.
To set food before the hungry denotes human kindness and a philanthropic spirit: but with five loaves and two fishes to satisfy 5,000 men, besides women and children, who would dare deny that to be the work of Deity? A Deity which, by the co-operation of the functions of true flesh, showed not only itself in Manhood, but also Manhood in itself; for the old, original wounds in man’s nature could not be healed, except by the Word of God taking to Himself flesh from the Virgin’s womb, whereby in one and the same Person flesh and the Word co-existed. (Sermon XLVI, chapter II, by St. Leo the Great, 390-461 A.D., vol. 12, part 1, p. 159, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
St. John of Damascus, speaking of the Incarnation, said:
For what has not been taken cannot be healed. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book III, chapter 6, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, p. 50, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
So, if Jesus Christ did not assume a fallen human nature like ours, then He did not heal it. Since He did heal our fallen human nature through the Incarnation, He did assume a fallen human nature like ours. He did not assume sin, however. He took fallen, mortal human flesh from His Virgin Mother and sanctified it.
This brings me to comment on another point in which we disagree with Western Christians: the Roman dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary and the Protestant view of Christ's Incarnation.
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is rejected by the Orthodox Church for two basic reasons. For one thing, it is unnecessary. We inherit death and a tendency to sin from Adam but not the guilt of Adam's sin. (Ezek. 18:20) So, the Most Holy Theotokos could not transmit the guilt of Adam's sin to her Son Jesus Christ. It is unnecessary, therefore, to have a dogma that says that her conception in her mother's womb is in some way different than everyone else's.* The other reason for rejecting this dogma is that if the Virgin Mary did not possess a fallen human nature, then she could not have transmitted that to her Son so that He could heal it of sin through His Incarnation. "For what has not been taken cannot be healed." The teaching of the Church Fathers is that Jesus Christ healed our human nature through the Incarnation. He assumed a fallen human nature like ours, healed it, and sanctified it. He did not assume sin, but He "healed our disobedience through His obedience."
The Protestants, on the other hand, say that the guilt of Adam's sin is transmitted to children by the father and not by the mother. So, in their view, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin woman in order to avoid being guilty of Adam's sin. The Orthodox Church says that the only one guilty of Adam's sin is Adam. Therefore, no one but Adam himself is guilty of his sin. The transmission of a fallen nature and mortality comes from women as well as from men. The Virgin Mary possessed both and transmitted them to her Son so that He could save us.
Jesus Christ had to assume a fallen human nature in order to heal it. He had to assume mortality in order to abolish death (II Tim. 1:10) through His death. (St. John 10:15; Rom. 5:8; II Cor. 5:15)
Steve
* What I have written should in no way be interpreted as demeaning our Lady. The Orthodox Church sees her as being the Great Example and not the Great Exception. She is the Most Exalted of God's creatures and the Chief of Saints. It is the teaching of the Orthodox Church that she fully cooperated with God. She is "full of grace." (St. Luke 1:28) She is the best of all humanity. She is like us, but the best of us.
Bibliography
Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Sorry, but Jesus didn't assume fallen human nature. He assumed the nature of Adam.
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