Pondering the Incarnation

Nicene Creed

Excerpt (seems a shame to just provide an except! Please read the whole!):

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary ...

Comment: Wiki Nicene Creed

Athanasian Creed

The Whole:

1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;
   
2. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
   
3. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
   
4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
   
5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
   
6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
   
7. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
   
8. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
   
9. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
   
10. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
    
11. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.
    
12. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.
    
13. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.
    
14. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.
    
15. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;
    
16. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
    
17. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;
    
18. And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.
    
19. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;
    
20. So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords.
    
21. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
    
22. The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.
    
23. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
    
24. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
    
25. And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another.
    
26. But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal.
    
27. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
    
28. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
    
29. Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
    
30. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.
    
31. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world.
    
32. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
    
33. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.
    
34. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.
    
35. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God.
    
36. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.
    
37. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;
    
38. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead;
    
39. He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty;
    
40. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
    
41. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies;
    
42. and shall give account of their own works.
    
43. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
    
44. This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.
    
    

Comment: Wiki Athanasian Creed

Christologia, John Owen: The Nature of the Person of Christ, and the Hypostatical Union of his Natures Declared.

Excerpt:

That which followeth hereon, is the union of the two natures in the same person, or the hypostatical union. This is included and asserted in a multitude of divine testimonies. Isa. vii. 14, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel,” as Matt. i. 23. He who was conceived and born of the virgin was Emmanuel, or God with us; that is, God manifest in the flesh, by the union of his two natures in the same person. Isa. ix. 6, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” That the same person should be “the mighty God” and a “child born,” is neither conceivable nor possible, nor can be true, but by the union of the divine and human natures in the same person. So he said of himself, “Before Abraham was, I am,” John viii. 58. That he, the same person who then spake unto the Jews, and as a man was little more than thirty years of age, should also be before Abraham, undeniably confirms the union of another nature, in the same person with that wherein he spoke those words, and without which they could not be true. He had not only another nature which did exist before Abraham, but the same individual person who then spoke in the human nature did then exist. See to the same purpose, John i. 14; Acts xx. 28; Rom. ix. 5; Col. ii. 9; 1 John iii. 16. This union the ancient church affirmed to be made ἀτρέπτως, “without any change” in the person of the Son of God, which the divine nature is not subject unto; — ἀδιαιρέτως, with a distinction of natures, but “without any division” of them by separate subsistences; — ἀσυγχύτως, “without mixture” or confusion; — ἀχωρίστως, “without 227separation” or distance; and οὐσιωδῶς, “substantially,” because it was of two substances or essences in the same person, in opposition unto all accidental union, as the “fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily.”

Creed of Chalcedon / Council of Chalcedon

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach people to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God (μονογενῆ Θεὸν), the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

Final comments: Pastor Morrell cited the Creed of Chalcedon in his Sunday morning message this past week (an exposition of John 1:1-14). Isn't this a lot more exciting than NORAD tracking Santa!