IT HIS IS THE FIRST TIME a definition is given for the Godhead. The voice from heaven is certainly that of the Father because he says, ‘This is my Son.’

For the first time, God declares from heaven that he is Father and Son. From this

comes the inevitability of the Spirit because the Father lives and the Son lives, and the

Father is holy and so the Son also is holy. So the Spirit also must be holy, and thus we

know him as the Holy Spirit.

In the Godhead there is no division or multiplication because the Father, Son and Holy

Spirit are one God. By the Holy Spirit the Father lives, and by the Holy Spirit the Son lives,

and in the Father and Son the Holy Spirit lives. Christ confirmed to us that in and through

the Father the Son exists, and in and through the Son the Father exists. In God fatherhood

and sonship are one and the same, and it was imperative for the Holy Spirit to be included in

the same being. As we said, though, it is impossible for the Godhead to be divided,

multiplied or confined, because the Father fills the heavens and the earth, and the Son fills

the heavens and the earth and the Holy Spirit fills the heavens and the earth. The Father, Son

and Holy Spirit are one God who fills the heavens and the earth.

When Adam fell into sin and was thrown out far away from God, God prepared a

way to restore Adam into his presence, for he was his creation, made in his image and

likeness. Despite the fact that Adam sinned and all of his descendants inherited death

that comes from sin, God still loved his creation greatly, as the Bible teaches us, “God

so loved the world (the world of man).”1

God prepared for Adam and his sons salvation from Adam’s sin, the punishment of

death with which he was rightfully condemned because of his sin. He appointed his

beloved and only Son to take on flesh, that is, to take on the body of man. However, he

was by necessity free from sin because the Son of God is holy, and he lives by the Holy

Spirit. He obeyed the Father, took on human flesh and became a man but without sin,

and his body was formed within the womb of a holy virgin. He was born, and on the day

of his baptism the Father was heard calling from heaven, “This is my Son, whom I love;

with him I am well pleased.”

God had assigned him to carry the sin of man in his holy body, but the wages of sin is

death. So it had to be that the Son of God, who is called Jesus, died bodily, carrying man’s

sin and the curse of the law. It had to be that his death was that of crucifixion because cursed

is everyone who is crucified.2 He obeyed the Father and carried the sin of the whole world in

his holy body, hung upon the wooden cross. This was counted as a sin offering for the whole

world. He died and was buried, but because he is the Son of God who lives by the Holy

Spirit, he rose again, after he had completed the requirement of death, cursed upon a tree and

carrying in his body all the sin of humanity. So when he carried the sin of man with him in

his death, sin itself could not escape and had to die as well.

By the power of God and the Holy Spirit within him, on the third day he rose from

the dead, which was the full punishment of death. So he completed on the cross the

sacrifice of full redemption. When he rose, he raised the body which is counted as the

 

body of all mankind. Thus man was resurrected with Christ and rose with him to

heaven. When Christ sat at the right hand of the Father, he also seated every sinner at

God’s right hand. In this way, eternal reconciliation between God and sinful mankind

was achieved, for all who believe in Christ and his cross and resurrection.

The sinner is made righteous by the righteousness of Christ. Sinners are counted

righteous and holy and without blame in Christ before God, a new creation by the Spirit,

justified and redeemed.

On the day of Christ’s baptism, the Father’s statement from heaven, “This is my Son,

whom I love; with him I am well pleased” was spoken from the Father to the Son, but it

became the portion of man who entered again into God’s pleasure.

July 19, 2005

1 John 3:16.

2 Cf Gal 3:13.

 

 

 

St. Macarius the Great

The Lord was Humbled beyond All Men!

Do not despise His divine dignity when thou behold Him outwardly humbled as

one like us. It was for our sake that he appeared thus, not for His own. Consider,

at the hour when they cried, Crucify Him, crucify Him,1 and the multitude came

together, how He was humbled beyond all men. …

So was the Lord at the hour of the cross. As a man that was going to die, He

was held of no account by the Pharisees. And when they spat in His face, and put

on Him the crown of thorns, and buffeted Him, what further humiliation could He

have undergone? It is written, I gave My back to the smiters, and I hid not My

face from shame and spitting, and my cheeks from buffeting.2

1 Luke 23:21.

2 Cf Is 50:6.

 

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