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36. In this the grace of God is supremely manifest,
commended in grand and visible fashion; for what had
the human nature in the man Christ merited, that it,
and no other, should be assumed into the unity of the
Person of the only Son of God? What good will, what
zealous strivings, what good works preceded this
assumption by which that particular man deserved to
become one Person with God? Was he a man before the
union, and was this singular grace given him as to
one particularly deserving before God? Of course not!
For, from the moment he began to be a man, that man
began to be nothing other than God's Son, the only
Son, and this because the Word of God assuming him
became flesh, yet still assuredly remained God. Just
as every man is a personal unity--that is, a unity of
rational soul and flesh--so also is Christ a personal
unity: Word and man. Why should there be such great
glory to a human nature--and this undoubtedly an act
of grace, no merit preceding unless it be that those
who consider such a question faithfully and soberly
might have here a clear manifestation of God's great
and sole grace, and this in order that they might
understand how they themselves are justified from
their sins by the selfsame grace which made it so
that the man Christ had no power to sin?
Thus indeed the angel hailed his mother when
announcing to her the future birth: "Hail," he said,
"full of grace." And shortly thereafter, "You have
found favor with God."(76) And this was said of her,
that she was full of grace, since she was to be
mother of her Lord, indeed the Lord of all. Yet,
concerning Christ himself, when the Evangelist John
said, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,"
he added, "and we beheld his glory, a glory as of the
only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth."(77)
When he said, "The Word was made flesh," this means,
"Full of grace." When he also said, "The glory of the
only begotten of the Father," this means, "Full of
truth." Indeed it was Truth himself, God's only
begotten Son--and, again, this not by grace but by
nature--who, by grace, assumed human nature into such
a personal unity that he himself became the Son of
Man as well.
37. This same Jesus Christ, God's one and only Son
our Lord, was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin
Mary. Now obviously the Holy Spirit is God's gift, a
gift that is itself equal to the Giver; wherefore the
Holy Spirit is God also, not inferior to the Father
and the Son. Now what does this mean, that Christ's
birth in respect to his human nature was of the Holy
Spirit, save that this was itself also a work of
grace?
For when the Virgin asked of the angel the manner
by which what he announced would come to pass (since
she had known no man), the angel answered: "The Holy
Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Most
High shall overshadow you; therefore the Holy One
which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of
God."(78) And when Joseph wished to put her away,
suspecting adultery (since he knew she was not
pregnant by him), he received a similar answer from
the angel: "Do not fear to take Mary as your wife;
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy
Spirit"(79) --that is, "What you suspect is from
another man is of the Holy Spirit." |