There are four original types of statements in Christ: The sayings about Christ are divided into four main sections, according to what was before his incarnation, during his incarnation, after his incarnation, and after his resurrection.
The categories in it before its naturalization are divided into six cases:
- A) Some of them indicate the connection between His nature and its equality with the Father, such as His saying: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), and “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), and “who is in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6), and the like.
- b) And others that indicate the perfection of His hypostasis, such as when you say: “Son of God” and “the image of His essence” (Hebrews 1:3), and “the messenger of great counsel, wonderful counselor” (Isaiah 9:5), and so on.
- c) And others indicate the influence of the hypostases on one another, as in His saying: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:10), and an inextricable connection, such as the Word, power, wisdom, and splendor. For the Word is in the mind, meaning that it is an essential attribute in it. And so is wisdom. And power is in the strong. And splendor is in the light.
- d) And others indicate that the Son is from the Father as His cause, as in His saying: “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), for the Son’s existence and all that He has is from the Father. But His existence is from the Father by birth, not by creation, as in His saying: “I proceeded from the Father and came” (John 16:27) and “I live because of the Father” (John 6:57). And everything that is the Son’s is not His by gift or teaching, but rather from His cause, as He says: “The Son can do nothing of Himself except what He sees the Father doing” (John 5:19). If the Father did not exist, the Son would not have existed. For the Son is from the Father, in the Father, and with the Father. But He is not after the Father. Likewise, what He does is from Him and with Him, because the will, the action, and the power are the same—and not identical—but are the same for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- (e) And others indicate how the paternal pleasure is accomplished by the action of the Son, not as a member or a servant, but as His Word, His wisdom, and His essential and hypostatic power, for the reason that the movement is seen as one in the Father and the Son. For example: “All things were made through Him” (John 1:3) and “He sent His Word and healed them” (Psalm 106:20), and also “that they might believe that You sent Me” (John 11:42).
- And others are prophetic. Some of these are clearly future tenses. For example: “Our God comes” (Ps. 49:2). And Zechariah’s saying: “Behold, your King comes to you…” (Zechariah 9:9), and Micah’s saying: “Behold, the Lord comes out of his place; he will come down and tread the high places of the earth” (Micah 1:3). Some of them are also future tenses but in the past tense, for example: “Behold, our God! He appeared on the earth and frequented men” (Baruch 3:31-34). And also: “The Lord took me at the beginning of his way, Before what he had done from the beginning” (Proverbs 8:22). And also: “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions” (Ps. 44:8), and similar expressions.
Therefore, what is said about Christ before the union is also said about him after the union. As for what is said about him after the union, it is never said about him before the union, unless it is through prophecy, as was previously stated.
The statements about Christ in union are divided into three cases:
If we begin speaking about Christ from its highest part, we speak of the deification of His body and its “communion” (the body of Christ was communed with the Word), its supreme superiority, and so on, explaining the richness that the body acquired through its union and fusion with the Word, the Most High God. When we begin speaking about Christ from its lowest part, we speak of the incarnation of God the Word, His incarnation, His emptying of Himself, His poverty, and His humility. These and similar things tell of the humanity of the temperament of God the Word. But if we begin speaking about Christ from both parts together, we speak of the union, communion, anointing, the union of the two natures, the union of the two forms, and so on. It is for this third reason that we speak of the two previous states. Thus, through the union, the harmony and influence that each of them had is revealed. Because of the union of the body in the hypostasis, it is said that it was deified and became God and became one God with the Word. Then it is said that God the Word was incarnated and became man and became a creation and “was called last” (see Isaiah 53:3). This is not because there was a transformation from two natures into one composite nature - for two natural opposites cannot become together into one nature - but rather from two natures united in a hypostasis and having the influence of one over the other without mixing or confusion. And the influence was not from the body, but from the divinity, because the body has no power to penetrate the divinity, but rather the divine nature alone penetrated the body and gave the body its miraculous influence. This is what we call union.
Swap attributes: Know that in the first and second cases of union there appears to be a reverse scene: when we speak of the body, we speak of deification, speech, sublimation, and anointing, because looking at the body in these matters starts from theology. And when we speak of the Word, we speak of His emptying, incarnation, humanization, humility, and the like. And what we have said in the speech starting from the body and reflecting on God the Word was only because He Himself was pleased to bear that.
There are three types of statements about Christ after the union:
the first It clarifies His divine nature, for example: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:10), and “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), and everything said about Him before His incarnation is also said after His incarnation, except that He had not taken on the body or its natural characteristics.
the second He explains his human nature, for example: “Why do you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth?” (John 8:40) and “In this way the Son of Man must be lifted up” (John 3:14), and the like.
- These sayings written about Christ the Savior and indicating by word or deed that He is a human being are of six types: - Some of them happened or were said naturally and as a provision for our salvation. For example: - His birth from the Virgin, His growth, His advancing age, His trembling, His thirst, His fatigue, His crying, His sleeping. And that He was wounded with nails and died, etc.... They are all natural sufferings and innocent of sin. They are all a mixture of the divine and the human, although they - admittedly - are truly related to the body, and that the divine did not suffer at all in them, but He effected our salvation through these sufferings.
- Among the sayings are those that were said to pretend something. For example: His question: “Where have you laid Lazarus?” (John 11:34). His approach to the fig tree and his retreat from it (Matthew 21:19). His prayer. And that he “pretended to go further” (Luke 24:28). Christ did not need these and similar actions, neither as God nor as man. But he used them as a pretext - as humans do - to achieve what is necessary and useful. For example: He prayed to show by his question that he is not hostile to God, and that he honors the Father as his cause. He asked - not because he was ignorant - but to show that he is in fact a man despite being God. He retreated from the fig tree to teach us not to be so bold as to surrender to ourselves.
- Some of the sayings are a plea for help and rescue. For example: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46); “He made him to be sin for us who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21); “He became a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13); “The Son subjects himself to him who subjected all things to him” (1 Cor. 15:28). The Father never forsook his Son, neither as God nor as man. The Son was never sin or a curse, and did not need to be subject to the Father. As God, he is equal to the Father, not hostile to him or subject to him. As man, he was never in opposition to his Father so that he would have to submit to him. He said this because he took up our person and made himself on our level, because we were subject to sin and the curse. Therefore, we were forsaken.
- Among the categories is what comes from distinction in thought. If you distinguish in your thought what is - that is, the body - in reality not separate from the Word, then you can speak of a slave and an ignorant - because the body is by its nature a slave and an ignorant. If He had not united with God the Word, He could have been a slave and an ignorant. But since He was united hypostatically with God the Word, He was never a slave or an ignorant. That is why He called the Father His God.
- Among the sayings is that which His manifestation of Himself to us strengthens our faith in Him. For example: “Now, Father, glorify Me with Yourself with the glory which I had before the world was” (John 17:5), for He Himself was glorified and still is. But His glory was not apparent to us to compel us to believe it. This is another example from the saying of the Apostle: “Jesus Christ our Lord, who was determined to be the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). He appeared through His miracles, His resurrection, and the coming of His Holy Spirit, and the world was compelled to believe that He was the Son of God. Finally, the evangelist says: “And He increased in wisdom and grace” (Luke 2:52).
- Some of the sayings pertain to his person as a Jew. He counted himself with the Jews, as in his saying to the Samaritan woman: “You worship what you do not know, but we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).
the third He is the one who shows the unity of the hypostasis and establishes the union of the two natures. For example: “I live because of the Father; he who eats me will also live because of me” (John 6:57), and “I go to the Father, and you will see me no more” (John 16:10). And “If they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8). And “No one has ascended to heaven except He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven” (John 3:13). And so on.
Statements about Christ after his resurrection:
Some of them are appropriate to His divinity. For example: “Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19), and indicating that the Son is God. For example: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:20). And the like. For He is with us in His capacity as God. And some of these statements are appropriate in His capacity as a human being. For example: “Hold His feet” (Matthew 28:9). And “There they will see Me” (Matthew 28:10). And the like.
The sayings about Christ after His resurrection, which are befitting His humanity, are of different kinds. Some of them have occurred in reality, but not according to the nature of (glorified bodies), but according to the plan of our salvation, to establish the faith that the body which suffered itself has risen, such as the marks of the wounds and Christ’s eating and drinking after His resurrection. Some of them have occurred in reality and according to the glorified nature, such as His moving from one place to another without effort, and His entering closed doors; and some of them were a pretense of some work, as it is stated in the verse: “He pretended to go to a farther place” (Luke 24:28). And some of them were according to His nature, such as: “I ascend to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God” (John 20:17), and “Let the King of glory come in” (Psalm 23:7), and “He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). Some of them - as if they had joined our ranks - were distinguished from us on the level of higher thinking, as in: “My God, my God!”
Therefore, we must attribute the sublime actions of Christ to His divine nature, free from pain and body, and attribute His base actions to His human nature. As for His common actions, they are to the compound, that is, to the one Christ who is God and man, knowing that both are attributed to our Lord Jesus Christ, the same one. If we know what is specific to each of their natures and see that both actions are from one, our faith will be right and we will not go astray. From all this, we know the truth of the difference between the two united natures, lest, as Cyril, the eminent theologian, says, we make the divinity and humanity one thing on the level of natural attributes. Indeed, the Son, Christ, and Lord are one, and since He is from one, His person is also one, and His hypostatic unity is in no way divided because of the knowledge of their natural difference.