I AM; says the Lord; "Before Abraham came to be, I AM!"

I AM; says the Lord;  "Before Abraham came to be, I AM!:

The answer Jesus gave to his followers is the most prolific statement regarding his existence before he created everything there is.  (Jn 8: 58).  This brings us to the most mysterious event about God that he is Hypo-static; the Incarnation!  

We use the term incarnation not in a sense of some philosophical premise but, a reality of the divine adopting humanity in a way that no scientific attribute could ever explain.  Divinity, as with the Holy Trinity, is not a creation.  It is eternal, only.  Yet there are some from early  history who claim one or more heresies regarding where or how Jesus became human.  Another error is that Jesus, with two natures, performs miracles as God, and other events as a man alone.  In other words, he functions as a separate entity in both natures.  This follows that on the cross Jesus was crucified as God and not man.  The blood he shed was divine only and no human elements were present.  

As I wrote before, everything Jesus did during his ministry was both divine and human collectively.  Both natures were always in sync with each other, at every step he took and performed.  The CCC clearly defines this Truth.  “The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is a result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human.  He became truly man while remaining truly God,  Jesus Christ is true God and true man.  During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it.”  (CCC 464). 

One more explanation from the CCC:  “Apollinarius of Laodicea asserted that in Christ the divine Word had replaced the soul or spirit.  Against this error the Church confessed that the eternal Son also assumed a rational, human soul.”  (CCC 471).  “This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge.  As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited:  it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time.  This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man, and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can only learn from experience.  This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking the form of a slave.”  (CCC 472).

Most Christian denominations adhere to this truth.  The problem that exists is there are too many who cannot accept the real truth of who Christ is and want to  place God in a human only existence and have an explanation for all that is divine.  If they do not accept this one truth, how will they be ready to accept heaven and hell as real and not make a decision to choose for their own souls.

A reality of something so far removed from the mind of finite humanity may never be understood on this side of eternity, but will not matter once we have reached that promise to us.  Of all the mysteries about God, the holy Trinity, and life forever with God, the only one that will have any sense beyond the human mind will be how God could be so generous with his mercy.  His Son, Jesus Christ, removed all semblance of mystery from us as he became our sin and opened the entrance to paradise for those who didn’t deserve forgiveness.  That is the mystery that supersedes all other questions from each one who knows it is the gift beyond understanding.

Ralph B. Hathaway