Gloria Crucis: addresses delivered in Lichfield Cathedral Holy Week and Good Friday, 1907Beibitz, J. H. (Joseph Hugh)
Religion
Gloria Crucis: addresses delivered in Lichfield Cathedral Holy Week and Good Friday, 1907
Beibitz, J. H. (Joseph Hugh)
Good Friday sermons; Holy Week sermons
Here we pause to note a difficulty based on a misunderstanding. If
Christ were a Divine Person, working in and through human nature, if that
humanity which He assumed were itself impersonal, then how could He have
had a human will? And, after all, is an impersonal human nature really
human? That is the difficulty, and the very fact that we feel it as a
difficulty, is a proof that we have not yet grasped that conception of
the Divine Nature which underlies the belief in the Incarnation. God and
man are not beings of a different order. The humanity of every man is
the indwelling in him of the Word Who became flesh. Each one of us is a
shadow, a reflection of the Incarnation. In Jesus Christ God came; and,
it would be equally true to say, in Him first, man came. All human
nature, I believe it would be true to say all organic nature, pointed
forward to the Incarnation as its fulfilment, as the justification for
its existence.
Thus, when it is said that the human nature of Christ was impersonal,
what is meant is, impersonal in the modern and restricted sense of
personality. The phrase is useful, when explained, to guard against the
idea, which is contrary to the very principle of the Atonement, that the
Son of man was just one more human soul added to the myriads of human
souls who have appeared on this planet. He Who became Incarnate is the
true self of every man, the very Light of true personality in all men. As
a matter of fact, He was more truly humanly Personal than any of the sons
of men, and all the more truly humanly Personal, because He was Divinely
Personal, the Word in the image of Whom man was made.
The immense significance of these truths in regard to our redemption is
this, that a separate individuality cannot be imparted to us, but a
common nature can. And that nature which the Eternal Word assumed of the
Virgin Mary, and in which He conquered sin and death, is communicated to
us by His Spirit, above all, in the sacraments of Baptism and the Holy
Communion. Here is the heart of the Atonement.
That victory over sin and death is mine, and yet not mine. That is the
splendid paradox which lies at the very root of Christianity. It is
mine, because I share in that Human Nature, which by its perfect
obedience, the obedience unto death, "triumphed gloriously" upon the
Cross. It is not mine until, by a deliberate act of my will, in self-
surrender to Christ, I have made it my own. By grace and by faith, not
by one of these without the other, we become one with Him Who died and
rose again. It is faith, the hand of the soul stretched out to receive,
which accepts and welcomes grace, the Hand of God stretched out to give.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account