The Lord Jesus, by His Incarnation, Blessed Our Human Nature
The Lord Jesus, by His Incarnation, Blessed Our Human Nature
As we say to Him in the Gregorian Liturgy, “You blessed my nature in You.” Thus, the blessing of human nature was one of the divine blessings of the Incarnation. Our nature, which fell into sin through disobedience and pride, was sanctified by the Lord in His incarnation. He blessed it through obedience and humility, purified and cleansed it, and restored to it the divine image in which it was created (Genesis 1:26), which it had lost through sin and regained once again, entering into a new life.
He took the weak, defeated nature and granted it the Spirit of power and victory.
The Lord Jesus, who—in our nature—said, “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), gave this nature the ability to overcome. In the Book of Revelation, through His messages to the seven churches, He granted many blessings and rewards to those who overcome (Revelation 2–3). He gave our believing nature the strength by which it prevails. It is no longer weak, for He said, “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). Therefore, Saint Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Truly, who dares to say “I can do all things” except the one who prays, “You blessed my nature in You”?
By blessing our nature, He made us temples of the Holy Spirit.
He granted us the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Holy Chrism (Myron), sanctified all our members, and made His Spirit dwell within us, as Saint Paul said: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16), and, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, our nature was sanctified and became capable of bearing the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23) and receiving the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12).
By the indwelling of the Spirit, both our souls and bodies were sanctified.
Thus, the Apostle said, “Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20). This body, which had fallen entirely through the forbidden fruit, has now become a means to glorify God. The human body was blessed when the Lord took on a body (John 1:14), when He united Himself with it in one nature. The Lord sanctified our nature with His pure blood, bore our sins that defiled this body, and washed us with His blood (Revelation 1:5). By blessing the human body through His union with it, He showed us that the body can live spiritually and serve God just as the spirit does. Our entire human nature—body, soul, and spirit—can thus be holy and pure.
By sanctifying the human body, the Lord sanctified all human instincts. Everything became pure to the pure (Titus 1:15). The Lord sanctified fasting when He fasted, eating when He ate, rest and labor, suffering when He suffered, sleep, wakefulness, and work. He sanctified meekness and humility through His meekness and humility (Matthew 11:29), and even sanctified righteous anger when He was angry for the sake of truth (Matthew 21:12–13).
By blessing our nature, He made the devil weak through His defeat of him.
Though the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, we have been granted to resist him steadfast in the faith (1 Peter 5:8–9). Saint James says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). This is because the Lord said to our human nature: “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you… The spirits are subject to you” (Luke 10:19–20).
With this power and authority, the saints in this human nature were able to cast out demons (Matthew 10:1; Mark 16:17). The Lord—in our human nature—defeated Satan and gave us the same authority to defeat him in this very nature. The saints no longer feared demons; rather, the demons trembled before them, as Saint Anthony the Great testified to their weakness (in the book written about him by Saint Athanasius the Apostolic). Thus, the Lord’s words bring great comfort: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).
By blessing our nature, He granted us a new nature.
As the Apostle said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new (Colossians 3:9). What is this newness we have put on? It is the righteousness that is in Christ Jesus. The Apostle says: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27).
What glory is this! Truly, O Lord, You have blessed my nature in You. You restored to us our divine image. Our new self is renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator (Colossians 3:10). Our nature became worthy to be clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). This power, received through the coming of the Holy Spirit upon us (Acts 1:8), is a mark of the new nature. By it, we can witness to the Lord and no longer fear sin, demons, or death. Human nature became something entirely new after Christ blessed it. Thus, we understand the important truth in the Epistle to the Romans:
Our old man was crucified and buried with Christ in baptism (Romans 6:4,6).
“We died to sin… so that we should no longer be slaves to sin… that we should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:2–6).
This is the new nature that Christ blessed in Himself, washed from all sins in baptism until it became whiter than snow. Therefore, the angel rightly announced to the shepherds at Christ’s birth: “I bring you good tidings of great joy… for there is born to you this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11).
What is this salvation we received through the divine Incarnation?
We were saved by His death from the penalty of sin and its consequences—death and judgment. But was salvation only from these? Certainly not. If He had merely saved us from punishment but left our nature corrupt, still under the dominion of sin and death, what would we have gained? Rather, He accomplished something far greater:
Just as He saved us from the penalty of sin, He also saved us from the corruption of human nature.
He crucified our old man and put him to death. Satan no longer has authority over us, for the Lord gave us authority over all demons. Our nature received power over unclean spirits (Matthew 10:1), and He first gave this pledge to the disciples.
Our nature, having “put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27), has been clothed with strength and holiness. The Lord Jesus overcame the world, and thus human nature put on this same victory by which He conquered Satan and death. This is the great blessing gained through perfect obedience to the Father. Christ redeemed our nature from the fall of disobedience and granted it obedience even unto death—death on the cross (Philippians 2:8). He taught human nature to say, “Not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42), “Not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:36).
In this blessed nature, Christ defeated Satan in two ways:
He struck him with the fatal blow on the cross and defeated him point by point throughout His life in the flesh. Thus, He challenged, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” (John 8:46). Christ in His earthly life was “a sweet aroma to the Lord,” both in His life and in His crucifixion (Leviticus 1:9,13).
Through this, Christ achieved three goals in our nature:
A. He destroyed Satan and his myth of continual victory.
B. He pleased the Father by presenting a human nature obedient to Him unto death.
C. He uplifted the spirit of mankind, showing the possibility of human nature reaching perfection.
By blessing human nature with humility, He saved it from pride.
He rescued it from the love of greatness into which Satan fell when he said, “I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14), and by which he tempted our first parents: “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
Christ removed this pride by emptying Himself, taking the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:7). He washed His disciples’ feet and said, “I have given you an example” (John 13:5,14). He said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
The Lord sanctified our nature in every stage of life.
He sanctified childhood by passing through it, youth by debating with the elders as a boy (Luke 2:46–47), young adulthood as He grew “in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52), and manhood as He went about “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38), preaching the gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 4:23).
He also blessed our nature by conquering death.
By His resurrection from the dead—a resurrection from which there is no return to death—He became “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). As in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive, each in his own order (1 Corinthians 15:22–23).
As He rose in glory, He granted us the same glory: “He will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21).
How many are the ways in which the Lord blessed our nature—far beyond what this article can contain.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani Newspaper on December 31, 2000.
For better translation support, please contact the center.
