The Incarnation and the Humiliation of the Word

Through the good-will of God and the Father, we are enriched in our supernatural nature by being in Christ, who raised us up and seated us in the heavenly places (Psalm 8:4-6).

For because He, the Savior of us all, is seated, He surpasses the whole boast of human nature.

We have become rich through Christ's poverty, but only if we are superior to all creation, for it is through His humility that we are exalted.

Therefore, let man be diminished a little from the angels, having become such, so that he might honor the human nature and recover it again to its original state, in glory and honor, being crowned in it, even though he is a lord of glory as God.

Just as the transgression of Adam demonstrated the most dishonorable state, so shall we be glorified through the obedience of Christ on our behalf, He having set forth His own soul so that He might rule both over the dead and the living (Psalm 8:4-6).

How is Christ diminished from the angels, He who is worshiped among them? It is because He sat within the measures of humanity; having received a body destined to die, He willingly suffered in it.

Yet through Him, having abolished death and rendered corruption inactive, He is crowned with the highest glories, being incorruption and life.

As for the things of superiority, they belong to the angels, for they are better off outside of flesh and of death, it having happened in these things of the Son through His voluntary emptying.

But Christ, though briefly diminished from the angels because of the measure of humanity, is worshiped by them in the excellence of His divinity; He is established upon thrones, which those standing around Him always glorify, calling Him Lord by the powers.

That He might taste death above all by the grace of God (Hebrews 2:9).

For as I think, what it means to have 'tasted all' is clear, as it is written, 'That he might taste death above all by the grace of God' (Hebrews 2:9).

For having given His own body to death, and as if having fleshly tasted that which occurred, He lived again and has immediately trampled the power of death.

Therefore, the One said to be briefly diminished from the angels is the Word who is from God; He did not suffer this diminishment into His own nature, for He is always the same, possessing the same nature, unshakeable and unchangeable, yet He has endured this also through us in a human way.

For He was sustaining Himself, even though by nature He is God, according to the measures of humanity because of the divine economy, and this is part of the mystery according to Him, that it is most proper to marvel at.

So also the prophet Habakkuk said, 'Lord, I have heard the sound of your hearing and I was afraid, I understood your works and was astonished' (Habakkuk 3:2), for truly, what has happened is an ecstasy and a wonder beyond all.

But I do not know how some, not having understood the mystery correctly, vaunt themselves and desire to interpret what is written in the eighth psalm, specifically the verse 'What is man, that you remember him, or a son of man, that you visit him?' (Psalm 8:4).

Let us therefore observe what kind of man it is that causes one to be struck with wonder, marveling that the Only-begotten was indeed worthy to be remembered by him and to have performed an inspection, as it is written, 'What is man, that you remember him, or a son of man, that you visit him?' (Psalm 8:4).

He proceeds from this to argue most clearly, as if the following had never been said of any man, that the blessed Paul, speaking of his own person, applied the words of the Psalm, saying 'made a little lower than the angels' (Psalm 8:5), we see Jesus being crowned with 'glory and honor' through the passion of death.

Furthermore, by distinguishing between natures, they claim privately that the man born of the Holy Virgin is a man of a strange sort; regarding this, they say that David marvels that he was worthy of both remembrance and visitation, and that he was worthy also of a unique nature above nature, as one receiving benefit from the Divine Word.

But they have failed to understand, as it appears, that Christ Jesus is not a man in Himself, understood and spoken of among us in a common or private sense; rather, it is the Word from God who has become man, and in order that the expression of the concepts may be properly understood…

The prophet David says, 'You have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor' (Psalm 8:5), and 'You have put all things under his feet' (Psalm 8:6).