Sect. 175Corollaries to the Dogma Concerning the Constitution of ChristCorollaries to the Dogma Concerning the Constitution of Christ

I. The composition of Christ, considered as a whole, presents a threefold aspect. Against Nestorius it was described as the composition of a human nature with the entirely distinct Divine Hypostasis or Person; against the Monothelites as the composition of two essentially different and complete natures into one Hypostasis or Person common to both; against the Apollinarists as the composition into one Hypostasis or Person of three substances different in essence, viz. the Logos, the soul, and the body. These three forms represent the same composition, because the binding principle in every one of them is the same, viz. the unity of Person. Distinct from the hypostatic composition is that of Christ’s body and soul into one nature—not into one person; without this composition there would be in Christ three substances indeed, but not two natures. The unique character of the hypostatic compound forbids us to apply to it the terms applicable to natural compounds, at least without some qualification: Christ is really and truly a composite being, yet in a higher and more perfect manner than natural compounds; the composition of Christ is a “pure” composition—that is, the component elements retain their own nature unaltered.

If Christ is a composite being, He is also a composite Hypostasis or Person, and “the Person of Christ” is a compound, viz. it is the Person of the Logos together with His human nature. Christ may be called “human person,” in the sense of Person having humanity (persona humanitatis), as He is called Divine Person as having Divinity. Yet that designation is not commonly used, because misleading.

II. Although unique in its kind, the compound of Christ (Compositum Christi) has a great analogy with man, the most perfect of all natural compounds; its unique perfection is even best illustrated by a comparison with Adam, who was a type of Christ. The first man offers a double type of Christ: one as naturally, the other as supernaturally, perfect man. Considered as natural man, Adam was a compound of spirit and flesh; he was thus the substantial link between the world of spirits and the world of matter, and was the natural head of this latter. Christ is a personal compound of Spirit and flesh in a higher sense: His Spirit is God, and His flesh is animated by a rational soul. He is the link between God and the whole world, and the natural head of the latter. As endowed with grace, Adam had the Spirit of God in him, and thus represented not only the unity of the spiritual and the material world, but to a certain degree also the union of these worlds with God. From this point of view, Adam was, like Christ, composed of three substances—the Spirit, the soul, the flesh; and he was not an animal, but a celestial man. All this we find in an eminent degree in Christ. Christ possesses as His own the Divine substance which merely dwelt in Adam; He is not merely vivified by the Spirit, but is Himself the vivifying Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Whereas in Adam the flesh is the first element of the compound to which the soul and the Spirit are successively joined, in Christ the Spirit is the first and fundamental element. Again, in Adam the union of soul and body is more intimate and more consistent than the union of both with the Spirit: sin may undo the latter without injuring the former. In Christ, on the contrary, the union of the Spirit with the animated flesh is stronger than that of His soul and body, for this latter is not a personal union, and may be destroyed by death without injuring the hypostatic union. Moreover, Christ is the principle of that supernatural unity of which Adam was only the representative. Finally, Christ realizes the idea of man as “the visible image of God” infinitely better than Adam, for He includes the uncreated and consubstantial Image of God, and in taking unto Him human nature and raising it to participation in His own being, He manifests the Divine Power over creation far better than does the soul of Adam by animating and governing a body.

III. The Word Incarnate having two natures, His essence can only be expressed by compound names, e.g. God-Man, Word Incarnate. Yet the name Christ, although figurative, also describes His essential constitution in a most pregnant manner, and summarizes the whole doctrine concerning His Person. That name designates the God-Man as eminently the “Anointed.” Hence the ointment with which He is anointed is neither a common substance nor a moral consecration or spiritual quality, but a substantial spiritual ointment, viz. the Divine Substance itself, which alone among spiritual substances can act as ointment. In the order of grace, creatures also are anointed with the Divine Substance, but only in a certain sense. “The” Anointed, on the contrary, receives an anointment formally substantial. He is constituted by the anointing of a created nature by the infusion of the Substance of the Logos; He is Himself the anointing substance, and is thus Anointed by nature and essence: “Oil poured out is Thy name” (Cant. 1:2). Hence the name Christ implies Divinity, for God alone is by His nature and essence self-anointed with Divinity. It also implies humanity, because in Scripture the anointed subject is the flesh or the spirit anointed with the Holy Ghost. Further, the notion of anointment indicates that both ointment and anointed nature remain unaltered in their essential qualities, the anointed nature alone being raised in perfection. Whence, in our case, although the anointment is substantial, its result cannot be union into one nature, but only union into one hypostasis, the hypostasis of the self-existing Logos. And lastly, the notion of humanity anointed with Divinity conveys an idea of the mutual relations between the two natures: the Divine nature filling, penetrating, and perfecting the human, as the balm does the embalmed object.

The name Christ, understood in this way, contains and explains all the other names of the Saviour set forth in the Creeds. Christ, the Anointed with the Divine Substance, is “the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord;” all perfection and power of Jesus is founded on this anointment: by this He is Prophet, Priest, and King, and the principle and source of all salvation: “He is made to us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). These words of the Apostle contain a full explanation of the phrase, “Oil poured out is Thy name.”