The Flesh

 WE know that our Lord took our flesh and in it by His death atoned for our sins, and by the grace communicated to us through that Flesh, renews our nature; but the question arises whether He took on Him our flesh as it was in Adam before the fall, or as it is now. To this the direct and broad answer is, He assumed it as it is after the fall, though of course some explanations have to be made.

 It was usual to say against the Apollinarians, that, unless our Lord took on Him our nature, as it is, He had not purified and changed it, as it is, but another nature; "The Lord came not to save Adam as free from sin, that unto him He should become like; but as, in the net of sin and now fallen, that God's mercy might raise him up with Christ." Leont. contr. Nestor. etc. ii. t. 9, p. 692, Bibl. Max. Accordingly Athan. says, "He took a servant's form, putting on that flesh, which was enslaved to sin." Orat. i. § 43. And, "Had not Sinlessness appeared in the nature which had sinned, how was sin condemned in the flesh?" in Apoll. ii. 6. "It was necessary for our salvation," says S. Cyril, "that the Word of God should become man, that human flesh subject to corruption and sick with the lust of pleasures, He might make His own; and, whereas He is life and life-giving, He might destroy the corruption  etc. ... For by this means might sin in our flesh become dead." Ep. ad Success. i. p. 138. And S. Leo, "Non alterius naturæ erat ejus caro quam nostra, nec alio illi quam cæteris hominibus anima est inspirata principio, quæ excelleret, non diversitate generis, sed sublimitate virtutis." Ep. 35 fin.; vid. also Ep. 28, 3; Ep. 31, 2; Ep. 165, 9; Serm. 22, 2, and 25, 5. If indeed sin were of the substance of our fallen nature, as some heretics have said, then He could not have taken our nature without partaking our sinfulness; but if sin be, as it is, a fault of the will, then the Divine Power of the Word could sanctify the human will, and keep it from swerving in the direction of evil. Hence S. Austin says, "We say not that it was by the felicity of a flesh separated from sense that Christ could not feel the desire of sin, but that by perfection of virtue, and by a flesh not begotten through concupiscence of the flesh, He had not the desire of sin." Op. Imperf. iv. 48. On the other hand, S. Athanasius expressly calls it Manichean doctrine to consider [ ten physin ] of the flesh [ hamartian, kai ou ten praxin ], contr. Apoll. i. 12 fin., or [ physiken einai ten hamartian ], ibid. i. 14 fin. His argument in Apoll. i. 15 is on the ground that all natures are from God, but God made man upright nor can be the author of evil (vid. also Vit. Anton. 20); "not as if," he says, "the devil wrought in man a nature, (God forbid!) for of a nature the devil cannot be maker ([ demiourgos ]), as is the impiety of the Manichees, but he wrought a bias of nature by transgression, and 'so death reigned over all men.' Wherefore, saith He, 'the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil;' what works? that nature, which God made sinless, and the devil biassed to the transgression of God's command and the assault of sin which is death, that nature did God the Word raise again so as to be secure from the devil's bias and the assault of sin. And therefore the Lord said, 'The prince of this world cometh and findeth nothing in Me.'" vid. also § 19. Ibid. ii. 6, he speaks of the devil having introduced "the law of sin." vid. also § 9.

 "As, since the flesh has become the all-quickening Word's, it overbears the might of corruption and death, so, I think since the soul became His who knew not error, it has an unchangeable condition for all good things established in it, and far more vigorous than the sin that of old time tyrannised over us. For, first and only of men on the earth, Christ did not sin, nor was guile found in His mouth; and He is laid down as a root and firstfruit of those who are refashioned unto newness of life in the Spirit, and unto immortality of body, and He will transmit to the whole human race the firm security of the Godhead, as by participation and by grace." Cyril. de Rect. Fid. p. 18. Vid. art. Specialties .