CHAPTER 4

PROMISE OF SALVATION
God’s plan for the son of man to come down to the world is part of the big picture that
started from a mystical promise of saving humanity from the fall of our first parents.
FALL OF MAN
BEFORE THE FALL OF MAN
Human beings are said to be the best and most special among God’s created beings. They
are the center of all created world. They were created in the image and likeness of God. Man is
given intellect to discern wisely and free will to choose wisely. Such is the specialty of man that
God prepared a garden for them for them to live freely with due responsibility. It is made for
man, for without man there would be no paradise.
AFTER THE FALL OF MAN
The fall of man destroyed humanity totally. Man lost his immortality and experienced
death, his innocence and experienced a troubled mind and a sinful heart, his true and authentic
happiness and experienced discontentment, and supernatural grace that makes him so close to
God.
The fall of man, made sin enter the world of humanity along with concupiscence, death
and suffering. Thus, humanity has been ‘destroyed’.
THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SELF-REDEMPTION or AUTO-SALVATION
If one can imagine a drinking vessel that has been broken by any external force, but due
to its own self, it would be impossible for the drinking vessel to bring itself back to its former
state.
HUMANITY HAS DESTROYED HIMSELF WITH PRIDE
Like in the analogy of the drinking vessel, humanity has destroyed himself with pride. It
was pride that caused sin because man wanted to become like God too said by the temptation of
the serpent.
THE NECESSITY OF HUMANITY FOR A SAVIOR
Humanity is incapable of auto-salvation simply because he is totally broken himself
because of the bondage by sin. He cannot restore himself because death has overpowered him.
So humanity needed a savior and that savior should be like him but beyond him. A savior that
should be divine, spotless, perfect and pure.
THE PROMISE OF SALVATION
It is inscribed the sacred scriptures particularly in Genesis 3:15.
SOMEONE WILL COME HE SHALL BE AN ENMITY WITH THE SERPENT
 If the serpent represents primordial evil and states that the savior will be enmity with it. It
calls for the savior that will come will be spotless and pure and shall never be conquered by sin.
IN THE END, THE ‘PROMISED PERSON TO COME’ SHALL ‘STRIKE’ THE ‘HEAD’
OF THE SERPENT
It speaks of the victory of the ‘promised person to come’ over sin, death etc.
THE POSSIBILITY OF OTHER FORMS OF SALVATION
There will be always a possibility for other forms of salvation and God will never be
enclosed in to a certain option. He is Divine and powerful. Thus, he is free to do what He wishes.
On the other hand, God freely chose to save man by freely giving and fulfiling a promise of
salvation in which he sent his Son to be a sacrifice for all.

CHAPTER 5
THE FINALITY OF THE INCARNATION
The Sacred Scriptures speak about the humble act of the divine word to take the form of a
human being. We have seen the word became flesh in John 1:1. We have also pinpointed that
God has this creating prowess through His word. Whatever he says, it is made.
The Johanine Gospel indicates five things. First is that Jesus is God, the word who was
with the creator who is God. Jesus is the source of Life and life itself. Third the historical fact
that he was rejected by His own. Fourth is that there is a reward for those who accepted Jesus.
Lastly, Jesus is the word made flesh.
Jesus who is God, which is Divine, is made a decision to take a form of a human that has
a nature of being vulnerable to suffering has a classification of being humble.
Jesus followed the will of the Father because his great love for the Father that he became
obedient to the promise of salvation. He loved his father even to the point of offering Himself for
the salvation of mankind.
Jesus is really in our midst. This posits two different reaction from humanity. They are
the positive acceptance of Jesus and the negative rejection of Jesus. The former is the effect due
to the grace of the Father and at the same time due to the humility of people to accept and
embrace Jesus in listening to His Words. While the latter is because of the pride that the people
possess that even though they also possess the grace of God but because of their closed hearts
hinder the entrance of Jesus.
THE FINALITY OF INCARNATION
The promise has been made and thus makes incarnation as to save humanity. The son of
man came into the world for the finality of salvation and as a result of this salvation, divine
filiation is once again returned to man and the devil destroyed.
POSSIBILITY OF INCARNATION IF THE FIRST HUMAN BEINGS DID NOT SIN
Duns Scotus states that incarnation is possible even without the first humans sinning. He
says that Jesus Christ or the Word becoming flesh is being exulted and is not subordinated to sin
but rather incarnation is desired by God because it serves as the supreme perfection in all
creation.
St. Thomas and St. Augustine however opposed the thoughts of Scotus and stated that
without original sin there would be no incarnation.
Hegel on the other hand in his school of thought (Idealism) conclude that incarnation is a
‘necessity’ on the part of God. He argues that God in order to proclaim and be known to man is
with the act of incarnation. Such thoughts of Hegel are erroneous and unacceptable because it
puts God in a limited fashion an also leads to pantheism.
Incarnation should be looked upon as God’s greatest gift to humanity. It is the best
manifestation of God’s love. Jesus is the best gift of God to humanity.
CHAPTER 6
JESUS CHRIST, A PERFECT HUMAN BEING
Jesus Christ is a true human being. He entered into human history and takes on a tru body
and a soul. He is not only a man but is a perfect man.
THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNTS ON THE WORD IN HUMAN HISTORY
We can see in John 1:1 and Gal. 4:4 that the second person of the Trinity, the Son,
entered history. It states that in the fullness of time meaning a certain time period has elapsed
fully and from the promise made in Paradise to God calling men and women so as to establish in
human history the coming of his only begotten son.
In a specific time and place a child named Jesus was born. He had been hailed to by
many as a King of the Jews, the messiah and the expected one. It occurred during the reign of the
Roman Emperor Cesar Augustus in a town called Bethlehem of the reigh of Judah where King
Herod the Great was the king. (Luke 2:1ff, Matthew 2:1ff)
The Roman Emperor Tiberius succeded Augustus Cesar in 14 A.D. and reigned until 37
A.D. According to the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus was 30 years old when he began his public
ministry. Pontius Pilate that appeared in the gospel narratives speak of the Historical Pilae who
governed Judea in 26-36 A.D. The capability of executing someone who broke the law of God
was subdued by the Romans and gave such authority only to the Roman Emperor or in his
absence, the representative of a certain region. In the case of Judea was Pilate.
EXTRA-BIBLICAL ACCOUNTS ON THE WORD IN HUMAN HISTORY
A historian named Tacitus wrote a book entitled the ‘Annals’ contained a very important
data about the Christians of his time stating that the name Christians came from the ‘Christ’.
Another important historical data is the biography of Claudis written by Suetonius, a Roman
Historian. According to him Claudius expelled Jews from Rome due to disturbances caused by
the instigation of the followers of Christ and also it contains debates on the teachings of Jesus
Christ reverberating in Rome.
In the letter of Pliny to Emperor Trajan, he wrote about the Christians who would gather
around in a certain day and sang hymns to Christ as if He is God. Even Titus Josephus, a first
century Roman-Jewish scholar historian and hagiographer, inscribed about Jesus of Nazareth,
His followers and Christianity. All of this does indicate that Jesus was not only a myth but is
witnessed throughout history.
JESUS CHRIST, A HUMAN BEING WITH A HUMAN BODY
Jesus had a human birth. There is data about it and also his human death. His human birth
can be studied on the narrative and report of being born of a woman called Mary. The human
death of Jesus which is defined the separation of the body and the soul. He really died as we can
see in Mark 15:43.
The other evidence of Jesus having a human body was in the time when they were in a
boat with some of his apostles. There mentioned a cushion in which Jesus was asleep indicating
the dog-tiring day that made Jesus want to rest peacefully amidst the storm in the sea of Galilee.
Another is his sweat becoming like drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane. It is proven that
in case of extreme stresses the human body can produce drops of blood from the sweat glands.
These proofs are an easy way to defend that Jesus really had a body, a human body.
HERETIC TEACHING AGAINST THE EXISTENCE OF THE REAL HUMAN BODY
IN JESUS CHRIST
First is Docetism. It is a gnostic type of belief that does not accept the reality of the
human body of Jesus Christ. Generally they think that it coincides the idea that a human body is
something perverse and therefore totally inconvenient to be assumed by God. Second is a guy
named Marcion. He argued that Jesus was a divine spirit appearing to human beings in the shape
of a human form and not some physical body. Third is Basilides saying that Jesus’ body although
real was not of a material world but of the heavens and was not really conceived by Mary but
since it is heavenly it passes through her without being formed from her human flesh and blood.
He further stated in his teachings that Jesus was not the one crucified but Simon of Cyrene
substituted him.
The error of these teachings came from the misinterpretation of the text written in
Philippians 2:6-11. To correct it, it would need to be followed up to chapter 8 seeing the
obedience of Jesus and would be interpreted as something viewed and touched as in a human
form would reaaly experience death, death on a cross. Also from the first letter to the Corinthians
stating that the second man is from heaven, who is Jesus Christ, was in fact the word who
became flesh mentioned in John 1:1.
THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH AND THE HUMAN BODY OF JESUS
 St. Ignatius of Antioch combats the teachings of Docetists by stating that the truth of
Christ’s redemption is always connected with the truth of the incarnation. Thus Jesus really
suffered as He really resurrected Himself.
St. Irenaeus of Lyons fought the docetists through the idea of anakephalaiosis which is
the recapitulation of all things in Christ. He defended that through the obedience of one man
born of a virgin, many are justified and received salvation but if Jesus did not truly suffer no is
justified, therefore Jesus truly suffered and thus having a real body.
Tertullian confirmed the content of John 1:1 that the word became flesh and reaffirmed
the truth that the human body of Jesus came from the Virgin Mary.
JESUS CHRIST, A HUMAN BEING WITH A HUMAN SOUL
Jesus does not only have a human body but also a human soul. It can be seen from where
the human feelings emanate. When he experienced indignation in the time that the temple
became a marketplace. He expounded it on Matthew 26:36 he said that his soul is sorrowful even
to death. Also from where virtues are made to be exercised, of his obedience to the father that he
always say that he does not seek his own will but of his father’s.
THE QUESTION ON THE EXISTENCE OF THE HUMAN SOUL OF JESUS CHRIST
There is a seeming question on the reality of Jesus Christ’s soul. The general error of it
came from the concept logos-sarx which originated from Origen that the word does the functions
of the soul in Jesus Christ. Arius through his teachings that subordination makes the second
person is just a god of secondary category towards the Father and thus stating that there is no
human soul in Jesus.
Apollinarius of Laodicea, unlike Arius did not deny the presence of a soul in Jesus but he
argued that it is only a soul similar to animals and states that it is the Word who functions as the
human spiritual soul in Jesus.
Again these errors were combatted by the Church. Gregory of Nazianzus said that there is
a connection with the truth of incarnation and the truth of redemption: for if Jesus Christ had not
been a true human possessing body and soul like all of us, he might not have redeemed us in
body and soul.
The councils have condemned the erroneous teachings of Arius by the council of Nicea.
The doctrine of Apollinarius was condemned in the first council of Constantinople and the
Council of Rome. In the Council of Chalcedon confirmed the truth that Jesus has a rational soul
and a human body.
CHAPTER 7
JESUS CHRIST, TRULY DIVINE
Jesus is not only truly human but he is also truly divine. He was the word who was in the
beginning with the creator and in a special way became flesh and dwelt among us.
 Theories sprout up concerning the divinity of Jesus in which rises many erroneous
teachings. The first would be that of the Ebionites of the 1st century A.D. who regarded Jesus as
the Messiah but not considered divine but purely human. By 2nd century A.D. a teaching
reverberates of what is called adoptionism. It argues that Jesus being the son of God is only by
way of adoption, that he was only a mere adopted son of the Father. This thought was sustained
by Theodotus and Paul of Samosata. Theodotus taught that Jesus is a man born of a virgin who
was truly human but during the baptism at Jordan gained divine powers to perform miracles
when a spirit in dove shape descended to Jesus. Thus, he acclaimed that the miracles were not
made until the Spirit came down and manifested in Him.
In the following century, Paul of Samosata appeared promoting monarchianism (a form
of adoptionism). He taught that God is one and that Jesus is only a human who kept himself
sinless. Jesus is where the Word inhabits and thus achieved union with God and further stating
that Jesus is only the ‘force’ of God.
Adoptionism was revived by Fotinus which he taught that Jesus was a pure human being
who never existed before the coming of the Blessed Virgin Mary and because of His saintly life
gained glory of divinity and was lucky to be called God not because of his nature but because of
is adoption. Another heretic named Arius, denied not only Jesus’ divinity but also his humanity.
In the 16th century, Fotinus erroneous teachings were revived by Laelius Socinus and
nephew Faustus Socinus. They denied the divinity in Jesus Christ saying that he was purely
human who only stood out because of grace and sanctity and after death was elevated to power
and dignity that merited him to be called God and was adored but not like the true God but a
lesser form of adoration.
In the contemporary world particularly in the ambit of Liberal Protestantism of the world
of Modernism, Jesus was denied of his divinity. This was because of the contraposition of the
‘Historical Jesus’ and the ‘Christ of Faith’. For them, divinity of Jesus does not correspond to the
‘Historical Jesus’ but solely to the ‘Christ of Faith’. They further argue that the ‘Christ of Faith’
did not exist but only a fruit of piety and religious sentiment.
THE DIVINITY OF JESUS IN THE SACRED SCRIPTURES
It is evident in Genesis that the creative Prowess of God made use of the Word. He
created through the Word and it came to be. It is always mentioned in creation the words ‘Then
God said’. Even in the scriptures has been made mention the Wisdom of God which is identified
to be Jesus Christ. We have witnessed that the Word and Wisdom of God became flesh as it is
written in John 1:1 which Jesus made simple by uttering that even before Abraham ‘I am’ which
goes back to the exodus revelation to Moses of the name of Yahweh.
Moreover, Jesus was made mention to pre-exist even in the letters of Paul. There was
even a prophecy about the coming of a child born of a virgin which will be called Emmanuel
meaning God is with us. The child name was Jesus who so as to hide the plan of God until the
proper time, the name Emmanuel was not used. Then came the vision of a Son of Man coming
down from the heavens that made the prophet Daniel confused for whence a man coming down
from heaven an absurd ordeal but is referring to a divine man from the clouds. Even though the
title the son of God is given to angels, to the just, to Israel and to kings, there are also biblical
passages that give the title to the messiah. In Hebrews 1:5 written “you are my son; this day I
have begotten you.”
THE DIVINITY OF JESUS AS TESTIFIED BY THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH
In the didache, where the writings speak of Jesus as the God of David. St. Clement of Rome
spoke of Jesus as the ‘scepter of the majesty of God’. In Saint Ignatius’ letter to the Ephesians
speaks of Jesus as the ‘living God in the flesh’. Saint Polycarp of Smyrna calls Jesus as God, the
Son. Saint Justin the martyr affirmed Jesus as the Word, the only begotten Son of God. Saint
Irenaeus said that Jesus is our Lord, God, Saviour and King. Tertullian calls Jesus as God who
proceeded God. Origen to describe the nature of Jesus made the term God-Man. In the councils
of Nicea and Constantinople Jesus’ divinity was reaffirmed.