“Already in the eternal will and decree of God He was not to be, nor did He will to be, God only, but Emmanuel, God with man, and, in fulfillment of this “with,” this man, Jesus of Nazareth. And in the act of God in time which corresponds to this eternal decree, when the Son of God became this man, He ceased to all eternity to be God only, receiving and having and maintaining to all eternity human essence as well. Thus the human essence of Jesus Christ, without becoming divine, in its very creatureliness, is placed at the side of the Creator. It is a clothing which he does not put off. It is His temple which He does not leave. It is the form which He does not lose. It is an organ the use of which He does not renounce. He is God in the flesh – distinguished from all the idols imagined and fashioned by men by the fact that they are not God in the flesh, but products of human speculation on naked deity… To the extent that according to this will and decree, and in this act, God is with us in this way, we too in the same way – in the human essence of this One from among us – are with God… There is therefore, no knowledge of God, no calling upon Him, no worship, no trust or hope, no obedience to His will, no single movement towards Him, which on any pretext or in any way can escape His humanity (and therefore our own), in in which the Father and the Spirit can be sought except in and by Him.”

~ Karl Barth (Church Dogmatics IV/2, 100-101)

Labels: Christmas, Incarnation, Karl Barth