By St. Paul this prc-exislcut Divine principle or power of Deity, termed in llu^ Fourth (Jospet 'the Word,' is represented as already personal, and as becoming man by an act of voluntary condescension or 'self-emptying' motived by love (2 Co 8", 'Ye know the gr.ace of our Lord Je.sus Christ, that.
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UNION WITH GOD
UNION WITH GOD
though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich ' ; cf. Th 'i'- ''• ', ' Christ Jesus wlio, being in the form of (Jotl, coiinted it not a tiling to be grasped to be on an equality with God, but emptied iiim- self, talving the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men '). This conception of the nature and origin of the human personality of Jesus Christ, supplemented by the definite per- sonification of a third principle or power of Deity, viz. the Holy Spirit, which, while one in essence, is j'et also reganled as in some way distinct in function and activity alike from the Father and from the Son (Jn 14"'- " 16', etc.), gave rise to the Catholic Christian doctrine of the Trinity or Triunity of God which was explicitly set forth by the Council of Nicoea in A.D. 325. Union with God, metaphysically conceived of as predicated of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit, was thus re- garded not as equivalent to simple identity, but as admitting of plurality and distinctness within the fullness of the one God.
(b) From the moral and spiritual point of view, again, the oneness of Christ with God is explained by the apostolic writers as due to the perfect harmony of thought and feeling, desire and voli- tion, subsisting between the historic Christ and God the Father Almighty. This point of view is seen in such sayings as Lk 2^", ' Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?' ; Mt 11-', 'All things are delivered unto me of my Father : and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him ' ; Jn 4**, ' My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work ' ; Jn 5", ' My Father worketh hitherto, and I work ' ; 8^, ' I do nothing of my.self ; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak'; Jn 14'", 'The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself : but the Father that (iwelleth in me, he doeth the works.'
From this point of view, while the metaphysical background of the historic personality of Christ in the pre-existing Logos is not denied, it is not emphasized or made prominent as that which constitutes the oneness ; the emphasis is on the rational, emotional, and volitional activities of the historic human personality, which are so intimately in harmony with the mind and will of Ciod the Father tliat Christ is described as ' the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his person ' (He 1^). Christ Jesus, by the free exercise of those faculties of knowledge, feeling, desire, and will which are the characteristic elements of human personality, so lifted human nature into union with the Divine that in His historic personality the in- visible God is expressed or manifested in human form (Jn 1", ' No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him ' ; Jn 14", ' He that hath seen me hath seen the Father'). From this ethical and spiritual point of view, the oneness of Jesus Christ with God is not conceived of as a oneness completed from the first, apart from his- torical and ethical process, but as a oneness pro- gressively realized or exhibited in a truly human life lived under human conditions. And, inasmuch as this oneness with God does not de-personalize or de-humanize Christ Jesus, but is compatible with His being truly man — the Son of man par excel- lence (Mt 12') — it becomes the incentive and in- spiring motive-power whereby Christian believers, through faith-union with Christ and participation in His Spirit, may hope to reach an ethical and spiritual union with God similar to, if less com- plete and perfect than, that of Christ (Jn IV, 1 Co 6"). Neither in Christ's case nor in the case of Christian believers does union with God involve
the de-personalizing, in any pantheistic way, of those persons who attain to such union. Whether metaphysically or spiritually regarded, union with God, according to the apostolic teaching, admits of plurality and distinctness of personality, which are j'et not a barrier to a true oneness with God.
2. Union of the material world with God. — The apostolic writers are far from thinking of a union of the material world with God in any pantheistic sense, such as would tend to eliminate the personal existence of God, or do away with the distincticm between the world and God. According to them, the material world owes its existence to a creative act of the will of the personal God (He 11', Ro 1»). It has a real existence for God, distinct from His own personal existence, though intimately related thereto. It is the expression of His thought, the product of His creative word, tlie instrument of His supreme all-controlling will.