our time-bound life, it did not in the flesh lose eternity, but rather on the flesh
29 SERMON 187 and dissimilar;10 the first won't remain when you've forgotten it, nor will the second when you stop speaking. But the Word of the Lord remains for ever (Is 40:8), and abides unchanged and unchangeable.
Christ, God and
4. And when from the world of time it took flesh, in order to come forth into our time-bound life, it did not in the flesh lose eternity, but rather on the flesh too bestowed immortality. Thus he like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, exulted like a giant to run his course (Ps 19:5). Who, when he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal to God; but in order for our sakes to become what he was not, he emptied himself; not losing the form of God, but taking the form of a servant; and through it being made in the likeness of men; not in his own proper substance either, but being found in condition as a man (Phil 2:6-7). All this, you see, that we are, whether in soul or in body, is our nature, but his condition; we, if we weren't this, wouldn't be at all; he, if he weren't this, would still of course be God.
And when he began to be this thing that he was not, he became man while remaining God, so that not just one of the following but each of them could be said with perfect truth: both Since the Father is greater than I {in 14:28), because he has become man; and I and the Father are one (Jn 10:30), because he remained God. Because if the Word had changed into flesh, that is God been converted into man, it's only the Father is greater than I that would be true; while I and the Father are one would be false, because God and man are not one thing. But perhaps he would be able to say, "I and the Father were one," not "are one." I mean, what he had been and has stopped being, obviously he isn't, but was. As it is, however, he could both truly say The Father is greater than I because of the form of a servant which he had taken, and also truly say I and the Father are one because of the true form of God in which he remained.
So he emptied himself among us, not by becoming what he was not in such a way that he would no longer be what he had been; but by concealing what he was and openly displaying what he had become. Accordingly, because the virgin conceived and bore a son, a child is born for us, on account of the manifest form of a servant. But because the Word of God which abides for ever became flesh, in order to dwell among us, on account of the form of God which is hidden but remains, we call his name, as Gabriel announced it, Emmanuel." He became man, you see, while remaining God, in order that the son of man too might rightly be called God with us; not one person being God, another being man.
And so let the world exult in the persons of all believers, for whose salvation the one through whom the world was made has come. The maker of Mary, bom of Mary, the son of David, David's Lord (Mk 12:37), the seed of Abraham who is before Abraham (Jn 8:58), the maker of the earth, made on earth, the creator of heaven, created under heaven. He is the day which the Lord has made, and the Lord himself is the daylight of our minds. Let us walk in his light,12 let us exult and be merry in it (Ps 118:24).