S U N D A Y   S N I P P E T S (tm) # 8 6                 22 December '96

                       The Meaning of Christmas:
                How the Two Natures Constitute the Person
                          of the Mediator
                     --------------------------
                          by John Calvin

"WHEN it is said that the Word was made flesh [John 1:14], we must not
understand it as if He were either changed into flesh, or confusedly 
intermingled with flesh, but that He made choice of the virgin's womb
[and her nature] as a temple in which He might dwell.  Hw who was the Son
of God became the Son of Man, not  by confusion of substance, but by
the unity of person.  For we maintain, that the Divinity was so conjoined
and united with the humanity, that the entire properties of each nature
[the Divine and the human] remain entire, and yet the two natures 
constitute only one Christ."

"A...PRINCIPAL PART of our reconciliation with God was, that man, who
had lost himself by his disobedience, should by way of remedy, 
oppose it to obedience, satisfy the justice of God, and pay the
penalty of sin.  Therefore, our Lord came forth very man, adopted
the person of Adam, and assumed his name, that He might in his stead
obey the Father; that He might present our flesh as the price of
satisfaction to the just judgement of God, and in the same flesh
pay the penalty which we had incurred. Finally since as God only, He
could not suffer; and as man only, He could not overcome Death, He 
united the human nature with the Divine, that He might subject the
weakness of the one to death as an expiation of sin, and by the power
of the other [nature], ...might gain us the victory."

                                - from The Institutes of the Christian
                                   Religion,  Book II, chapt. XIV.
                                   & Book II, Chapt. XII. [brackets mine].


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  A very special Christmas season is wished to you, the readers of 
 Sunday Snippets.   May God bless your family with every blessing in
  Christ as you rejoice in the wonder of the Incarnation of our Lord.

        Galatians 4:4-6                         Romans 1:1-4





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