Incarnation as Re-Creation

O God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth;

Have mercy upon us.

O God the Son, Redeemer of the world;

Have mercy upon us.

O God the Holy Ghost, Sanctifier of the faithful;

Have mercy upon us.

O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, one God;

Have mercy upon us.

By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation

Good Lord, deliver us.

The Creation - James Tissot

In the beginning, God created all things through the Word. All matter and all life has being only insofar as that being is gifted by God. All being is participatory. When man rejected God, he turned away from being and fell into corruption. Man, made from nothing, returns to nothingness without his Creator. In the beginning, God formed man from the Earth and gave man dominion over the Earth. Man’s rejection of his Creator consequently unleashed disorder and corruption upon Earth. The redemption of man and the redemption of Earth go hand in hand as a form of re-creation.

God could have destroyed this world and begun anew. His being is not dependent upon his creation. But this would not be fitting, as St. Athanasius writes:

Now in truth this great work was peculiarly suited to God’s goodness. For if a king , having founded a house or city, if it be beset by bandits from the carelessness of its inmates, does not by any means neglect it, but avenges and reclaims it as his own work , having regard not to the carelessness of the inhabitants, but to what beseems himself.

A Human Skeleton - James Wark

Man has a complex problem as his sin carries both intrinsic and extrinsic penalties. Man rightly deserves God’s wrath for violating his law – a law not merely of whim, but of being itself. Man surrenders himself and the world to the domination of the Devil. Finally, both man and the created order are subject to the corruption and decay of Death. Repentance can restore man’s relationship with God, but the deprivation of grace and corruption of nature needed to be repaired.

In the beginning, in a timeless moment, God the source of all being created the world outside himself through the Word. And it was very good. But man chose darkness over light because his deeds were evil. 

Then came, at a predetermined moment, a moment in time and of time
A moment not out of time, but in time, in what we call history: transecting, bisecting the world of time, a moment in time but not like a moment of time,
A moment in time but time was made through that moment: for without the meaning   there is no time, and that moment of time gave the meaning. 

A moment when the Word of God entered his creation and began to re-create it from the inside. 

What was required for such grace and such recall, but the Word of God, which had also at the beginning made everything out of nought? For His it was once more both to bring the corruptible to incorruption, and to maintain intact the just claim of the Father upon all. For being Word of the Father, and above all, He alone of natural fitness was both able to recreate everything, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be ambassador for all with the Father. (St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word)

 Man brings sin and death into the world, the Word of God made man brings forgiveness, and life, and resurrection.

Then He also points out the reason why it was necessary for none other than God the Word Himself to become incarnate; as follows: “For it became Him, for Whom are all things, and through Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory , to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffering;” [Heb. 2:10] by which words He means, that it belonged to none other to bring man back from the corruption which had begun, than the Word of God, Who had also made them from the beginning. (Ibid.)

Salvation, therefore, is incarnational. It can never be simply thinking or believing or doing the right thing. What is necessary is union with the Word of God. It is through union with Christ that we can

The Incarnation - Msgr. Anthony A. LaFemina

participate in his perfect humanity and have our nature restored.

And that it was in order to the sacrifice for bodies such as His own that the Word Himself also assumed a body, to this, also, they refer in these words : “Forasmuch then as the children are the sharers in blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might bring to naught Him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Ibid.)

But this is no surprise. This is Our Lord's own proclamation in the holy gospels. He says "Except a man be born again, except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." "If I wash thee not, thou has no part with me."

The incarnation teaches us that we are unable to save ourselves. Our believing the right things or doing the right things cannot heal the corruption of our nature. Only in being united to Christ, the Word of God that created the world, can we be re-created in the image of God. In the Word-made-Flesh we see the image of God perfect in man. Only through union with him can we participate in the sanctity of his nature, the perfection of his life, the sacrifice and satisfaction of his death, and the victory of his resurrection. Only through the Incarnation can the world be made new.

A moment in time but time was made through that moment: for without the meaning there is no time, and that moment of time gave the meaning.

Life of Christ - Unknown 15th Century Artist