Gregory Nazianzus, in writing to Cledonius regarding the Apollinarian controversy in the mid fourth-century, beautifully states the orthodox theology of Jesus Christ:
For we do not sever the Man from the Godhead, but we lay down as a dogma the Unity and Identity of Person,
Who of old was not Man but God,
and the Only Son before all ages,
unmingled with body or anything corporeal;
but Who in these last days has assumed Manhood also for our salvation;
passible (able to suffer) in His Flesh, impassible in His Godhead;
circumscript (limited) in the body, uncircumscript in the Spirit;
at once earthly and heavenly, tangible and intangible, comprehensible and incomprehensible; that by One and the Same Person, Who was perfect Man and also God, the entire humanity fallen through sin might be created anew.
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I’m grateful for the ancient heresies that arose to challenge the Church. It was in the heat of theological battle over the identity of Jesus our Christ that precise, life-giving definition was given and set in stone. We twenty-first century folks are in deep debt to the work of our forefathers in the faith.
Praise Christ!
-Justin
Citizen of New Jerusalem 