Jeremiah 12
1
You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?
2
You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.
3
But you, Yahweh, know me; you see me, and try my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
4
How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? for the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the animals are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter end.
5
If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?
6
For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; even they have cried aloud after you: don't believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you.
7
I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
8
My heritage is become to me as a lion in the forest: she has uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.
9
Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? are the birds of prey against her all around? Go, assemble all the animals of the field, bring them to devour.
10
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11
They have made it a desolation; it mourns to me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.
12
Destroyers are come on all the bare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of Yahweh devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh has peace.
13
They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of Yahweh.
14
Thus says Yahweh against all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.
15
It shall happen, after that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
16
It shall happen, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, As Yahweh lives; even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my people.
17
But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it, says Yahweh.
The Lord # 29
29. The Lord Made His Human Nature Divine out of the Divine Nature within Himself, and in This Way Became One with the Father
According to the church’s doctrinal statement accepted throughout the Christian world,
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and a human being. Although he is God and a human being, yet he is not two, but one Christ. He is one because the divine nature took the human nature to itself. Indeed, he is one altogether, because he is one person. Therefore as the soul and the body make one human being, so God and a human being is one Christ .
These words are quoted from the Athanasian statement of faith, which is accepted throughout the Christian world. These are that statement’s essential points concerning the oneness of what is divine and what is human in the Lord. Other points concerning the Lord in that statement will be explained in their proper places.
This shows us very clearly that according to the statement of faith of the Christian church, the divine and human natures in the Lord are not two but one, just as the soul and the body is one human being, and that the divine nature took the human nature to itself.
[2] It follows from this that the divine nature cannot be separated from the human or the human from the divine, because separating them would be like separating soul and body. Everyone will acknowledge this who reads the passages about the Lord’s birth cited above (see 19, 21 ) from two Gospels (Luke 1:26-35 and Matthew 1:18-25). It is obvious from these passages that Jesus was conceived by Jehovah God and borne by the Virgin Mary. This means that there was something divine within him, and that this was his soul.
Now, since his soul was the actual divine nature of the Father, it follows that his body or human side was made divine as well, for where the one is, the other must also be. In this way and in no other way the Father and the Son are one, the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father, and all that is the Son’s is the Father’s, and all that is the Father’s is the Son’s, as the Lord himself tells us in the Word [John 17:10].
[3] But how this union was brought about I need to explain in the following sequence:
1. The Lord from eternity is Jehovah.
2. The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, took on a human nature for the purpose of saving us.
3. He made the human nature divine from the divine nature within himself.
4. He made the human nature divine by the trials to which he made himself vulnerable.
5. The complete union of the divine nature and the human nature in him was accomplished by the suffering on the cross, which was his last trial.
6. Step by step he took off the human nature he had taken on from his mother and put on a human nature from what was divine within him, which is the divine human nature and the Son of God.
7. In this way, God became human on both the first [or innermost] level and the last [or outermost] level.
