And in Jesus Christ, His
only Son, Our Lord
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (St. John
3:16).
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen.
3:15). These words constitute what is known as the Protoevangelium, the
first Gospel, or promise of a Redeemer to come. This promise formed the
essential heart and hope of the religion of the Jews of the Old Testament:
“Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what
you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it”
(St. Matt. 13:17).
As the sin of Adam and Eve offended the infinite dignity of God, the
satisfaction due to God in atonement needed to be of infinite value.
However, no mere creature could make such a satisfaction since no
creature, however holy or exalted, could offer more than a finite reparation.
There was a necessity, therefore, for the Redeemer to be both God and
man––man, that he might suffer and die on our behalf; God, that an infinite
merit might attach to His atonement. Such a Redeemer was sent by God––
Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity:
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the
man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5).
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the
law, so that we might receive adoption as children” (Gal. 4:4-5). God the
Son became the man Jesus Christ: “And the Word became flesh and lived
among us” (St. John 1:14). The word “incarnation”
is derived from the
Latin, meaning, “to put on flesh.” Christ could not have become Redeemer
of humanity without a human nature, for it was His assumed human nature
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