I love reading about the manifestation of God through Christ. Chapter 12 begins with "And though He is everywhere present to the inner eye when it is sound and clear, He condescended to make Himself manifest to the outward eye of those whose inward sight is weak and dim."Augustine elaborates on John 1:1-5, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."Augustine argues that man, through our own perverse nature made Jesus into nothing more than a good man, sent by God for our own benefit. So, then why did Jesus come into the world? I would have to agree with Augustine, that even today we look at Jesus as God's Son who came down to Earth to save us from our sins.
I commented on Kelli's
That's very true. It makes much more sense how other religions such as Islam view Jesus as nothing more than a good teacher. By downgrading Jesus to a physical version of God's son (if that can be considered downgrading, haha), we really rob Jesus of his eternal and powerful triune nature. While He most certainly is God's Son, He is much more unique and specified and powerful.
ReplyDeleteI really like this! The motivation behind an action is often just as critical as the action itself. It is so important to realize that Jesus did not have to take a fleshly form in order to be present on earth, he was here. In my opinion, Augustine points to the same reason we exist- to further glorify God
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