What We Believe About Jesus Christ

Icon of Jesus Christ with the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist

Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ is the incarnate Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the only-begotten Son of God, fully God and fully man, born in time of the Virgin Mary and begotten from before all time of God the Father.* Without losing any of his infinite divinity, he entered into the human condition out of love for us. He has real flesh, bone, and blood, and he is still infinite God at the same time. As a man, he experienced fatigue, hunger, pain, sadness, rejection, and every kind of pain we feel. Despite this, he never sinned and never compromised his divinity.

Jesus Christ is our savior. We are saved by his entire existence—his incarnation, baptism, transfiguration, crucifixion, and resurrection—not any one part by itself, but Christ’s death and resurrection are a key point. When he died on the cross, his divine Life entered into Death and destroyed it. Death and the Devil were defeated. We are no longer subject to sin, if we so choose. If we join to Christ, we will share in his victory over Death and live forever.

His coming down to our level makes it possible for us to rise to his level. He has come to purify us and heal us from our disease of sin. When we participate in his divinity, we are completely transformed, purified, justified, and healed of our sin. The goal for Christians is salvation—to be so transformed that we are filled with God’s divine glory.

Jesus Christ is the long-awaited Messiah of God’s chosen people, the Jews. He is our Teacher and the foremost example of how we should live. He is the final and complete revelation of God. He is the High Priest of his own eternal sacrifice. He is our compassionate Lord and our merciful King.

He is the one who was rich, but became poor so we too could become rich.† He was rejected by men so men could be accepted by God. He made himself nothing and died so we could live and gain everything.‡ God became man so man could become god.§

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Notes

* Jesus Christ OrthodoxWiki
† II Corinthians 8:9
‡ Philippians 2:7-8
§ Saint Athanasius of Alexandria. On the Incarnation. Chapter 8 / Section 54. It is important to stress that, while humans will become gods (small-g), it is an action of the divine Energies of God. Humans will always be created creatures, and can never take upon themselves the divine Essence of God. There is only one God, and there will never be more. Human “godhood” is a state of union with the Energies of the one and only eternal God, the Trinity.