Early Christian Views of Human Nature

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

It remains, therefore, that that which is after the image of God must be understood to be in our inner man, which is also renewed, and whose nature it is to be after the image of Him who created it, when a man becomes perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect, and hears the command, Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy, and learning the precept, Be followers of God, receives into his virtuous soul the traits of God's image.

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness

For God created man for immortality, and made him an image of His own nature;

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

Therefore the image of God is not that which is fashioned by the fingers of men out of stone, or bronze, or other material, but man himself, since he has both perception and motion, and performs many and great actions.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Supporting witness

Now man is a mixed organization of soul and flesh, who was formed after the likeness of God, and moulded by His hands, that is, by the Son and Holy Spirit, to whom also He said, “Let Us make man.” This, then, is the aim of him who envies our life, to render men disbelievers in their own salvation, and blasphemous against God the Creator.

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

in order that, transforming earth-born man into a holy and heavenly being by His advent, He might fulfil to the utmost that divine utterance, Let Us make man in Our own image and likeness.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness

so that what we had lost in Adam—namely, to be according to the image and likeness of God—that we might recover in Christ Jesus.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book V Supporting witness

When, however, the Word of God became flesh, He confirmed both these: for He both showed forth the image truly, since He became Himself what was His image;

Justin Martyr, On the Resurrection, Fragments Supporting witness

Is it not, then, absurd to say, that the flesh made by God in His own image is contemptible, and worth nothing?

Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness

But God made man in the image of God;

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

But God made man in the image of God;

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book V Direct teaching

...f the seven days Adam died, they will discover it through the Lord's plan. By summing up the entire human race from beginning to end, He also gathered up its death. It is evident that the Lord agreed to death on the day Adam disobeyed God and died. Adam died the same day he ate. God had said, "On the day you eat of it, you will surely die." The Lord, by including Himself on this day, underwent His suffering on the day before the Sabbath, known as the sixth day of creation, when humanity was made. In doing so, He offered a new creation through His suffering, a creation out of death. Some claim Adam died in the thousandth year since "a day of the Lord is as a thousand years," and he died within those years, fulfilling the consequence of his sin. Whether we focus on disobedience as death, or that they were handed over to death and became indebted to it, or the fact that they ate and died on the same day, which is the day of preparation or the sixth day of the feast, on which the Lord also suffered; or whether we note that Adam didn't live past a thousand years but died within that limit, it follows that in all these meanings, God is indeed true. Those who tasted the tree died, and

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

Therefore until this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal receive immortality, and the Spirit lead us to God the Father, whatsoever are the disadvantages of the flesh are common to us with the human race.

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

let the judgment of God be pondered, which even in the beginning of the world and of the human race, Adam, forgetful of the commandment, and a transgressor of the given law, received.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Twelve Topics on the Faith Supporting witness

...ng before us a struggle fit only for God, but as showing that our own flesh can overcome suffering, death, and corruption. This was so that, just as sin entered the world through flesh, and death came to rule over all men through sin, so also sin in the flesh might be condemned through that same flesh in its likeness. It was also so that the overseer of sin, the tempter, might be overcome; that death might be thrown down from its rule; that corruption in the burial of the body might be done away with; that the firstfruits of the resurrection might be shown; that the principle of righteousness might begin its course in the world through faith; that the kingdom of heaven might be preached to men; and that fellowship might be established between God and men.

Archelaus, Disputation with Manes Supporting witness

...irements of the law, and all that men needed to observe and do under it, and when he handed over to death only those who transgressed the law, then death was stopped from reigning over all men. For then it reigned over sinners alone, as the law said to it, "Do not touch those who keep my precepts." Therefore Moses served the ministration of this word upon death, while he gave up to destruction all others who were transgressors of the law. For Moses did not come with the intent that death might not reign in any region at all, since many were certainly held under the power of death even after Moses. And the law was called a ministration of death because then only transgressors of the law were punished, and not those who kept it, and who obeyed and observed the things that are in the law, as Abel did, whom Cain, who was made a vessel of the wicked one, slew. However, even after these things, death wished to break the covenant that had been made through Moses, and to reign again over the righteous. And for this purpose it did indeed attack the prophets, killing and stoning those who had been sent by God, on to Zacharias. But my Lord Jesus, as maintaining the righteousness of the law

Methodius, From the Discourse on the Resurrection Supporting witness

...shed toward evil thoughts. Because of this, the apostle prays to be delivered from it, seeing it as death and destruction. The prophet does the same when he says, "Cleanse me from my secret faults." The same meaning appears in these words: "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7:22-24. By this he does not mean that the body is death, but the law of sin in his members, hidden in us through the transgression and always deceiving the soul into the death of unrighteousness. And he immediately adds, clearly showing what kind of death he wanted to be delivered from, and who delivered him: "I thank God, through Jesus Christ." Romans 7:25. And this should be considered, O Aglaophon: if he had said that this body was death, as you supposed, he would not afterward speak of Christ as delivering him from so great an evil. For then what strange thing would have come from the coming of Christ? And how could the apostle have said this, as if he could

Methodius, From the Discourse on the Resurrection Supporting witness

...came, sin revived, and I died. "And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death," Romans 7:9-10. For after God gave the law, and commanded me what I ought to do and what I ought not to do, the devil worked lust in me. For the promise God gave me was for life and incorruption, so that by obeying it I might have ever-flourishing life and joy leading to incorruption. But for the one who disobeyed it, it would end in death. But the devil, whom he calls sin because he is the author of sin, took an opportunity through the commandment to deceive me into disobedience. He deceived me and killed me, thus making me subject to the sentence, "In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die," Genesis 2:17. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good, Romans 7:12, because it was given not for harm but for safety. For let us not suppose that God makes anything useless or harmful. "What then? Was that which is good made death to me?" Romans 7:13. That is, was what was given as law, so that it might be the cause of the greatest good, made the cause of death? God forbid. For it was not the law of God that became the cause of my being brought u

Peter of Alexandria, The Genuine Acts of Peter Supporting witness

...t came, sin revived, and I died. "And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be to death," Romans 7:9-10. For after God had given the law, and had commanded me what I ought to do and what I ought not to do, the devil worked lust in me. For the promise of God given to me was for life and incorruption, so that by obeying it I might have ever-flourishing life and joy leading to incorruption. But for the one who disobeyed it, it would end in death. But the devil, whom he calls sin because he is the author of sin, taking occasion by the commandment to deceive me into disobedience, deceived me and killed me. In this way he made me subject to the condemnation, "In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die," Genesis 2:17. Therefore, "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good," Romans 7:12, because it was given not to harm, but to protect. For let us not suppose that God makes anything useless or harmful. "What then? Was that which is good made death to me?" Romans 7:13. That is, was what was given as a law, so that it might be the cause of the greatest good, made death to me? God forbid. For it was not the law of God that became the cause of my

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Background

et regnavit mors ab Adam usque ad Moysen, Romans 5:12-14 inquit Apostolus: naturali autem divinæ ceconomiæ necessitate mors sequitur generationem: et corporis et animæ conjunctionem consequitur eorum dissolutio.

Justin Martyr, Other Fragments from the Lost Writings of Justin Supporting witness

Man having been thus made, and immediately looking towards transgression, naturally became subject to corruption.

Clement of Alexandria, Fragments Supporting witness

For so also we lie under Adam's sin through similarity of sin.

Hippolytus, Connection to Romans 5:14 Supporting witness

"Sin, then, reigned from Adam unto Moses,"

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching

...f is also clothed with flesh, so that he may show that even the flesh is capable of virtue? For stubbornness cannot be refuted except by example. The things you teach cannot have weight unless you are the first to practice them, because human nature leans toward faults and wants to sin not only with indulgence, but also with a reasonable excuse. It is fitting that a master and teacher of virtue should resemble man as closely as possible, so that by overcoming sin he may teach man that sin can be overcome by him. But if he is immortal, he can in no way offer an example to man. For someone will stand up, holding firmly to his opinion, and will say: You do not sin because you are free from this body. You do not desire because an immortal being needs nothing. But I need many things to support this life. You do not fear death, because it has no power over you. You despise pain, because no violence can be done to you. But I, being mortal, fear both, because they bring on me the harshest torments, which the weakness of the flesh cannot endure. A teacher of virtue therefore ought to have taken away this excuse from men, so that no one may say that he sins because of necessity rather tha

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness

...forget to exercise unbelief, for it is the sinews of the soul." Now, to disbelieve the truth brings death, just as to believe brings life. And again, to believe the lie and to disbelieve the truth hurries one to destruction. The same is the case with self-restraint and licentiousness. To restrain oneself from doing good is the work of vice. But to keep from wrong is the beginning of salvation. So the Sabbath, by abstinence from evils, seems to indicate self-restraint. And what, I ask, is it in which man differs from beasts, while the angels of God, on the other hand, are wiser than he? "You made him a little lower than the angels." For some do not interpret this Scripture of the Lord, although He also bore flesh, but of the perfect man and the gnostic, who is inferior in comparison with the angels in time and because of the vesture of the body. I call wisdom, then, nothing but science, since life does not differ from life. For to live is common to mortal nature, that is, to man, and to that to which immortality has been granted. So also are the powers of contemplation and of self-restraint, though one of the two is more excellent. On this ground Pythagoras seems to me to have sa

Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ Supporting witness

but he means us to understand likeness to the flesh which sinned, because the flesh of Christ, which committed no sin itself, resembled that which had sinned — resembled it in its nature, but not in the corruption it received from Adam;

Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness

... that the apostle means the soul will become spirit in the resurrection. Rather, the body, which is born along with the soul and keeps its life by means of the soul, can be called natural, and it will become spiritual, since it rises through the Spirit to eternal life. In short, it is not the soul but the flesh that is sown in corruption when it decays in the ground. It follows, then, that after this dissolution, the soul is no longer the natural body. Rather, the flesh, which was the natural body, is what undergoes the future change, since from being a natural body it is made a spiritual body, as he says further on: "That was not first which is spiritual." 1 Corinthians 15:46. Just before this, he had said about Christ Himself, "The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a life-giving spirit." 1 Corinthians 15:45. Our heretic, however, in the fullness of his folly, would not let the statement remain in this form. He changed "last Adam" into "last Lord," because he feared that if he allowed the Lord to be the last, or second, Adam, we would argue that Christ, being the second Adam, must belong to that God to whom the first Adam also belonged. But this fals

Methodius, From the Discourse on the Resurrection Supporting witness

...hem. Now this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption, 1 Corinthians 15:50. By flesh, he did not mean flesh itself, but the irrational impulse toward the lustful pleasures of the soul. And therefore, when he says, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” he adds the explanation, “Neither does corruption inherit incorruption.” Now corruption is not the thing that is corrupted, but the thing that corrupts. For when death has power, the body sinks into corruption; but when life still remains in it, it stands uncorrupted. Therefore, since the flesh is the boundary between corruption and incorruption, being neither corruption nor incorruption, it was overcome by corruption because of pleasure, although it was the work and possession of incorruption. Therefore it became subject to corruption. When, then, it had been overcome by corruption and handed over to death for chastisement, He did not leave it to be overcome and handed over as an inheritance to corruption. Instead, by conquering death again through the resurrection, He restored it to incorruption, so that corruption might not inherit incor

Peter of Alexandria, The Genuine Acts of Peter Supporting witness

...hem. Now this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption, 1 Corinthians 15:50. By flesh, he did not mean flesh itself, but the irrational impulse toward the lustful pleasures of the soul. And therefore, when he says, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," he adds the explanation, "Neither does corruption inherit incorruption." Now corruption is not the thing that is corrupted, but the thing that corrupts. For when death prevails, the body sinks into corruption. But when life still remains in it, it stands uncorrupted. Therefore, since the flesh is the boundary between corruption and incorruption, not being either corruption or incorruption, it was overcome by corruption because of pleasure, although it was the work and possession of incorruption. Therefore it became subject to corruption. When, then, it had been overcome by corruption and was handed over to death for chastisement, He did not leave it to be overcome and handed over as an inheritance to corruption. Instead, by conquering death again through the resurrection, He restored it to incorruption, so that corruption might not inherit

Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh Supporting witness

...t to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if you live after the flesh you shall die; but if you, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live." Now, to answer each point separately, since salvation is promised to those who are living in the flesh but walking after the Spirit, it is no longer the flesh that is an enemy to salvation, but the working of the flesh. When, however, this operativeness of the flesh is done away with, which is the cause of death, the flesh is shown to be safe, since it is freed from the cause of death. For "the law," he says, "of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death"—that, surely, which he had previously mentioned as dwelling in our members. Our members, therefore, will no longer be subject to the law of death, because they cease to serve that of sin, from both of which they have been set free. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and through sin condemned sin in the flesh, in Romans 8:3—not the flesh in sin, for the house is not to be condemned with its inhabitant. He did indeed say that sin d

Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh Supporting witness

...We have indeed borne the image of the earthy by sharing in his transgression, by taking part in his death, and by being driven out of Paradise. Now, although the image of Adam is borne by us here in the flesh, we are not being told to put off the flesh. If not the flesh, then it is our way of life that is meant, so that we may then bear in ourselves the image of the heavenly—not now the image of God, and not the image of a Being whose condition is in heaven, but according to the likeness of Christ, by our walking here in holiness, righteousness, and truth. And he is so completely focused throughout this passage on teaching moral conduct that he tells us we ought to bear the image of Christ in this flesh of ours, and in this time of instruction and discipline. For when he says, "let us bear," in the imperative mood, he fits his words to the present life, in which man exists in no other substance than as flesh and soul. Or if it is another substance, even a heavenly one, that this faith of ours looks forward to, still the promise is made to that substance to which the command is given to work hard and earnestly so as to deserve its reward. Since, then, he makes both the image of t

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Background

For on this account he was not at once thrust down by God to punishment at the original transgression, that by his malice he may exercise man to virtue: for unless this is in constant agitation, unless it is strengthened by continual harassing, it cannot be perfect, inasmuch as virtue is dauntless and unconquered patience in enduring evils.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Twelve Topics on the Faith Supporting witness

John 16:33 And this He said, not as holding before us any contest proper only to a God, but as showing our own flesh in its capacity to overcome suffering, and death, and corruption, in order that, as sin entered into the world by flesh, and death came to reign by sin over all men, the sin in the flesh might also be condemned through the selfsame flesh in the likeness thereof;

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Twelve Topics on the Faith Supporting witness

If any one affirms that Christ assumed the man only in part, and refuses to acknowledge that He was made in all things like us, apart from sin, let him be anathema.

Hippolytus, Connection to John 3:6 Background

But what (is born) below is carnal, that is, he says, what is written. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit."

Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching

but they saw also that the power which had descended into human nature, and into the midst of human miseries, and which had assumed a human soul and body, contributed through faith, along with its divine elements, to the salvation of believers, when they see that from Him there began the union of the divine with the human nature, in order that the human, by communion with the divine, might rise to be divine, not in Jesus alone, but in all those who not only believe, but enter upon the life which Jesus taught, and which elevates to friendship with God and communion with Him every one who lives according to the precepts of Jesus.

Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness

...s, where Jesus is shown by Paul to have been made lower than the angels because of the suffering of death. “We behold Him,” he says, “who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor.” And this too must no doubt be added: the creation, in order to be delivered from the bondage of corruption, and not least the human race, required the bringing into human nature of a blessed and divine power, which would set right what was wrong on the earth. And this action fell, as it were, to the Holy Spirit. But the Spirit, being unable to support such a task, puts forward the Savior as the only One able to endure such a conflict. Therefore the Father, the principal, sends the Son. But the Holy Spirit also sends Him and directs Him to go before, promising to descend, when the time comes, upon the Son of God, and to work with Him for the salvation of men. This He did when, in bodily form like a dove, He flew to Him after the baptism. He remained on Him and did not pass Him by, as He might have done with men who were not able to bear His glory continually. Thus John, when explaining how he knew who Christ was, spoke not only

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness

He therefore, the Son of God, our Lord, being the Word of the Father, and the Son of man, since He had a generation as to His human nature from Mary—who was descended from mankind, and who was herself a human being—was made the Son of man.

Methodius, From the Discourse on the Resurrection Supporting witness

For Christ at His coming did not proclaim that the human nature should, when it is immortal, be remoulded or transformed into another nature, but into what it was before the fall.

Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh Supporting witness

and claim for it a human nature without any peculiarity of condition — such a nature as has marked out Christ to be both man and the Son of man.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, On the Trinity Supporting witness

...nce common to men, and it is the denomination proper to all men. Moreover, names are such as these: Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. These, I say, are names. But the Divine Persons are names indeed, and the names are still the persons. And the persons signify that which is and subsists, which is the essence of God. The name of the nature also signifies subsistence, as if we should speak of the man. All the persons are one nature, one essence, one will, and are called the Holy Trinity. These also are subsistent, one nature in three persons, and one genus. But the person of the Son is composite in its oneness, being one made up of two, that is, of divinity and humanity together. These two constitute one. Yet the divinity does not therefore receive any increment, but the Trinity remains as it was. Nor does anything new happen to the persons or even to the names, but these are eternal and without time. However, no one was able to know these things until the Son, being made flesh, manifested them, saying, "Father, I have manifested Your name to men; glorify me also, that they may know me as Your Son." John 17:6 And on the mount the Father spoke and said, "This is my beloved Son." Matthew

Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ Supporting witness

...ve that Christ who, even then, was already showing how He would speak with, liberate, and judge the human race, in the form of a flesh not yet born, because it did not yet mean to die until both its nativity and its mortality had first been announced by prophecy. Let them then prove to us that those angels got their flesh from the stars. If they do not prove it because it is not written, then neither will Christ's flesh get its origin from there, since they borrowed the example of the angels for that claim. It is plain that the angels bore a flesh that was not naturally their own. Their nature is of a spiritual substance, though in some sense, in a way proper to themselves, bodily. Yet they could be changed into human form and for a time appear and have intercourse with men. Therefore, since we have not been told from where they got their flesh, we should have no doubt that this is a property of angelic power: to take bodily shape for themselves out of no material substance. You say, "How much more is it within their power to take a body out of some material substance?" True enough. But there is no proof of it, because Scripture says nothing. Then again, how should those who are

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

...and man. But now, by explaining separately the ordinance and the reason of so great a mystery, he clearly showed, in saying, “And that Holy Thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God,” the proof that the Son of God descended, and that, by taking the Son of man up into Himself, He consequently made Him the Son of God, because the Son of God associated and joined Him to Himself. So while the Son of man, in His birth, cleaves to the Son of God, by that very mingling He holds as pledged and derived what by His own nature He could not possess. And so, by the word of the angel, the distinction is made, against the desire of the heretics, between the Son of God and man, yet with their association. This presses them to understand that Christ, the Son of man, is man, and also to recognize that the Son of God, who is God and man, is the Son of God; that is, the Word of God, as it is written, as God. And so they must acknowledge that Christ Jesus the Lord, joined on both sides, so to speak, is on both sides woven in and grown together, and associated in the same agreement of both substances, by the binding to one another of a mutual alliance: man and God, by the truth

Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness

...and man. But now, by explaining separately the ordinance and the reason of so great a mystery, he clearly showed, when he said, "And that Holy Thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God," the proof that the Son of God descended, and that by taking the Son of man into Himself He consequently made Him the Son of God, because the Son of God joined and united Him to Himself. So, while the Son of man in His birth clings to the Son of God, by that very mingling He holds by pledge and derivation what He could not possess by His own nature. And so, by the word of the angel, the distinction is made, against the desire of the heretics, between the Son of God and man, yet with their association also preserved. This presses them to understand that Christ, the Son of man, is man, and also to receive the Son of God and man, the Son of God; that is, the Word of God, as it is written, as God. And thus to acknowledge that Christ Jesus the Lord, joined on both sides, so to speak, is on both sides woven in and grown together, and united in the same agreement of both substances, by the binding together of a mutual alliance: man and God, by the truth of Scripture, which declares

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness

...Adam begot Seth in his own likeness, and after his own image." Now this image contains the unity of nature and substance belonging to the Father and the Son. For if the Son does, in like manner, all those things which the Father does, then, by the Son's doing all things like the Father, the image of the Father is formed in the Son, who is born of Him, like an act of His will proceeding from the mind. And I am therefore of the opinion that the will of the Father alone ought to be sufficient for the existence of that which He wishes to exist. For in the exercise of His will He employs no other way than that which is made known by the counsel of His will. And thus also the existence of the Son is generated by Him. For this point, above all others, must be maintained by those who allow nothing to be unbegotten, that is, unborn, except God the Father only. And we must be careful not to fall into the absurdities of those who picture to themselves certain emanations, so as to divide the divine nature into parts, and who divide God the Father as far as they can. Since even to entertain the slightest suspicion of such a thing regarding an incorporeal being is not only the height of impie

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness

...m to gather up Adam into Himself, from Mary, who was still a virgin. If, then, the first Adam had a human father and was born of human seed, it would be reasonable to say that the second Adam was begotten of Joseph. But since the former was taken from the dust and God was his Maker, it was necessary that the latter also, embodying a recapitulation in Himself, should be formed as a man by God, maintaining an analogy with the former concerning His origin. Why, then, did God not take dust again, but instead chose Mary for the formation? It was so that no new formation would be brought into being, nor any other that would need to be saved, but that the very same formation would be summed up in Christ as had existed in Adam, preserving the analogy.

Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness

... thing that He is, because the Father had given it to Him. From there, both before the taking on of flesh, and also after the taking on of the body, and besides, after the resurrection itself, He yielded all obedience to the Father, and still yields it forever. From this it is proved that He thought that the claim of a certain divinity would be robbery, namely, that of making Himself equal with God the Father. But, on the other hand, being obedient and subject to all His rule and will, He was content even to take on Himself the form of a servant, that is, to become man, and to undertake the substance of flesh and body. As this came to Him, according to His manhood, from the bondage of His forefathers' sins, He undertook it by being born. At that time also He emptied Himself, because He did not refuse to take on the frailty that belongs to humanity. Because if He had been born man only, He would not have been emptied in this respect. For man, being born, is increased, not emptied. For in beginning to be that which he could not possess as long as he did not exist, as we have said, he is not emptied, but rather increased and enriched. But if Christ is emptied in being born, in taki