The Word And The Flesh

Sic scriptum est, inquiunt, qui Verbum caro factum est. Scriptum est, non nego: sed considera quid sequatur; sequitur enim: Et habitavit in nobis, hoc est, illud Verbum quod carnem suscepit, hoc habitavit in nobis, hoc est, in carne habitavit humana; et ideo Emmanuel dictus est, hoc est, nobiscum Deus. Hoc ergo Verbum caro factum est, pro eo quod est, homo factus est. Sicut etiam in Joel dixit; Effundam de Spiritu meo super omnem carnem; non enim super irrationabilem carnem, sed in homines futura promittitur gratiae spiritalis effusio. Quod si secundum litteram vos tenetis, ut putetis ex eo quod scriptum est, quod Verbum caro factum est, Verbum Dei in carnem esse conversum; numquid negatis scriptum esse de Domino, quia peccatum non fecit, sed peccatum factus est. Ergo in peccatum conversus est Domnius? Non ita; sed quia peccata nosta suscepit, peccatum dictus est. Nam et maledictum dictus est Dominus, non quia in maledictum conversus est Dominus, sed quia nostrum suscepit ipse maledictum: Maledictus enim, inquit, qui pendet in ligno. Miraris ergo quia scriptum est: Verbum caro factum est, cum caro assumpta sit a Dei Verbo; quando de peccato quod non habuit, scriptum est quia peccatum factus, hoc est, non natura operationeque peccati, utpote in similitudinem carnis peccati factus: sed ut peccatum nostrum in sua carne crucifigeret, susceptionem pro nobis infirmitatum obnoxii jam corporis peccati carnalis assumpsit. Desinant ergo dicere naturam Verbi in corporis naturam esse mutatam; ne pari interpretatione videatur natura Verbi in contagium mutata peccati. Aliud est enim quod assumpsit, et aliud quod assumptum est. Virtus venit in Virginem, sicut et Angelus ad eam dixit quia virtus Altissimi obumbrabit te. Sed natum est corpus ex Virgine; et ideo coelestis quidem descensio, sed humana conceptio est. Non ergo eadem carnis potuit esse, divinitatisque natura. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Incarnationis Dominicae Sacramento, Caput VI Source: Migne PL 16.833a-d

So it is written, they say, that 'The Word was made flesh.' 1 It is written, I do deny it, but consider what follows. It follows: 'And He dwelt among us,' that is, the Word took up flesh, so He dwelt among us, that is, He dwelt in the human flesh, and therefore He is called 'Emmanuel,' that is, God is with us. 2 Thus was the Word made flesh, for by this He was made man. As indeed it is said in Joel, 'I shall pour out my spirit on all flesh.' 3 Not on the irrational flesh, but an effusion of the grace of the spirit is promised to men in the future. Now if you hold to the letter, so that you think the Word was made flesh means the Word changed into flesh, you cannot deny that it is written about the Lord that He committed no sin but was made sin. 4 Was the Lord then changed into sin? Not so, but because He took up our sin, He is called sin. For the Lord is called a curse 5 but not because the Lord was changed into a curse, but because He took up our curse. 'Cursed,' it is said, 'is he who is hung from a tree.' 6 You wonder, then, because it is written, 'The Word was made flesh,' when the flesh was taken up by God the Word, and when He had no sin, it is written that He was made sin, but it was not by the nature and working of sin that He was made the likeness of sinful flesh, but He took up for us the carnal body of sin beset by weakness so that our sin should be crucified in His flesh. Thus let them stop saying that the nature of the Word was changed into the nature of the body, lest by a similar understanding the nature of the Word seem to have been changed by the infection of sin. It is one thing that takes up, another thing which is taken up. Power came to the Virgin, as even the angel said to her, because 'the virtue of the Most High shall overshadow you.' 7 His body was born from the Virgin, and thus there is a certain heavenly descent, but it was a human conception. For else He could not have been of the nature of the flesh and of the Divinity. Saint Ambrose, On the Mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation, Chapter 6 1 Jn 1.14 2 Mt 1.23 3 Joel 2.28 4 2 Cor 5.21 5 Gal 3.13 6 Deut 21.23 7 Lk 1.3