Page 146 - Prayer Book

146
Prayer B o ok
sonal nature with His deified human nature. As Christ says
in His prayer in the Gospel of John, regarding His disciples
and all those who will believe in Him through their word:
“That they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in
me” (Jn 17:22-23).
However, humanity, in the person of Adam, thwarted
this loving will of God, which would have granted him
immortal existence. Through the “original sin,” death,
from being a possibility for human nature, became a real-
ity! Humans, each and every one of us, now die, along with
all the consequences we have discussed regarding the self-
ish, mortal human love, or rather “non-love,” which cannot
create a way of “personal” existence.
However, even though humanity, through the free-
dom granted by God, thwarted His original creative Lov-
ing Will, God did not retract His initial loving decision to
incorporate humanity into His relationship of love with
His Son, so that each human being could become an im-
mortal “person.”
The role of the “personal” salvation of humanity was
taken on by the Son of God. Christ fulfilled the Loving Will
of His Father for the world, but in a way that did not violate
human freedom. Consequently, Christ accomplished His
Father’s Loving Will by including humanity’s fall and death
within the plan of salvation, as this was humanity’s choice,
which God fully respected. However, note this carefully:
He included humanity’s fall in His plan without ever sin-
ning Himself. As a result, He took on the consequences of
the fall—death— without being required to die due to a
break in communion with His Father, as Adam did.