LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

16 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XV
Irenaeus sums up Paul’s teaching from Romans 5 in a similar fashion:
[W]hen He became incarnate, and was made man, He summed up and began
afresh [lit. “recapitulated”] the long line of men, and furnished us, in a brief,
comprehensive manner, with salvation; 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 IV.xviii:1) 8
The Creed expresses this theology by framing its section on the Incarnation
and salvation with forms of the word a;nqrwpoj—Christ became man to save
us men.
Could not the same point be made using a more “inclusive” term like
“human” To a certain extent it could be. But the Creed confesses the
Incarnation in a more precise way than simply saying that Christ became
human. There is no generic “humanness” that exists apart from concrete
people. To say that Christ became “human” is to confess the Incarnation far
more weakly than to say He “was made man”. The ELLC text’s attempts to
qualify “human” with “truly” or “fully” indicates their discomfort with the
word. What the Creed confesses is that Christ became a man—both fully
human and also a concrete male individual. The beauty of the word “man” is
that it is capable of saying both things at once. Christ is “man” in the sense
of both meanings one and four above. The feminist contention that Christ’s
maleness limits salvation to males is not only contrary to the clear words of
Scripture, but it is based on a linguistic misunderstanding. Furthermore, it
neglects the vital significance of Adam. Christ became a man in order to
8 Irenaeus is particularly relevant for being the most significant writer from the era when the
baptismal creeds were being formulated. The following additional citations from Irenaeus are
also relevant:
For it was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and He who was the Son of
God became the Son of man, that man, having been taken into the Word, and receiving
the adoption, might become the son of God. For by no other means could we have
attained to incorruptibility and immortality, unless we had been united to incorruptibility
and immortality. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and immortality, unless,
first, incorruptibility and immortality had become that which we also are, so that the
corruptible might be swallowed up by incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that
might receive the adoption of sons (Irenaeus, Against Heresies III.xix:1)
Now this is His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in the last times was made a man
among men, that He might join the end to the beginning, that is, man to God. (Irenaeus,
Against Heresies IV.xx:4)
[Christ] who, on account of His great love, became what we are, so that He might bring us
to be what He Himself is. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies V:Preface)
[T]he Word of God was made man, assimilating Himself to man, and man to Himself, so
that by means of his resemblance to the Son, man might become precious to the Father.
(Irenaeus, Against Heresies V.xvi:2)