My friend John Stanford, retired Iowa State University physics professor,has been writing about Ephrem the Syrian who lived during the third century and was about 19 years old in 325 AD, the time of the Nicene Creed.
The famous creed counters the false claims that Jesus was not fully God and fully man, which is of course a central tenet of the Christian faith.
As you see here, this part of the Nicene Creed counters that idea head on:
“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man …”
But Ephrem the Syrian, as professor Stanford notes, also debunks the thought that Jesus was not both fully God and fully man.
Stanford continues, “With his sharp wit, Ephrem … counters this error by using Biblical paradox in his hymn Our Savior, Both God and Man“:
“If He wasn’t flesh, why was Mary chosen?
And if He isn’t God, whom does Gabriel call Lord?
And if He isn’t God, whom does Gabriel call Lord?
“If He wasn’t flesh, who was laid in a manger?
And if He isn’t God, whom did the angels
who came down from heaven glorify?”
And if He isn’t God, whom did the angels
who came down from heaven glorify?”
Indeed friends, “The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). Isaiah 7.14b NLT
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