1 Timothy mystery: God the Word in flesh, not dignity-only junction

“And confessedly great is the mystery of piety: who was manifested in flesh, justified in spirit, seen by angels, preached among nations, believed in the world, taken up in glory.” If the Word, being God, is said to have become human — and certainly not releasing being God, but remaining always in what he was — then the mystery of piety is confessedly great. But if Christ is thought a common human, joined to God only by equality of dignity or authority — for some of the more ignorant have thought such things — how has he been manifested in flesh? And yet how is it not clear to all that every human both is in flesh and would not be seen by anyone otherwise? And in what way does it say he has also been seen by the holy angels? Or do angels not also see us ourselves? What then is strange in Christ…? And how was he also preached to nations…? For if the disciples proclaimed him as one of those like us, a human simply… we have been held by human-worship and have worshiped the creation… But if, having been raised from the dead, he was saying to the holy apostles: “Going, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and then we have believed in him… then Christ is not a human honored by a bare conjunction toward God the Word, but rather by a coming-together toward the human according to an economic union — one Son and Lord. For then the mystery of piety is great; for the Word, being God, has been manifested in flesh.