Shared blood and flesh; one Lord Jesus; death abolished in Christ

“Since therefore the children have shared in blood and flesh, he himself likewise shared in the same, so that through death he might abolish the one who has the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their life.”

By “children” here he clearly means us who are on the earth, according to what is sung in the Psalms as in God’s person: “I said: You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.” As far as what seems good to God and the gentleness in him by nature, we would all be children… but as David says we die as humans and fall as one of the rulers, dragging down our own mind by the passions of the flesh.

How, then, have we shared in blood and flesh? The human soul, having a nature other than flesh, by composition with it in union has completed the one rational living being — the human. So also the Word of God, ineffably uniting himself to ensouled flesh — not soulless, as some say — shared blood and flesh like us, through birth from a woman. So there is one Lord Jesus Christ: the Word of God united the human to himself and even so remained what he was.

And if he himself has abolished death’s power as Life and God, what suffered death must be thought his own, so that as he himself rose he may be said to abolish corruption… “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” And since trampling death is beyond the measures of humanity as we understand it, we say that by union — that is, communion with flesh and blood — the Word of God became human as we are, and even so remained stronger than death: for God was in flesh.