We say that the divine Person of God the Word exists before all things, timelessly and eternally… And we say that it has all things that the Father has since it is consubstantial with him… At the same time, we say that in latter times, without leaving the bosom of the Father, the Word came to dwell in the womb of the holy Virgin…
Thus he was in all things and above all things, and at the same time he was existing in the womb of the holy Mother of God… He was made flesh and took from her the first-fruits of our clay, a body animated by a rational and intellectual soul, so that the very Person of God the Word was accounted to the flesh. [The Incarnate Word] had those properties of the divine nature in which he is one with the Father and the Spirit, and also had those features of human nature in which he is one with his Mother and us… And so we confess that even after the Incarnation he is the one Son of God, and we confess that the same is the Son of Man–one Christ, one Lord, the only–begotten Son and Word of God, Jesus our Lord. And we venerate his to begettings–one from the Father before the ages and one in latter times for our own sake, because it was for the sake of our salvation… We do not proclaim him God alone, stripped of our humanity, nor do we despoil him of his divinity and proclaim him man alone. We proclaim him to be one and the same, at once both God and man, perfect God and perfect man.
SAINT JOHN DAMASCENE The Last of the Greek Fathers of the Church
