May the grace of the risen Saviour increase our faith, through the intercession of Mary, whose faith never wavered for an instant, even beneath the Cross of her Son!
I.
Jesus Christ asserted frequently and clearly to the Jews, that he was God, and required them to believe him. So his disciples understood him, who believed; so the Jews understood him, who did not believe, but accused him of blasphemy and condemned him to death. The great sign, the miracle, the proof, to which he appealed to justify this declaration, was his resurrection on the third day after his death. He declared himself to be the proper and only begotten Son of God. He that does not believe this, he says, "is already judged, because he believeth not in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God." [Footnote 5]
[Footnote 5: John iii., 17.]
[Transcriber's note: The USCCB reference is John iii., 18.]
This title of only-begotten which he gives himself, shows that he does not merely claim to be a child of God by grace and adoption, but by nature. This nature he declares positively is not his human nature, but distinct from it, that it came from heaven, and was in heaven as well as on earth. "No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven." [Footnote 6]
[Footnote 6: John iii., 13.]
He confesses that he is man; but asserts that he is more than man, that he came from heaven. He asserts also that this superior nature which is joined with his humanity is eternal. "Before Abraham was—I am." [Footnote 7]
[Footnote 7: John viii., 58.]
Not I was; but I am, the word by which God made known his eternity to Moses. And finally he declares that this super-human and eternal nature is identical with that of his Father, is the Divine nature itself. "I and my Father are one." [Footnote 8]
[Footnote 8: John x., 38.]