As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
Read Chapter 15
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
The Lord who was heavenly became earthly that he might make heavenly those who were earthly. From immortal he became mortal by taking the form of a servant, not by changing the nature of the Lord, that he might make immortal those who were mortal by imparting the grace of the Lord, not by retaining the offense of the servant. Letter , To Consentius.
If you do not like the Christian faith, say so. But you will not find another Christian faith. There is one man unto life; there is one unto death. The one is only man; the other is God and man. Through the one the world was made the enemy of God. Through the other those chosen from the world are reconciled to God. For “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Therefore even as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us also bear the image of the heavenly. Whoever tries to undermine these foundations of the Christian faith will himself be destroyed, but they will remain firm.
The first man was made from the slime of the earth. The second man came from heaven. By using the word man, he taught the birth of this man from the virgin, who in fulfilling her function as a mother acted in accordance with the nature of her sex in the conception and birth of the man. And when he asserted that the second man was from heaven, he testified that his origin was from the appearance of the Holy Spirit who came upon the virgin. Thus precisely while he was a man, he was also from heaven. The birth of this man was from the virgin. The conception was from the Spirit.
Paul, too, very plainly set forth the material, animal, and spiritual, saying in one place, "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; ".
The flesh, therefore, when destitute of the Spirit of God, is dead, not having life, and cannot possess the kingdom of God:
What then? Did not This Man too die? He died indeed, but received no injury therefrom, yea rather by this He put an end to death. Do you see how on this part of his subject also, he makes use of death to establish the doctrine of the resurrection? For having, as I said before, the beginning and the head, so he speaks, doubt not of the whole body.
Moreover also he frames hereby his advice concerning the best way of living, proposing standards of a lofty and severe life and of that which is not such, and bringing forward the principles of both these, of the one Christ, but of the other Adam. Therefore neither did he simply say, of the earth, but earthy, i.e., gross, nailed down to things present: and again with respect to Christ the reverse, the Lord from heaven.
2. But if any should say, therefore the Lord has not a body because He is said to be from heaven, although what is said before is enough to stop their mouths: yet nothing hinders our silencing them from this consideration ...
