I just posted a couple of podcasts on this subject we have a few more to share; but in the process of the thought of our Divine Nature, you have to also think in contrast to the Humanity of God. The Early Fathers called the Nativity, or Virgin Birth a re-created event or Incarnation. Now I’m not saying the re-incarnation!
So we can see, says one father, ‘ the Nativity as a secret re-creation, by which human nature was assumed and restored to its original state.’
My thought here was first of all the Nativity was a divine plan of God Himself to restore mankind to the original state. So Paradise is here and has been since God put on human flesh and assumed his nature and the higher nature (of God) prevailed and changed it forever. I found a writing by one of our early fathers in the faith that pretty much has me in awe of the beauty and power of the Humanity of God!
‘He took our flesh and our flesh became God, since it is united with God and forms a single entity with him. For the higher perfections dominated, resulting in my becoming God as fully as He became man…Here below He is without a father; on high He is without a mother: both these states belong to divinity…He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, but when He rose from the tomb He laid aside the shroud…He had no form or comeliness (Isaiah 53:2), but on the mountain He shone with the splendour more dazzling than the sun – the foretaste of His future glory.
As man He was baptized, but as God He washed away our sins. He had no need of purification, but He wished to sanctify the waters. As man He was tempted, but as God He triumphed, and He exhorts us to be confident because He has overcome the world (John 16:33). He was hungry, but He fed thousands and He is the living bread which came down from heaven (John 6:51). He was thirsty, but He cried,”If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink,” and He promised that believers should become springs of living water (John 7:37). He knew weariness, but He is rest for all who labour and are heavy laden (Matthew 11:28). He prays, but He answers prayers. He weeps, but wipes away tears. He asks where Lazarus has been laid, for He is man; but He raises him to life, for He is God. He is sold, dirt cheap, for thirty pieces of silver, but He redeems the world, at great cost, with His own blood….He was weak and wounded, but He cures all infirmity and all weakness. He was nailed to the wood and lifted up, but he restores us by the tree of life… He dies, but He brings to life, and by His own death destroys death. He is buried, but He rises again. He descends into hell, but rescues the souls imprisoned there.
Gregory Nazianzen Third Theological Oration