" And He will be a man for ever;
for it is written: "This man abideth for ever." And He Himself said
to His disciples: "I will not drink of this fruit of the vine, till
I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father." And again He
declared, even when he was on earth, that He was the Son of Man who
is in heaven. And in heaven nothing can grow less. But if Christ
were not man for ever as well as God, He would become less; for He is
now God and man also at once; but if He laid down His manhood, and so
became not man any more, but God only, He would become less, which is
not to be believed of Him of whom it is written: That Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. For, as the Athanasian
creed teaches us, He is not God alone, nor man alone, but God and man
is one Christ; and therefore, when St. John declares that Christ
shall reign for ever and ever, he declares that He shall reign not
only as God, but as man also. Therefore whatever we do not know
about the next life, we know this, that we shall be men there; not
sinful, weak, and mortal, as we are here, but holy, strong, immortal,
after the likeness of our Lord, the firstborn from the dead, who has
ascended up on high and raised our human nature to the heaven of
heavens, and is gone to prepare a place for us, into which we too
shall enter in that day when He shall change these mortal and fallen
bodies which we now wear, the bodies of our humiliation, the bodies
by wearing which we are now a little lower than the angels; them the
Lord will change, that they may be made like unto His glorious body,
according to the mighty working whereby He subdueth all things unto
Himself, that we may see Him face to face, and dwell with Him in the
glory of God the Father for ever.
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