Help with a concept

[Sariah]

X-posted from another board here -

Hey all -

I’m working on some homework, and I just hit a roadblock. Can I maybe get some feedback/(name removed by moderator)ut from y’all?

I am completely stuck on the concept of ‘admirable commercium’. No matter how many times I read the chapter and the study notes, it’s just not clicking.

Anybody willing to put it into laymen’s terms for me?

Many thanks!

 

[Purgatory_Pete]

In English - “wonderful exchange”
This is in reference to an exchange between God and man.

This might help you.
insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2010/12/o-admirabile-commercium-the-true-christmas-exchange-.html

You may need to be a little more specific about what the
study notes are saying. This will help others in helping you.

Hope this little piece of information was helpful.

Pete:tiphat:

 

[lmelahn]

X-posted from another board here -

Hey all -

I’m working on some homework, and I just hit a roadblock. Can I maybe get some feedback/(name removed by moderator)ut from y’all?

I am completely stuck on the concept of ‘admirable commercium’. No matter how many times I read the chapter and the study notes, it’s just not clicking.

Anybody willing to put it into laymen’s terms for me?

Many thanks!

The idea is quite simple, really, and it has to do with the Incarnation and the Redemption.

When God the Son became man, He took on a human nature, which for God in a way is an impoverishment or emptying. (As St. Paul puts it, He “took the form of a slave.”)

But the Son did not stop there: He also took on all of our spiritual illnesses, so to speak: He took upon Himself all the consequences of our sinful behavior, and so submitted to being crucified.

On the other hand, by doing that, He gave us all kinds of gifts: in particular, He made us partakers in His Divine Nature. We don’t become God, of course, but we do receive the gift of grace, which the Eastern Fathers like to call “Theosis,” or “divinization.”

So that is the “marvelous exchange” (admirabile commercium): God took our nature and our weaknesses from us, and in exchange He imparted His own nature on us.

(It is a “marvelous” exchange because we got the better end of the deal!)

 

[Sariah]

Oh, that was really helpful! I had to sit and chew on it, but it finally clicked! I really appreciate the help.

Thanks again!