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The purpose of this question is to refute the heresy of the
Adoptionists who, following in the wake of Nestorianism, said in the
eighth century that Christ as man is the adoptive son of God.
The Church has defined that the man Christ is the only and natural
Son of God,[1579] and nowise the adoptive son.[1580]
The Church also declared that it is only allegorically on account of
Christ's obedience to His Father that He is called a
servant.[1581] He is not the Son of the Holy
Spirit,[1582] but truly the Son of the Virgin
Mary.[1583] In fact, He has two births, His eternal birth
as God, and His temporal birth as man,[1584] but not two
sonships, neither adoptive sonship as regards God the Father, nor a
real relation of sonship as regards the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The principal definitions of the Church against the errors of the
Adoptionists are to be found in the Enchiridion.[1585] The
assertion that Christ as man is the adoptive son of the Father is
rejected as heretical in both the Council of Frankfort and the
Council of Frejus.[1586] This assertion was again condemned in
the Second Council of Lyons.[1587]
This error gives St. Thomas the opportunity to explain here more
fully what is the nature of divine adoption than in the treatise on
grace, although the fundamentals of the doctrine concerning divine
adoption are explained in the treatise on grace.
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