The Trinity (17)

From last time - By our nature, then, we are what we are. It follows that by our nature we do what we do: for every being acts according to what it is; according to its nature. 

Applying this to ourselves we come upon another distinction between person and nature. We find that there are many things, countless things, we can do. We can laugh and cry and walk and talk and sleep and think and love. All these and other things we can do because as human beings we have a nature that makes them possible. 

A snake could do only one of them—sleep. A stone could do none of them. Nature, then, is to be seen not only as what we are, but as the source of what we do. But although my nature is the source of all my actions, although my nature decides what kind of operations are possible for me, it is not my nature that does them: I do them, I—the person. 

The person is that which does the actions, the nature is that from which the actions are drawn; It is our nature to do certain things, but we do them. we operate according to our nature.

In Christ, Ken.