Divinity of Christ

By the same Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria: a few fragments on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Volume 1, Discourse 1.

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother” (2 Corinthians 1:1).

The most wise apostle Paul, appointed to the ministry in Christ, says that he was brought to it by the will of God. He thrusts aside the reputation of the false prophets and false apostles as ungodly, while he himself speaks in the Spirit and has Jesus dwelling in his own soul, so that he can say in one place, “I think that I too have the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 7:40), and in another, “If you seek proof of the Christ who speaks in me” (2 Corinthians 13:3). He says that he is His servant, although God alone holds authority over all things and rules them; for it is said to God, “For all things are Your servants” (Psalm 119:91). How, then, does he not plainly assign to Him the glory of lordship, a glory that is His by nature and truly most fitting for God?

By calling himself an apostle of Jesus, he proclaims Jesus to be God by nature and in truth; for no one would be an apostle of men, but rather of Him who is God by nature. He also shows that he was not called to the apostleship against the Father’s will, and that he does not speak from his own heart as the false seers do (Jeremiah 23:16), but serves the oracles of God. He makes Timothy a partner in the letter, as one who is approved and walks in his footsteps, so that by their agreement he may persuade the more forcefully, since the law says, “On the word of two witnesses and of three every matter shall be established” (Deuteronomy 19:15).

“To the church of God that is in Corinth” (2 Corinthians 1:1).

They write to the church of God that is in Corinth, although the Church is said to be Christ’s; for He presented her to Himself as a pure virgin (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:27). If, then, the Church is God’s, and Christ is the one who presented her to Himself, then He who was born of the holy Mary, Mother of God, is God by nature.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:2).

If he had known that the Son was not God by nature, how could he not have had to say instead, “Grace to you and peace from God the Father alone”? But as it is, by including Christ with the Father and making Him a co-giver of whatever the divine nature bestows, he plainly shows that he knew full well that the Son is God by nature. Of necessity, then, we shall include the Son with God the Father in the account of their identity and consubstantiality, so that the one God may be understood as the giver of spiritual goods.

In naming Christ Jesus, he means the Word from God who appeared in the flesh. And if He gives the very things the Father Himself gives, how is Christ not understood to be God by nature, even in the union with His own flesh that belongs to the plan of salvation? So too the most wise Paul says somewhere of those from Israel, “Theirs are the fathers, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 9:5).

Volume 1, Discourse 2.

“As God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No” (2 Corinthians 1:18).

No one says “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3), and the Spirit is truth, as it is written (1 John 5:6). Since, then, the heralds of the gospel’s divine decrees have their minds filled with truth, that is, with the Holy Spirit, they could not be thought liars; whatever they say about Christ is entirely right and firmly fixed. Christ Himself will confirm this when He says, “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matthew 10:20).

He says this, then, against those who tried to slander him as contradicting himself, because at one time he preached Jesus as God by nature and at another as a man. Of necessity, then, rounding as it were on their unfairness, he assures them that his word had not been double and …