Righteousness Raised from the East

All will say the same thing to those being taught the mysteries. For since they speak from one Spirit, they will not fight against each other's words; rather, they will make their proclamation about the divine doctrines in harmony, and will announce, in a hidden way, the mystery of Christ. For this, I think, is the meaning of “Then let them declare judgment” (Isaiah 41:1). For since those of Israel called the Law given through Moses “judgment,” he very fittingly sets against it the saving proclamation of the Gospel, and by these words calls that “judgment.”

For true righteous judgment, and the force of a lawgiving that pleases God, does not shine out in the shadow of the Law, but rather in the proclamation of the holy teachers of the mysteries, the new rulers. They learned the judgment, that is, the will of God the Father, from Christ, and they have announced it to us as well, all saying the same thing.

“Who raised up righteousness from the east, and called it to follow at His heels, and it will go?” (Isaiah 41:2).

God, who holds authority over all things, should not be marvelled at only for the bare greatness of His works in creation; for He also gives proof of the gentleness that is in Him through the benefits He confers. For He has saved those upon the earth, and has rescued the human race, which had wholly perished, from death and corruption, and from the greed of the devil. For He has brought the devil to nothing, together with the powers that are with him, and He has justified us through faith, driving away the sin that had tyrannised over us.

But all these things were accomplished through Christ; for “He has become for us, from God the Father, righteousness and redemption and sanctification” (1 Corinthians 1:30). And we have been enlightened through Him, and have shared in mercy and love, and, in a word, in everything that has power to save. And this He foretold to us through one of the holy prophets, saying: “And for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings” (Malachi 4:2).

Who, then, he says, caused righteousness to rise like the sun from the east, that is, Christ? Who called it, that is, caused it to come, and to appear in such a way that it walked at the heels of the One who called it, which is as much as to say that it followed in the very footsteps of God the Father? For so the Lord lived on earth, fulfilling the works of the Father and showing Him to us in His own nature. For He was and is equal to Him in power, and through the deeds themselves He has fully assured those on earth that He is in every respect equal in measure to the One who begot Him. Indeed, He said plainly: “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe My works” (John 10:37-38). Following everywhere the will of the Father, or rather being itself …