On the True Faith, to the Princesses Arcadia and Marina

Address to the most pious ladies§1

1An address to the most pious ladies.

I would call you an honor for the whole world, and the pride of the holy churches of Christ our common Savior — his brides, most pious and God-loved queens. The many-colored beauty of virtue flashes on you, a beauty sweet and plain to the eyes of the Godhead. Study and zeal have already brought it to pass. What remains is to shine by a right faith that nothing shakes.

Somewhere the wise Paul writes — truly learned in the law, and the one who served as priest of Christ’s mystery among the nations — “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.”

For where right and spotless faith keeps step with the boasts that come from good works, and the two enter on equal footing,

Praise deferred; virgin courts and temples§2

2there you will find perfection in every good thing, and what stands sound for holiness.

So every word we have trails behind the renown that is already yours, and admits defeat without a blush. It may even deserve pardon if it fears to praise what it cannot reach.

If speech could do what it longs to do, it would stand charged with weakness for delaying. No one should clear that delay by calling it laziness. Why wound people you could have adorned with praise of virtue, by choosing silence instead?

But if speech goes slack, fears, and admits defeat, we will not blame it so much as you — you who are so public that the surpassing weight of your own brave acts has made even the speeches that usually dress everyone look like nothing.

Royal blood has come down to you from long ago, and it still runs, as we believe. Yet look: you also take hold of the kingship in Christ, and you are eager to think and to do what pleases him — shining by works and by a faith without blame, brightening your courts and the emperors’ with the glory of virginity, and raising costly temples to Christ.

He has given this too, with the rest, to your holy souls.

So I will take a word from the holy writings: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your fairness be known to all people.”

It is known, then, and cried abroad even to those throughout

Gift of the booklet; creed begins§3

3every land and city — like an image that carries the beauty of piety toward Christ in its drawing — it has shone out clearly and been judged worthy of every wonder.

I thought I ought also to hand a spiritual gift to women already sound toward every good, as to holy brides of Christ: this little book I have freshly worked. It can give no small help, I think, to those who will read it.

Those taught — or rather talked into — wrong thoughts about Christ our common Savior it will lead back and initiate well. Those who already walk with a right mind and dwell in the doctrines of the truth it will make safer still, by many findings from good thoughts and by proofs from the God-breathed Scripture.

For the reader will learn that Emmanuel is God by nature and in truth, and that because of him the virgin who bore him is God-bearer.

Those who fear both to say this and to think it have not grasped, as one would expect, how deep the mystery of piety is.

I take it I must say in brief the apostolic and gospel tradition made concerning Christ the master of all, the aim of all God-breathed Scripture upon him, and wherever the force of the doctrines of the truth looks.

We believe, then, in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord, Jesus the Christ, his Son, begotten by nature from him before every age and time. For he is without beginning in time with his own Begetter, and co-eternal with him, seated with him and equal in glory, crowned with equality in every respect — for he is the imprint and radiance of his

Trinity; Word made flesh; Theotokos§4

4hypostasis. We likewise believe in the Holy Spirit, not counting him a stranger to the divine nature; for he is poured out from the Father by nature through the Son upon creation.

So the holy and worshiped Trinity is understood as one, same in substance, and one in the identity of glory.

We say that this same Only-begotten Word, begotten beyond speech from the substance of God the Father, maker of the ages, the one through whom and in whom all things are, the true light, the nature that gives life to all — for he has appeared as life from the Father’s life — in the last times of the age, when the Father was pleased to save the race on earth that had fallen under a curse and been brought down by sin into death and decay, took hold of Abraham’s seed, as the Scriptures say, shared blood and flesh — that is, became human — and taking flesh and making it his own, was born in the flesh through the holy God-bearer Mary.

Yet though he became as we are and put on the slave’s form by the plan of the economy, he remained in the deity and lordship that are his by nature. He did not stop being God when he became flesh — that is, when he became as we are, a human. Because he is unchangeable by nature as God, remaining what he always was and is and will be, he has also been named Son of Man.

And since he came down willingly into the measures of humanity — for he lowered himself into emptying — he also had to endure birth from a woman. His divine nature did not take a beginning of being when he is said to have been born according to the flesh. He was, and is, as I said, the Word from God the Father by nature and in truth.

And since the one from the holy virgin is not thought to be simply a human like us

Theotokos; one Son; death and resurrection§5

5— not a mere human begotten from her, but the Word himself enfleshed, with a body from her as his own. That is why he is said to have been begotten in the flesh: he makes the begetting of his own flesh his.

Those who senselessly deny that the holy virgin is God-bearer are forced to say there are two sons of God. For if she did not bear in the flesh the enfleshed God, they must admit — willing or not — that she bore only a common human, with nothing more than we have.

Then how will every knee bend to him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father? How do angels worship him, and the holy host of the highest powers? Has all heaven, with us, served a common human? God forbid.

We worship Emmanuel as true God. He is not otherwise to be worshiped unless we believe that the Word from God, whom all creation worships, became flesh according to the Scriptures — not changed into flesh, but taking flesh from the holy virgin, as I said, and enduring a human birth with us — so that, having become human, he might die for us in a human way and rise in a divine way, having trampled the power of death.

Only so could we too, as conquerors in Christ, overpower sin, put off corruption, and escape death, and cry out in the joy that is in Christ: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O Hades, is your sting?”

For just as we fell in Adam — if Emmanuel were only a common human, how would a human’s death help human nature? And yet many

One death saves; one Lord, one faith, one baptism§6

6holy prophets died before — famous Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and Samuel, and the holy ones after them. Their death did the human race on earth no good. Christ’s death has saved it.

For he offered his own flesh for us, and by giving it to death for our sake he freed everyone from death’s bonds. One who died for all was enough — the one worth more than all — because he is by nature God, the Word from the Father, and the body offered for us as a fragrant aroma to God the Father is his own.

So it is impious, and among the wildest errors, to split the one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons. The wisest Paul will stand against them when he says: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.”

If the Lord is one, and they then cut the one into two sons, to which do we assign the glory of lordship? To the Word sprung from the Father? The name and the reality of lordship fit him above all, and he is truly Master of all. Then where do we put the other? He will lie outside lordship, yielding to the one who already was, and who is raised beyond compare.

Or will we fasten lordship’s glory on the one from the woman, as they say when they pull them apart? Then how is the Word from God the Father Lord, if — when Scripture says there is one Lord — we hand the name of lordship to a bare human? How is there one faith? Or one baptism?

If some make two sons, in whom do we believe? Only their ignorance would invent whose name we were baptized into, when baptism is one.

But your shrewdness surely sees that the argument on this point is drunk

False piety mask; many lords vs one Lord§7

7and shaken into what is ugly — or rather already bent toward the last impiety.

I think that as you search his divine mystery with a sharp eye of mind, you see those who want to snatch people away. They mold a pious mask onto their own words, yet they themselves are sharper than any missile.

As far as truth’s force goes, they deny the Master who bought them — that is, Christ. But fearing the grief of those who are used to piety, and their admirable zeal, they confess that the one born from the holy virgin is also God, and Lord, and Son of God.

If a simple hearer takes their words, he will likely think they speak what is right and fitting, and not out of step with the doctrines of the truth. But if someone chooses to thin them by inquiry and put what they say to an exact test, he will not find it simple.

For “there are many gods and many lords in heaven and on earth,” as the blessed Paul writes to us, “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we for him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through him.”

When we name Jesus Christ, we mean the Word from God the Father who has appeared in human form — not holding dignity as a share of grace imported from outside, but being in truth what he is believed to be.

Being God by nature even without flesh, he remained God also with flesh. Being Son by nature even before flesh, he remained Son also when he became flesh. Being truly Lord of all, in such a

Why they fear Theotokos; Athanasius cited§8

8order again, and having come to be in humanity.

So if they say that the one born from the holy virgin is true God — that is, the Word from God the Father united by nature to flesh — why do they fear to confess that the holy virgin is God-bearer?

Their aim is to pretend and say, “Yes, he is also God and Lord and sits with the Father,” while they do not think so in truth. They say the glory of sonship and lordship was given, as a share of grace and by advancement, to a common human like us born from the holy virgin.

But the word God-bearer was already customary even with the holy fathers before us, who are admired for right faith, and still with all under heaven, so to speak. I thought I had to declare that as true.

So that I may not seem to say whatever comes to mind without testing it, I have gathered from the books they wrote in the churches what serves this point, set it beside my case as proof, and will seal my own words into the truth.

So the truly thrice-blessed Athanasius, famous for piety, who was in his time bishop of the church of the Alexandrians, said this about Christ in the treatise on the incarnation: “For we confess,” he says, “that he is Son of God and God according to spirit, son of man according to flesh — not two natures as the one Son, one to be worshiped and one not, but one nature of the God Word enfleshed—

Athanasius: one Son; flesh suffers, deity impassible§9

9— worshiped, and worshiped with his flesh in one worship. Not two sons: one a true Son of God who is worshiped, and another a human from Mary who is not worshiped, made a son of God by grace as humans are. But the one from God, as I said — one Son of God and God, himself and no other — also born from Mary according to the flesh in the last days, as the angel said to the God-bearer Mary when she asked, “How will this be, since I do not know a man?” — “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy one who is born will be called Son of God.”

So the one born from the holy virgin is Son of God by nature and true God, not by grace and sharing. Only according to the flesh from Mary is he human; according to the Spirit he himself is Son of God and God.

He suffered our sufferings according to the flesh, as it is written, “Christ suffered for us in the flesh,” and again, “He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all.” Yet he remained impassible and unchanged according to the deity, as the prophet says: “I am God, and I do not change.”

He died our death according to the flesh for our sins, so that he might destroy death through the death for us, as the apostle says: “Death was swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O Hades, is your sting?” And again: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Immortal, too, and

Athanasius anathemas; Atticus on kenosis§10

10remaining beyond death’s grasp because of the deity.

“But if anyone teaches otherwise from the divine Scriptures — saying one son of God and another, the human from Mary made a son by grace as we are, so that there are two sons, one Son of God by nature from God, and one by grace, the human from Mary — or if anyone says our Lord’s flesh is from above and not from the virgin Mary, or that the deity was turned into flesh, or confused, or altered, or passible, or that our Lord’s flesh is not to be worshiped as a human’s flesh, and not worshipable as the flesh of Lord and God — the holy catholic church anathematizes that person, persuaded by the divine apostle who says, ‘If anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be anathema.’”

So much for the blessed Athanasius. I think I should also set beside him voices of other holy bishops with the same aim.

From bishop Atticus: “Today Christ the Master took on the birth that belongs to love of humankind; the worth of deity was already his.” Then he adds again: “The Word of love for humankind is emptied, though his nature cannot be emptied; for he emptied himself, taking a slave’s form. The fleshless one is enfleshed for you; for the Word became flesh. He who cannot be touched, because his nature is bodiless, is handled. The one without beginning comes under a bodily beginning. The perfect one grows. The unchangeable advances. The rich one is born in an inn. He who wraps the heaven in clouds is wrapped in swaddling cloths.”

Antiochus; Amphilochius; Ammonius§11

11From bishop Antiochus: “For yesterday, in undefiled birth pangs, the life-bearer, the fair-bearer, the great-bearer, the light-bearer, the hope-bearer, the God-bearer, the strange-bearer, the virgin-mother Mary brought us a Savior.”

From Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, from the treatise on the birth according to the flesh: “The truth was made known, grace came, and life appeared. The Son of God, the Word from God, became flesh for us, so that he might raise mortals into eternal life and wake them from the dead. The maker of all things, who is before all creation, visible and invisible, coexisting immortal with the Father alone and the Spirit — see, today he is born to us from a virgin, without any sin, without a human father.”

From Ammonius, bishop of Adrianople: “For he too said somewhere about the Word of God: But if he himself is God by nature, as God’s Only-begotten Son, and in taking the slave’s form was also counted worthy to be called firstborn son of the holy virgin, he gave himself as a ransom for all.” He goes on: “I have already shown the impiety into which the Arians fall when they say the God-bearer Mary needed the sacrifices then offered under the law for women who give birth.”

Chrysostom; Severianus; Vitalis§12

12From John, bishop of Constantinople, on the divine birth. He says of the holy virgin: “Instead of a sun, he says, she contains without limit the sun of righteousness. Nature’s order is overcome; for he willed, he was able, he came down, he saved — all things run together for God. Today the One who is is born, and the One who is becomes what he was not. Being God, he becomes human without leaving off being God. He did not become human by departing from deity, nor become God by climbing up from humanity. Being Word, he became flesh without suffering change; his nature remained unchanged.” He adds: “He who sits on a high and lifted throne is laid in a manger. The untouchable, simple, bodiless one is wrapped by human hands. He who breaks the bonds of sin is tangled in swaddling cloths.”

From bishop Severianus: “For the Word begotten from above from the Father — beyond speech, beyond telling, beyond grasp, eternally — is himself begotten in time from below from the virgin Mary, so that those first born from below may be born from above from a second birth, that is, from God.”

From bishop Vitalis, from the treatise on the faith: “And we also believe this about the Savior’s plan according to the flesh: while the

Vitalis anathemas; Theophilus opens§13

13of God the Word — that the enfleshment took place for the renewal of humanity. Being truly Son of God by the eternal begetting from God, he also became son of man by the begetting from the virgin. He is one and the same: perfect God according to the deity and same in substance with the Father, and perfect human according to the begetting from the virgin and same in substance with humans according to the flesh.

If anyone says Christ has a body from heaven, or that he is same in substance with God according to the flesh, let him be anathema.

If anyone does not confess that the Lord’s flesh is from the holy virgin and same in substance with humans, let him be anathema.

If anyone says our Lord and Savior, born according to the flesh from the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, is without soul, or without mind, or without reason, or without sense, let him be anathema.

If anyone dares to say Christ suffered in the deity and not in the flesh, as it is written, let him be anathema.

If anyone divides and splits our Lord and Savior, and says the God Word is one Son and the assumed human another, and does not confess one and the same, let him be anathema.

From bishop Theophilus, from the address to those who think Origen’s thoughts. He said this about Christ: “So that the one who appeared may be believed to be true God not in word only but also in power, making the certainty about him clear by the great works of what was done. Being full God, and of his own will becoming human, and leaving nothing of human

Emmanuel; one teacher Christ; Theotokos fathers§14

14likeness outside — except only unholy evil. For even as an infant he was confessed Emmanuel, with the magi witnessing to this and crying out that the one who appeared was God before he was found. And when he was crucified in the flesh he contracted the sun’s rays, and by that strange wonder he made his own deity clear, nowhere scattering himself or dissolving into two saviors.

He also said to the disciples: “Do not call anyone teacher on the earth; for you have one guide, the Christ.” When he ordered this to the apostles, he was not separating his own deity from the visible body. When he testified that he himself was Christ, he was not splitting soul from flesh.

So he is both: God and human, seen as slave and known as Lord — hiding the height of the deity under the lowliness of becoming human, and lifting the lowliness of the visible body by the energy of the deity.”

It would be easy to add still more true witnesses to these. I pass them by, knowing what is written: “Give a starting point to the wise, and he will become wiser; make it known to the righteous, and he will add to his receiving.”

But we do say this: look — all the best and wisest fathers of our times also name the holy virgin God-bearer, and they affirm that the Word from God has been united by nature to the flesh, that he came to be in the virgin’s womb, and that he came forth from her according to the flesh.

False conjunction; Christ named when Word became flesh§15

15— even if he is thought to exist alone and by himself — and third, that the title fits both as one by their “conjunction,” which, they say, binds them into one person. They have no account of a true union according to nature. Yet that is the mystery’s straight and least wandering path.

Their pretext is not simple; it is filled rather with bitterness and deceit. God-breathed Scripture, when it names Christ, assigns him all that befits God — for it knows the Word of God has appeared in human form and been enfleshed. But those who choose other thoughts, and want to show the one from the woman as a common human advanced by his own human virtue until he deserved honor and a conjunction of person with the Word from God, and election by foreknowledge — they say the name Christ fits the Word begotten from God the Father even when he is thought and exists alone, privately, by himself.

We have not been taught to think or speak that way. When the Word became flesh, then, we say, he was also named Christ Jesus. Since he has been anointed with the oil of gladness — that is, with the Holy Spirit from God the Father — he is named Christ in that way. And that the anointing concerns the human, no one would doubt.

Name Christ after flesh; one Lord; rational soul§16

16—“for without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.” And since being made holy and being anointed fit the measures of humanity, the Word from God must somehow be named Christ — not when he was still bare and not yet enfleshed, but when he had become as we are, that is, human, and was anointed according to the human.

So the name Christ would not fit in any way the Word sprung from God the Father before he had become as we are. If he is named Christ somewhere, think of him as having become human. If you hear “Word” after the becoming-human has already happened, do not forget the flesh united to him. To think the voice fits both parts at once, separately, is wholly senseless — or rather unholy — either to think or to say.

For there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, and he has not been divided, as the wisest Paul himself shows, who has Christ in himself speaking the divine mystery to him.

When you hit the heads that follow, you will find my word straight and polished toward the truth. I think it good to testify this beforehand too: just as the Word from God the Father is perfect in deity, so he is also perfect in humanity, at least according to what humanity is — not taking a soulless body, but one ensouled with a rational soul.

And may the God of all, who distributes the goods from heaven to those who love him, fill your holy souls with the gifts from himself, so that

Heads of the scripture catena; Rom 1:1–4 begins§17

17These things are in what follows.

That Christ is God, the assumed temple also ascending into his glory by union with God the Word — from the apostolic writings.

Selections from the Catholic Epistles on the same.

Selections from the Gospels on the same.

That Christ is life and life-giver, from what stands in the Apostle Paul; you will also find it in the apostolic writings.

That faith toward Christ is as toward God, from the Catholic Epistles and from the Gospels.

That Christ is life and propitiation — various selections.

That Christ’s death is saving for the world — selections from the apostolic writings and the Gospels.

That Christ is God, the assumed temple also ascending into his glory by union with God the Word.

From Romans.

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy writings concerning his Son, who was born from the seed of David according to the flesh, who was appointed Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness from the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

So then: if the proclamation about Christ is God’s gospel, how is Christ not God? And if every prophecy looks to its end in him, and the writings proclaim the one from David’s seed as Son of God — even when he is said to be appointed according to the Spirit of holiness because of the mystery of becoming human —

Resurrection proves true Son; know Christ as God§18

18how is he not truly Son, attested by the resurrection from the dead? For he has been raised not as a common human like us, but as stronger than death, inasmuch as he is also life and God.

About those who worship the creature rather than the Creator he says: “Because, knowing God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened; claiming to be wise, they became fools.”

Paul writes somewhere to those called from the nations — that is, to us: “But now, knowing God — or rather, being known by God.” Whom, then, have we come to know through faith, if not wholly Jesus Christ? So if we have known him as God and glorify him as God, we have been enlightened according to the truth; but if we exchange his glory, we too have become futile in our reasonings.

For if we have believed in him at all, we believe as in God — or else we must confess outright that we are still held in the snares of the ancient deceit, bringing faith to a common human. But that is not the truth.

“And just as they did not approve of having God in knowledge, God handed them over to an unapproved mind, to do what is not fitting.” If we have known Christ as God, yet reject the glory due him by calling him a common human — if we dare that from ignorance — we will walk with the others into an unapproved mind.

“But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation and right judgment of God, who will repay each according to his works.” The blessed Paul says “all of us”

Christ’s judgment seat is God’s; justifying faith§19

19“We must,” he says, “be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what is due for the things done through the body, whether good or worthless.” Another of the holy apostles also said: “There is one lawgiver and judge.” And David himself sings: “For God is judge.”

So when he calls God’s right judgment the verdict at the divine seat upon each person — the verdict Christ himself will give (for we will stand at his seat, and not as before one of our kind, but as before God and judge and lawgiver) — how is Christ not God?

“For through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, attested by the law and the prophets — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

The righteousness apart from law, which he also says the holy prophets have attested, he says is the righteousness through faith toward Jesus Christ. Then how is the one who justifies believers not God, since he is truly God? Faith looks to that end. And when the holy prophets attest faith toward Christ, who dares to say he is not God because of the human — that is, because the Word became flesh?

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” If our sinning makes us fall short of God’s glory because he does not know sin — and it is written of Christ that he did no sin — then we also fall short of God’s glory by our offenses; therefore the Word is God even with flesh, for he did no sin.

Faith establishes one God; Christ vivifies the dead§20

20“Do we then abolish the law through faith? By no means — rather, we establish the law.” The law through Moses taught those from Israel to worship one God: “For the Lord,” it says, “your God is one Lord.” And God himself addressed them, saying: “You shall have no other gods besides me.”

Did faith toward Christ, then, move those called through it so that they no longer worship the one God by nature? Do we abolish a law that brings offerings to the one true God? “By no means,” he says, “rather, we establish the law.” So we approach Christ as God, lest we be charged with destroying the law — and rather be praised for establishing the law through faith.

About Abraham he says: “Before the God in whom he believed, who makes the dead alive and calls the things that are not as though they are.” So when the power to make the dead alive would fit no one else except the God by nature alone — and Christ also makes the corrupted alive through his own flesh, touching the dead and raising them — how is he not true God, who also gave others authority to raise the dead through his name?

“So, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, the one raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” We are put to death to the law by leaving its worship; we belong to another, the one raised from the dead — that is, to Christ — eager to follow his gospel decrees, so that we may bear fruit for God. The chief of the gospel decrees is faith toward him, and this fruit of ours is offered to Christ as to God.

Spirit of God is Spirit of Christ; Word truly became human§21

21So then: the one raised from the dead is God, because the Word became flesh.

“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

See how clearly God’s Spirit is called Christ’s. But if Christ were only a human set apart on his own, merely having God’s Word dwelling in him, how would the divine Spirit be called his? Yet the Spirit is his own — therefore he is God, and not otherwise. For God’s Word did not come to be in a human in that way; rather, he truly became human while remaining God. Only so can the Father’s Spirit be understood as Christ’s Spirit.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. You did not receive a spirit of slavery again to fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, in which we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” The blessed Paul writes: “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father.’”

So if by the Son’s Spirit we have boldness to call God Father — enriched with the Spirit of the Son who is Son by nature and in truth — how is Christ not God? Not merely as he is thought a human like us, but as the Word became flesh and shared blood and flesh as we do.

“Who will separate us from the love of God? Affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or danger, or sword?”

Love due to God given to Christ; Christ judges as God§22

22The law through Moses was saying and making commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” So when we bring to Christ himself that love most fitting for God — with all strength, and highest, even to soul and blood — who dares in vain to say he would not be God? The holy ones’ aim has not missed what is fitting in any way.

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If nothing at all can separate us from God’s love, and that love is practiced by us in Christ Jesus, how is Christ not clearly God? When we love him, we love the God of all. And if I say “Christ,” I mean the Word from God who has become human.

“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ,” he says. We shall stand before Christ; for he will sit “on the throne of his glory,” judging “the world in righteousness” — and yet David says, “God is judge.” Therefore Christ is God.

“But I have written to you more boldly in part, as reminding you again, because of the grace given me by God that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus to the nations, priestly serving the gospel of God, so that the offering of the nations may become acceptable, sanctified in the Holy Spirit.” Those entrusted with the priestly work minister to God alone; for priests stand by

Paul ministers Christ’s gospel as God’s; churches of Christ§23

23priests. See, then: the inspired Paul says grace was given him by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus and to serve as priest among the nations the gospel of Christ. Therefore Christ is God, if while proclaiming Christ to the nations he says he is priestly serving God’s gospel to them, so that they may be offered as sanctified in the Spirit.

“So I have boasting in Christ Jesus in things toward God. For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has worked through me for the obedience of the nations, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and around as far as Illyricum I have fulfilled the gospel of Christ.”

He says he boasts in Christ Jesus, and calls that boast toward God. How can anyone doubt that it is not merely human for Christ to work marvels among the holy apostles by the Spirit’s power? Just as each of us does his own works by his own power, so also Christ, using the Spirit as his own power, works the marvels through the holy ones’ hand. Then how is he not God? For the Holy Spirit is not alien to him.

“All the churches of Christ greet you.” Yet elsewhere, writing to Timothy, he says: “so that you may know how one ought to behave in the house of God.” If he knows and attests the churches as Christ’s, then Christ is God.

“The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet quickly.” Peace is said to be God’s — for Christ said somewhere to the holy apostles: “My peace I give to you; my peace I leave

Christ gives his peace; church of God; crucified Christ preached§24

24to you.” Then how is the giver of peace not truly God, giving it to the worthy as his own good?

From the First Letter to the Corinthians.

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and brother Sosthenes, to the church of God.” Notice: after saying to the Romans, “All the churches of Christ greet you,” when he writes to the Corinthians he says the church is God’s.

“I mean this: each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized into Paul’s name?” So if Christ has not been divided, all things are his and all are his. And if he himself was crucified for us, and we were baptized into his name, we clearly owe ourselves to him. And we belong not to one human among us, but to God. Therefore Christ, the one over us, is God.

“Since Jews ask for a sign and Greeks seek wisdom, we proclaim Christ crucified — a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Greeks.” Would not anyone at all confess that the gospel proclamation calls people across the whole earth to true knowledge of God? Then how, or from where, is this doubtful? How, then, do the mystagogues proclaim Christ crucified? As one of us who endured death on a cross, so that the world’s faith is practiced toward a human? By no means. We have believed in the living God and

Crucified Christ is God’s testimony; Lord of glory§25

25— the true one. So he knows the crucified Christ as God, and he proclaims him to the world, persuaded that he does not err.

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom announcing to you the testimony of God. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

See how clearly, when he says he announces “the testimony of God” to the world, he added “Christ Jesus, and him crucified.” Therefore Christ Jesus, who endured the cross for us, is God. And his testimony is announced to the world through the holy apostles not in superiority of worldly speech and wisdom, but as in the Spirit’s power.

“Yet among the mature we speak wisdom — not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are being abolished — but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom that God predetermined before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew. For if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

If Christ’s mystery is God’s wisdom and is proclaimed to the world, yet — as some somehow think — he is not truly God and faith is toward him anyway, how is the mystery wise if it carries people on earth away from true knowledge of God and turns the world into worship of a human? That is not the truth. The mystery is wise because it brings the straying near to God. Therefore Christ is God, and the crucified one is rightly called Lord of glory.

“According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it.”

Christ the only foundation; temple of God by his Spirit§26

26“For no one can lay another foundation besides the one that lies there, which is Jesus Christ.” If we have been propped on Christ as on a foundation, and are built on him through faith, and he himself is the security of all, how would he not be truly God — the one in whom are all things, and toward whom is the faith of all? Not as one of our kind — for we have not served a creature — but as God by nature and in truth.

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” If by receiving Christ’s Spirit we are called God’s temple, how is he not truly God, the one through whom we are temples of God?

“So do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will also bring to light the hidden things of darkness and disclose the plans of hearts; and then praise will come to each from God.”

We expect our Lord Jesus Christ to come down from heaven in due times, and we shall all stand before him as he judges what is hidden and discloses the plans of hearts. And we are fully persuaded he will also praise the righteous; for to those standing on the right he will say: “Come, you blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” So when he says that, while Christ praises, praise comes to each from God, how is he not clearly God?

“Or do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; so glorify God in

Bought by his blood; one Lord; church of God is Christ’s§27

27“in your body.” If by receiving Christ’s Spirit we have become temples of God, and we are not our own — bought by his blood, so that we no longer live for ourselves but for the one who bought us — how is Christ not clearly God, the one through whom we are temples of God, and whom we serve as God?

“About eating food offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth — as indeed there are many gods and many lords — yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we for him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through him.”

If God alone is one and there is no other beside him, and the one Jesus Christ — through whom are all things — is taken together into the one nature of the deity, then he who is thought divinely in the Father’s same substance is God, even when he has been named Jesus Christ after being born of a woman. Note also: after naming him Christ Jesus, Paul says all things came to be through him, as of one Son according to the economic union.

“I became,” he says, “as without law to those without law — not being without God’s law, but under Christ’s law.” If the one who has Christ’s law has God’s law, how is Christ not God?

“Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.” Note that when he calls the church God’s, he again knows it as Christ’s.

“I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.” Blessed Luke, composing Christ’s genealogy for us, begins from Joseph, then, having reached

Christ head as Creator; Spirit gifts prove his deity§28

28to Adam, he adds, “of God,” setting the God who made him as the human’s beginning. In the same way we say Christ is every man’s head: for man was made through him and brought into being — the Son not creating him as a mere under-worker, but rather in a God-working way, as Creator by nature.

The man is head of the woman because she was taken from his flesh and has him as her beginning. Likewise God is head of Christ because the Word is from him by nature — for the Word has been begotten from God the Father. Then how is Christ not God, whose head by nature is the Father? And when I say “Christ,” I mean the Word from God who has appeared in human form.

“Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit. There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; varieties of ministries, but the same Lord; and varieties of workings, but the same God who works all things in all.”

If saying that Christ is not God by nature and in truth is nothing other than saying “Jesus be cursed,” then those who cast him out from being God according to the truth are not doing this in the Holy Spirit. And if Paul says the varieties of gifts are at one time worked by the Spirit, at another by the same Lord, at another by the same God, he knows Christ to be God — the one who works as God through the Spirit, and who as Lord by nature distributes the gifts from above with authority as he wills. Remember also that Paul said Christ worked in him by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ sets church gifts; anathema on those who split the one Lord§29

29“And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing.” Though these are said to be God’s doing, it is Christ who worked them. For he himself appointed the apostles in the church, and teachers as well, and worked powers; for he gave the holy disciples authority to heal every disease and every weakness among the people.

“The greeting is in my own hand — Paul’s. If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be anathema. Maranatha.” Whom, then, does he call Lord here? The Son himself is confessedly Lord, and likewise the Spirit — “for the Lord,” he says, “is the Spirit.” But blessed Paul’s aim in these words stretches toward Jesus himself; for there is, he says, one Lord, Jesus Christ.

So he anathematizes the one who does not love him. And the one who does not love him is the one who will not say he is Son of God by nature and in truth, but sets him in a second rank beside the Word from God, and wrongs the mystery of the economy by cutting the one Lord Jesus Christ into two.

From the Second Letter to the Corinthians: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him in every place; for we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”

Then how is Christ not God, if he himself is the fragrance of the knowledge of the Father? No one would learn the sweet scent of the divine nature from human nature alone. Just as the scent of humanity points to a human, so the scent of deity points to God. And if Christ is said to be — and truly is — the Father’s aroma,

Christ’s letter written by his own Spirit; veil lifted in the Lord§30

30how is Christ not God, even if the Word from God the Father has become human economically?

“You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all people, and you show that you are a letter of Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of fleshy hearts.”

God said somewhere through one of the holy prophets: “In that time, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and I will write them on their hearts.” So we have become Christ’s letter — he writing on us what he wills not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God — not merely as a minister, but, so to speak, by his own working; for the Spirit is his own. Then how is he not God, who writes for us in his own Spirit the way of knowing God?

About the Jews he says: “But their minds were hardened. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted at the reading of the old covenant, because it is abolished in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

If Christ is the end of the law and the prophets, and the veil over the reading of the old covenant is not uncovered except in Christ alone, what sense is there in thinking him a common human, honored only with the title of sonship? It turns out

Gospel of Christ’s glory; image of God; judgment seat of Christ§31

31that the end of our faith would then be not toward God but toward one of our kind — which is among the most absurd things.

“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

If, as some think, Christ is a common human, joined to the Word from God only by a conjunction of face — for that is how they themselves speak — how is his gospel veiled among those who perish? The nations are disposed not as if he were God, but as if he were a human like us. And how have those who say about a human that he is human been blinded by Satan? What illumination is there in Christ’s gospel if he is not God, and is not glorified as being that? And how would he be the image of God if he reaches only as far as humanity, not truly being Son and God?

“Therefore we are ambitious, whether at home or away, to be well-pleasing to him. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what is due for the things done through the body, whether good or worthless.”

If the holy ones’ whole zeal is to please God, and we are ambitious to appear such to Christ while refusing to please humans, how is Christ not clearly God? And if he himself will judge the world — one lawgiver and judge being spoken of — it is plain that by this too he is God, even though the Word became flesh.

Live for the one who died; ambassadors of Christ; Spirit of Christ§32

32“For the love of Christ constrains us, having concluded this: that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.”

If we are all one, and we pray to live for him — making our life solemn by needing to fulfill his will — and we live for Christ, how would he not be God, the one to whom we are indebted and for whom we are eager to live, as the one who died for us and bought us all with his own blood?

“Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were appealing through us; we beg on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.” Notice: they are ambassadors for Christ, and they say God appeals to us. Then again they say, “We beg on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.” Therefore Christ is God; when we have been reconciled to him, we have been reconciled to God.

“But in everything we commend ourselves as servants of God.” Those called servants of God are also called servants of Christ; therefore Christ is God.

“For we are the temple of the living God, as God said: I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” If we are temples of the living God because the Spirit dwells in us — and that Spirit is also said to be Christ’s (“for if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him”) — how is Christ not God?

“destroying arguments and every high thing raised against the knowledge of God, and taking captive

Captive every thought; Word emptied; Gal 2 died to law for Christ§33

33“…taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” How shall we demolish every high thing raised against the knowledge of God? How shall we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ? For the Word emptied himself willingly, and became obedient to the Father as far as death.

So whenever some, from things done or said economically because of the flesh and the human, exalt themselves against the knowledge of the Son — saying that the one in human form is not true God and Son by nature — then we will demolish every high thing that is raised, overturning the opinions of those who choose to think that way, and turning every thought toward the economy of obedience. For the Son who has come within the measures of humanity must not refuse the human things.

From Galatians: “For through the law I died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.”

What, then, does the inspired Paul mean here? A law was set by God through the voice of the prophets, and it was this: “The righteous shall live by faith.” A law was also set through Moses. So having followed the law of faith, he says, I died to the law through Moses — no longer working the things marked out for the ancients as in shadow and types. For that is what it means to die to the Mosaic law: that we may live to God, clinging to faith in Christ.

Faith better than Moses’ law; Spirit given through Christ; pedagogue to Christ§34

34Preferring the justification in Christ to the law through Moses, how is Christ not God — the one through whom the law is abolished, since his faith surpasses it? And if Christ were merely a human being, how could faith in him have become better than the law?

“He who supplies the Spirit to you and works powers…” The law through Moses, though it is God’s law and “spoken through angels,” does not have the supply of the Holy Spirit, nor did it procure for anyone the power to work wonders. But through faith in Christ we gain both. How then is faith in him not better, if it has abolished the old law? And if we who live by faith are in a better state than those of the time when the law held, how is Christ not God?

“Before faith came we were kept under the law, shut up for the faith about to be revealed… that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian; for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

If the law was a guardian pointing to none other than Christ alone — even while teaching true knowledge of God — how is Christ not God? And if the law is abolished through faith in him and hands him the end of its guardianship, leading those under it to the highest good — and that final good is nothing other than knowledge of the true God — how could anyone doubt that he is God?

Baptized into Christ; boast in the cross; seated at the right hand; Christ in the heart§35

35But we are baptized into Father and Son and Holy Spirit — so how have we been baptized into Christ if he is not true Son, though there is one Son by nature? Yet we have been baptized into him. Therefore he is God as one Son and one Lord according to the economic union, the Word having become flesh.

“But then, not knowing God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods; now that you know God — or rather are known by God — how can you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements?” If we have come to know God by confessing Christ, and say we have been known by God as known to him, how is Christ not God?

“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Blessed David sings, “I will boast in God my Savior.” The saying is wise and holy: we ought not to glory in a human being, but in God. How then does Paul say he boasts in the cross of Christ? He ought rather to do that in God. Yet the Spirit-bearer boasts in the death of Christ; so he knows him to be true God who suffered for us in the flesh.

From Ephesians, concerning God the Father: “according to the working of the might of his strength, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above every rule and authority…” See: the Father has seated the one raised from the dead at his right hand. Does a human as we are, and nothing more, sit with the nature above all things? Or — what is true — is he God who became human, consubstantial with the Father insofar as he shone forth from him, and who took on the human economically, and is for that reason crowned with divine glory?

“Therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh… that at that time you were without Christ… having no hope and without God in the world.” If the nations, while they did not have Christ, remained in atheism before the world, and once they have him they are no longer without God, how then is Christ not God?

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father… that he may grant you… to be strengthened through his Spirit in the inner human being, that Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts.” The name Christ Jesus, as we have often said, everywhere signifies the Word who shone forth from God in human form. How then does he dwell in our hearts through faith unless he is understood as God — the Word having united the flesh to himself, who also dwells in us in a divine way?

Christ dwells by the Spirit; surpassing knowledge of Christ; Colossians mystery§36

36Who is the one who dwells in you? Or how is he housed in human beings through faith? Yet John says clearly about God: “By this we know that he is in us: that he has given us of his Spirit.”

From Philippians, on the boasts that are in the law: “Whatever gains I had, these I have counted as loss because of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ.”

Why are the things in the law loss and refuse? And what is the surpassing worth of the knowledge of Jesus Christ? The law through Moses proclaimed the true God by nature to those of old, while the mystagogues of the new covenant have announced Christ to the world. But if he is a human as we are — merely common, not believed to be God by hypostatic union with the Word from God — how will faith according to him surpass the faith of the law?

From Colossians: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I fill up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God — the mystery hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now revealed to his saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles.”

Colossians mystery; walk in Christ; Word became flesh; door of the word§37

37“…Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we proclaim.” How is the mystery hidden, or how is it God’s word at all, and what riches of glory are in it, if Christ is merely a common human as we are? The mystery is neither great nor worth naming unless we approach Christ as God and understand that the Word, being God and in the equality and form of the Father, lowered himself into emptying — becoming human and remaining what he was. Only so is the mystery thought rich and full of glory.

“As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in faith.” How did we receive Christ? Wise John will teach it: “And the Word became flesh.” Yet he has not ceased to be Word even though he became flesh; even so he sits with his own Father, and the crucified one is named Lord of glory.

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving, praying also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of God for which I am also in bonds, that I may make it clear as I ought to speak.” If Christ is not God but only a human honored by divine grace, there is nothing deep in the mystery about him. What door would he need for making it plain and speaking as one ought? There is nothing great or hard in saying about a human that he is human by nature. But if the Word from God is proclaimed as having become human, then we need God himself — the one who opens the door and grants us to speak the mystery in the fitting way.

Hebrews: firstborn worshiped; angels spirits; throne forever; anointed as man§38

38From Hebrews: “And when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says: Let all the angels of God worship him.” The Word from God the Father is named only-begotten by nature, because he alone has been begotten from the Father alone. He is also called firstborn when he entered the world as one who had become human and part of it. Yet even so he is worshiped by the holy angels — and worship is reserved and fitting for God alone. How, then, is Christ not God, the one worshiped even in heaven?

“Of the angels he says: He makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire; but of the Son: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

If the one who holds a throne forever is the maker of angels — having loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, and for that reason said to be anointed with the oil of gladness by God the Father — what thoughts should we form about him? If he makes his angels spirits and holds a throne of deity, how is he anointed with the oil of gladness? So he creates angels as God, and is anointed as human — not into the nature of deity, but into the skilled economy of the anointing.

God and man economically; living God; blood of Christ cleanses; trampling the Son§39

39So Christ is God and human: God by nature, and the same one human as we are economically, when he came to be from a woman according to the flesh.

“See to it, brothers, that there not be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the living God.” By denying Christ we fall away from the living and true God; by remaining in faith toward him we in no way make that apostasy. How, then, is Christ not God?

“For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the purity of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the Holy Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” If Christ is not true God, what is the benefit through his blood? Or how will he cleanse our conscience from dead works? What more does the blood of a common human have than the blood of goats? Nothing at all — except that one is of an irrational animal and the other of a rational one. But since the one who is from God by nature took flesh and laid down his own blood for all, by that very fact he can cleanse those who believe in him, free them from dead works, and lead them into worship of God.

“Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant a common thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace by which he was sanctified?” The one who insults — that is, sets aside — a divine law does not face a charge equal to sinning against a human, but one far heavier.

Christ’s blood not common; speaker from heaven; same yesterday and forever§40

40So the one who has broken the law has fallen under the sentence of death, while the one who has wronged a human might even be worthy of pardon. How, then, is the one who counted Christ’s blood a common thing under a worse sentence than the one who sins against Moses’ law? Yet he is under a worse one — and very fittingly. Christ’s blood is not common, then: for the Word was God, having become flesh.

“See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we turn away from the one who warns from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised: Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” Who is the one who warned on earth, whom the fathers of the Jews refused and so were put in danger? Clearly Moses. But Christ is not from earth; rather from the heavens. For the God Word from above and from the Father became human — and is God. So the sentence is worse for those who turn away from him, and very fittingly. As wise John says: “He who is of the earth speaks from the earth” — that is, human things — “but he who comes from above is above all,” as God, of course. And that is what Christ was and is.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” We will find the Word sprung from God called Jesus Christ when he became human from a woman. How, then, is he the same yesterday and today and forever? Clearly by union with the Word from God into one Son, the flesh assumed by him being understood with him. For so the Word’s unchangeableness by nature remains for him even when he is understood with the flesh.

Timothy: Savior name; Titus: appearing of our great God and Savior§41

41From Timothy: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the command of God our Savior, to Timothy, my true child in faith.” The name Savior fits no one else properly and truly — except the one who is God by nature. So the mystagogue has named him that even here. Yet our Lord Jesus Christ is also Savior: he is named Jesus, and the blessed angel made the force of the name clear: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” So Christ is God, if he is Savior of all people, as the inspired Paul says.

From Titus: “For the saving grace of God has appeared to all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly desires and to live soberly, justly, and godly in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own, zealous for good works.”

What grace has appeared to us, or of what God — though it is called saving for all people? Clearly “the Lord, being God, has also appeared to us,” as blessed David says. We await his appearing of glory from the heavens. And he himself is our great God and Savior, Jesus the Christ, who has given himself for us so that, freeing us from all sin, he may present to himself genuine worshipers.

James: every good gift; submit to God; Peter greeting and blood sprinkling§42

42Then who will say Emmanuel is not true God, when blessed Paul speaks of him as “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”?

From the catholic letters — James — that Christ is God: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect present is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” Every gift is good; and the good gift is the Holy Spirit, and the power to work the signs of God in him. So if Christ grants the Spirit to the saints, and also the power to work wonders, how would Christ not be true God?

“Submit therefore to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Clearly here he said we must submit to God. But Christ says: “Take my yoke upon you.” So when those who take his yoke are not submitting to someone other than God, how would he not be God?

From Peter’s letter: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace be multiplied.”

Sanctified by his Spirit and blood; new birth hope; Spirit of Christ in prophets§43

43See: according to the foreknowledge of God the Father he named himself an apostle of Christ. Explaining the manner of that apostleship, he says it was done “in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” So when those who believe in him are sanctified by the Spirit, and he also sprinkles us with his blood for cleansing, how would the one who sanctifies with his own Spirit and cleanses believers with his blood not be understood as God? For God was in flesh.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has begotten us anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven.” If God begot us to a living and abiding hope, and Christ has done this through his own resurrection from the dead, how would he not be God?

“Concerning this salvation the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you searched and inquired, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating.” See again: here the Holy Spirit is called Christ’s, though he is God’s. So Christ is God, as one who has the Holy Spirit as his own.

Bought by Christ’s blood; true God and eternal life; Jude: denying the Master§44

44From Peter’s letter: “There were also false prophets… who will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them.” For we were bought at a price “not with perishable things, silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.” So we belong to the one who purchased us, even while we serve the living and true God. How, then, is Christ not God — the one we have enrolled as Master, and know as living and true?

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one, and we are in the true one, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” Jesus Christ is not understood as the Word from God the Father naked, by himself, and outside flesh; but when he became human, then he was also named Christ Jesus. So when he himself is the true God and the eternal life, who among those who think otherwise will put up with it?

From Jude: “While I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in… who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” How does someone who once believed deny our Lord Jesus Christ? We have received the word of the incarnation. But if we say that the Son who is the Word from God the Father is one, and another is…

One Lord by economic union; Matthew: born of Spirit, saves his people§45

45If we take the one from the woman as a separate person, we have denied the only Master. For there is one Lord Jesus Christ by an economic union — I mean with the Word from God — his flesh ascending into the glory of the deity. So there is one Christ and Son; and so he will be Master of all.

From Matthew’s Gospel — that Christ is God: “While he was considering these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying: Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for what is begotten in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

In the same breath he sets down two things proper to God, and not fitting for human nature. Of the one born from Mary he said that those saved through him are his own people, and that he himself will also free them from sins. All things belong to God, and to him alone it would befit to be able to free sinners from sins. So the one begotten from the holy virgin is God, whose own people we are; and he has freed us from sins, as one who has authority for that too.

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea.” In Bethlehem of Judea has been born the one from the root of Jesse. And God the Father says about him through one of the prophets: “And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, are by no means least among the thousands of Judah; for from you shall come forth for me one to be ruler in Israel, and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity.”

Eternal goings-forth; baptize in Spirit; leper; demons; harvest Lord§46

46How, then, is the one born in Bethlehem of Judea said to have goings forth from the beginning of the age — that is, the beginning of existence — though he was born in the last times of the age? So Christ is God, and what is most ancient of the Word of God would befit him. For he was God, and for our sake endured a fleshly birth from a woman.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who comes after me is stronger than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor.” We deny that baptizing in the Holy Spirit is a work of mere humanity; nor do we say the intelligible threshing floor — that is, those on the earth — belongs to a mere human. All things are God’s, and to him alone it befits to be able to baptize believers in the Holy Spirit. Yet Christ, who comes after John according to the flesh, has done this; and he also clears his own floor. So he is true God.

“And behold, a leper came and worshiped him, saying: Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And stretching out his hand he touched him, saying: I will; be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” To be able to work in a way proper to God is not a human property; it would follow rather the nature beyond all things alone. Working thus, Christ is not a bare human as we are, but rather God in human form. So also understand the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, and when he is seen rebuking winds and sea.

“And the demons begged him, saying: If you cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs. And he said to them: Go.” Whose work is it to provide for all things and save them, if not the one who is God by nature alone? See what providence over beings Christ exercised: unclean demons were not even allowed authority over a herd of pigs.

“Then he says to his disciples: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And calling his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits.”

Lord of the harvest sends apostles; confess before the Father; come to me§47

47He knows that the Lord of the harvest is the God of all: the intelligible threshing floor — that is, humanity — is his, and the harvest is his. Yet see: having ordered them to pray the Lord of the harvest, he immediately showed that he himself is that Lord, sending out the laborers — the holy apostles — and giving them authority over unclean spirits as God. For it is not within the measures of humanity to give anyone the working of the Holy Spirit; yet Christ has given it. How, then, is he not God by nature and in truth, even though the Word has become flesh?

“Everyone who confesses me before humans, I also will confess before my Father in heaven; and whoever denies me before humans, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.” Many of the saints have been called to the glory of martyrdom and perfected through sufferings and death, confessing Christ. Were they crowned for insisting he is a common human, or rather for honoring him as God in their confessions? The answer is clear. Those who denied this also slipped from the glory of martyrdom, and on the day of judgment they will find Christ himself denying them. How, then, is he not God — the one who crowns with martyrdom’s glory those who truly confess that he is this?

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.” If Emmanuel is not truly God, how does he lay his own yoke on us?

His yoke; greater than the temple; cast out demons in Jesus’ name; angels of the Son§48

48For all things are servants of God. The law too is called a yoke. Yet Christ lays his own yoke on us and subjects us to himself, even while bearing all things under the Father: so he is God. Hence he also claims that all things lie under him.

“Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbaths the priests in the temple profane the sabbath and are guiltless? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here.” If priests who profane the sabbath are guiltless because they offer services to God, how is service of Christ understood as greater than what is done in the temple? Clearly those under the law served in shadow and copy of the heavenly things, while the inspired disciples who attended and ministered to Christ had the greater glory. And if ministering to Christ stands in better things than the worship under the law, how would he not be understood as truly God?

“If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.” If the disciples have healed the demonized in Christ’s name — for they cried out, “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene” — how would he not be understood as true God? A mere human’s glory and power would not have been enough to overpower Satan.

“Just as the weeds are collected and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and those who do lawlessness.”

Son of Man sends his angels; Peter’s confession; temple tax setup§49

49“…all causes of sin and those who do lawlessness, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire.” Of God it is written: “Bless the Lord, all his angels.” For an angel is not a human’s servant; rather, all things belong to God. How, then, does he say of the Son of Man that he will send his angels? So he is God, as one who has the angels as his own and is served through the spirits above.

Christ asked: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered him: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven.” If Christ were a bare human, why is Peter marvelled at for confessing him? How is he God-taught, or what illumination from above did he need to learn the mystery about him? But he knew him to be God, and confessed him Son of the living God — and for that he is marvelled at. Yet he says one Son, not two sons; so it is impious to divide him into two.

“For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels.” See again: he calls the spirits above his angels, though he is called Son of Man.

“When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax approached Peter and said: Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma? He said: Yes.”

Sons free of the tax; Hosanna to David’s son; throne with all angels§50

50“…tolls or census? From their sons or from strangers?” He said: “From strangers.” Jesus said to him: “Then the sons are free.” How does he say he is free, outside the law, untaxed, and truly Son, unless he is God who has shared flesh and blood by hypostatic union? Yet he paid the two-drachma, as the Son above the law who has come under the law. As a mere human he would not be understood as above the law. How could he? He would not have freedom by nature unless he is understood as God in human form.

As our Savior Christ of all was going up to Jerusalem, children went before him, praising and saying: “Hosanna to the son of David.” The doxology is wholly God-befitting. The Pharisees were indignant and came saying: “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them: “Yes; have you never read: From the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise?” Here we must recall blessed David: “O Lord, our Lord, how wondrous is your name in all the earth, for your majesty is exalted above the heavens. From the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise.” The children praised, saying “Hosanna to the son of David,” and he accepts the doxology as one praised. Blessed David did not ascribe this to a common human, but rather to the Lord, whose name has become wondrous in all the earth; for the majesty too was exalted above the heavens. How, then, is the son of David according to the flesh — Christ — not God?

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.”

Judge of the world; seated at the right hand; creation shakes at the cross§51

51Will Christ sit as one human among us, with all the angels standing by him, and so judge the world? What sense would that make? For it is written that “there is one lawgiver and judge.” So Christ is God — the one who has God’s glory and a throne, angels standing by, and who judges the inhabited world in righteousness.

“And the high priest said to him: I adjure you by the living God to tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus says to him: You have said so; yet I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” How does the Son of Man sit at the right hand of Power? Clearly: even if the Word from God has become Son of Man, he has not ceased to be God, but is the same one who sits with the One who begot him, and is seen shining in the dignities of the deity, even though he has become flesh.

“And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, gave up the spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.” If Christ were a common human, how was there such uproar in the elements when he died? The sun drew in its ray and made darkness in daytime; the earth, seeing her own Master insulted by the Jews, was split; and Hades too released the souls of the saints.

God in flesh; knows hearts; salvation from the Jews; ask in my name§52

52Who is doing these things? Is it not God? For God was in flesh, and the creation was in a way angered together with him when he was insulted.

From John’s Gospel: “But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people, and because he had no need that anyone should testify about the human; for he himself knew what was in the human.” Of God it is written that “he who alone forms their hearts”; and he himself says something similar. So if he knows all things and knows what is in the human, how would he not be God as the one who searches hearts and kidneys?

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” Do you hear that he says salvation is from the Jews? Yet we have enrolled God as Savior. For he has saved us “not an elder, not an angel, but the Lord himself,” according to the Scriptures. He is named Christ Jesus, having come to be from the Jews according to the flesh; and Jesus is interpreted “salvation.” So he himself is the salvation from the Jews. Therefore even if the Word has become flesh and has taken hold of Abraham’s seed, he is God also with the flesh.

“Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these he will do, because I am going to my Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do.” He says he is going to the Father, though the Son exists as God by nature and is himself the one who fills all things. So he goes in a human way…

Ask in my name; Father and Son give as one God§53

53…for he was taken up into heaven. But as God he promises to fulfill the requests of those who pray, if they make their petitions in his name. Then: to whom would it be more fitting to fulfill the prayers of the saints and grant their requests, except to the one who alone is by nature and truly God?

“You did not choose me, but I chose you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” See how everywhere he shows that he works the same things with authority as God the Father. For he had said, “If you ask in my name, I will do it”; but now he says, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” So then — does the Father give on his own apart from the Son, and the Son separately give his share apart from the Father? Would the saints’ prayer-requests then come from two gods? Not so — God forbid. For there is one God, the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ. The Father distributes the good things in the Son, in the Spirit. Yet the asking in prayer is in Christ Jesus, and the Lord Jesus who became human is understood as the one who is also named Word.

“And on that day you will ask me nothing. Truly, truly I say to you, if you ask my Father anything, he will give it to you in my name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” This too will sit briefly in the same sense as what is above, and what follows likewise. It runs thus: “On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father…”

Eternal life is knowing Father and Christ; glory and oneness§54

54“…the Father loves you, because you have loved me, because I came forth from the Father.”

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.” If knowledge of Jesus Christ is necessarily joined to, and enters together with, knowledge of the only true God, and this procures eternal life, how is it not clear to all that Christ is true God? For the Word became flesh, and remained Word.

“That the world may believe that you sent me; and the glory that you have given me I have given them, that they may be one as we are one; I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected into one.” Setting the eye of understanding carefully on the force of what is before us, let us consider what is in it. What glory does the Son say he has received from the Father and given to us? He himself will free us from searching this out when he says “that they may be one as we are one.” For in natural identity the Word from God is one with his own Father, even if each is understood in his own hypostasis. And how has he also come to be in us? In the same way — I mean essentially and naturally? Yet God’s nature would be wholly incompatible with creation, I mean in identity according to essence. How then has the One above creation come to be in us naturally? He became human, so that just as he is one with the Father in the nature of the deity, so he may also become one with us in the relation according to humanity; for in this way we too are perfected into one.

Locked doors; Spirit breathed; forgive and retain sins§55

55“…gathered for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and says to them: Peace to you.” Someone might reasonably raise this puzzle: if the Word was in a body even after the resurrection, as also before the precious cross, how did he appear unexpectedly in the midst of the disciples when the doors were locked? To this we say: by divine power. One must remember Paul saying that “from now on we know no one according to the flesh; even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.” For after the rising from the dead, since the economy on which the taking of flesh was done as needed is already finished, he uses authority and power befitting God, wanting to be recognized rather through these than through the measures of the emptying, as at the fitting time.

“And having said this he breathed on them and says to them: Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain those of any, they are retained.” The whole deed is God-befitting and worthy of every word. First, breathing on the apostles and giving the Spirit is not a human act. Then it is great and above creation to grant such authority that they may retain the sins of those they choose, and also forgive those they may wish. And why does he give the Spirit also through a fleshly breath? Because his flesh has not become alien to the Word, but is his own in a proper sense. The breathing through flesh is human; but it is the work of divine power to make those who are counted worthy sharers of the Spirit.

Baptist prepares the Lord’s way; David’s throne forever — Christ is God§56

56From Luke’s Gospel. An angel of God says to Zechariah about the holy Baptist: “And there will be joy and gladness for you, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great before the Lord, and he will drink no wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God.”

And when asked by the Jews, “Who are you?” he says: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.” And Zechariah himself, prophesying over his own child, says: “And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.” For he went ahead of Christ, and became his forerunner, and proclaimed that the ways were to be prepared for him, and prophesied the word concerning him, turning people as toward God who is able to justify those in sins. Then — how is Christ not God?

“This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” So then — shall we lie under one of those like us, ruled continuously and without end, or shall we rather be under God ruling us who are in Christ? And not as if some outside mediator were taken on for this, but as the God and Father holding sway over all things through the Son and in the Son? And if this is true, then Christ is God.

Annunciation, Baptist’s leap, Simeon’s salvation — Christ is God§57

57Mary said to the angel: “How will this be for me, since I do not know a man?” And answering, the angel said to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy one to be born will also be called Son of God.” So then — is the one born ineffably through the Spirit from the holy virgin only called Son, as if created, or is he believed to be Son by nature and truly, and God? This is true. So let the Word be understood as having become flesh hypostatically — that is, having made his own the flesh from the holy virgin through the Spirit. For in this way he will also be truly God.

“And when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” When God works the gift of prophecy, someone becomes a prophet; in any other way, not at all. So when the greeting of the holy virgin Mary, still carrying Jesus, moved John in the womb into prophecy, how is Christ not God — who even in the virgin’s womb moved the Baptist in a God-befitting way into the power of prophecy?

“Now you dismiss your servant, Master, according to your word in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared before the face of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the nations and glory of your people Israel.” Taking Jesus into his arms, Simeon says such things about him. So how is he salvation? And how a light for revelation to the nations — unless he is truly God and only Son by nature…

Same Word from Father and virgin; forgives sins; Isaiah’s signs§58

58…from the Father as Word, and the same one from the virgin according to flesh? What revelation came to the nations, except that in him they knew that he is God, and by worshiping him they escaped the charge of worshiping a god other than the one who is by nature and truly God?

“And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, answered and said to them: Why do you reason in your hearts? Which is easier, to say: Your sins are forgiven you, or to say: Rise and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins — he said to the paralyzed man: I say to you, rise, and taking up your bed go to your house.” If only the God of all frees us from offenses, this fitting no one else, and Christ also grants this with God-befitting authority, how would he not be God? For he is called Son of Man, born of a woman according to flesh, though the Word is God.

“In that hour he healed many of diseases and scourges and evil spirits, and to many blind he granted sight. And answering he said to them: Go tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor are evangelized, and blessed is whoever is not scandalized in me.” Showing himself by the works themselves as the accomplisher of God-befitting mighty deeds, Christ brings to mind what was said through the prophets’ voice about him. So the blessed Isaiah said: “Strengthen weak hands and knees…”

Isaiah: our God comes; Christ rebukes wind and sea§59

59“…paralyzed.” Then almost stretching out a hand he points to Emmanuel, saying thus: “Behold our God; behold the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with lordship.” And he said also elsewhere that “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the stammerers will be clear,” and still further: “The dead will rise, and those in the tombs will be raised; for the dew from you is healing to them.” And again he spoke in his person: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me; he has sent me to evangelize the poor, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind.” So when he makes the prophets’ voices the sign — that is, the proof — of faith in himself, and the prophets proclaim him God, who would dare to say the opposite of these things?

The disciples, he says, were being storm-tossed on the lake; then “coming they woke him saying: Master, we are perishing. And having been woken he rebuked the wind and the surge of the water, and it ceased and there was a calm.” It has been said about Christ through the voice of the blessed David: “You rule the might of the sea; you calm the tossing of its waves; the heavens are yours, and the earth is yours; you founded the inhabited world and its fullness.” So what would fit the one who calms the sea if not also to rule all things? And to have the heavens as his own, and to be able to found the inhabited world and its fullness — how would Christ not be understood to be truly God, the one who rebukes sea and winds, and that with authority?

Gerasene: Christ is the God who acted; girl sleeps to God; servant among them§60

60“And the man from whom the demons had gone out begged him to be with him. But he sent him away saying: Return to your house, and tell how much God has done for you. And he went away proclaiming through the whole city how much God had done for him.” In the country of the Gerasenes Christ healed the man fiercely demonized, who also begged to be with him. But though he had healed him and cast out the spirits, he ordered him to go to his house and proclaim how much God had done for him. So he himself worked as being true God. For we do not say somewhere that he became a minister of divine grace, like one of the prophets or of the holy apostles; rather he himself was crushing Satan by his own and God-befitting power. So in his name the demons were also subjected to the holy disciples, and they themselves confessed this.

About the synagogue ruler’s daughter Christ says: “Do not weep; for the girl did not die, but is sleeping.” So was he lying? Far from it — he speaks truth. And in what way? Because it is written: “He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” For they live to God who are going to live; therefore the dead are dead according to humans, but according to the life-giving nature — that is, the divine — they have not died. So he speaks truth as God when he says about the girl: “She did not die, but is sleeping.”

Speaking with his own disciples he said: “Who is greater, the one reclining or the one serving? Is it not the one reclining? But I am in your midst as the one who serves.” You see how he lowered himself from what befits the deity and the glory…

Servant yet Master; right hand of Power; life-giving body and blood§61

61…in the Master’s way he almost shakes off being thought of in a servant’s rank; yet he honors this because of the human. “For I am,” he says, “in your midst as the one who serves.” So even if he has come down among servants, he is still himself the one reclining — as Master, and served by all creation as God.

So Christ said to them — clearly to the chief priests of the Jews who were asking: “If you are the Christ, tell us. If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” If the Son of Man sits at the right hand of God’s power, how is Christ not God — shining in the highest seats and sharing the Father’s throne? For a created nature does not sit with the God who is so by nature at all; yet the Son of Man does sit with him. So he is God by economic union, the Word born from God having become flesh.

That Christ is life and life-giving. From the letter to the Corinthians: “I speak as to the wise; judge what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless — is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break — is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we the many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.” Human flesh, as far as its own nature goes, would not be life-giving, nor would human blood if it were common and by itself; but Christ’s body and precious blood give life — and being able to give life belongs to God alone…

Last Adam life-giving Spirit; image of the heavenly; incorruption§62

62…in need of life. So Christ is God; for in this way his body will be life-giving. But if he is thought of as a human separately, honored only with the name of Christ and having a bare son’s person, how would his body be life-giving?

“The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a life-giving spirit,” and again: “The first man is of the earth, dusty; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As the dusty one, so also those who are dusty; and as the heavenly one, so also those who are heavenly; and just as we have worn the image of the dusty, let us also wear the image of the heavenly. And this I say, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.” And he adds to these: “for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality.” The first human became a living soul; for as a creature he needed the God who gives life. But the last Adam — that is, Christ — because he did not need life as God, became a life-giving spirit for us, which is a proper advantage of the divine nature. And the first is the dusty one from earth; but the second is from heaven, though born through a woman — for the Word from above and from heaven and from God the Father, even if he has become human, is no less from heaven. And if, held by corruption and death, we are for that reason said to have worn the dusty one’s image, when we put on incorruption we will wear the heavenly one’s image. And incorruption again is a proper good of the deity by nature. For the dead are changed, and the corruptible…

Christ raises the dead as Life; shared flesh abolishes death§63

63…is clothed with incorruption, the Only-begotten having become according to us, and transferring the mortal into immortality, and remaking the corruptible into incorruption in himself first; for in this way a road into life has also come to be for us ourselves.

From the second letter to the Corinthians: “But we ourselves,” he says, “have had the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in the God who raises the dead.” If we say that raising the dead is most fitting to the God who is so by nature — because he is life and life-giving — and Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and he is also seen to have raised the dead, then he is God, as life by nature.

From the letter to the Hebrews: “Since then the children have shared blood and flesh, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might abolish the one who has the power of death — that is, the devil.” Likewise with whom? The Word from God has shared blood and flesh with those ranked among God’s children, so that by giving his own body to death he might make it alive again, existing as life itself by nature as God. For how has death’s power been abolished, unless the body that fell into death lived again — being the own body of the life by nature, that is, of the Word who is from God?

That Jesus Christ is one Son and Lord. From John’s first catholic letter.

Word of life handled; faith in Christ as faith in God§64

64“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and our hands handled, concerning the word of life — and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested to us.” See: he says they have seen with eyes and even handled with hands the one who is from the beginning — that is, the Word from the Father, the eternal life — though according to his own nature the Word from the Father is invisible and untouchable; for what is bodiless is untouchable. But he says they have seen and handled the Word who has come to be in flesh. So there is one Son and God and Lord even if the Word has become flesh.

That faith toward Christ is as toward God. From Peter’s first letter: “So that,” he says, “your faith and hope may be in God” — and yet Christ is proclaimed through the holy apostles. And he himself says somewhere: “Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in me has eternal life.” So when faith is toward God, and Christ says “Believe in me,” how would he not be God clearly?

From John’s first letter: “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ.” If it is not against the Father’s will that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and faith is also practiced by us not as toward a mere human but as toward the living and true God — then Christ is God.

Confess the Word come in flesh; Jesus is the Only-begotten sent§65

65“By this the Spirit of God is known: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ come in flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.” So do we confess Jesus as a human and as one like us — or rather that the Word, being God, became flesh, not neglecting to be God, but rather remaining what he was even if he became human? This is not doubtful. So the one who does not say that Christ is truly God, but divides and shrinks his glory, will be caught having the spirit of the antichrist.

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world; whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.” We say that the Son has been sent from God the Father — that is, the Only-begotten Word from him by nature — and that he was named Jesus when he also endured the birth according to flesh from a woman economically. So the Word from God became human. And if someone confesses him thus, he has God remaining in him, and he himself will also be in God; for God will remember him and will also count him as his own, as a sharer in him. But the one who does not confess that the Word from God the Father himself is Jesus — having lowered himself into humanity — would neither grow rich with God in him, nor himself be in God according to the mode of spiritual kinship.

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” So the one who does not believe would not even be counted among children…

Children of God; water, blood, Spirit are one Son’s§66

66…of God. For if as many as received the Son “he gave authority to become children of God,” as the evangelist says, those who have not received him would not be counted among God’s children, not having known the one through whom this exists.

“And who is the one who conquers the world if not the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ — not in the water only, but in the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three who testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are the one.” The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God conquers the world; and who Jesus is, the disciple himself makes clear to us saying: “This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ.” But he also speaks of blood and of Spirit, and says the three are the one. So the Word became flesh, and he sanctifies us by the Spirit, and cleanses by the blood, and washes again with clean water; and the Son is altogether one, whose we also say the Spirit and the water and the blood are.

“If we receive the testimony of humans, the testimony of God is greater, because this is the testimony of God, that he has testified about his Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that he has testified about his Son.” And the Father has testified to the Son through the Spirit and through a voice. For that he is his Son according to…

Jordan shows enfleshed Son; hand-touch proves natural union§67

67…truth, his being able to supply the Spirit to the saints and to work powers through him would testify. And so he was saying: “That one will glorify me.” And he has also testified in another way; for he glorified him at the Jordan saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have been well pleased.” So as many as, dividing, say that the one from a woman is not a true son, and refer the name of sonship only to the bare Word from God, make the Father a liar; for he showed the Word enfleshed at the Jordan, and then the Spirit also testified to him that he is both God and truly Son.

From Matthew’s Gospel. About the synagogue ruler’s daughter it is written that “when the crowd was put out, Jesus went in, took her hand, and the girl was raised.” Why did he not rather, as with Lazarus, content himself with a word for the girl’s rising, but also took her hand? To show that his body gives life — for it is a body of life. So the union of the Word toward the flesh is rather natural and true, and not, as some say from ignorance, done only in persons, or according to bare praise and will, or mere conjunction.

From John’s Gospel. “Work,” he says, “not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains into eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for on this one the Father…

Exact imprint; life-giving touch; hilasterion in his blood§68

68…God has sealed.” The Son of Man has given us the food that remains into eternal life — clearly his flesh; for it is life-giving. Then how is the one who can give life even through his own flesh not God, and like in all things to God the Father? For this I take to be what it means to say he has been sealed by God — “to have been sealed” signifying the exact likeness. For just as if someone presses a gold seal — or one made of another material — into wax, he marks the whole impress of it from the whole, so also God the Father has the characters of his own nature essentially shining in the Son. And this is what it means to say he has been sealed by the Father.

From Luke’s Gospel. Christ raised Lazarus, the synagogue ruler’s little daughter, the widow’s son. Then how is he not life by nature — the one who can terrify death not only by a word but also by the touch of the hand? For it was both fitting and necessary that the body of the life by nature be life-giving.

That he is a hilasterion through faith. From the letter to the Romans. About Christ he says: “Whom God put forward as a hilasterion through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins that had happened before in God’s forbearance, toward the demonstration of his righteousness in the present time, so that he might be…

Redeemed by his blood; gifts prove God; baptism into his death§69

69If Christ could not otherwise become a hilasterion for those under sin and curse and death’s sentence except that blood was going to be poured out “because of the passing over of the sins that had happened before,” how was it not necessary that the Word become flesh — so that by his own blood, clearly that of his own flesh, he might justify all who believe in him?

That we have been redeemed and have obtained reconciliation toward God through his blood. From the first letter to the Corinthians. “From him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written: Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” So we have been redeemed in Christ and sanctified and have become wise; “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” — that is, from God. Then how is Christ not God — the one who has gifted us wisdom and sanctification and redemption?

That we have been redeemed through the blood of Christ. From Peter’s letter. “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things, silver or gold, from your futile ancestral way of life, but with precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot — Christ.” For we have been redeemed, Christ having given his own body for us. But if he is understood as a common human, how is his blood a match for the life of all? But if the one worthier than all was God in flesh, he would be sufficient for the redemption of the whole world through his own blood — and very reasonably so.

That Christ’s death is saving for the world. From Romans. “God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified in his blood, we will be saved through him from wrath.” And again: “For if, being enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, we will be saved in his life.” So if the world could not otherwise be saved except in blood and death taken up usefully and economically “because of the passing over of the sins that had happened before in God’s forbearance,” and we have been saved through Christ — how is the mode of incarnation not necessary for the Word born from God? So that he might justify those who believe in him in his blood, and reconcile them to the Father through the death of his own body, so that we might also live with him.

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” If those on earth must somehow be buried with Christ through baptism into his death, so that just as he has been raised from the dead we too might walk in newness of life, as co-buried and co-raised with the one who died and was raised for us —

Share flesh and blood; second Adam; curse on the tree§70

70Most usefully and of necessity the mystery of the becoming-human has been accomplished: the Word shared flesh and blood, so that to the one said to die fleshly and also to have been raised we might die with him and be raised with him.

“For if we have become grown-together with the likeness of his death, we will also be of the resurrection.” You will understand these things in the same way as the first. “For since through a human comes death, through a human also comes resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” Christ has been named second Adam; and just as the first Adam brought us down into corruption, so also Christ brought us back up into life — not as a bare human who died for us, lest we also remain dead in him, but as God in flesh, having suffered in it humanly, so that when he raised his own temple divinely we might be raised with him.

From Galatians. “Christ bought us out of the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us; for it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree — so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Look here too: Christ’s death has become saving for the world. For he became a curse for us, enduring a cross and hanging on a tree, so that he might loose the world’s sin, “so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus” — that is, so that the nations might be justified through faith according to the promise given to Abraham, “so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

Law’s curse loosed; blood gathers the far; faith as toward God§71

71So when Christ’s death has also loosed the curse in the law, and has procured for the nations Abraham’s blessing — that is, the grace through faith — and has shown us also as sharers of the Holy Spirit, his death would not be understood as that of a common human. Rather one should think that the Word, having become flesh, suffered in flesh for the world, and his suffering became sufficient for the world’s redemption.

From Ephesians. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far have become near in the blood of Christ; for he himself is our peace, who made both one and loosed the dividing wall of the fence, the enmity in his flesh, having abolished the law of the commandments in decrees.” If Christ’s blood has also made near those who were far because they wandered through the world and continued in godlessness, how is the Word’s becoming-flesh not necessary for those on earth — gathering the divided and making the far kin to God, and creating the two peoples into one new human through his flesh? For he has been given for the redemption of those in sins, and through him he acquired all things for God and Father, and besides this the old law has also been abolished, as faith being above it — clearly the faith in Christ. And if this is true, how is faith above law unless we have believed in Christ as God?

From Hebrews. “Therefore, entering into the world, he says: Sacrifice and offering you did not will, but a body you prepared for me; whole burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not delight in; then I said: Behold, I have come — in the roll of the book it is written about me — to do, O God, your will.”

Only-begotten enters; divine blood; mediator enough for all; impassible yet passible§72

72Christ’s suffering has become saving for the world; yet it is necessary to see who the one entering into the world is. For he was outside the world wholly and entirely — since how has he entered into it if he was not outside the world? Therefore, existing by nature above the whole world as Only-begotten God, he has entered into it, having become a part of it — that is, a human — and thus, having offered the sacrifice for us and dedicated himself, he has saved what is under heaven.

“Therefore Jesus also, so that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate.” How would a common human’s blood show us holy? But Christ’s blood has sanctified. So it is divine, then, and not simply human; for God was in flesh, cleansing us by his own blood.

From the letter to Timothy. “For there is one God, and one mediator of God and humans, the human Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.” Christ’s death is confessedly saving for the whole world. Yet if he is not God, how would he himself alone suffice to become a ransom for all? But he alone sufficed, dying for all, because he is also above all. So he is God, then — having destroyed the world’s death by the death of his own flesh.

From Peter’s letter. “Because Christ once died concerning sins, a righteous one for unrighteous ones, so that he might bring us to God, put to death in flesh but made alive in spirit; in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who once were disobedient.” Many of the holy prophets have been killed, but none of those is said to have died for sins, nor to bring us to God through his own death, nor did anyone preach to the spirits in prison. But Christ has done this, and through him and in him we have been redeemed, and his suffering was saving for the world. So he died for us not as one human among those like us, but as God in flesh, giving his own body as an exchange for the life of all.

“Christ therefore having suffered for us in flesh.” For as Christ being God, the disciple wisely and thoughtfully says he has suffered in flesh, exempting from suffering the ineffable nature, to which suffering is foreign. So he has suffered in his own flesh, though the Word from God is accustomed to have no share in suffering. So Christ is God, then — impassible divinely, but passible according to the flesh.

Grain dies into glory; Word’s flesh-suffering; hypostatic union needed§73

73…and again: “Jesus answers them saying: The hour has come so that the Son of Man may be glorified; amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the earth dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” And it is not doubtful that the whole world has been saved, Emmanuel having died for it. Yet we say this: how was he glorified by dying? And yet the matter rather has a stigma of weakness — which is why it is also called a despising of shame, having become obedient unto death. But perhaps you will say that he has been glorified through the resurrection. The word holds rightly and is true. Did he then return to life divinely rather than humanly? But I think divinely. So when the Word from God himself is said to suffer in flesh, let us not be ashamed of the suffering; for the end has glory, and this is God-befitting.

That there is one Son of God and Lord, Jesus Christ. From Romans. “I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. So there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus; for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed me from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to flesh but according to Spirit.” For flesh and Spirit confessedly fight each other… But now in Christ what stands against has been loosed… For God has sent his own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin so that he might condemn sin in the flesh — then how is the Word’s becoming-flesh not exceedingly necessary? For thus sin has also been condemned in our flesh. But if the Word has not become flesh, the things concerning us have remained uncorrected… So we say the Word’s union with the flesh according to hypostasis is necessary — and not only the one in persons and according to will, or a bare conjunction, as some say.

Justifier is true God; Word’s own body at the right hand§74

74“Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus who died — rather also was raised — who is at God’s right hand, who also intercedes for us.” If Christ justifies by faith, and the one who justifies is God, then Christ is true God. And if he is at God’s right hand, although he has died and been raised, and sits with the Father, then the body is the Word’s own. For thus he sits with the Father with the assumed flesh, as Son by nature even if the Word has become flesh.

“But the righteousness from faith says thus: Do not say in your heart, Who will go up into heaven? — that is, to bring Christ down — or Who will go down into the abyss? — that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart — that is, the word of faith that we preach — that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…” If according to what some think Christ is understood as a God-bearing human and has only the union in persons toward the Word from God, why, believing in him as Lord and also confessing his resurrection from the dead, are we justified by the faith toward him? And the faith is clearly done as toward God. Therefore the God-Word’s union according to hypostasis toward the human things is necessary.

Belong to the Lord in life and death; incarnation for lordship§75

75“For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself; if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” The blessed Paul has somewhere addressed those from the nations: “But now knowing God — rather being known by God — how do you turn back to the weak and poor elements…?” So through the faith toward Christ we have been redeemed from slavery to the elements, and have been brought to serve the living and true God. And if Christ also died so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living, and we live to him as to the living and true God, how is the economy of becoming-flesh not necessary for the Word from God?

After rising, confess Christ from divine excellence; under law as God§76

76“And if we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we no longer know him.” What then does Paul say? Does he deny Christ after the resurrection? Does he not know him raised in flesh and taken up with it into heaven? And who would dare to say that? For thus he also knows him taken up and going to come at the times in the way he has gone up into heaven. How then does he say he does not know Christ according to flesh? Because after the return to life from the dead, it is better to know and confess him not still from the flesh’s measures, but as from divine superiority. For while the economy was not yet fulfilled he was preached according to flesh, so that the Only-begotten might be believed to have become human; but since the mystery has been completed, it is better to confess him from what he is as God than from the having-been-emptied through the flesh. So there is one Christ and Son and Lord.

From Galatians. “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, become from a woman, become under law, so that he might buy out those under law, so that we might receive the adoption.” As God he became under law so that he might also become brother to those under law; for thus we have received the adoption.

Spirit of the Son proves deity; one ascending–descending Lord§77

77As God he became under law so that he might also become brother to those under law; for thus we have received the adoption. So if he had not become under law and from a woman, we would not even be brothers to the Lord and God by nature; but since he became so, we have been enriched with what is his. The inspired Paul makes proof of the matter, bringing at once: “And because you are sons, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father.” How then is the Spirit of the one from a woman and under law the Holy Spirit, through whom we also cry Abba, Father, unless Christ is God, being one and Son?

From Ephesians. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us was given the grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ; therefore it says: Having gone up into height he led captivity captive and gave gifts to humans. Now the ‘He went up’—what is it except that he also went down into the lower parts of the earth? The one who went down is himself also the one who went up above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.” See again how great a word in this shows most clearly and vividly that Christ and Lord is one by an economic union of the Word brought together toward the human; for from both there is one true Son. For how is there one Lord? How one faith? Or how is baptism one? If there were two sons, there would altogether be two lords, a double faith, and baptism would not be one. For into whom have we believed? Or into whose name have we been baptized? But there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. So it is clear that there is also one Son, even if the Only-begotten is understood as having become as we are. And who at all is the one who went up into height? Or who the one who came down into the lower parts of the earth? Therefore he himself went down humanly—for he let himself down into emptying and humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death—and went up with the flesh above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.

Kenosis and exaltation; Colossians image and firstborn§78

78From Philippians. “Let this be minded in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be seized, but emptied himself, taking a slave’s form, becoming in humans’ likeness, and being found in fashion as a human he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death of a cross; therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name above every name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Understand how he says that the God-Word, existing in the form and equality of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be seized. For having being by nature in equality with the Father, he emptied himself, and taking a slave’s form—that is, having become human—and being found as it were in our form, he humbled himself into emptying. And since he also endured the cross itself, it says he is exalted, and that the name above every name has been given him so that every knee should bow and every tongue confess to him. How then does the one in God’s form and equality let himself down into emptying, and after this is said to be exalted? Is not Christ’s mystery most evident? For being God by nature he became human in humiliation and lowliness, and having become as we are, he ascends again into his own glory even with flesh. And being exalted would befit the economy, not rather the Word’s nature itself. So there is one Christ, God in humanity, and with the humanity remaining what he was.

From Colossians. “Giving thanks to the Father who made us fit for the portion of the lot of the saints in the light, who rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins; who is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, because in him all things were created… and he is before all and all things hold together in him, and he is the head of the body, the church; who is beginning, firstborn from the dead, so that he might become in all things himself first, because in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross…”

Image and firstborn from dead; Hebrews heir through flesh§79

79See again: he calls him the image of the invisible God, and clearly affirms that thrones and rulers and lordships were created through him, and says that all things are unto him and hold together in him, and that he is the head of the body’s church and firstborn from the dead. Who then is the image of God, the creator of the wholes, if not the Only-begotten Son of God himself? Who also became firstborn from the dead, as having died in his own flesh and not rather in someone else’s. So there is one Christ and Son, God and human together.

From Hebrews. “In many parts and in many ways God, having spoken of old to the fathers in the prophets, in these last days spoke to us in a Son, whom he placed heir of all, through whom he also made the ages.” The Only-begotten Word is believed to be by nature Lord of the wholes with God and Father, yet he is placed heir because he became flesh. For it was said to him, as one who appeared as a human like us for our sake: “Ask of me, and I will give you nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” But he says that through this same God who is heir—because of the human—the ages themselves were also made, the matter referring back to the Word’s seniority. So there is one Christ and Son, the same one God and human together.

Radiance sits by own blood; sanctifier and sanctified one Son§80

80“Who being the radiance of the glory and the impress of his hypostasis, and bearing all things by the word of his power, having made cleansing of sins sat at the right of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels as he has inherited a more different name than they.” The radiance of the glory, the impress of the hypostasis of God and Father—that is, the Only-begotten Son from him by nature—in what manner, having made cleansing of our sins (clearly through his own blood), has sat at the Father’s right and is said to have become better than the angels, though by nature and by deity’s superiority he conquers all things? Therefore even having become human he has excelled as God the invisible creation, being the same radiance and impress and having worked the cleansing of our sins by his own blood. So there is one Christ and Son and Lord.

“For both the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one; for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying: I will announce your name to my brothers.” What is holy by nature is not sanctified, because it does not need sanctification; but what has become holy as by participation from another cannot sanctify others. How then the same one sanctifies and is sanctified must be asked. He sanctifies, then, as God, having received as a property of his own nature the power to sanctify, and he is sanctified with us according to the human. So there is one Christ and Son and Lord, sanctifying divinely and being sanctified with us humanly.

Priest at the right; pioneer’s joy is deity in flesh§81

81Offering gifts and sacrifices is taken up; those called to priesthood do not perform the worships for themselves, but rather for God, to whom reverence from all creation is owed. And the one who ministers to God will not lie in equal measure with God. Then how, having become our high priest, does Christ sit at God’s right and have the throne of majesty in the heavens and is minister of the holies and of the tent above and true, bringing forward to himself and to the Father the worships from all? So there is one Christ and Son, yet he has also been styled priest and minister economically through the human.

“Therefore we also, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the easily besetting sin, let us run with endurance the contest lying before us, looking away to the pioneer and perfecter of faith, Jesus, who for the joy lying before him endured a cross, despising shame, and has sat at the right of the throne of God.” If Christ were a common human and not truly God in flesh and as we are, what joy does it say lay before him? Or how has he sat at the right of God’s throne? But indeed joy did lie before him; for he is in unending glory as God.

Jordan shows Word with flesh; true light came as Monogenes§82

82That there is one Son and Lord. From John. “All things were handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him.” Since no one knows the Son except the Father alone, how do some set aside the Father’s witness? For he showed his own Son in the Jordan, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I was well pleased.” Yet he did not show us his own Word naked, but united to flesh, and he did not say “in this one is my Son,” but “this is” the one with flesh; so there is one Lord and Son.

“He was the true light that lights every human coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” Having theologized sufficiently, and having said that every human coming into the world has been lit through the true light, and indeed that the world itself was made through him, he says he came to his own. And the Only-begotten came having become human, as toward his own—and before the others, those of Israel’s blood. When therefore he himself is the true light, the one through whom are all things, and he himself is the one who came with flesh to his own, how is it not necessary to confess one Christ and Son?

Spirit received humanly; baptism given divinely; Word owns flesh§83

83Calling him a man, and coming after, he says he was before, as God. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. “And John witnessed, saying: I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven and remaining on him… this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit; and I have seen and have witnessed that this is the Son of God.” See clearly and vividly in these that our Lord Jesus Christ receives the Spirit humanly, because of the economy with flesh—for being rich he became poor for us—yet baptizes divinely in the Holy Spirit. For to whom would it befit to be able to supply the Spirit’s grace, except to the one who is by nature and truly God? So there is one Christ and Son.

“If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no one has gone up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man.” How has the Son of Man come down from heaven? Because the Word from God became human, and what belongs to the flesh is the Word’s own, apart from sin alone.

Serpent type: human likeness, God who gives life§84

84“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” The serpents were biting those of Israel in the desert; then the God of all commanded Moses to set up a bronze serpent: “And it shall be,” he says, “if a serpent bites a human, and he looks toward the serpent, he shall also live.” What then is the riddle? And why is the one who looks at the serpent saved? Therefore the Only-begotten Word of God, existing as life by nature, became in the likeness that is as we are—that is, human; and the human is evil and as it were the serpent; yet even if he became as we are, if someone looks to him, he conquers death. And what is it to look to him, except precisely to understand carefully the mystery upon him? For then one will see him in the likeness of the evil ones—that is, of humans—yet life-giving as God, and making the bites of the evil serpents vanish. So there is one Lord and Son, the same one, both life-giving as God and in the form of the evil ones through economy.

The children, having “the palm branches, went out to meet him, and were crying: Hosanna; blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel.”

True Lord came with flesh; sanctifies own temple; one from both§85

85If the hypostasis were not that of the God-Word, the name of lordship would be common to him just as to us, and there would be nothing great in Christ. But if he was fore-announced as truly going to come as Lord—which is also true—and the Only-begotten has come into this world not without flesh, then there is by nature and truly one Lord and Christ and Son.

“And for them I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.” Christ sanctifies himself. Is it as a human, or rather because he is God by nature, having as his own the Holy Spirit, which is also true? Since no human sanctifies himself, Christ sanctifies himself; so there is one Son and Lord, being sanctified humanly, yet sanctifying divinely by his own Spirit his own temple.

“Jesus did many other signs before his disciples that are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.” Emmanuel born from the holy virgin was named Jesus by the angel’s voice. When therefore he himself—and not another—is the Son of God, and the one who believes has eternal life in his name, how are they not mad who divide and say there is one son and another the Word from God, and the one from the holy virgin? For in these the evangelist appears, and very clearly, knowing and proclaiming one and only Jesus Christ from both—that is, the Word from God the Father who has shared blood and flesh similarly to us, as it is written.

Firstborn among brothers; God is his own Father§86

86From Luke. “And it came to pass while they were there that the days were fulfilled for her to give birth, and she bore her son, the firstborn, and wrapped him and laid him in the manger, because there was no place for them in the lodging.” The holy virgin has borne one and only son, Emmanuel. How then does it say “her son, the firstborn”? For others have not come to be after him, and she has remained a virgin. So it is marked from the God-breathed scripture: the Only-begotten Word of God has been named firstborn. For he has shared blood and flesh and similarly to us shared the same things. Thus he became firstborn among many brothers; yet as God he is worshiped by us ourselves and by the spirits above.

“And his mother said to him: Child, why have you done thus to us? See, your father and I, being in pain, were seeking you. And he said to them: Why is it that you were seeking me? Did you not know that I must be in the things of my Father?” Observe how he names as his own Father the one in the heavens. But if he were a human alone, and understood as that very thing according to us, how would it not rather have been necessary to say: Did you not know that I must be in the things of the Father of all? But he makes him his own. For he alone has been begotten from him by nature divinely; and the same one, having also become human, has God as Father by nature and as his own.

Divine will with human hand; Lord of David from David’s seed§87

87“I will; be cleansed.” You will marvel in these at Christ working both divinely and bodily together: divine, then, is the willing, but human the stretching out of the hand; so there is one Son from both. For even if the Word became flesh, yet as God he works with his own flesh, which has the power through him.

“And he said to them: How do they say the Christ is David’s son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right until I put your enemies as a footstool of your feet. David therefore calls him Lord, and how is he his son?” You hear how in these Christ himself tries to show that even if the Word became from David’s seed according to the flesh, yet even so he is by nature Lord, as Son and God. For if, he says, he is David’s son, how does David name him Lord? But he neither denies in these the birth from David’s seed according to flesh, nor dismisses being Lord by nature himself; rather he says both are present, even if from both he wills the one to be shown. So there is truly one Christ and Son.

Nations’ faith toward Christ as toward God; access through him§88

88That faith toward Christ is as toward God. From Romans. “Through whom we received grace and apostleship unto obedience of faith among all the nations for his name, among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ.” The nations have been called through faith. And Christ was the one proclaimed among them through the holy apostles. So the faith of those being initiated was practiced not as toward a human, but as toward God. For we do not say the nations were called from error into error by receiving the faith toward Christ; rather, having left the falsely named gods, they turned thereafter to the living God. When therefore the initiators say they received apostleship unto obedience of faith for the name of Christ, how would he not be God, if indeed faith toward him is as toward God?

“For God is my witness, whom I worship in my spirit in the gospel of his Son.” Those who worship God do not worship Christ as another god beside him; and of him, he says, is also the gospel. For he himself is proclaimed as God to the world, although the Father is God by nature and rules over all. So Christ is God—the one through whom and in whom the Father himself is also announced as God and honored with the worship from all.

“Having therefore been justified from faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also now had the access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” Believing as toward God, we are justified. And if the faith is toward Christ Jesus, and through him we have had the access, we have been joined to God and Father.

Stone of stumbling; Simeon; end of the law; Christ justifies as God§89

89A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes upon him will not be put to shame. When righteous Symeon received the divine infant into his arms, he said to God: “Now you release your servant, Master, according to your word in peace, because my eyes have seen your salvation which you prepared before the face of all the peoples,” and what follows; and he added: “Behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign spoken against.” So the same one is the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense; and some, striking against him through disobedience, were shattered, while those who received the faith toward him escaped being put to shame. Have we then believed as toward a human, or as toward God? Clearly as toward God. Therefore Christ is God; for it was upon him that righteous Symeon spoke the words just now cited to us.

Concerning the Jews he says: “For not knowing the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they were not subjected to the righteousness of God; for Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to everyone who believes.” If Christ is the end of the law, and he himself is the righteousness who justifies through the faith toward him, and the power to justify belongs to God alone as his own, how is Christ not God?

“But the righteousness from faith says thus: Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven?—that is, to bring Christ down—or, Who will descend into the abyss?—that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart—that is, the word of faith which we proclaim: that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord,”

Confess the Lord Jesus; gospel mystery; God known through Christ§90

90“And if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation. For the Scripture says: Everyone who believes upon him will not be put to shame.” If the whole definition of faith for us, and the power of the confession, stands around the person of Christ, and by confessing his death and resurrection we are justified as having believed toward God, who will dare to say that he is not God? If indeed he is the chief point of the salvation of all, both door and way, the confession of the faith toward him—for through him and in him the Father himself is also recognized by us.

“Now to the one who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for eternal times, but now manifested through the prophetic writings according to the command of the eternal God unto obedience of faith, made known unto all the nations, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages, amen.” See how clearly he says the gospel and the proclamation are of Jesus Christ; and that the mystery concerning him was hidden and kept silent for eternal times, but has now been revealed unto obedience of faith unto all the nations. For the nations, removed from the falsely named worship, turned to Christ and recognized him as God by nature and truly. And if God was clearly known through Jesus Christ, how is Christ’s mystery not great? But if he is thought among us a human simply, and not rather God become human, the mystery is no longer wise.

Christ mediator of the promises; justified in his name; not another Jesus§91

91“For I say that Christ has become a servant of circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers, and that the nations might glorify God for mercy.” For it is written that “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness,” and it was said to him that “in you all the tribes of the earth will be blessed.” And Paul made it clear for us, saying: “For the promise to Abraham or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, was not through law, but through righteousness of faith,” and again: “so that those from faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” If therefore the promises have been given to the fathers from God through faith, Christ has become a servant—that is, a mediator—to confirm the promises given to the fathers from God, that is, the justification through faith. And he became mediator not as negotiating the faith for another, but rather for himself and through himself for the Father. Therefore he is God by nature. For blessed Abraham was justified having believed toward God; so also the nations would be justified in him, having followed in his steps and believing in God—that is, in Christ.

From First Corinthians. “And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” If we are justified in the name of Christ, having honored God by the faith, and receiving the same Spirit, how is Christ not God?

From Second Corinthians. “For if the one who comes proclaims another Jesus whom we did not proclaim, or you receive another spirit which you did not receive, or another gospel which you did not accept, you put up with it well enough.” Before the times of the becoming-human, no one is found naming the Word from God “Jesus” or “Christ,” except by foreknowledge of what would be named in the times when he also became flesh. So the name Jesus is new to him when he became human. But if he is proclaimed as God, and as being one—for there is not another beside him whom some can proclaim—it is well, and we worship God; but if his measure is only that of the humanity, and he is honored with a bare union of persons, the word of our faith has been emptied, leading us to a human and not to God. But that is impious. Therefore Christ is God and Son, as the Word of God having become flesh.

From Galatians. “I marvel that you are so quickly transferring from the one who called you in the grace of Christ into another gospel, which is not another, except there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim a gospel to you beside what we proclaimed to you, let him be anathema.” If there is one gospel spoken to all under heaven through the holy initiators, and this is the faith toward Christ, how would he not be true God, if indeed it is necessary to confess that from the ancient error we have been called unto recognition of the God who is by nature?

Son revealed in Paul; justified by faith of Christ; sealed in him§92

92Paul goes so far as to anathematize even angels, if they should pervert the gospel of Christ. “But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I might proclaim him among the nations, immediately I did not consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.” For the one who has once obtained the initiation and revelation from God did not need the tutoring that comes from humans. Yet we ask this: whom did the Father reveal to blessed Paul? Or whom did he command him to proclaim among the nations? Was it God the Word and Only-begotten Son, not united to flesh and become human economically? Then how is that true? For he proclaimed the same one both human and God together, saying one Son and Lord, Jesus Christ.

“But knowing that a human is not justified from works of law except through faith of Jesus Christ, we also believed into Christ Jesus, that we might be justified from faith of Christ and not from works of law.” If believing God had justification as its wage—for those before us were also justified thus; for it is written that Abraham believed God and the faith was reckoned to him unto righteousness—how is Emmanuel not God, if indeed it is true that believing into him we are justified?

From Ephesians. “In whom you also, having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a pledge of our inheritance unto redemption of the acquisition, unto praise of his glory.”

Faith into Christ as into God; deep mystery of the Word made as we are§93

93One may see the same thing in the sense of what has been set out, through which it is possible to learn that Christ is true God, and that the faith of all toward him is not as toward one of us simply, but as toward one Lord and Son and God. For first he himself is the gospel of our salvation, in which also is the faith, clearly as toward God; and there follows also the prize of the faith, that is the Spirit of the promise, the pledge of our inheritance; for we have been redeemed unto praise of the glory of Christ. For he has saved us not as a common human, but as God become in flesh for us; for thus we shall be unto the praise of his glory.

“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you the nations—if indeed you have heard the stewardship of the grace of God that was given me for you, that according to revelation the mystery was made known to me… toward which, reading, you are able to perceive my insight in the mystery of Christ.” What need is there of insight and of revelation from God for the mystery of Christ to be made known, if he is a human privately and wholly separated from God the Word, honored with a bare union of persons? For what hidden thing does it have, or what difficulty at all is there in perceiving, say, concerning one of us humans, that he is a human? But the mystery is deep and great if the Word who is God is said to have become as we are. When therefore those who have obtained deep insight and the divine revelation have handed down to us the mystery of Christ as a divine mystery, and the faith toward him is clearly as toward God, how would he not be God?

Unsearchable riches; word of faith; Christ proclaimed as God§94

94Another passage like this and having the same sense. “To me, the least of all the saints, this grace was given: to proclaim among the nations the unsearchable wealth of Christ, and to enlighten what is the stewardship of the mystery hidden from the ages in God who created all things.”

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” What then is the word in which we have been cleansed, having washed “the body with pure water,” if not altogether that about which the inspired Paul says: “This is the word of faith which we proclaim, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.” Therefore if by confessing Christ in faith we are saved, how is he not true God—into whom, when the word of faith has come about, we have been both cleansed and sanctified?

From Philippians. “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed.” Is he then preached to the world as a human honored by grace? And yet the world has recognized Christ as God, having honored him with the faith. How then is he not God—the one proclaimed to the world in the glory of deity?

Gift to believe and suffer; Christ saves sinners; God manifested in flesh§95

95“Striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by the opponents—which is for them a proof of destruction, but of your salvation, and this from God, because it has been granted to you for Christ’s sake not only to believe into him but also to suffer for him.” If we receive from God as a share of grace the believing into Christ, and through this we have not rather been led astray but have come to know the one who is by nature and truly God, how would anyone doubt that Christ is God?

From Timothy. “Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first; but for this reason I was shown mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might show the whole long-suffering, as a pattern for those about to believe upon him unto eternal life.” If Christ saves sinners, and is long-suffering toward their faults, receiving their repentance, and if all our faith is upon him, and through the faith toward him we have gained eternal life, how would he not be God? For it would reasonably befit God alone both to be able to save the world, and to be long-suffering toward those who sin, and to make alive through the faith toward him.

“And confessedly great is the mystery of piety: God was manifested in flesh, justified in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among nations, believed in the world, taken up in glory.” Who is the one manifested in flesh? Or is it clear that it is wholly and altogether the Word from God the Father? For thus the mystery of piety will be great.

Taken up in glory; believers in God believe Christ; faith into his name§96

96…seen by angels, going up into the heavens, proclaimed also among the nations through the holy apostles, and believed also in the world. And we do not say at all that he is simply a human as we are, but that he is God in flesh and become as we are. And he was also taken up in glory, that he might hear God and Father saying: “Sit at my right until I put your enemies as a footstool of your feet.”

From Titus. “Faithful is the word, and about these things I want you to insist, that those who have believed God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.” Do those who believe God then not also believe into Christ? And yet blessed John is clearly seen saying about him: “But as many as received him, he gave them authority to become children of God, to those who believe into his name,” and blessed Paul himself also: “But knowing that a human is not justified from works of law except through faith of Jesus Christ, we also believed into Christ Jesus, that we might be justified in him.” When therefore those who bring the faith to Christ believe God, how would he not be true God?

That the faith is into Christ. From the Gospel according to John. “But as many as received him, he gave them authority to become children of God, to those who believe into his name.” He sets down two God-befitting things at once: for Christ is received by us in no other way than that the faith is also into him.

Believe into his name as God become human; signs show deity§97

97And we believe into his name, not believing that he is a common human and one of us, but that he is God become human. And giving authority to become children of God is not a human thing, but rather God-befitting and beyond creation. When therefore the faith is into him, and he himself gives the grace of adoption, how is Christ not God?

“This beginning of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and he manifested his glory, and his disciples believed into him.” When the sign had therefore happened, and Christ had manifested his glory, into whom have the blessed disciples believed? Into a holy human simply? And yet even before the sign they followed him, marveling at him as holy. But through the sign they have seen him having power and authority beyond a human. Therefore they have believed as into God. And one must know that many of the saints have done many wonders and were marveled at, yet no one believed into them.

“And when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast, many believed into his name, seeing his signs that he was doing.” “For God did not send his Son into the world that he might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. The one who believes into him is not judged; but the one who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed into the name of the only-begotten Son of God.” If the faith into the Son is the way of salvation, how then do we believe into him? Or how will we escape the sentence from being judged? By accepting him as a human and nothing else besides this? Then how will we not worship a human? Or rather as into God? For this is true. Who then will dare to say that he is not truly God, whose faith has justified those under heaven?

Official believes as toward God; faith in Son is faith in the Sender§98

98“So the father knew that it was in that hour in which Jesus said to him, Your son lives, and he himself believed and his whole house.” Christ raised the royal official’s son from the dead, having said to him, “Go, your son lives,” and then he has believed with his whole household. Has the official then, through authority so great and God-befitting, believed as into a human? Or has he known him to be God by nature, making alive with authority whom he chooses, and by word alone? But it is clear that he has believed as toward God.

“Amen, amen, I say to you that the one who hears my word and believes the one who sent me has eternal life.” God and Father has sent us his own Son from the heavens, “that everyone who believes into him may not perish but may have eternal life.” How then does he say in these words that the one who believes the one who sent him has eternal life? Into whom, then, is the faith? As into two gods, the Father and the Son? May it not be—but as into one true God. Therefore if someone believes into Christ, he has believed into God; and if he believes into God the Father, he will also have believed into the one Lord Jesus Christ.

“Jesus answered and said to them: This is the work of God, that you believe into him whom that one sent.” If we accomplish what seems good to God by believing into Christ—for the Father truly sent him into the world when he became a human as we are—how would he not be true God? For believing into him would not be a work of God otherwise.

Believing the Son is believing the Sender; faith the Son of Man will seek§99

99“And Jesus cried out and said: The one who believes into me does not believe into me, but into the one who sent me, and the one who sees me sees the one who sent me.” Then he adds to these: “I have not spoken from myself, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a command what I should say and what I should speak.” When therefore, even if he speaks as a human, he refers the faith toward him to the one who sent him according to the Father’s commands, and the one who sees him sees the one who sent him, who will dare to say that he is not God—and this one true?

From the Gospel according to Luke. “Yet when the Son of Man comes, will he find the faith on the earth?” When Christ arrives from heaven, what faith will he then seek in us? For if he wants to be believed as a human as we are, who has disbelieved him? For the Jews were accusing him, saying why “you, being a human, make yourself God”; and Greeks, hearing cross and death, are disposed as about a common human and one of us. What faith then does he seek? Or clearly the faith proclaimed through the God-speakers, who have also become eyewitnesses and servants of the Word? John therefore said that “the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”

Closing charge: draw living water from prophets and apostles§100

100“Go up upon a high mountain, you who announce good news to Zion; raise your voice with strength, you who announce good news to Jerusalem; raise it, do not fear.” For I say that those appointed to the sacred service, and who speak the mystery of Christ the Savior of us all, must not have a cast-down and ground-level mind, conquered by hesitation and contracted by fear, but must have the mind set high as if well planted and somehow lying on a mountain, eager thus to survey the excellent beauty of the doctrines of the truth, and also to make their words with boldness.

“And draw water with gladness from the springs of salvation.” And we say that the springs of salvation are the holy prophets, evangelists, and apostles, who pour forth the word from above and from heaven and saving for the world, the Holy Spirit supplying them, and thus gladden all under heaven. Come then, letting the mind down into the depths of the thoughts beside them, let us draw the finding of the truth from there.

Farmers, cutting from the fields the most fragrant of the flowers in their seasons, then putting these into baskets, carry them off to their masters; and they both receive them very gladly and delight in what comes from the seasons. But we who have the teaching pursuit, as from a field of the God-breathed Scripture, do not bring a withering sight of flowers, but rather words and the initiation through the Spirit, which has the unfading beauty of the piety toward Christ.