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

that 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.