The cross as double, the church as fullness, and the Spirit's gifts

It must be noted that the name of the Father which the apostle reveals did not go up from us to heaven, but came down from heaven to us—clearly because it exists by nature and not merely as a name. For what is figurative must always come after what is natural, and among natural things, what is from above comes first, then what is from below. It must also be noted that he said "fatherhood" as in kinship group, not "clan." For everywhere the divine Scripture calls kinship groups "fatherhoods."

He shaped it more typologically, into the form of a cross. For what else could depth and height and breadth and length be but the nature of the cross? And he seems to speak of the cross as twofold, not single. But since the Lord's divine plan is divinity from above and humanity from below, and the apostolic proclamation stretched from north to south and from east to west, he brought together both the Lord's divine plan and the apostles' service, showing the twofold nature of the divine plan as in a twofold cross. That is why he spoke this way. For he could not simply name the places—above and below—and the line—breadth and length. "That you may be filled into all the fullness of God," that is, the church. For he calls the church the fullness.

"Arise, sleeper," and what follows, we find written nowhere in the Old or the New Testament. What is it then? It was a gift at that time, of both prayer and psalms, with the Spirit prompting, just as he says in the letter to the Corinthians: "Each of you has a psalm, has a prayer" (1 Corinthians 14:26). What is it then? "I will pray with the Spirit, I will pray also with the mind; I will sing with the Spirit, I will sing also with the mind" (1 Corinthians 14:15). It is clear, then, that this which he mentioned lay in one of those spiritual psalms or prayers.

The one who redeems the slave of another redeems him and acquires him. Since the present time is enslaved to the wicked, redeem it, so that you may use it for godliness.

Since the Lamb was offered, we also eat his body. Food is accustomed to be distributed into the body of the one who eats—clearly we eat his body spiritually. It is distributed into our body, and so we are flesh from his flesh and bone from his bones.

Not the mystery, but God. What then is he saying? That this formation of Adam and of Eve from him, and their union, became a type of Christ and the church. For this reason he says: "We are bone from his bones and flesh from his flesh," just as Eve was from Adam. So when he says, "But I am speaking about Christ and the church," he is speaking of the mystery of marriage, meaning that the things according to the marriage law and the original creation are a type of Christ and the church. For this reason he added: "But also you, each one of you, let each one love his own wife as himself." Why did he say "each one of you"? Because the things concerning Adam were a type of the church and of Christ. For this reason he said: "You also, each one, love." For the mystery of which marriage was a type has come to pass and is true, but the type itself must also be fulfilled, and each one must love his own wife.

If the sword is the word of God, and the sword is of the Spirit, then the Spirit whose sword it is, is God. And if he called the Holy Spirit the word of God, clearly just as the Son of God is the Word, so also the Spirit is the word of God. He called the sword of the Spirit the punishing activity of the Spirit.

"Praying in the Spirit" he did not say simply, but because we do not know how to pray as we ought, he says elsewhere: "The Spirit itself intercedes for us" (Romans 8:26), so that our requests may have nothing fleshly. We have spiritual requests aided by the power of the Spirit.

Someone, he says, who is set free from the corruption that comes from the devil receives the grace of the Spirit in incorruption.