Author: Athanasius of Alexandria
Date: c. AD 318
Related:
• Athanasius of Alexandria
Introduction
About AD 318, Athanasius, a deacon in Alexandria, writes to answer the questions: Why did God the Word become man? What did he accomplish? Why is it impossible to ascribe these things to a created being?
This article is especially important because it was also in this decade that the Alexandrian presbyter Arius began teaching that “there was a time when the Son was not,” challenging the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
On the Incarnation of the Word
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In our last bookAthanasius’s treatise Against the Heathen, we dealt fully enough with a few points about the error of the nations regarding the worship of idols, and how those false fears originally arose. And by God’s grace, we briefly pointed out that the Word of the Father is Himself divine, and his providence and power in all things, that it is through him that the Father gives order to creation. By him all things live and move and have their being.Acts 17:28.
Now, MacariusGreek makarios means “blessed,” so Athanasius may have been writing to a man named Macarius or he may simply have meant, “O blessed one.” , true lover of Christ, let us take a step further in the faith of our religion, and consider also how the Word became Man and was divinely manifest in our midst.
The Jews slander that mystery and the Greeks mock it, but we venerate it. So that, even more because of his apparent degradation, you may have an even greater and fuller piety towards him. For it is a fact that the more unbelievers pour scorn on Him, so much the more does He make His Godhead evident. The things which they, as men, rule out as impossible, he plainly shows to be possible; and what they deride as unworthy, His goodness makes most fitting; and things which these wise men laugh at as merely human, by his own power he shows these to be divine. Thus by what looks like utter poverty and weakness on the cross, he overturns the pretense and parade of the idols, and quietly and hiddenly wins over the mockers and unbelievers to recognize him as God.
In dealing with these matters it is necessary first to recall what has already been said. You must understand why it is that the Word of the Father, so great and so high, has been made manifest in bodily form. He has not assumed a body as if it were proper to his own nature; rather, being by nature bodiless and existing as the Word, by the love for humankind and goodness of his own Father he appeared to us in a human body for our salvation.
So we will begin with the creation of the world and with God its Creator, for the first fact that you must grasp is this: The renewal of creation has been brought about by the Word who made it in the beginning. There is no contradiction if the Father accomplishes its salvation in the same One by whom he created it.
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There have been various opinions about the making of the universe and the creation of all things, and each person has proposed the theory that suited his own taste. Some say that all things have come into being spontaneously and as by chance, such as the Epicureans, who deny that there is any Mind behind the universe at all. This view is contrary to all the facts of experience, including their own existence. For if all things had come into being spontaneously, as they claim, then all things would necessarily have simply come into being and be identical and without difference. In the universe everything would be sun or moon or whatever it was, and in the human body the whole would be a hand or eye or foot. But in fact the sun and the moon and the earth are all different things, and even within the human body there are different members, such as the foot and the hand and the head. This distinctness of things indicates, not a spontaneous generation, but a Cause that preceded them; and from that Cause we can apprehend God, the Designer and Maker of all.
Others take the view expressed by Plato, that giant among the Greeks. He said that God made all things out of uncreated matter that already existed, just as the carpenter makes things only out of wood that already exists. They do not realize that saying such things is to implies that God is weak; just as it is surely a weakness of the carpenter that he cannot make anything unless he has the wood. How could God be called Maker and Creator if his ability to make depended on some other cause, namely on matter itself? If God only worked on existing matter and did not himself bring matter into being, then he would be not the Creator but only a craftsman.
There is also the theory of the Gnostics, who have invented for themselves an artificer of all things other than the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. These people are deeply blinded in what they say. For the Lord said to the Jews, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and will cleave to his wife, and the two will be one flesh.’” Then, referring to the Creator, he says, “What God has put together, let not man put asunder”Matthew 19:4-6.. How can they get a creation independent of the Father out of that? And, again, Saint John makes no exception but says, “All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.”John 1:3. So how could there be another creator besides the Father of Christ?
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Such are the notions which men put forward. But the inspired teaching and faith according to Christ casts out their vain talk as godlessness. From it we know that, because there is Mind behind the universe, it did not originate itself; because God is infinite, not finite, creation was not made from pre-existent matter, but out of absolute and utter nothing, and out of non-existence, God brought it into being through the Word.
He says as much in Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,”Genesis 1:1. and again through that most helpful book The Shepherd, “First of all, believe that there is one God who created and finished all things, and made all things out of nothing.”Shepherd of Hermas 2:1. Paul also indicates the same thing when he says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”Hebrews 11:3.
For God is good, or rather, he is the fountainhead of all goodness, and one who is good grudges nothing, so that grudging nothing its existence, he made all things through his own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. Among all these his earthly creatures he had mercy especially on the human race.
And seeing that, because of the way humanity came into being, it could not endure eternally, he granted a grace which other creatures lacked: He made man in his own image, giving them a share in the power of his own Word; so that, reflecting him and expressing the Mind of God even as he does, they might be able to abide in blessedness, living the true life which is really that of the holy ones in paradise.
But since the will of man could turn either way, God secured this grace that he had given by making it conditional from the first upon two things – namely, a law and a place. He brought them into his own paradise, and gave them a law. If they guarded the grace and retained the loveliness of their original innocence, then the life of paradise should be theirs, without sorrow, pain or care, besides having the promise of their incorruptibility in heaven. But if they transgressed and became evil, they would know that they were incurring that corruption in death according to nature, and no longer live in paradise, but thereafter dying outside of it, would remain in death and in corruption.
This is what holy scripture foretells, proclaiming the command of God, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”Genesis 2:16–18. This “You shall surely die” – what else might it be except not merely to die, but to remain in the corruption of death?
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You may be wondering why we are discussing the origin of men when we set out to talk about the Incarnation of the Word. But this also properly belongs to the aim of our writing.
For speaking of the manifestation of the Savior to us, it is necessary also to speak of the origin of human beings, so that you may know that it was our own cause that caused the Word to come down, our transgression that called out his love for us, so that the Lord both came to us and appeared among human beings.
It is we who were the purpose of his embodiment, and for our salvation he so loved us as to born and manifested in a human body. For this is how God had made man, and had willed that man should remain in incorruption.
But when humans turned from the contemplation of God to evil of their own devising, they came inevitably under the law of death. Instead of remaining in the state in which God had created them, they were in process of becoming corrupted entirely, and death had them completely under its dominion. For the transgression of the commandment was making them turn back again according to their nature; and as at the beginning they had come into being out of non-existence, so now they were on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again.
Humankind, whose nature once did not exist, had been called into being by the presence and love of the Word. Inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it. For it is God alone who is; evil is non-being, the good is being, since it has come into being from the existing God.
By nature, of course, man is mortal, since he was made from nothing; but he bears also the likeness of the One Who Is, and if he preserves that likeness through constant contemplation, then his nature is deprived of its power and he remains incorrupt, as Wisdom says: “The keeping of his laws is the assurance of incorruption.”Wisdom 6:18. And being incorrupt, man would be henceforth as God, as holy scripture says, “I said you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High; but you die like men and fall like any prince.”Psalm 81:6-7.
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God had not only made us out of nothing, but had also granted life according to God, by the grace of the Word. But men, turning from eternal things to things corruptible, by counsel of the devil, had themselves become the cause of corruption in death. For, as we said before, though they were by nature subject to corruption, the grace of their participation in the Word granted them to escape from the natural law, had they remained good.
Because of the Word present in them, even natural corruption did not come near them, just as Wisdom says, “God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death entered the world.”Wisdom 2:23-24.
When this happened, humans began to die, and corruption prevailed among them and held sway over them to an even more than natural degree, because it was the penalty of which God had forewarned them for transgressing the commandment. For even in their transgressions, for, having invented wickedness in the beginning and so involved themselves in death and corruption, they had gone on gradually from bad to worse, not stopping at any one kind of evil, but continually, as with insatiable appetite, devising new kinds of sins.
Adulteries and thefts were everywhere, murder and plunder filled the earth, law was disregarded in corruption and injustice, all kinds of iniquities were carried out by all, both individually and jointly. Cities warred against cities, and nations rose up against nations, and the whole earth was torn apart with factions and battles, while each strove to outdo the other in wickedness. Even acts contrary to nature were not far from them, but as the martyr and apostle of Christ says: “Their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving natural relations with the woman, were consumed in their lust for one another, men committing shameful acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.”Romans 1:26-27
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For these reasons, then, because death and corruption were gaining ever firmer hold on them, the human race was perishing. Man, who was created rationalRational in the original is logikos, from logos, meaning word or reason. Athanasius will continue to emphasize this connection between the race of man, created rational in the image of God, and Christ himself, the Word of God. and in God’s image was disappearing, and the work of God was being undone. For by the law, death, which followed from the transgression, prevailed against us, and from the law there was no escape, for it had been established by God because of the transgression.
The thing that was happening was in truth both monstrous and unfitting. It would, of course, have been unthinkable that God should go back upon His word and that man, having transgressed, should not die; but it was equally monstrous that beings which once had shared the nature of the Word should perish and turn back again into non-existence through corruption.
It was unworthy of the goodness of God that who had been made rational and partakers of the Word should perish, and once again return to non-being through corruption. And it was unworthy of the goodness of God that those created by him should be corrupted through the deceit wrought by the devil upon men; and it was especially improper that the workmanship of God in human beings should be done away, either through their own negligence or through the deceit of the demons.
So, as the rational creatures were being corrupted and such works were perishing, what then was God, being good, to do? Was He to let corruption and death have their way with them? In that case, what was the use of having made them in the beginning? Surely it would have been better never to have been created at all than, having been created, to be neglected and perish; and, besides that, such indifference to the ruin of His own work before His very eyes would argue not goodness in God but limitation – and that far more than if He had never created man at all. It was impossible, therefore, that God should leave man to be carried off by corruption, because it would be unfitting and unworthy of the goodness of God.
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Yet, while this is true, it is not the whole matter. As we have already noted, it was unthinkable that God, the Father of Truth, should go back upon His word regarding death in order to ensure our continued existence. He could not falsify Himself; what, then, was God to do? Was He to demand repentance from men for their transgression? You might say that that was worthy of God, and argue further that, just as through the transgression they became subject to corruption, so through repentance they might return to incorruption again. But repentance would not guard the consistency of God. For he again would not have remained true if human beings were not held fast by death, for repentance does not recall men from what is natural; all that it does is to make them cease from sinning. If it were only a case of an offence, and not of a subsequent corruption, then repentance would have been well enough; but once transgression had begun, men came under the power of natural corruption, and were deprived of the grace of being in the image of God.
No, repentance could not meet the case. What – or rather Who was needed for such grace and such recalling as we required? Who, but the Word of God himself, who also in the beginning had made all things out of nothing? It was his once more to bring the corruptible to incorruptibility and to maintain for the Father his consistency of character above all. For he alone, being the Word of the Father and above all, was as a result both able to recreate everything, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father.
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For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world. In one sense, indeed, he was not far from it before, for no part of creation had ever been without him who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things in every place. But now he entered the world in a new way, condescending to us in his love and manifestation to us.
He saw the rational race wasting out of existence, and death reigning over them through corruption. He saw that corruption held us all the closer, because it was the penalty for the transgression. And he saw how unthinkable it would be for the law to be dissolved before it was fulfilled. He saw how unseemly it was that the very things of which he himself was the Creator should be disappearing. And seeing how the surpassing wickedness of men was mounting up against them, he saw also their universal liability to death.
All this He saw and had mercy on our race, moved with compassion for our limitation, unable to endure that death should have the mastery, rather than let his creatures perish and the work of his Father for mankind should be in vain, he took for himself a body, a human body no different from our own. Nor did he will merely to become embodied or merely to appear; had that been so, he could have revealed his divine majesty in some other and better way. No, he took our body – and not only so, but directly from a spotless, stainless virgin, without the agency of human father, a pure body, unmixed from intercourse with man.
The Mighty One, the Creator of all, prepared this body in the virgin as a temple for himself, and made it his own, as the instrument, making himself known and dwelling in it. Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, he surrendered his body to death on behalf of all, and offered it to the Father.
This He did out of love for us, so that in his death all might die, and the law of death thereby be undone because – having in his body fulfilled that for which it was appointed – it was thereafter voided of its power against men. He did this so that as human beings had turned towards corruption he might turn them again to incorruptibility and give them life from death by making the body his own, and by the grace of His resurrection banishing death from them as straw from the fire.
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The Word perceived that corruption could not be got rid of otherwise than through death; yet he himself, as the Word, being immortal and as the Son of the Father, was not able to die. For this reason, therefore, he assumed a body capable of death, in order that it, through participating in the Word who is above all, might be sufficient for death on behalf of all; and, remaining incorruptible through his indwelling, it might thereafter put an end to corruption for all others as well, by the grace of the resurrection.
It was by surrendering to death the body he had taken, as an offering holy and free from spot, that he immediately abolished death for all who were like him, by offering the like. For since the Word of God was above all, when he offered his own temple and bodily instrument as a substitute for the life of all, he fulfilled in death all that was required. Naturally also, through this union of the immortal Son of God with our human nature, we were all clothed with incorruptibility in the promise of the resurrection.
For the solidarity of mankind is such that, by virtue of the Word’s indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all. Just as when a great king enters a large city and dwells in one of its houses; because of his dwelling in that single house, the whole city is honored, and enemies and robbers cease to descend on it. Even so is it with the King of all; he has come into our country and dwelt in one body like the others, and so the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled, and the corruption of death, which formerly held them in its power, has perished. For the human race would have been utterly dissolved had not the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, come among us to put an end to death.
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In truth this great work was supremely worthy of the goodness of God. For if a king founded a house or a city, and it is attacked by bandits because of the carelessness of its inhabitants, he in no way abandons it, but avenges it and reclaims it as his own work, having regard not to the people’s neglect but rather to his own honor. Much more, then, God the Word of the all-good Father did not neglect the human race that he had created, when it was going to corruption; but rather he blotted out the death which had occurred through the offering of his own body, and corrected their carelessness by his own teaching. In this way he restored the whole nature of man by his own power.
One may be convinced of these things by the theologians of the Savior himself, who have said, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ.”2 Corinthians 5:14–15 And again another says: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”Hebrews 2:9. The same writer goes on to point out why it was necessary for none other than God the Word to become incarnate: “For it became Him, for Whom are all things and through Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering.”Hebrews 2:10.
He means that bringing mankind back from corruption belonged only to him who made them in the beginning. He points out also that the Word assumed a human body, expressly in order that he might offer it in sacrifice for other bodies like his own: “Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself assumed the same, in order that through death He might bring to nought Him that hath the power of death, that is to say, the Devil, and might rescue those who all their lives were enslaved by the fear of death.”Hebrews 2:14-16.
For by the sacrifice of his own body he did two things: He put an end to the law of death which was against us; and he made a new beginning of life for us, by giving us the hope of resurrection.
For since by man death seized power over men; so by the Word made Man death has been destroyed and life raised up anew. That is what Paul says, that true servant of Christ: “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. Just as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,”1 Corinthians 15:21-22 and that which follows.
Now, therefore, when we die, we no longer do so as men condemned to death, but as those who will arise; we await the common resurrection of all, which God, who brought this about and granted it to us, “in his own time will reveal.”1 Timothy 6:15; Titus 1:3.
This, therefore, is the first cause of the Savior’s becoming Man. But there are other reasons that show how wholly fitting is his gracious coming into our midst; and these we must now go on to consider.
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When God, who has the power over all things. was making mankind through his own Word, he saw the weakness of their nature, that it was not sufficient of itself to know its Maker, nor to get any idea at all of God. He took pity on them, therefore, and did not leave them destitute of the knowledge of himself, lest their very existence should prove purposeless.
For he is uncreated whereas they had come into being from nothing, and as he is incorporeal whereas human beings had been fashioned here below with a body; and because in every way the things made fell far short of understanding and knowing their Maker, he had mercy on the human race. Because he is good, he did not leave them deprived of the knowledge of himself, lest they should find no profit in existing at all.
For of what use is existence to the ones who were made if they could not know their Maker? How could men be reasonable beings if they had no knowledge of the Word and Reason of the Father, through whom they came to be? Mankind would not have differed at all from the irrational animals if they had knowledge of nothing but earthly things.
And why would God have made them at all if he did not wish to be known by them?
But, in fact, the good God has given them a share in his own Image, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and has made them after the same image and likeness. Why So that, understanding through such grace the image – the Word of the Father – through him they might be able to receive a notion of the Father; and through Him to apprehend the Father; and knowing their Maker they might live the only happy and truly blessed life.
But, as we have already seen, men became foolish, and thought nothing of the grace they had received, and turned away from God. They darkened their own soul so completely that they not only lost the idea of God, but invented for themselves other gods of various kinds. They fashioned idols for themselves in place of the truth, and honored things that are not, rather than God who is, as St. Paul says, “worshipping the creature rather than the Creator.”Romans 1:25.
But worst of all, they transferred the honor which is due to God to wood and stones and to every material object, and even to human beings; and went even further, as we said in our former book. Indeed, they were so darkened that they worshipped demons as gods in fulfilling their own lusts. They sacrificed irrational animals and offered human sacrifices as these gods demanded, and in this way brought themselves more and more under their insane control. Magic arts were taught among them, oracles in various places led men astray, and the cause of everything in human life was traced to the stars as though nothing existed but what can be seen.
Impiety and lawlessness were everywhere, and neither God nor his Word were known. Yet he had not hidden himself from the sight of men nor given the knowledge of himself in only one way; but rather he had unfolded it in many forms and by many ways.
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The grace of being made in the image of God was sufficient to know the Word, and through him the Father. But as a safeguard against their neglect of this grace, he provided the works of creation so that they might not be ignorant of the Creator.
But since men’s carelessness descended gradually to lower and lower things, God made provision by giving them a law, and by sending prophets, men whom they knew. So that if they were not ready to look up to heaven, they might still gain knowledge of their Maker from those close at hand. For men can learn directly about higher things from other men.
Three ways thus lay open to them, by which they might obtain the knowledge of God. They could look up into the immensity of heaven, and by pondering the harmony of creation come to know its Ruler, the Word of the Father, whose providence for all things makes the Father known to all. Or, if they were not ready for this, they could converse with holy men, and through them learn to know God, the Creator of all things, the Father of Christ, and recognize that the worship of idols is godlessness and full of all impiety. Or else, in the third place, they could cease from lawlessness and lead a good life merely by knowing the law. For the law was not given only for the Jews, nor was it solely for their sake that God sent the prophets, though it was to the Jews that they were sent and by the Jews that they were persecuted. The law and the prophets were a sacred school of the knowledge of God and the conduct of the spiritual life for the whole world.
So great, indeed, were the goodness and the love of God. Yet men, bowed down by the pleasures of the moment and by the frauds and illusions of the demons, did not lift up their eyes towards the truth, but sated themselves with evils and sins so that they seemed to be irrational animals, not reasonable men reflecting the likeness of the Word.
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What was God to do, then, in face of this dehumanizing of mankind, this universal hiding of the knowledge of himself by the wiles of evil spirits? Keep silence before so great a wrong and let men go on being deceived and kept in ignorance of himself? If so, what was the point of having made them in his own image in the beginning? Then it would have been better for them always to have been brutes, rather than to be made in the image of the Word and then to live like animals.
What was the use of man’s ever having had the knowledge of God? Surely it would have been better for God never to have bestowed it, than that men should subsequently be found unworthy to receive it.
And what possible profit could it be to the God who made men, if when made they did not worship him, but regarded others as their makers? He would be found to have made them for others and not for himself. Even an earthly king, though he is only a man, does not allow lands that he possesses to pass into other hands or to go over to other rulers, but he sends letters and friends and even visits them himself to recall them to their allegiance, rather than allow His work to be undone. How much more, then, will God be patient and painstaking with his creatures, that they be not led astray from him to the service of things that do not exist? Especially when such error means for them the cause of their ruin and undoing, and because it is not right that those who had once shared his image should perish.
What then was God to do? What else could he possibly do, being God, but renew his image in mankind, so that through it men might once more come to know him? And how could this be done save by the coming of the very image himself, our Savior Jesus Christ? Men could not have done it, for they are only made “in the image,”Genesis 1:26. nor could angels have done it, for they are not even images of God. The Word of God came himself, because he alone, the image of the FatherColossians 1:15., could recreate man made after the image.
But in order to effect this re-creation, first he had to do away with death and corruption. So he rightly assumed a human body, so that in it death might once for all be destroyed, and that men be renewed again according to the image. Only the image of the Father was sufficient for this need.
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You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through stains from outside. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait must come again, and then the likeness is repainted on the same material. Even so the all-holy Son of God, the image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst, to renew mankind made according to himself, and seek out his lost sheep, even as he says in the Gospel: “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.”Luke 19:10. This also explains his saying to the Jews: “Except a man be born anew.”John 3:5. He was not referring to a man’s natural birth from his mother, as they thought, but to the re-birth and re-creation of the soul in the image of God.
But when the madness of idolatry and godlessness filled the world and the knowledge of God was hidden, whose part was it to teach the world about the Father? A man, one might say? But a man cannot traverse the whole world, nor would their words carry sufficient weight if they did; nor were they able by themselves to withstand the deceit and illusion of the demons. For since even the best of men were confused and blinded by the deceit and illusion of demons, how could they convert the souls and minds of others? You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself.
But perhaps you will say, then, that creation was enough to teach men about the Father. But if that had been so, such great evils would never have occurred. For there was creation already, but it did not prevent men from wallowing in error.
Again, it was God the Word, who sees both soul and mind, who moves everything in creation, who alone could meet the needs of the situation. He alone, whose ordering of the universe reveals the Father, could renew the same teaching.
But how could it be done? Perhaps by the same means as before, through the works of creation. But this was no longer a sure means. Quite the contrary; for men had already missed seeing this before, and had turned their eyes no longer upward but downward.
So, rightly wishing to do good to men, he sojourned here as a man, taking to himself a body like theirs; and through his actions done in that body, on their own level, he taught those who would not learn by other means to know himself, the Word of God, and through him the Father.
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He deals with them as a good teacher with his pupils, coming down to their level and using simple means, as Paul says: “Because in the wisdom of God the world in its wisdom knew not God, God thought fit through the simplicity of the news proclaimed to save those who believe.”1 Corinthians 1:21.
Men had turned from the contemplation of God above, and were looking for him in the opposite direction, down among created things and things of sense. The Savior of us all, the Word of God, in His great love took to himself a body and moved as Man among men, meeting their senses, so to speak, halfway. He became himself an object for the senses, so that those who were seeking God in sensible things might apprehend the Father through the works which he, the Word of God, did in the body. Human and human-minded as men were, therefore, to whichever side they looked in the sensible world they found themselves taught the truth. Were they awe-struck by creation? They beheld creation confessing Christ as Lord. Did their minds tend to regard men as gods? The uniqueness of the Savior’s works marked him, alone of men, as Son of God. Were they drawn to demons? They saw the demons driven out by the Lord and learned that the Word of God alone was God, and that the evil spirits were not gods at all. Were they inclined to hero-worship and the cult of the dead? Then the fact that the Savior had risen from the dead showed them how false these other deities were, and that the Word of the Father is the one true Lord, the Lord even of death.
This is the reason he both born and manifested as Man, for this he died and rose – eclipsing all other human works by his own works and recalling men from all the paths of error to know the Father. As he says himself, “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.”Luke 19:10
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When the minds of men had descended to the level of perceptible things, then the Word submitted to appear in a body, so that, as a Man, he might center their senses on himself, and convince them through his human acts that he is not only a Man but God, the Word and Wisdom of the true God.
This is what Paul tells us when he says: “That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and height and depth, and to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge, so that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God.”Ephesians 3:17-19.
For the Word revealed himself everywhere – above, in creation; below, in the incarnation; in the depth, in hades; in the breadth, throughout the world. All things have been filled with the knowledge of God.Cf. Habakkuk 2:14.
For this reason he did not offer the sacrifice on behalf of all immediately when he appeared. For if he had surrendered his body to death and then raised it again at once, we would have seen nothing of him. Instead of that, he stayed in his body and let himself be seen in it, doing acts and giving signs that showed him to be not only a man, but God the Word.
There were thus two things which the Savior did for us by becoming man. He banished death from us and renewed us; and, though he was invisible and imperceptible, he became visible through his works and revealed himself as the Word of the Father, the Ruler and King of the universe.
17
The Word was not enclosed in his body, nor did his presence in the body prevent his being present elsewhere as well. When he moved his body he did not cease also to direct the universe by his providence. Rather, the marvelous truth is that, being the Word, he was not contained by anything, but rather himself contained all things.
In creation he is present everywhere. He is in essence outside everything but fills all things by his own power, ordering, directing, giving life to all, containing all yet not being contained, being wholly, in every respect, in his Father alone. So also, being in a human body, to which he himself gives life, he is the Source of life to all the universe, present in every part of it, yet outside the whole; and he is revealed both through the works of His body and through his activity in the world.
It is, indeed, the function of soul to behold things that are outside the body through thought, but it cannot affect or move things at a distance. A man cannot transport things from one place to another, for instance, merely by thinking about them; nor can you or I move the sun and the stars just by sitting at home and looking at them.
But for the Word of God in his human nature, it was otherwise. His body was not a limitation for him, but an instrument, so that he was both in it and in all things, and outside all things, resting in the Father alone. And the wonderful thing is that at one and the same time, as Man he was living a human life, and as the Word he was sustaining the life of the universe, and as the Son he was in constant union with the Father.
So that not even his birth from a virgin changed him in any way, nor was he defiled by being in the body – rather, he made the body holy by being in it. For his being in everything does not mean that he shares the nature of everything, only that he gives all things their being and sustains them in it. Just as the sun is not polluted by the contact of its rays with earthly objects, but rather enlightens and purifies them, so much more the all-holy Word of God, the Lord who made the sun, is not polluted by being made known in a body. Rather, the body is cleansed and quickened by the indwelling of the incorruptible One, “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.”Cf. 1 Peter 2:22; Isaiah 53:9.
18
You must understand, therefore, that when writers on this matter speak of him as eating and drinking and being born, they mean that the body, as a body, was born and sustained with the food proper to its nature; even as God the Word, present in the body yet arranging all things, made known through the works wrought in the body that he was not himself a human being but God the Word. Those acts are rightly said to be His acts, because the body which did them did indeed belong to him and no one else; and it was right for these things to be said of him as a man, to show that his body was a real one and not merely an appearance. From such ordinary acts as being born and taking food, he was recognized as being actually present in the body; but by the extraordinary acts which he did through the body, he proved himself to be the Son of God. This is why he said to the unbelieving Jews: “If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not; but if I do, even if ye believe not Me, believe My works, that ye may know that the Father is in Me and I in the Father.”John 10:37–38.
Though he is invisible, he is known from the works of creation. So also, when his Godhead is veiled in human nature, His bodily acts still declare him to be not man only, but the Power and Word of God.
To speak authoritatively to evil spirits, for example, and to drive them out, is not a human act but a divine one; and who could see him curing all the diseases to which mankind is prone, and still think he is human and not God? He cleansed lepers, he made the lame to walk, he opened the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind; there was no sickness or weakness that he did not drive away. Even the most casual observer can see that these were acts of God. The healing of the man born blind, for instance: Who but the Father and Maker of man, could thus have restored the faculty denied at birthLiterally, at genesis. unless he is himself the Lord of creation?Literally, Lord of genesis.
Therefore, when he came down to us in the beginning, he fashioned for himself a body from the Virgin, in order to provide to all no small proof of his divinity, since he who made the body was the maker of everything else as well. And who, seeing this body coming forth from a Virgin alone without man, would not think that he who is revealed in this body is the Maker and Lord of other bodies also?
Again, consider the miracle at Cana. Would not anyone who saw the substance of water turned into wine understand that he who did it was the Lord and Maker of the water that he changed? It was for the same reason that he walked on the sea as on dry land – to prove to all who saw that he had mastery over all. And the feeding of the multitude, when he made little into much, so that from five loaves five thousand mouths were filled – did that not prove him none other than the very Lord whose providence is over all?
19
All these things the Savior thought fit to do, so that, recognizing his bodily acts as works of God, men who were blind to his presence in creation might regain knowledge of the Father. For, as I said before, who, seeing his authority over demons and their response to it, could doubt that he was, indeed, the Son, the Wisdom and the Power of God?
He made even the creation itself break silence, in that in his death, most wonderfully, before the cross, that monument of victory, all creation confessed with one voice that he who was revealed and suffered in the body was not merely a man but Son of God and Savior of all. The sun veiled its face, the earth quaked, the mountains were rent asunder, all men were struck with awe. These things showed that Christ on the cross was God, and that all creation was his servant and was bearing witness by its fear to its Master’s presence. In this way, then, God the Word revealed himself to men through his works.
We must next consider the end of his earthly life and the nature of his bodily death, especially since this is the very center of our faith, and everywhere you hear men speak of it. And by it, too, no less than by his other acts, Christ is revealed as God and Son of God.
20
We have dealt as far as circumstances and our own understanding permit with the reason for his manifestation in the body. We have seen that to change the corruptible to incorruption was proper to none other than the Savior himself, who in the beginning made all things out of nothing; that only the Image of the Father could re-create the likeness of the Image in men, that none save our Lord Jesus Christ could give immortality to mortals, and that only the Word who orders all things and is alone the Father’s true and only-begotten Son could teach men about him and abolish the worship of idols.
But beyond all this, there was a debt owing which needed to be paid; for, as I said before, all men were due to die. Here, then, is the second reason why the Word dwelt among us: So that having proved his divinity by his works, he might offer the sacrifice on behalf of all, surrendering his own temple to death in place of all, to settle man’s account with death and free him from the primal transgression. In this act he showed himself mightier than death, displaying his own body as incorruptible, the first-fruits of the resurrection of all.
You must not be surprised if we repeat ourselves in dealing with this subject. We are speaking of the good pleasure of God and of the things which he in his loving wisdom thought fit to do, and it is better to put the same thing in several ways than to run the risk of leaving something out.
Therefore the body of the Word, being a real human body, in spite of its having been uniquely formed from a virgin, was mortal and, like other bodies it was liable to death. Yet by the coming of the Word into it, it was no longer corruptible by its own nature, but because of the indwelling Word of God, corruption could not touch it. Thus it happened that two opposite marvels took place at once: the death of all was consummated in the Lord’s body; yet, because the Word was in it, death and corruption were in the same act utterly abolished. Death there had to be, and death for all, so that the due of all might be paid. Therefore, as I said, the Word, since he was immortal, assumed a mortal body so that he might offer it as his own in place of all, and suffering for the sake of all through his union with it, “he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage”Hebrews 2:14-15.
21
Now that the common Savior of all has died on our behalf, we who believe in Christ no longer die as before, according to the threat of the law. That condemnation has come to an end. But now, corruption has been destroyed by the grace of the resurrection, and henceforth according to the mortality of the body we are dissolved only for the time which God has set for each, “that we may obtain thereby a better resurrection.”Hebrews 11:35. Like seeds cast into the earth, we do not perish in our dissolution, but like them we shall rise again, death having been destroyed by the grace of the Savior. That is why blessed Paul, who became a guarantor of the resurrection to all, says: “This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality; but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?’”1 Corinthians 15:53–55.
“Well then,” some people may say, “if the essential thing was that he should surrender his body to death in place of all, why did he not do so as a man privately, instead of going so far as to be crucified? For it would have been more fitting for him to have laid aside his body with honor than to endure such a shameful death. But look at this argument closely, and see how merely human it is, whereas what the Savior did was truly divine and worthy of his divinity for several reasons. First, the death of men under ordinary circumstances is the result of the weakness of their nature. They are essentially impermanent, so after a time they fall ill, and when worn out they die. But the Lord is not weak; he is the Power of God, the Word of God and the very Life himself.
If He had died quietly in his bed like other men it would have looked as if he did so in accordance with nature, and as though he were indeed no more than other men. But because he was himself Word and Life and Power, his body was made strong; and because the death had to be accomplished, he took the occasion to complete the sacrifice, not from himself but from others. For it was not fitting either that the Lord should fall ill, who healed the sicknesses of others; nor again for that body to lose its strength, in which he strengthened to the weaknesses of others also. Here, again, you may say, why then did he not prevent death, as he did sickness? Because it was precisely in order to be able to die that he had taken a body, and to prevent the death would have been to impede the resurrection. And it was equally unfitting for sickness to precede his death, lest it should be thought weakness on the part of him who was in the body. Did he not hunger, then? Yes, he hungered, because that was the property of the body, but he did not die of hunger because he whose body hungered was the Lord. Therefore though he died for the ransom of all, “he did not see corruption”Cf. Acts 2:31; 13:35; Psalm 15:10. but his body rose in perfect soundness, for it belonged to none other than the Life himself.
22
One might say, that it would have been better for the Lord to have avoided the designs of the Jews against him, to preserve his body from death altogether. But see how unfitting this also would have been for him. For it would not have been fitting for the Word and the Life to inflict death Himself on His own body, so also it was suitable to flee a death inflicted by others. Rather, he pursued it to the uttermost, and in pursuance of his nature neither laid aside his body of his own accord nor escaped the plotting of the Jews. This action showed no limitation or weakness in the Word; for he both waited for death in order to make an end of it, and hastened to complete it for the salvation of all. In addition, since it was not his own death that the Savior came to complete, but that of all mankind, he did not lay aside His body by a death of his own, for he had none, being the Life; but he accepted death at the hands of men, thereby completely to destroy it in his own body.
Again, from the following also one might understand the Lord’s body meeting this end. The supreme object of his coming was to bring about the resurrection of the body. The Lord was especially concerned for the resurrection of the body which he was set to accomplish. For he was about to show the incorruption of his own body to all as a monument of victory over death and the blotting out of corruption, a pledge of the future resurrection.
If his body had fallen sick, and the Word had been separated from it in the sight of all, how unbecoming that he who healed the diseases of others should permit his own instrument to waste in illness! How would his miracles of healing be believed, if this were so? People would either laugh at him as unable to drive out disease or else consider him lacking in proper human feeling because he could do so, but did not.
23
But if, without any illness, he had just concealed his body somewhere privately, “in a corner,”Acts 26:26. and then suddenly reappeared and said that he had risen from the dead. he would have been regarded merely as a teller of tales; and because there was no witness of his death, nobody would believe his resurrection. Death must precede resurrection, for there could be no resurrection without it. A secret and unwitnessed death would have left the resurrection without any proof or evidence to support it.
Again, since he proclaimed his resurrection openly, why would he die a secret death? Why should he drive out evil spirits in the sight of all, and heal the man blind from birth and change water into wine, in order to convince men that he was the Word, yet not also declare publicly that incorruptibility of his mortal body, so that he might himself be believed to be the Life? And how could his disciples have had boldness in speaking of the resurrection unless they could state it as a fact that he had first died? Or how could their hearers be expected to believe their assertion, unless they themselves also had witnessed his death? For if the Pharisees at the time refused to believe and forced others to deny also, even though the things had happened before their very eyes, then how many excuses for unbelief would they have contrived if it had taken place secretly? How could the end of death and the victory over it be demonstrated, unless the Lord challenged it before the sight of all, proving by the incorruption of his body that henceforward death was null and void?
24
We must also answer some other questions that might be asked. Some might wonder, even if witnessing a public death was necessary in order that the resurrection may be believed, then he ought to have arranged an honorable death for himself, and avoided the shame of the cross. But even this would have given ground for suspicion that his power over death was limited to the particular kind of death which he chose for himself; and again, that would furnish excuse for disbelieving the resurrection. So, death came to his body not from himself but from enemy action, in order that the Savior might utterly abolish death in whatever form they offered it to him. A noble wrestler, manly and strong, does not choose his antagonists for himself, lest it be thought that he is afraid of some of them. Rather, he lets the spectators choose them, especially if they are hostile, so that he may overthrow anyone they match against him and thus show forth his superior strength.
Even so Christ, the Life of all, our Lord and Savior, did not arrange the manner of his own death lest he should seem to be afraid of some other kind of death, but accepted and endured on the cross a death inflicted by others, specifically by his enemies, a death which to them was supremely terrible and humiliating; and he did this in order that, by destroying even this death, he might himself be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be finally annihilated.
Something marvelous and mighty has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat. Therefore he neither endured the death of John, who was beheaded, nor was he sawn asunder, like Isaiah: even in death he preserved his body whole and undivided, so that there should be no excuse for those who would divide the Church.
25
So much for the objections of those outside the Church. But if anyone from among us, not from love of debate, but from love of learning, wants to know why he suffered death on the cross and not in some other way, we answer that in no other way was it expedient for us, indeed it was good that the Lord endured this for us. He had come to bear the curse that lay on us; and how could he “become a curse”Galatians 3:13. otherwise than by accepting death according to the curse? And that death is the cross, for it is written “Cursed is every one that hangs on tree.”Deuteronomy 21:23. Again, the death of the Lord is the ransom of all, and by it “the middle wall of partition”Ephesians 2:14. is broken down and the calling of the nations comes about. How could he have called us if he had not been crucified? For it is only on the cross that a man dies with arms outstretched. Therefore it was fitting for the Lord to bear this also and to spread out His hands; with the one to draw His ancient people, and with the other those from the nations, and unite both together in himself. For this is what he himself said, indicating the manner of his death,John 12:33. “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Myself.”John 12:32.
The devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from heaven, wanders about our lower atmosphere, and lords it here over his fellow spirits, his equals in disobedience. Through them he not only works illusions in deceived people, but tries to prevent them from ascending upward. About this the apostle says, “According to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”Ephesians 2:2. But the Lord came to overthrow the devil, to purify the air, and to open up for us the way to heaven, as the apostle says, “through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.”Hebrews 10:20. This had to be done through death, and by what other kind of death could it be done, save by a death in the air, that is, on the cross? for only he that completes his life on the cross dies in the air. So it was fitting that the Lord suffered this death; for being lifted up, He cleansed the air from all the evil influence of the enemy, saying, “I beheld Satan as lightning falling,”Luke 10:18. and opening the road to heaven, saying again, “Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors.”Psalm 23:7. For it was not the Word himself who needed the gates opened since he is Lord of all, nor was any of his works closed to their Maker. No, it was we who needed it, we whom he himself carried up in his own body – that body which he first offered to death on behalf of all, and then made through it a path to heaven.
26
The death on the Cross for our sakes has therefore proved suitable and fitting; and we can see how reasonable it was, and why the salvation of the world could be accomplished in no other way. Even on the cross he did not hide himself from sight; rather, he made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker. Then, having once let it be seen that the temple of his body was truly dead, he did not allow it to remain so for long, but immediately on the third day raised it up, impassable and incorruptible, the pledge and token of his victory over death.
Of course it was within his power to have raised his body and shown it alive immediately after death. But the all-wise Savior did not do this. For some would have denied that it had really or completely died. Besides this, had the interval between his death and resurrection been only two days, the glory of his incorruption might not have appeared. He waited one whole day to show that his body was really dead, and then on the third day showed it to all as incorruptible. The interval was not longer than this, for people might have forgotten about it and grown doubtful whether this were in truth the same body. No, while the affair was still ringing in their ears and their eyes were still straining and their minds in turmoil, and while those who had put him to death were still on the spot and witnessing to the fact of it, the Son of God after three days showed forth the body which had been dead as immortal and incorruptible; and it was evident to all that the body in which the Word dwelt had died, not from any natural weakness, but so that death might be destroyed in it through the power of the Savior.
27
A very strong proof that death has been destroyed and conquered by the cross is supplied by the fact that all the disciples of Christ disdain death. They take up the offensive against it and, instead of fearing it, they trample on it by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ, like a dead thing. Before the divine sojourn of the Savior, even the holiest of men were afraid of death, and mourned the dead as those who perish. But now that the Savior has raised his body, death is no longer fearsome, but all those who believe in Christ trample it underfoot as nothing, and would rather die than deny their faith in Christ. For they know well that when they die they do not perish, but truly live become incorruptible through the resurrection. But that devil who formerly exulted wickedly in death, “its pangs having been loosed,”Acts 2:24. is now the only one who remains truly dead.
There is proof of this, too. For before people believe in Christ, they fear death and are terrified by it; but after they are converted, they disdain death so completely that they go eagerly to meet it, and thereby become witnessesOr “martyrs” (Greek: martyres). of the Savior’s resurrection. Even the young hasten to die, and not only men but women exercise themselves by bodily discipline to meet it. Death has become so weak that even women, who used to be deceived by it, now mock it as dead and paralyzed. Death has become like a tyrant who is completely conquered by a real king, and bound hand and foot. All who pass by laugh him to scorn, buffeting and reviling him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. Death has been conquered and exposed by the Savior on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, and all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and deride it, scoffing and saying, “O Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting?”1 Corinthians 15:55.
28
Is this a weak proof of the weakness of death, do you think? Or is it only a slight indication of the Savior’s victory over it, when boys and young girls in Christ look beyond this present life and train themselves to die? Everyone is by nature afraid of death and of bodily dissolution; the most amazing thing is that the one who has put on the faith of the cross scorns this natural fear and is no longer afraid because of the cross.
The natural property of fire is to burn. Suppose that there was a substance such as the Indian asbestos is said to be, which had no fear of being burnt, but rather showed forth the weakness of fire by proving itself unburnable. Then anyone who did not believe the story, if he wished to put it to the test, could put on the fireproof material and touch the fire, thereby being convinced of the weakness of the fire. Or if anyone wanted to see the tyrant bound and helpless, who used to be such a terror to others, he could do so simply by going into the country of the tyrant’s conqueror. Even so, if anyone still doubts the conquest of death, even after such great things and after so many have become martyrs in Christ, after the daily scorn shown towards death by his truest servants, he certainly would do well to marvel at so great a thing, but let him not be obstinate in unbelief and shameless in the face of plain facts. Rather, he must be like the man who proves the property of the asbestos, and like him who enters the conqueror’s dominions to see the tyrant bound, and he must embrace the faith of Christ, this disbeliever in the conquest of death, and come to his teaching. Then he will see how powerless death is and how completely conquered. For many who at first disbelieved and mocked, afterward believed, and so scorned death as even themselves to become martyrs for Christ’s sake.
29
Now if it is by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ that death is trampled down, then it is clear that Christ alone is the victor who has displayed trophies and victories over death, and robbed it of its power. Death used to be strong and terrible, but now, since the sojourn of the Savior and the death and resurrection of his body, it is despised; and obviously it is by the Christ who was raised up on the cross that death has been destroyed and conquered. When the sun rises after the night and the whole world is lit up by it, nobody doubts that it is the sun which has shed its light everywhere and driven away the dark. So also, now that death has been despised and trampled down since the saving manifestation of the Savior in the body and the consummation of the cross, it is clear that he is the Savior: Revealed in the body, destroying death, and daily displaying the trophies against it in his disciples.
For when you see men, weak by nature, hastening to death, not fearing the prospect of corruption, fearless of the descent into Hades, but even with eager soul challenging it, not shrinking from torture, but rather for the sake of Christ preferring instead of this present life to rush toward death; or if you see with your own eyes men and women and children, welcoming death for the sake of devotion to Christ, who is so silly or incredulous or maimed in your mind as not to realize that Christ, to whom these all bear witness, is the one who gives the victory to each, making death completely powerless over those who keep his faith and bear the sign of the cross?
No one in his right mind doubts that a snake is dead when he sees it trampled underfoot, especially when he knows how savage it used to be; nor, if he sees boys making fun of a lion, does he doubt that it is either dead or has completely lost all its strength. These things can be seen with our own eyes, and it is the same with the conquest of death. Doubt no longer, then, when you see death mocked and scorned by those who believe in Christ, that by Christ death has been destroyed, and its corruption dissolved and brought to end.
30
What we have said so far is no small proof that death has been destroyed and that the cross of the Lord is the monument to his victory. But the resurrection of the body to immortality, which now results from the work of Christ, the common Savior and true Life of all, is more effectively proved by facts than by words to those whose mental vision is sound.
For if death has been destroyed, as we have shown, and everyone tramples it down because of Christ, then all the more he himself trampled and destroyed it in his own body. Death having been slain by Christ, what other result could there be, than the rising of his body and its being shown forth as the trophy of his victory? How could the destruction of death have been revealed at all, if the Lord’s body had not been raised? But if anyone finds proof of his resurrection is not sufficient, then let him be assured by what takes place before his eyes.
Dead men cannot take action; their power lasts only till the grave. Deeds and actions toward others belong only to the living. So look at the facts in this case; the Savior is working mightily among men, and every day he is invisibly persuading many people all over the world, both within the Greek-speaking world and beyond, to turn to his faith and be obedient to his teaching. Can anyone still doubt whether the resurrection has been accomplished by the Savior, or that he is himself the Life? Does a dead man prick the consciences of men, so that they deny the traditions of their fathers and bow down before the teaching of Christ? If he is no longer active in the world, as is proper to the dead, then how is it that he causes the living to cease from their activities – the adulterer from his adultery, the murderer from killing, the unjust from greed, while the profane and godless man becomes faithful? If he did not rise, but is still dead, how is it that he drives away and pursues and overthrows the false gods, whom unbelievers think to be alive, and the demons they worship? For where Christ and his Faith are named, idolatry is destroyed and the fraud of demons is exposed; indeed, no such spirit can endure that name, but flees at the sound of it.
This is not the work of one who is dead, but of one who is alive; and specifically the work of God. It would be absurd to say that the evil spirits whom he drives out and the idols which he destroys are alive, but that he who drives out and destroys them, he whom they themselves acknowledge to be the Son of God, is dead!
31
Those who disbelieve in the resurrection have no support in facts, if their gods and demons do not drive away the supposedly dead Christ. Rather, it is he who convicts them of being dead. We are agreed that a dead man can do nothing: yet the Savior works mightily every day, drawing men to piety, persuading them to virtue, teaching them about immortality, leading them to thirst for heavenly things, revealing the knowledge of the Father, inspiring strength in face of death, manifesting himself to each, and displacing the godlessness of idols; while the gods and demons of the unbelievers can do none of these things, but rather fall dead at Christ’s presence, all their show being futile and empty. By the sign of the cross, on the contrary, all magic ceases, all witchcraft is brought to nought, all the idols are abandoned and deserted, and all irrational desire ceases, as every one looks up from earth to heaven.
Whom, then, should we call dead? Shall we call Christ dead, who brings all this to pass? But the dead have no power to do anything. Or shall we rather call death dead: death, which in no way acts, whatever, but lies as lifeless and ineffective as the dead demons and idols? The Son of God, “living and effective,”Hebrews 4:12. works daily and brings about the salvation of all; but death is daily proved to be stripped of all its strength, and it is the idols and the demons who are dead. So no room for doubt remains concerning the resurrection of His body.
32
He who disbelieves this bodily rising of the Lord is ignorant of the power of the Word and Wisdom of God. For if he had fully taken to himself a body, and made it his own with proper consistency, as our argument has shown, what should the Lord do with it? What was ultimately to become of that body upon which the Word had descended? Being mortal, and offered to death on behalf of all as it was, it could not do otherwise than to die; indeed, it was for that very purpose that the Savior had prepared it for himself. But it could not remain dead, because it had become the very temple of Life. It therefore died, as mortal, came again to life because of the Life within it; and its resurrection is made known through its works.
But if his resurrection is disbelieved, because he is not seen, then it is now time for those not believing to deny the very course of nature. For it is a property of God not to be seen, but to be known by his works, just as was said above. So if there were no works, then they would have grounds for disbelief; but when the works cry out and prove the fact so clearly, why do they choose too deny the risen life that is so manifestly shown? Even if their mental faculties are defective, surely their eyes can give them indisputable proof of the power and divinity of Christ. A blind man cannot see the sun, but he knows that it is above the earth from the warmth it gives; so let those who are still in the blindness of unbelief recognize the divinity of Christ and the resurrection he has accomplished through his manifested power in others.
It is clear he would not be expelling demons and despoiling idols if he were dead, for the spirits would not obey a dead man. But if his very name drives them out, then clearly he is not dead; but rather the demons, who see things unseen by men, would know if Christ were dead and would refuse to obey him. But the demons see what ungodly men do not believe – that he is God – and for that reason they flee and fall down before him, crying out what as they said while he was in the body, “We know who you are, the Holy One of God,”Luke 4:34. and, “Ah, what have I to do with you, Son of God? I implore you, do not torment me!”Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:7.
Since the demons confess him, and his works bear witness to him day by day, it must be evident, and let none presume to doubt it, that the Savior has raised his own body, and that he is the true Son of God, being from him as the Father’s own Word and Wisdom and Power. This is he who in these last days assumed a body for the salvation of us all, and taught the world about the Father, destroyed death, and granted incorruption to all through the promise of the resurrection, having raised his own body as its first-fruits, and displayed it by the sign of the cross as the monument to his victory over death and its corruption.
Answering the Jews
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We have dealt thus far with the Incarnation of our Savior, and have found clear proof of the resurrection of his body and his victory over death. Let us now go further and respond to the unbelief and the ridicule with which Jews and Gentiles respectively regard these same facts. It seems that in both cases the points at issue are the same, namely the unseemliness of the cross and of God the Word’s becoming man. But we have no hesitation in taking up the argument against these objections, for the proofs on our side are extremely clear.
The unbelieving Jews may be refuted from the scriptures which they themselves read; for from beginning to end the inspired book clearly teaches these things both in its entirety and in its actual words. Prophets foretold the marvel of the Virgin and of the birth from her, saying, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Emmanuel,Isaiah 7:14. which means God with us.”Matthew 1:23 And Moses, that truly great man in whose word the Jews trust so implicitly, also recognized the importance and truth of the matter. He puts it thus: “A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall rise out of Israel. He shall break in pieces the rulers of Moab.”Numbers 24:17. And, again, “How beautiful are your dwellings, O Jacob, your tents, O Israel. Like wooded valleys offering shade, and like gardens by the rivers, like tents the Lord pitched, like cedars beside the waters. A man shall come forth from his seed, and he shall rule many nations.”Numbers 24:5-7. And, again, Isaiah says, “Before the child shall be old enough to call father or mother, one shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria from under the eyes of the king of Assyria.”Isaiah 8:4. These words, then, foretell that a man shall appear.
And scripture proclaims further that the one who is to come is Lord of all, saying, “Behold, the Lord sits on a swift cloud and shall come to Egypt, and the man-made images of Egypt shall be shaken.”Isaiah 19:1. And it is from Egypt also that the Father calls him back, saying, “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.”Hosea 11:1.
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Moreover, the Scriptures are not silent even about his death. On the contrary, they refer to it with the utmost clearness. For they have not feared to speak also of its cause – that he endured it not for his own sake, but for the immortality and salvation of all – and they record also the plotting of the Jews against him and all the indignities which he suffered at their hands. Certainly no one who reads the scriptures can plead ignorance of the facts as an excuse for error. There is this passage, for instance: “A man that is afflicted and knows how to bear weakness, for his face is turned away. He was dishonored and not esteemed. He bears our sins and suffers for our sakes, and we considered him to be distressed and afflicted and ill-treated. But he was wounded because of our lawlessness and was made weak because of our sins. Chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his bruise we are healed.”Isaiah 53:3-5.
Be amazed at the Word’s love for human beings, that he is dishonored for our sake, that we might be honored “For we all,” it goes on, “have strayed like sheep, man has strayed from his path, and the Lord has delivered him up for our sins; and he himself did not open his mouth at the ill-treatment. Like a sheep he was led to slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he opened not his mouth; in his humiliation his judgment was taken away.”Isaiah 53:6-8. Then, so that no one may suppose from his suffering that he is a mere human being, scripture shows what power worked in him: “Who shall declare of what lineage he comes?” it says, “for his life is taken away from the earth. By the lawlessnesses of my people he was brought to death. I will appoint evil men for his burial and the rich men for his death. For he committed no lawlessness, nor was deceit found in his mouth. The Lord wishes to cleanse him of his wound.”Isaiah 53:8-10.
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You have heard the prophecy of his death. Do you now want to know what is indicated about the cross? For even this is not passed over in silence: on the contrary, the saints proclaim it with great plainness. Moses foretells it first, with a loud voice, saying, “You shall see your Life hanging before your eyes, and shall not believe.”Deuteronomy 28:66. After him the prophets also testified, saying, “But as an innocent lamb I was brought to be offered, though I was ignorant of it. They plotted evil against me, saying, ‘Come, let us cast wood into his bread, and wipe him out from the land of the living.”Jeremiah 11:18-19. And, again, “They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones, they divided my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothing.”Psalm 21:17-19. Now a death lifted up taking place on wood can be none other than the cross; it is only in that death that the hands and feet are pierced.
Besides this, since the time the Savior dwelt among men, all nations everywhere have begun to know God; and this too holy scripture expressly mentions. “There shall be the Root of Jesse,” it says, “and he shall arise up to rule the nations. On Him the nations shall set their hope.”Isaiah 11:10.
These are just a few things in proof of what has taken place; but indeed all scripture is full of things that refute the unbelief of the Jews. For which of the righteous and holy prophets and patriarchs named in the divine scriptures ever had his bodily birth from a virgin only? Was not Abel born from Adam, Enoch from Jared, Noah from Lamech, Abraham from Terah, Isaac from Abraham, and Jacob from Isaac? Was not Judah from Jacob, and Moses and Aaron from Amram? Was not Samuel the son of Elkanah, David the son of Jesse, Solomon the son of David, Hezekiah of Ahaz, Josiah of Amon, Isaiah of Amos, Jeremiah of Hilkiah and Ezekiel of Buzi? Did not each of these have a father as author of his being? Then who is born of a virgin only? For the prophet makes much of this sign. And of all those people, which had his birth announced to the world by a star in the heavens? When Moses was born his parents hid him. David was unknown even in his own neighborhood, so that mighty Samuel himself was ignorant of his existence and asked whether Jesse had yet another son. Abraham had already become great when he was known to his kin. But with Christ it was otherwise. The witness to his birth was not a human, but a star, shining in the heavens from which he came down.
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But what king ever reigned and took trophies from his enemies “before he was able to cry out ‘father’ or ‘mother,’”Isaiah 8:4. Was not David thirty years old when he came to the throne and Solomon a grown young man? Did not Joash begin his reign at the age of seven, and Josiah, after him, at about the same age, both of them fully able by that time to call father or mother?
Who is there, then, that was reigning and despoiling his enemies almost before he was born? Let the Jews, who have investigated the matter, tell us if there was ever such a king in Israel or Judah – a king upon whom all the nations set their hopes and had peace, instead of being at enmity with him on every side! As long as Jerusalem stood, there was constant war between them, and they all fought against Israel. The Assyrians oppressed Israel, the Egyptians persecuted them, the Babylonians fell upon them, and, strange to relate, even the Syrians their neighbors were at war with them. And did not David make war against Moab and smite the Syrians, and Hezekiah fear the boasting of Sennacherib? Did not Amalek make war on Moses and the Amorites oppose him, and did not the inhabitants of Jericho array themselves against Joshua the son of Nun? Did not the nations always regard Israel with implacable hostility? Then it is worth inquiring who it is, on whom the nations are to set their hopes. Obviously there must be someone, for the prophet could not have told a lie.
But did any of the holy prophets or patriarchs of old die on a cross for the salvation of all? Was any of them wounded and destroyed for the healing of all? Did the idols of Egypt fall down before any righteous man or king that came there? Abraham certainly went to Egypt, but idolatry prevailed just the same; and Moses was born there, but the deluded worship was unchanged.
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Again, does Scripture tell of anyone who was pierced in hands and feet or hung upon a tree at all, and by means of a cross perfected his sacrifice for the salvation of all? It was not Abraham, for he died in his bed, as did also Isaac and Jacob. Moses and Aaron died on the mountain, and David in his house, without anybody plotting against him. For though he had been sought by Saul, he was preserved unharmed. Isaiah was sawn asunder, but he was not hung on a tree. Jeremiah was shamefully treated but he did not die under condemnation. Ezekiel suffered, but he did so not on behalf of the people, but indicating what was going to happen to them. Moreover, all these, even when they suffered, were but men, like other men. But he whom the scriptures declare to suffer on behalf of all is called not merely man but the Life of all, even though in fact he shared our human nature. “You shall see your life hanging before your eyes,”Deuteronomy 28:66. they say, and “Who shall declare of what lineage he comes?”Isaiah 53:8. With all the saints we can trace their descent from the beginning, and see exactly how each came to be; but the divine scripture maintains that the lineage of him who is the Life cannot be declared.
Who is it, then, of whom divine scriptures say these things? Who is so great that even the prophets foretell such mighty things about him? No one in the scriptures at all, save the common Savior of all, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who proceeded from a virgin, and appeared on earth as man, whose earthly lineage cannot be declared, because he alone derives his body from no human father, but from a virgin alone. We can trace the paternal descent of David and Moses and of all the patriarchs. But with the Savior we cannot do so. For it was he himself who caused the star to announce his bodily birth, and it was fitting that the Word, when he came down from heaven, should have his sign in heaven too, and fitting that the King of creation, on his coming forth, should be clearly known by all the world. He was born in Judea, yet men from Persia came to worship him.
It is he who, even before his appearing in the body, won the victory over the opposing demons and a triumph over idolatry, that is, all the heathen who from every region have turned from the tradition of their fathers and the false worship of idols and are now placing their hope in Christ and dedicating themselves to him. The thing is happening before our very eyes, here in Egypt; and thereby another prophecy is fulfilled, for at no other time have the Egyptians ceased from their false worship save when the Lord of all, riding as on a cloud, came down here in the body and brought the error of idols to nothing and won over everyone to himself, and through himself to the Father.
He is the one who was crucified with the sun and moon as witnesses; and by his death salvation has come to all men, and all creation has been redeemed. He is the Life of all, and it is he who, like a sheep, gave up his own body to death, his life for ours and our salvation.
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Yet the Jews disbelieve this. This argument does not satisfy them. Therefore let them be persuaded by other reasons in their own oracles. Of whom, for instance, do the prophets say “I was made manifest to those who did not seek me; I was found by those who had not asked for me. I said, ‘See, here I am,’ to the nation that did not call on my name. I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and rebellious people.”Isaiah 65:1-2.
Who is this that was made manifest, one might ask the Jews? If the prophet is speaking of himself, then they must tell us how he was first hidden, in order to be manifested afterwards. And, again, what kind of prophet is this, who was not only revealed after being hidden, but also stretched out his hands upon the cross? Those things happened to none of those righteous men: they happened only to the Word of God who, being bodiless by nature, appeared in a body for our sake and suffered for us all.
And if even this is not enough for them, there is other overwhelming evidence by which they may be silenced. The scripture says, “Strengthen the weak hands feeble knees; take courage, you of little faith, be strong and do not fear. Behold, our God will recompense judgment, he himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear, and the mute tongue shall speak clearly.”Isaiah 35:3-6. What can they say to this, or how can they look it in the face at all? For the prophecy does not only declare that God will dwell here, it also makes known the signs and the time of his coming. When God comes, it says, the blind will see, the lame will walk, the deaf will hear and the stammerers will speak distinctly. Can the Jews tell us when such signs occurred in Israel, or when anything of the kind took place at all in Judea? The leper Naaman was cleansed, it is true, but no deaf man heard nor did any lame man walk. Elijah and Elisha raised the dead, but no one blind from birth received his sight.
Raising the dead is truly a great thing, but it is not like the wonder wrought by the Savior. And surely, since the Scriptures have not kept silence about the leper and the dead son of the widow, if a lame man had walked and a blind man had received his sight, they would have mentioned these as well. Their silence on these points proves that the events had never taken place before.
So when did these things happen, apart from when the Word of God himself came in the body? Was it not when he came that lame men walked and stammerers spoke clearly and men blind from birth were given sight? And even the Jews who saw it testified to the fact that such things had never before occurred. “Since the world began, it has never been heard of that anyone should open the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”John 9:32-33.
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But surely they cannot fight against plain facts. So it may be that, without denying what is written, they will maintain that they are still waiting for these things to happen, and that the Word of God is yet to come, for that is a topic about which they are always chattering most brazenly, in spite of all the evidence against them. But on this one point, above all, they shall be refuted all the more, not by ourselves but by the most wise Daniel, for he signifies the actual date of the Savior’s coming as well as his Divine sojourn in our midst, saying, “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to make an end of sin, and for sins to be sealed up and iniquities blotted out, and to make reconciliation for wrongdoings, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy One of holies. You shall know therefore and understand from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, until Christ the Prince.”Daniel 9:24-25.
Perhaps regarding the other prophecies, they could find excuses to put off what is written to a future time, but what can they say to this? How can they face it at all? Not only does it expressly refer to the Anointed One, that is the Christ, it declares that he who is to be anointed is not merely human but is himself the holy of holies! And it says that Jerusalem is to stand until his coming, and then prophet and vision shall cease in Israel.
David was anointed of old, and Solomon, and Hezekiah, but Jerusalem and the place still stood, and prophets were prophesying – Gad and Asaph and Nathan, and later Isaiah and Hosea and Amos and the others. Moreover, those men who were anointed were called holy, but none of them was called the holy of holies.
Nor is it any use for the Jews to take refuge in the Babylonian captivity, and say that Jerusalem did not exist then, for what about the prophets? It is a fact that when the people went into exile, Daniel and Jeremiah were there, and Ezekiel and Haggai and Zechariah also prophesied.
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So the Jews are indulging in fiction, and putting off to the future what has actually now come to pass. When did prophecy and visions cease from Israel? Was it not when Christ, the Holy of holies came? In fact, it is a sign and an important proof of the coming of God the Word that Jerusalem no longer stands, nor do prophets arise nor are visions revealed among them any longer. And it is natural that it should be so.
For, when he who was indicated has come, what need is there any longer of to indicate him? And when the truth had come, what further need is there of the shadow? They prophesied for this reason alone, until the true righteousness should come, and he that was to redeem the sins of all. This is the reason Jerusalem stood so long, so that the types might prepare them until the truth came.
Therefore, once the Holy of holies had come, both vision and prophecy were sealed, and the kingdom of Jerusalem ceased at the same time. Kings were anointed among them only until the Holy of holies should be anointed. Moses also prophesied that the kingdom of the Jews would stand until this One, saying, “A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a prince from his loins, until the coming of the one to whom it belongs; and he is the expectation of nations.” Genesis 49:10.
So the Savior himself proclaimed “The law and the prophets prophesied until John.” Matthew 11:13. So if there were still king or prophet or vision among the Jews, they could deny that Christ has come; but since there is neither king nor vision, and all prophecy has now been sealed up and the city and the temple are taken, how can they be so impious and perverse as to deny Christ Who has made all this come to pass?
And when they see the nations abandoning idols and setting their hopes through Christ on the God of Israel, why do they deny Christ, who is from the root of Jesse according to the flesh and reigns forevermore?
If the nations were worshipping some other god, and not confessing the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses, then they would do well to argue that God had not come. But if the nations are honoring the same God who gave the law to Moses and the promises to Abraham, the God whose word the Jews dishonored, then why do they not recognize or rather why do they deliberately refuse to see that the Lord who was prophesied in the scriptures has shone forth on the world and been revealed in bodily form?
Scripture declares it repeatedly. “God is the Lord and has appeared to us,” Psalm 117:26. and again, “He sent forth His Word and healed them.” Psalm 106:20. And again, “It was no ambassador, no angel who saved us, but the Lord Himself.” Isaiah 11:9.
The Jews are afflicted like some demented person who sees the earth lit up by the sun, but denies the sun that lights it up. What more can their expected One do when he comes? To call the nations? But they have already been called. To put an end to prophecies and kings and visions? But this too has already happened. To expose the godlessness of idols? It has already been exposed and condemned. Or to destroy death? It is already destroyed!
So then what remains for Christ to do? What is left out or unfulfilled, that the Jews should disbelieve so light-heartedly? The plain fact is, as we have said, that there is no longer any king or prophet nor Jerusalem nor sacrifice nor vision among them, but the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God, and the nations, abandoning godlessness, are now taking refuge with the God of Abraham through the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ.
It must be plain even to the most obstinate that the Christ has come, and that he has enlightened all people everywhere, and given them the true and divine teaching concerning His Father.