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ℹ️ The Chinese and English alongside are this site's own translation, made directly from the original text on this page (not the CUV or the WEB, which follow the Masoretic Text and a different textual tradition).
'He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how has He not also with Him freely given us all things?' Why, then, should the death of Christ not have taken place? Nay rather, why — passing over the other innumerable ways by which the Omnipotent could have used for our deliverance — should this above all be chosen to be done, wherein nothing of His divinity was diminished or changed, and yet from the humanity He assumed so great a benefit was conferred on men, that by the eternal Son of God, who is likewise the Son of man, a temporal death not owed should be paid, whereby He might free them from the eternal death which was owed? The devil held our sins, and through them justly fastened us in death. He who had none of His own remitted them, and by him was undeservedly led to death.
So great was the worth of that blood, that he ought to detain in the eternal death which was owed no one clothed with Christ, seeing that he slew Christ — even for a time — by a death not owed. Therefore God commends His charity toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified in His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him. 'Justified,' he says, 'in His blood' — plainly justified in this, that we are freed from all sins; but freed from all sins because for us the Son of God, who had none, was slain. We shall therefore be saved from wrath through Him — from the wrath, that is, of God, which is nothing else than just retribution.
For the wrath of God is not a perturbation of the mind, as it is in man; but it is the wrath of Him to whom holy Scripture says in another place: 'But Thou, O Lord of hosts, dost judge with tranquillity.' If, then, just divine retribution has received such a name, so also the reconciliation of God is rightly understood in no other way than as the ending of such wrath. Nor were we enemies of God except in the way that sins are enemies of justice; and when these are remitted, such enmities are ended, and those whom He Himself justifies are reconciled to the Just One. Yet even these enemies He surely loved, seeing that He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all while we were yet enemies. Rightly, therefore, the Apostle goes on to add:
'For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son' — through which that remission of sins was accomplished — 'much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in His life' — saved in His life, we who were reconciled through His death. For who would doubt that He will give His life to His friends, for whom, as enemies, He gave His death? 'And not only so,' he says, 'but we also glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.' Not only, he says, shall we be saved, but we also glory; and not in ourselves but in God; and not through ourselves but through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation, according to what has been argued above. Then the Apostle subjoins:
'Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death, and so it passed unto all men, in whom all sinned,' and so forth — in which passage he argues at greater length concerning two men: one and the same first Adam, by whose sin and death, as by hereditary evils, we his posterity are bound; and the other, the second Adam, who is not man only but also God, by whom, paying on our behalf what He did not owe, we are freed from the debts, both paternal and our own. Accordingly, since on account of that one man the devil held all who were begotten through his vitiated carnal concupiscence, it is just that on account of this one man he should release all who are regenerated through His spotless spiritual grace.
[XVII 22] There are also many other things in the Incarnation of Christ — which displeases the proud — that are to be beheld and pondered as wholesome for us. Of these one is this: that it was demonstrated to man what place he held among the things that God created, seeing that human nature could be so joined to God that from two substances one person should be made, and through this now from three: God, soul, and flesh; so that those proud, malignant spirits, who interpose themselves as mediators to deceive under the pretense of helping, should not dare to prefer themselves to man on the ground that they have no flesh — especially since He deigned even to die in that same flesh — lest they should persuade men to worship them as gods because they seem to be immortal.
Next, that the grace of God might be commended to us, without any preceding merits, in the man Christ — since even He, joined by so great a unity to the true God as to become one person with Him, the Son of God, obtained this by no preceding merits, but from the moment He began to be man, from that moment He is also God; whence it is said: 'The Word was made flesh.' There is also this: that the pride of man, which is the greatest hindrance to his cleaving to God, might, through so great a humility of God, be refuted and healed. Man learns also how far he has departed from God — which avails him unto a medicinal pain — when he returns through such a Mediator, who both as God comes to the aid of men by His divinity, and as man meets them in their weakness.
And what greater example of obedience could be set before us — who had perished through disobedience — than God the Son obedient to God the Father even unto the death of the cross? And where could the reward of that very obedience be better shown than in the flesh of so great a Mediator, which rose again unto eternal life? It belonged also to the justice and goodness of the Creator that the devil should be overcome by the same rational creature which he rejoiced to have overcome, and by one coming from that very race which, its origin having been vitiated, he held whole and entire through one man.
[XVIII 23] For God could certainly have taken up a man from elsewhere, in whom He might be the Mediator of God and men — not from the race of that Adam who bound the human race by his sin — just as He created the very first man whom He created not from the race of anyone. He could therefore, either thus or in any other way He willed, have created some other one by whom the conqueror of the former might be conquered; but He judged it better both to assume a man from that very race which had been conquered, God through whom He might conquer the enemy of the human race, and yet from a virgin whose conception the Spirit, not the flesh, faith, not lust, went before.
Nor was there present that concupiscence of the flesh by which the rest, who draw original sin, are sown and conceived; but with that utterly removed, sacred virginity was made fruitful by believing, not by lying together, so that what was born from the stock of the first man might draw only the origin of its race, not also of its guilt. For a nature was born not vitiated by the contagion of transgression, but the sole medicine of all such vices. There was born, I say, a man having no sin, and destined to have no sin at all, through whom those might be reborn, to be freed from sin, who could not be born without sin.
For although conjugal chastity makes good use of the carnal concupiscence that is in the generative members, it nevertheless has involuntary motions, by which it shows that either it could not have existed at all in paradise before sin, or, if it did exist, that it was not such as at times to resist the will. But now we perceive it to be such that, warring against the law of the mind, even when there is no cause for begetting, it thrusts in the goads of coition; and if it is yielded to, it is satisfied by sinning; if it is not yielded to, it is curbed by refusal — which two things, that they were foreign to paradise before sin, could anyone doubt? For neither did that honorableness do anything unbecoming, nor did that felicity suffer anything unquiet.
It was fitting, therefore, that this carnal concupiscence should be wholly absent there, when the virgin's offspring was conceived — in whom the author of death was to find nothing worthy of death, and yet was to slay Him, being himself, the author of death, destined to be conquered by the death of the Author of life. The conqueror of the first Adam, and the holder of the human race, was conquered by the second Adam, and lost the Christian race, which was freed out of the human race from human guilt through Him who was not in guilt, though He was of the race; so that the deceiver might be conquered by that race which he had conquered by guilt. And this was so done that man should not be lifted up, but that he who glories should glory in the Lord. For he who was conquered was man only, and was therefore conquered because he proudly desired to be God;
but He who conquered was both man and God, and therefore conquered thus, being born of a virgin, because God ruled that man humbly — not as He ruled the other saints, but bore Him. These so great gifts of God, and whatever others there are which it would be too long now both to seek out and to discuss concerning this matter, would be nothing, unless the Word were made flesh. [XIX 24] But all these things which the Word made flesh did and endured for us temporally and locally pertain, according to the distinction we have undertaken to demonstrate, to knowledge, not to wisdom. But inasmuch as He is the Word, He is without time and without place, coeternal with the Father, and wholly everywhere; and if anyone can, as far as he can, utter a true discourse concerning this, that discourse will be one of wisdom;
and through this the Word made flesh, which is Christ Jesus, has both the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. For the Apostle, writing to the Colossians, says: 'For I would have you know how great a conflict I have for you, and for those who are at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in charity and in all the riches of the fullness of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' To what extent the Apostle knew these treasures, how far he penetrated into them, and to how great things he attained in them — who can know? Yet I, according to what is written:
'To each one of us is given the manifestation of the Spirit for profit; to one indeed is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit' — if these two so differ between themselves that wisdom is attributed to divine things, knowledge to human — I acknowledge both in Christ, and with me every one of His faithful. And when I read, 'The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,' in 'the Word' I understand the true Son of God, in 'the flesh' I acknowledge the true Son of man, and both together joined into the one person of God and man by the ineffable bounty of grace. On account of which there follows, and He says: 'And we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.'
If we refer grace to knowledge, and truth to wisdom, I think we do not depart from that distinction of these two things which we have commended. For in things that arise through time, that is the highest grace, that man was joined in unity of person to God; but in eternal things, the highest truth is rightly attributed to the Word of God. But that this same One is the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, was brought about so that the same One should be He, in the things done temporally for us, by whom, through the same faith, we are cleansed, that we may steadfastly contemplate Him in things eternal.
But those chief philosophers of the nations, who were able to behold the invisible things of God, understood through the things that are made, nevertheless — because they philosophized without a Mediator, that is, without the man Christ, whom they believed neither, when foretold by the prophets, to be coming, nor, when announced by the apostles, to have come — held down the truth, as it was said of them, in iniquity. For, set as they were in these weak things, they could not but seek certain intermediaries through which they might attain to those sublime things which they had understood; and thus they fell into deceiving demons, through whom it came to pass that they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents.
For in such forms they even set up idols, or worshiped them. Our knowledge, therefore, is Christ; our wisdom also is the same Christ. He implants in us faith concerning temporal things; He exhibits the truth concerning eternal things. Through Him we advance toward Him; we press on through knowledge toward wisdom; yet from one and the same Christ we do not depart, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. But now we speak of knowledge; afterward we shall speak of wisdom, as far as He Himself shall grant. Nor let us so take these two as though it were not permitted to call either that wisdom which is in human things, or that knowledge which is in divine things.
For by a broader custom of speaking, either may be called wisdom, either may be called knowledge. Nevertheless, it would in no way have been written by the Apostle, 'to one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge,' unless these several things were also, properly, called by their several names — concerning whose distinction we now treat. [XX 25] Now, therefore, let us see what this lengthy discourse has effected, what it has gathered, whither it has arrived. To will to be blessed belongs to all men, and yet the faith by which the heart, being cleansed, arrives at blessedness does not belong to all. Thus it comes about that through that faith which not all will, one must press on toward that blessedness which no one who is unwilling can possess.
That they will to be blessed, all men see in their own heart; and so great, in this matter, is the consent of human nature, that the man is not deceived who, from his own mind, conjectures concerning another's mind; in short, we know that all will it. But many despair of being able to be immortal, though that which all will — namely, to be blessed — no one can be in any other way; yet they too will to be immortal, if they could; but by not believing that they can, they do not so live as to be able. Faith, therefore, is necessary that we may attain blessedness in all the goods of human nature, that is, both of the soul and of the body.
But this same faith holds that this faith is defined as being in Christ, who rose in the flesh from the dead, never to die further; and that no one is freed from the dominion of the devil, save through Him, by the remission of sins; and that, on the devil's side, life is necessarily miserable and likewise perpetual — which ought rather to be called death than life. Of this I have discoursed in this book also, as I was able within the space of time allotted, since already in the fourth book of this work I said much concerning it — but there for one purpose, here for another: there, indeed, to show why and how Christ was sent by the Father in the fullness of time, on account of those who say that He who sent and He who was sent cannot be equal in nature;
but here, in order to distinguish active knowledge from contemplative wisdom. For it has pleased us, as if ascending step by step in each, to seek in the interior man a certain trinity of its own kind — just as before we sought one in the exterior man — so that, with a mind more exercised in these lower things, we may come to contemplate, according to our measure (if indeed we can even this), at least in an enigma and through a glass, that Trinity which is God.
Whoever, then, commits the words of this faith to memory in mere sounds alone, not knowing what they signify (as those are wont to do who, ignorant of Greek, hold Greek words in memory, or Latin words likewise, or those of any other language of which they are ignorant) — do they not have a certain trinity in their soul? For both the sounds of the words are in the memory even when he is not thinking of them thence, and from thence is formed the gaze of his recollection when he thinks of them, and the will of the one recollecting and thinking joins both together.
Yet in no way should we say that such a one, when he does this, acts according to the trinity of the interior man, but rather of the exterior; because he remembers only that, and beholds when he wills and as much as he wills, that which pertains to the sense of the body called hearing, nor does he turn over in such thought anything but the images of corporeal things, that is, of sounds. But if he holds and recollects what those words signify, he now indeed does something of the interior man; yet he is not yet to be called, or thought, to live according to the trinity of the interior man, if he does not love those things which are there proclaimed, prescribed, promised. For he can also hold and think of them to this end — that, deeming them false, he may even try to refute them.
That will, therefore, which there joins together the things that were held in the memory and the things that were thence impressed on the gaze of thought, does indeed complete a certain trinity, since it is itself the third; but it is not according to it that one lives, when the things that are thought, as being false, do not please. But when they are believed to be true, and the things that are there to be loved are loved, then one already lives according to the trinity of the interior man; for each one lives according to that which he loves. But how can things be loved which are not known but only believed? This question has already been treated in the earlier books, and it was found that no one loves what he is utterly ignorant of; but that, when things unknown are said to be loved, they are loved out of those things which are known.
Now we so close this book, that we may admonish that the just man lives by faith — that faith which works through love — so that the virtues also themselves, by which one lives prudently, bravely, temperately, and justly, are all referred to that same faith; for otherwise they will not be able to be true virtues. Which virtues, nevertheless, do not avail so much in this life that there is never here needed a remission of sins of whatever kind — a remission which comes about only through Him who by His own blood conquered the prince of sins. From this faith and such a life, whatever notions are in the soul of the faithful man, when they are contained by memory and inspected by recollection and please the will, they render a certain trinity of their own kind.
But the image of God — concerning which, with His help, we shall speak hereafter — is not yet in this trinity; which will then better appear, when it shall have been demonstrated where it is: a thing which the reader may await in a future volume.