Anti-Arian Works 2 part 9/10

Preserving this unity of person in Christ, the Apostle thus confirms the Church of the Corinthians in the truth of the faith: For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4). He said that not the body of Christ, but Christ, died, that he might preserve the unity of the person of God and man; but that he might show the substantial property of the deity and the humanity, in another place (as we have already set down above) he says: For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God (2 Cor. 13:4).

The excellent power of the apostolic sayings is to be noted. For if Paul had said of Christ that He was crucified through weakness but lives by power, and had not added, of God, not even so ought the infirmity of human passibility to be confounded with the impassibility of the divine power; but since Paul assigns the power to the deity, who does not see that he declares those things which seem to be of infirmity to belong to the man? For even in that he says of Christ that He liveth by the power of God, He assuredly lives by His own deity, because He Himself is the power of God, and so lives as the Father lives, since He Himself is the way, the truth, and the life. For that the Apostle John might impress upon us the one life of the Father and the Son, he took care to place this at the opening of his Epistle:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; and the life was made manifest; and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the eternal Life, which was with the Father, and hath been manifested unto us (1 John 1:1). The Son of God, whom above he called the Word of God, he named in what follows the Life; but what is the Word of life, save the Word of God? And since the Word of life is life, that Word of life is assuredly one life, and the life whose it is the Word. Therefore Christ, who died through weakness, lives by the power of God, because to that divinity to be life is the same as to be power, and therefore for Him to be able is the same as to live.

And therefore, neither in His passion did power forsake life, nor in the death of Christ did power depart from life, since the divinity of Christ (which is power and life) could not be changed. CHAPTER 27. On account of the unity of the person in Christ, the Son of God is said to have died. The infirmities of Christ are not to be ascribed to His deity. Again, for the most firm commendation of the unity of the person in Christ, Paul thus writes to the Romans, saying of God: Who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32). And that that delivering up might be shown to have been accomplished voluntarily out of the Son's power, he also records that the Son delivered Himself up for us, saying in another place:

And that I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me (Gal. 2:20). But that it might be shown what could be delivered up in Christ, the book of Job prophetically says: The earth is delivered into the hands of the wicked (Job 9:24). And yet, for the unity of the person, the Church holds and confesses that not only the humanity of Christ, but Christ Himself was delivered up, since in that delivering up, the property of each nature being preserved, neither could the man who was assumed be separated from God, nor could God be sundered from the man He had assumed.

As therefore Scripture altogether assigns the suffering of death, and death itself, to the Son of God on account of the unity of the person, and yet pronounces the deity impassible and immortal, so also let it be believed that the sadness and disturbance of soul, which the Son of God voluntarily had in the soul, He so had that we do not deny that even those very passions of the human soul were both true from His will and voluntary in truth. The very divinity of Christ also, which deigned to be saddened according to the soul and, according to the flesh, to die for us, according to the property of its substance, as it is immortal, so is it also to be proclaimed impassible.

Because it assumed a true man, therefore it sustained all the infirmities of human nature, true indeed, but voluntary, within that same truth of nature—only in the human nature. But who is so improvident as to follow so deadly an opinion concerning Christ, that he should believe that hunger, thirst, weariness, suffering and death, and again sadness, disturbance, fear and weariness (which no one can in any way doubt to be of the flesh and of the soul) were so true in the nature of the man, that he would not believe the substance of the deity to be immune from these—when to those who hope in Him Christ has given that they may overcome the very things which He Himself voluntarily felt for us?

Wherefore Isaiah, divinely inspired, resists the faithless and deadly imaginations, saying: The eternal God, the God who made the ends of the earth, shall not hunger, nor labour, neither can His prudence be found out, giving strength to the hungry and sorrow to those who feel no grief. For the young shall hunger, and the youths shall labour, and the chosen shall be without strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall exult with power; they shall put forth wings like eagles; they shall run and not labour, they shall walk and not hunger (Isa. 40:28ff). The very Bread also which came down from heaven truly promises perfect satiety to those who believe in Him, saying:

He that cometh to Me shall not hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst (John 6:35). I ask, how shall this virtue be granted to men, if God could not have it? Or how did Christ not have in His divinity that which Paul received from Him in order to have it? For he testifies concerning himself and those like him, saying: We suffer tribulation, but are not distressed (2 Cor. 4:8); and in another place: As dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things (2 Cor. 6:9-10).

How grievous and unfitting it is, and utterly alien to the true faith in every respect, that Paul, in one and the same substance of the soul, though he be saddened, can in the gift of Christ always rejoice, and yet it should be said of the divinity of Christ that, being sad in the soul which it assumed, it could not remain in itself without sadness. CHAPTER 28. Fear is not ascribed to John; therefore neither ought it to be ascribed to the deity. What no one can take away from servants who receive it, let no one attempt to take away from the Lord who bestows it. John, who says, does not fear: Fear is not in love, for perfect love casteth out fear; but he that feareth is not perfect in love (1 John 4:18). For he had heard from the Lord:

Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul (Matt. 10:28). No one dares to ascribe fear to John, and shall the fear of death be ascribed to the Deity? David hopes in Him and says: In God will I hope, I will not fear what man may do unto me (Ps. 55:11); and the same confidently repeats: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? (Ps. 26:1-2). And the Lord Himself says to the apostles: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27). Again He says: Rejoice, because I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Therefore those who wait for Him take courage, they put forth wings by which

they are lifted up to heavenly things; running, they know no toil; walking, they are ignorant of hunger; in tribulation they suffer no distress; dying, they retain life; though they seem sorrowful, yet they always exult rejoicing; though poor, they confer riches upon many, and possess all things while they strive to have nothing; filled with the love of Christ, they are without fear; illumined by Him, they confess that they dread no one; with Him as their defender, they cannot tremble before anyone; from their heart disturbance and dread are driven away; they rejoice, because they see the world conquered by Christ.

If no one can take these things away from servants who receive them, how does faithless blindness, or rather blind faithlessness, attempt to take away from the Lord who bestows them that which He naturally possesses as divine? And who does not see that in those passions of Christ there are contained certain seeds of our virtues? Therefore one and the same Christ felt in His humanity the things that are human, but in His divinity remained impassible and immortal. CHAPTER 29. The names of the Son of God with respect to His divinity. The man Christ, because He had no sins of His own, bore the sins of others. The full humanity of Christ. For the Son of God, the Word and Wisdom of the Father, is Himself the salvation of which the prophet says: Our salvation shall come quickly (Isa. 46:13). He is the power and wisdom:

For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). He is satiety, because He is the bread that came down from heaven (John 6:58). He is the way, He is the truth, He is the life. He is our joy and gladness, of whom the prophet says: And Thy word was made to me a joy and gladness of my heart (Jer. 15:16). He is the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world (John 1:9). By these names designated above, He is found unchangeable and impassible. Salvation cannot be sick; power knows not how to be weakened; satiety knows not hunger; the way cannot err; wisdom is not changed; life dies not; light is not extinguished; nor is truth corrupted; gladness knows not how to be saddened;

The Deity cannot be overcome. Therefore assuredly even the humanity of Christ remained without sin, because the divinity, which by nature knows not how to sin, received it into the unity of the person. The man Christ, therefore, since He had no sins of His own, deigned to bear the sins of others; and He willed to bear the sins of those with whom He was held in natural fellowship, as the Apostle says: For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: I will declare Thy name unto My brethren (Heb. 2:11-12; Ps. 21:23). Isaiah the prophet also thus foretells the effect of this loving-kindness, so that he clearly shows the name of man in Him, saying these things:

Lord, who hath believed our report, and the arm of the Lord, to whom hath it been revealed? (Isa. 53:1). When he says the arm of the Lord, he shows the divinity of the Son of God; and thereafter he begins to proclaim the mystery of the Incarnation and the Passion: We declared before Him, as a child, as a root in a thirsty ground. He hath no form nor glory. And we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness; but His form was without honour, and abased beyond all men: a man in affliction, and knowing how to bear infirmity, because His face was turned away, dishonoured, and esteemed as nothing.

He beareth our sins, and grieveth for us, and we did esteem Him to be in sorrows, and in affliction, and in vexation: but He was wounded for our iniquities, and was weakened for our sins. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; man hath erred from his own way, and the Lord delivered Him up for our sins; and He, because He was ill-treated, opened not His mouth: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away. Who shall declare His generation?

Because His life is taken away from the earth; for the iniquities of My people He was led to death (Isa. 53:7ff). And that the prophet might demonstrate the full substance of man in Christ, a little below he added: He shall bear their sins. Therefore He shall possess many by inheritance, and shall divide the spoils of the strong, because His soul was delivered unto death, and He was reckoned among the wicked. And He bore the sins of many, and for their iniquities He was delivered up. From these words of the prophet, both the soul and the flesh of the Saviour are known to have been delivered up, because the whole man was led to the cross for us.

For thus it behoved the handwriting of our sins to be blotted out, that while our old man is at the same time crucified, the victory of the triumpher might be displayed, as it were, upon a trophy. CHAPTER 30. The flesh of Christ felt no corruption in the tomb, nor His soul any punishment in hell. The just vengeance of God concerning the sin of the first man. By Christ both the flesh and the soul of man are saved: Christ suffered together with us and had compassion on us. It remained, however, for the full effect of our redemption, that the man assumed by God without sin should descend even to that place whither the man separated from God had fallen by the desert of sin, that is, to hell, where the soul of the sinner was wont to be tormented, and to the tomb, where the flesh of the sinner was accustomed to be corrupted;

yet in such a way that neither should the flesh of Christ be corrupted in the tomb, nor should His soul be tormented by the pains of hell, since a soul immune from sin was not to be subjected to punishment, and corruption ought not to vitiate flesh without sin. For because sinning man deserved to be divided in himself through punishment—since he chose to be sundered by the guilt of transgression from God, who cannot be divided—therefore it came to pass that the death of the sinner led the flesh of sin to the tomb to be corrupted, and straightway consigned the soul to hell to be tormented. But this the equity of the avenging God brought about, which for this reason so sentenced the sinner, because beforehand He had forewarned him not to sin.

This was the retribution to be rendered to the sinner, that he should justly pay the punishment of sin, who had unjustly sinned against the just God. But that the sinner might be freed by a gratuitous gift, it came to pass that the death of the body, which the sinful man had justly endured from the just God, the Son of God unjustly suffered from the sinner; and that the flesh of the just might come to the tomb, whither the flesh of sin had been carried down; and that the soul of the Saviour might descend even to hell, where the soul of the sinner was tormented by the desert of sin. And this was done for this reason: that through the flesh of the just dying temporally, eternal life might be granted to the flesh, and through the soul of the just descending to hell, the pains of hell might be loosed.

But holy Scripture was not silent about either, concerning the resurrection of the flesh indeed, blessed Paul thus speaking: By man came death, and by man the resurrection of the dead; and as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:21-22). The same is the man Christ, who for us both was made high priest when He offered Himself to the passion, and was made the victim when He Himself underwent the passion. To Him it is said: Thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech (Ps. 109:4). And yet both the priest and the victim are known to be as much offices of human nature as names. And because the same high priest took up and had our infirmities, therefore the Apostle says of Him:

For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Heb. 4:15); and that he might teach that he was speaking of the human nature, he added: But one tempted in all things according to His likeness to us, yet without sin; and a little below he subjoined: For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in the things that pertain to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, who can have compassion on those who are ignorant and err, since he too is compassed with infirmity (Heb. 5:1-2). In that, therefore, wherein He was compassed with infirmity, in that He suffered together over our ignorance and errors, and in that He had compassion on our infirmities; for there is the unity of compassion where there is the unity of nature;

but that high priest had compassion on us in that wherein we also suffer together, as the blessed Apostle says: The Spirit Himself beareth witness to our spirit that we are sons of God. And if sons, then heirs also—heirs indeed of God, but joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together (Rom. 8:16-17). Blessed Peter too exhorts us to the grace of this fellow-suffering, saying: Beloved, be not afraid in the fiery trial which cometh to you for temptation. Be not dismayed, as though some new thing happened to you; but as partakers of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, that at the revelation of His glory ye may also rejoice, exulting (1 Pet. 4:12-13).

In the human nature, therefore, that high priest, sustaining the truth of the passion, in it assuredly knows how to suffer together with His members. Wherefore also blessed Paul said: That I may fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, for His body, which is the Church (Col. 1:24). CHAPTER 31. We also ought to suffer together and die together with Christ. As we die with Christ, so are we freed from the pains of hell. The divinity of Christ forsook neither the flesh in the tomb nor the soul in hell. And what wonder is it that we suffer together with our high priest by natural communion, since the blessed Apostle testifies that we have even died together with Him in these words:

If ye be dead with Christ, why do ye yet decree, as though living in the world? He also says to Timothy: Remember that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my Gospel, in which I labour even unto bonds, as an evildoer; but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with heavenly glory (2 Tim. 2:8-10). Knowing therefore, as the Apostle did, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead of the seed of David (wherein assuredly the communion of human nature is manifested), in that wherein he had known Him to have died, in that he commemorates that we died together with Him, saying: This is a faithful saying: for if we be dead together, we shall also live together;

if we endure, we shall also reign together (2 Tim. 2:11-12). That high priest, therefore, who offered Himself for us (as the Apostle says) an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour (Eph. 5:2), as He died for us, made us all to die together with Himself; so, the pains of hell being loosed, He freed all the faithful from those same pains, as blessed Peter testifies, saying: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by powers and signs and wonders, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves know: Him, delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hands of the wicked have crucified and slain.

whom God raised up, the pains of hell being loosed, inasmuch as it was impossible that He should be held by it (Acts 2:22, 33, 24). Here too that testimony of David, which we set down in the first book, is shown to have been uttered thus: for David speaks concerning Him: 'I foresaw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt Thou suffer Thy holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life, and Thou shalt fill me with joy with Thy countenance' (Ps. 15:8-10).

There the blessed Peter, truly illumined by the divine Spirit, and according to the Lord's word made the light of the world, shows by the most clear light of his preaching how we ought to understand this passage, lest anyone should so understand a true flesh in Christ as to deny a true soul in Him. It follows then: 'Men and brethren, let it be permitted to speak boldly to you concerning the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this present day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn to him with an oath, that of the fruit of his loins one should sit upon his throne, foreseeing this,'

he spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither did His flesh see corruption (Acts 2:29-31). In this therefore the divinity of Christ showed the power of its impassibility, in that—being everywhere always and ineffably present—it was both present according to His soul in hell without pains, and according to His flesh lay in the sepulchre without corruption; for neither did it fail His flesh, since it did not suffer His soul to feel pain in hell, nor did it forsake His soul in hell, since in the sepulchre it kept His flesh from corruption. For it was fitting that the place of the tomb should not corrupt that flesh which the disposition of sin had not corrupted, and that the pain of hell should not touch that soul

which the bondage of sin could not hold. Wherefore in the psalm, when out of the form of a servant, in which Christ bore our sins, He said: 'For my soul is filled with evils, and my life hath drawn near to hell' (Ps. 87:4), in order to show that this same soul of His, free from sin, had descended into hell for us sinners, He added, saying: 'I am become as a man without help, free among the dead' (Ibid., 5). CHAPTER 32. The Son of God is said to have died and risen again by reason of the flesh. According to the divinity the working of the Father and the Son is one.

Nevertheless, although in Christ the flesh alone died and was raised, yet on account of the unity of the person of God and of the name, the Son of God is said to have died. This the apostle Paul plainly attests in these words: 'For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in His life' (Rom. 5:10). Again, that the Son of God rose is confirmed by Peter's exhortation, thus urging the Jews to faith in Christ: 'Ye are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham: And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed;'

'God, having raised up His Son, sent Him first to you, blessing you, that every one should turn from his iniquity' (Acts 3:24-25). Also in this passage the blessed Peter calls the same Son of God Him whom he mentions as the seed of Abraham; for Christ is not divided. Yet, that He may be known to have risen from the dead not according to that which is from God the Father, but according to that which is from the seed of Abraham, on account of the unity of the person in which Christ is one God and man, the Son of God is not incongruously said to have been raised. And that according to His divinity His nature might be proved one with the Father, one and the same was the working together in the deed.

For just as the Father, by His own act, formed His flesh in the Virgin's womb, so also He Himself formed it (for concerning Christ according to His human nature it is written: 'God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye have crucified' [Acts 2:36]; it is written also: 'Wisdom hath built herself a house' [Prov. 9:1]), so likewise, when He was delivered up by the Father, He also is known to have delivered up Himself; for it is written: 'God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all' (Rom. 8:32); and concerning the Son Himself it is said: 'That which I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself for me' (Gal. 2:20). CHAPTER 33.

Both the Father raised the Son, and the Son raised Himself. In His resurrection too an equality of working is found, because the majesty of the Father and the Son is one. For concerning the Father the blessed Peter speaks thus: 'God, having first raised up His Son, sent Him blessing you' (Acts 3:25). But concerning Himself the Son of God speaks thus to the Jews: 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up' (John 2:19), which John explained, saying: 'But He spoke of the temple of His body' (Ibid., 21). To the Colossians also Paul, speaking, signifies in these words that the Son of God Himself raised His own humanity:

'See that no one deceive you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the traditions of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ: for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are filled in Him, who is the head of all principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen again through the faith of the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead.'

'And you, when ye were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He hath quickened together with Him, forgiving you all your sins, blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross, stripping Himself of the flesh; and the principalities and powers He led forth confidently, openly triumphing over them in Himself' (Col. 2:8-15). We are not ignorant that this passage is by some referred to the person of the Father; but from the connection of the words, if the careful attention of the reader be applied, the sense of this chapter shows rather this: that one and the same Son may appear, not only the Christ who was raised, but also God Himself who raised Christ;