Chapter 5. The Law and the Prophets Proclaimed Only One God; Him, Too, Christ Acknowledged as His Father.
Chapter 5
1. God, therefore, is one and the same, who rolls up the heavens as a book and renews the face of the earth. It is he who made temporal things for the sake of man, so that he might grow to maturity in them and produce the fruit of immortality. It is he who because of his kindness bestows, in addition, the eternal things, that in the coming ages he might show the unsearchable riches of his kindness. It is he who was preached by the Law and the Prophets. It is he whom Christ acknowledged to be his Father. He is, moreover, the Maker; he is the God who is above all things, as Isaiah said, I am witness, says the Lord God, and the servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe and understand that I myself am. Before me there was no other God, and after me there will be none. I am the Lord, and there is no savior besides me. I have declared and have saved. And again, I am God, the first and I will be for ever. He does not say this ambiguously or proudly or by way of boasting. But, because it was impossible to learn about God without God, he teaches people to know God through his Word. So, to those who are ignorant of these things and therefore think they have discovered another Father, one can rightly say, you are wrong because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
2. In truth, Our Lord and Teacher, in the answer he gave to the Sadducees who say there is no resurrection, thus dishonoring God and discrediting the Law, both proved there is a resurrection and revealed God. You are wrong, he said to them, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. And as for the resurrection of the dead, he continued, have you not read what was said by God, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? And he added, he is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all men live for him. By these words he certainly made it clear that he who spoke from the bush to Moses and manifested that he is the God of the Fathers, he is the God of the living. Really, who is the God of the living unless he who is [truly] God and above whom there is no other God? Him also the Prophet Daniel announced, when King Cyrus of the Persians asked for him, Why do you not worship Bal? by saying, Because I do not revere man made idols, but the living God who created heaven and earth, and has dominion over all flesh. And again he said, I worship the Lord my God, for he is the living God.
The one, therefore, who was worshipped by the Prophets as the living God, he is the God of the living. It is his Lord, too, who spoke to Moses and who refuted the Sadducees and who bestowed the gift of the resurrection, pointing out both things to those who are blind, that is, the resurrection and God. For if he is the God not of the dead but of the living, yet was called the God of the Fathers who were sleeping, undoubtedly they are Living for God and have not perished, since they are children of the resurrection. Now, Our Lord himself is the resurrection, as he said, I am the resurrection and the life. But the Fathers are his children; for it was said by the Prophet, In place of your fathers your sons were born. So Christ himself, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spoke to Moses and who also was manifested to the Fathers.
3. While teaching this very doctrine, he said to the Jews, Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad. Why? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. First, because he is the Maker of heaven and earth, the only God;second, because he will make his [Abraham’s] descendants like the stars of heaven. This is what Paul says, Like lights in the world. Rightly, then, leaving behind all his earthly kin, he followed the Word of God. he travelled as a pilgrim with the Word that he might dwell as a citizen with the Word.
4. Rightly, moreover, did the apostles, who descended from Abraham, leave behind the boat and their father and follow the Word of God. Rightly do we too, since we receive the same faith that Abraham had, take up our cross as Isaac did the wood and follow him. For in Abraham man learned his first lesson and became accustomed to follow the Word of God. Abraham by virtue of his faith carried out the precept of the Word of God and readily offered his only-begotten and beloved son as a sacrifice to God, so that God in turn might have the good pleasure of offering his beloved and Only-begotten Son for his [Abraham’s] entire offspring as a sacrifice for our redemption.
5. Since, therefore, Abraham was a prophet and saw in the Spirit the day of the Lord’s coming and the economy of his passion, through whom he himself and all who believe in God, just as he believed, will be saved, he rejoiced exceedingly. The Lord, then, was not unknown to Abraham, since he desired to see his days. Nor was the Father of the Lord, for he (Abraham) learned from the Word of the Lord, and he believed in him. For this reason it was also reckoned to him by the Lord as justice. For it is faith in God that justifies man, and for this reason he [Abraham] said, I lift up my hand to God the Most High, Maker of heaven and earth. But the evil-minded try to overthrow all these things, because of one saying which was not understood correctly by them.