CHAPTER 8. The many ways "through whom" is used, and the
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ants always bears the brand of the latest trends of thought.
But as for us, what our fathers said, we repeat: the same glory is given to the Father and Son; therefore we offer the doxology to the Father with the Son. But we are not content simply because this is the tradition of the Fathers.
What is important is that the Fathers followed the meaning of Scripture, beginning with the evidence which I have just extracted from the Scriptures and presented to you. The radiance is always considered with the glory that is its source, the image with its prototype, and always, the Son with the Father. One demands the existence of the other, and both are inseparably joined in name and in nature.
CHAPTER 8. The many ways "through whom" is used, and the occasions when "with whom" is more suitable.
Explanation of how the Son receives a commandment, and how He is sent.
17.
The apostle says, "I thank my God through Jesus Christ" * and through whom we have received grace and apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith... among all nations" and "through Him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice." *
He speaks here of the kindnesses which the Son has bestowed on us; sometimes He carries these good gifts of grace from the Father to us, and other times He leads us to the Father through Himself. When Paul says, "through whom we have received grace and apostleship" he indi7 Rom. 1:8.
79 Rom. 1:5.
80 Rom. 5:2.
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cates that these abundant blessings proceed from the Son, and when he says "through Him we have obtained access" he demonstrates that through Christ we have acquired membership in God's household. Is it possible that our acknowledgement of the blessings He has accomplished for us reduces His glory? Is it not more true to say that when we remember His mighty works, we find the proper means of praise? This is why we find that the Scriptures do not confine themselves to only one name when they describe the Lord, nor are they limited to terms indicative of His divine majesty. Sometimes words are used which describe His nature, recognizing "the name which is above every name," * the name of Jesus the Son. The Scriptures say that He is truly the Son," and Only-begotten God,"
Power of God,* Wisdom," and Word.®* Also, because of the many ways grace is given to us poor men by Him whose goodness and wisdom are manifold, He is described by innumerable other titles: Shepherd, King, Physician,
Bridegroom, Way, Door, Fountain, Bread, Axe, and Rock.
These titles do not describe His nature, but, as I have already said, are concerned with his manifold energies, by which He satisfies the needs of each in His tenderheartedness to His own creation. Those who flee to His ruling care for refuge, and through patient endurance correct their evil ways, He calls sheep, and He acknowledges Himself to be the Shepherd of those who hear His voice, refusing to listen to strange teachings. "My sheep hear my voice," *' He says. He is King of those who have risen to a higher way of life, submitting themselves to their lawful ruler. Because He leads men through the narrow gate of His commandments to the practice of good deeds, and because He securely shuts in those who through faith in 81 Phil. 2:9.
84T Cor. 1:24.
Bo Tne (ot.
82 Mt. 14:33; 27:54.
Idem.
Sr 1Ol2 7.
S37Ina 1:18;
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Him find shelter in true wisdom, He is the Door. Therefore He says, "If any one enters by Me, he... will go in and out and find pasture." * Because He is a mighty fortress for the faithful, an unshaken and unbroken bullwark, He is called Rock.
It is with these titles, such as Door or Way, that the phrase "through whom' is most suitably used, but when He is glorified as God and Son, it is with and together with the Father so that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." ®
Therefore we use both phrases, expressing His unique dignity by one, and His grace to us by the other.
18.
Every kind of help comes to our souls through Him, and an appropriate title has been devised for each particular kind of care. When He presents a blameless soul to Himself, a soul which like a pure virgin has neither spot nor wrinkle, He is called Bridegroom, but when He receives someone paralyzed by the devil's evil strokes, and heals the heavy burden of his sins, He is called Physician.
Because He cares for us, will this make us think less of Him? Or will we not be struck with amazement at our
Savior's mighty power and love for mankind, who patiently endured to suffer our infirmities with us, and condescended to our weakness? No heaven, or earth, or the great oceans, or all creatures living in the waters and on dry land, or plants, stars, air, and seasons, or the vast expanse of the universe, can illustrate the surpassing greatness of God's might so well as He has Himself. The infinite God, remaining changeless, assumed flesh and fought with death, freeing us from suffering by His own suffering! Even when the Apostle says that "in all these things (tribulations and sufferings) we are more than conquerors through Him who 8 Jn. 10:9.
8° Phil. 2:10-11.
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loved us," * in a phrase of this kind there is no suggestion of any lowly and subordinate ministry, but rather it speaks of the good He has accomplished "in the strength of His might." * He Himself has bound the strong man and plundered His goods " — that is, us, who had been abased in every manner of evil — and made us into vessels fit for the Master's use, the use of our free will being made ready for any good work." Thus through Him we have our approach to the Father, Who has transferred us from the dominion of darkness to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.°* We must not think that the salvation the Son has won for us is the result of a slave's compulsory and subordinate service. No, He voluntarily accomplishes
His plan out of goodness and compassion for His creation, fulfilling the Father's will. We follow true religion if we bear witness to the Son's power made manifest in everything
He has fulfilled and accomplished, never separating His work from the Father's will. For instance, whenever the Lord is called the Way, we should be raised to a higher meaning, and not to the common understanding of the word. We understand the Way to be the road to perfection, advancing in order step by step through the words of righteousness and the illumination of knowledge, always yearning for that which lies ahead and straining toward the last mile, until we reach that blessed end, the knowledge of God, with which the Lord blesses those who believe in Him.
For truly our Lord is a good Way, a straight road with no confusing forks or turns, leading us directly to the Father. "No one comes to the Father," He says, "except through Me." * Such is our way up to God through His Son.
19.
Our next task is to discuss the treasury of bless- *0 Rom. 8:37.
2 Mt. 12:21.
*4 Cf. Col. 1:12-13.
*1 Eph. 6:10.
$3 Cf, Ti Tim: 2:21:
% Jn. 14:6.
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ings which come from the Father through the Son to us.
All created nature, whether visible or spiritual, is held together by God's care: He who is the creating Word, the only-begotten God. He bestows help on every creature according to its need. He measures individual requirements, and then distributes many different kinds of bounties. He enlightens those who are confined in the darkness of ignorance; therefore He is called the True Light. He judges every man according to the measure of his works, therefore He is called the righteous Judge. "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son."
He raises up from the depths of sin those who have fallen from resurrection. He accomplishes all things by His powerful touch. He shepherds, He enlightens, He nourishes, He leads, He heals, He raises up. He calls all things from nonexistence into being; once things are created He keeps them in existence. Thus God's blessings reach us through the Son, Who works in each case with greater speed than words can describe. Neither lightning, or the speed of light racing through the air, or a blink of the eyes, or the movement of our thoughts, is as swift as the Son's working.
Divine energy surpasses everything in speed; it is faster than birds, or the wind, or the revolution of the heavenly bodies, or our very thoughts. It makes living creatures appear sluggish. What passage of time is needed by Him Who "upholds the universe by His word of power?" * He does not work by bodily strength, nor does He need the use of hands in order to fashion things, but all created things follow Him, offering Him their willing cooperation. As Judith says, "The things Thou has foreordained present themselves and say, 'We are here!' " * On the other hand, we must not be so dazzled by the greatness of the Lord's works that we imagine that He has no origin. What does the self-existent One say about this? "I live through the sain ose 2s ®7 Heb. 1:3.
8 Jud. 9:5-6.
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Father," * and concerning divine power He says that "the Son can do nothing of His own accord." *" Where is the source of His perfect wisdom? "The Father ...has Himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak." Through all these words He guides us to the knowledge of the Father; He directs our amazement at everything He has made so that we may know the Father through Him. The work of the Father is not separate or distinct from the work of the Son; whatever the Son "sees the Father doing...that the Son does likewise." *" The Father enjoys our awe at everything which proceeds from the glory of the Only-begotten; He rejoices both in His
Son who accomplishes such deeds, and in the deeds themselves, and exults in being known as the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, "for whom and through whom all things exist." ** The Lord says, "All mine are thine," as if He were submitting His lordship over creation to the Father, but He also adds "thine are mine,'*" to show that the creating command came from the Father to Him. The Son did not need help to accomplish His work, nor are we to believe that He received a separate commandment for each portion of His work; such extreme inferiority would be entirely inadequate to His divine glory. Rather, the Word was full of His Father's grace; He shines forth from the Father, and accomplishes everything according to His
Parent's plan. He is not different in essence, nor is He different in power from His Father, and if their power is equal, then their works are the same. Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God." All things were made through Him,'" and all things were created through Him and for Him,' not as if He were discharging the service
9 Jn. 6:57.
103 Heb. 2:10.
106 T 'Cor. 1524, 100 Jn. 5:19.
Mev foh, Jiyes sey Une 3.
101 Jn. 12:49.
105 Tdem.
108 Col. 1:16.
102 Jn. 5:19.
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of a slave, but instead He creatively fulfills the will of His Father.
20.
When He says, "I have not spoken on my own authority," *° and "As the Father has said unto me, so I speak," *° and "the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me" ™ and "I do as the Father has commanded me,"'** He does not use language of this kind because He is incapable of His own choice, or is lawless, or has to wait for a prearranged signal. He wants to make it clear that His will is indissolubly united to the Father. We must not think that what He calls a "commandment" is an imperious order delivered by word of mouth by which the Father gives orders to His Son, as He would to a subordinate, telling Him what He should do. Instead, let us think in terms worthy of the Godhead, and realize that there is a transmission of will, like the reflection of an object in a mirror, which reaches from Father to Son without passage of time. "The Father loves the Son, and shows Him all that He Himself is doing." **
Everything the Father has also belongs to the Son; He does not acquire it little by little, but has it all at once. In the world of men, when a workmen has been taught his craft, and had solid experience as well as a long period of training, he is able to begin work for himself, using the techniques he has learned. Does the wisdom of God, who fashioned all creation, who is eternally perfect, wise without being taught, or the power of God, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,'* need to be given piecemeal instructions in order to determine the type and the extent of His operations? I presume by the vanity of your ideas that you intend to open a school, in which you will have the Father take His seat in the teacher's place, ae Tn 12/45:
™ Jn. 14:24.
BOTH St20.
10 Jn, 12:50.
12 Jn. 14:31.
MA Col. 2:3:
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and the Son stand in front of Him like an ignorant schoolboy, advancing in wisdom and perfection with the assistance of lessons given to Him bit by bit. If you consistently follow this train of thought, you will turn the Son into the eternal student, who is never able to reach the end of His studies, since the Father's wisdom is infinite, and the end of the infinite can never be reached. Anyone who will not admit that the Son has all things from the beginning must also admit that He will never reach perfection. I am ashamed at how low my thoughts have been dragged by following this notion to its end. Let us return to the higher aspects of our discussion.
21.
"He who has seen me has seen the Father;" ** this does not mean that he has seen the image and the form of the divine nature, since the divine nature is simple, not composed of various parts. Goodness of will is a current in the stream of the divine essence, and thus is perceived to be the same in the Father and the Son. What then is meant by "He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death" * or "God...did not spare His own
Son but gave Him up for us all?" *" It means that what the Son does for men He accomplishes by means of the Sonship He receives from the Father. Listen to these words also: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law" and "while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." "* Pay close attention to the Lord's words; (whenever He instructs us about the Father),"° He knows that by using terms of personal authority, such as "I will; be clean,"
5 Jn. 14:9, 117 Rom. 8:32.
49 Rom. 5:8.
116 Phil 2:8.
238 Gala3 213; 120 This phrase is most obscure, and I have not found a suitable explanation for it in any commentator. I have enclosed it in parentheses because it seems to have nothing to do with what precedes or follows.
121 Mt. 8:3.