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| Chapter XXII.—Christ did not come for the sake of the men of one age only, but for all who, living righteously and piously, had believed upon Him; and for those, too, who shall believe.
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Chapter XXII.—Christ did not come for
the sake of the men of one age only, but for all who, living righteously and
piously, had believed upon Him; and for those, too, who shall believe.
1. Now in the last days, when the fulness of the time
of liberty had arrived, the Word Himself did by Himself “wash away
the filth of the daughters of Zion,”4124
when He washed the disciples’ feet with His own hands.4125
For this is the end of the human race
inheriting God; that as in the beginning, by means of our first
[parents], we were all brought into bondage, by being made subject to
death; so at last, by means of the New Man, all who from the beginning
[were His] disciples, having been cleansed and washed from things
pertaining to death, should come to the life of God. For He who washed
the feet of the disciples sanctified the entire body, and rendered it
clean. For this reason, too, He administered food to them in a recumbent
posture, indicating that those who were lying in the earth were they to
whom He came to impart life. As Jeremiah declares, “The holy Lord
remembered His dead Israel, who slept in the land of sepulture; and He
descended to them to make known to them His
salvation, that
they might be saved.”4126
| 4126 This spurious quotation has been introduced before. See
book iii. 20. 4. | For this reason also were the eyes of the
disciples weighed down when Christ’s passion was approaching; and
when, in the first instance, the Lord found them sleeping, He let it
pass,—thus indicating the patience of God in regard to the state
of slumber in which men lay; but coming the second time, He aroused them,
and made them stand up, in token that His passion is the arousing of His
sleeping disciples, on whose account “He also descended into the
lower parts of the earth,”4127
to behold
with His eyes the state of those who were resting from their
labours,4128
| 4128 So Harvey
understands the obscure Latin text, “id quod erat inoperatum
conditionis.” | in reference to whom He did also declare
to the disciples: “Many prophets and righteous men have desired to
see and hear what ye do see and hear.”4129
2. For it was not merely
for those who believed on Him in the time of Tiberius Cæsar that Christ
came, nor did the Father exercise His providence for the men only who are
now alive, but for all men altogether, who from the beginning, according
to their capacity, in their generation have both feared and loved God,
and practised justice and piety towards their neighbours, and have
earnestly desired to see Christ, and to hear His voice. Wherefore He
shall, at His second coming, first rouse from their sleep all persons of
this description, and shall raise them up, as well as the rest who shall
be judged, and give them a place in His kingdom. For it is truly
“one God who” directed the patriarchs towards His
dispensations, and “has justified the circumcision by faith, and
the uncircumcision through faith.”4130
For as in
the first we were prefigured, so, on the other hand, are they represented
in us, that is, in the Church, and receive the recompense for those
things which they accomplished.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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