Topic XII.
If any one says that Christ was manifested in the world
only in semblance, and refuses to acknowledge that He came actually in
the flesh, let him be anathema.
Explication.
How could one say that Christ was manifested only in
semblance in the world, born as He was in Bethlehem, and made to submit
to the circumcising of the flesh, and lifted up by Simeon, and brought
up on to His twelfth year (at home), and made subject to His parents,
and baptized in Jordan, and nailed to the cross, and raised again from
the dead?
Wherefore, when it is said that He was
“troubled in spirit,”421
| 421
John xi. 33; xii. 27; xiii.
21. |
that “He was sorrowful in
soul,”
422
that “He was
wounded in body,”
423
He places before us designations of susceptibilities proper to our
constitution, in order to show that He was made man in the
world, and
had His conversation with men,
424
yet without
sin. For He was
born in Bethlehem according to the
flesh, in a manner meet for
Deity, the
angels of
heaven recognising Him
as their
Lord, and hymning as their
God Him who was then wrapped in
swaddling-
clothes in a
manger, and exclaiming, “
Glory to
God in
the highest, and on
earth peace, good-will among men.”
425
He was brought up in
Nazareth; but in
divine fashion He sat among the
doctors, and
astonished them by a
wisdom beyond His years, in respect of the capacities of His bodily
life, as is
recorded in the
Gospel narrative. He was
baptized in
Jordan, not as receiving any
sanctification for Himself, but as gifting
a participation in
sanctification to others. He was tempted in
the
wilderness, not as giving way, however, to
temptation, but as
putting our
temptations before Himself on the challenge of the
tempter,
in order to show the powerlessness of the
tempter.
Wherefore He says, “Be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world.”426
And this He said, not as holding
before us any contest proper only to a
God, but as showing our own
flesh in its capacity to overcome suffering, and
death, and
corruption,
in order that, as
sin entered into the
world by
flesh, and
death came
to
reign by
sin over all men, the
sin in the
flesh might also be
condemned through the selfsame
flesh in the likeness thereof;
427
and that that overseer of
sin, the
tempter, might be overcome, and
death be cast down from its
sovereignty, and the
corruption in the burying of the body be done
away, and the first-fruits of the resurrection be shown, and the
principle of
righteousness begin its course in the
world through
faith,
and the
kingdom of
heaven be
preached to men, and
fellowship be
established between
God and men.
In behalf of this grace let us glorify the Father, who
has given His only begotten Son for the life of the world. Let us
glorify the Holy Spirit that worketh in us, and quickeneth us, and
furnisheth the gifts meet for the fellowship of God; and let us not
intermeddle with the word of the Gospel by lifeless disputations,
scattering about endless questionings and logomachies, and making a
hard thing of the gentle and simple word of faith; but rather let us
work the work of faith, let us love peace, let us exhibit concord, let
us preserve unity, let us cultivate love, with which God is well
pleased.
As it is not for us to know the times or the
seasons which the Father hath put in His own power,428
but only to believe that there will come
an end to time, and that there will be a manifestation of a future
world, and a
revelation of
judgment, and an
advent of the Son of
God, and a
recompense of works, and an inheritance in the
kingdom of
heaven, so it
is not for us to know how the Son of
God became man; for this is a
great
mystery, as it is written, “Who shall declare His
generation? for His
life is taken from the
earth.”
429
But it is for us to believe that the
Son of
God became man, according to the Scriptures; and that He was
seen on the
earth, and had His conversation with men, according to the
Scriptures, in their likeness, yet without
sin; and that He
died for
us, and rose again from the dead, as it is written; and that He was
taken up to
heaven, and sat down at the right
hand of the
Father,
whence He shall come to
judge the
quick and the dead, as it is written;
lest, while we
war against each other with words, any should be led to
blaspheme the word of faith, and that should come to pass which is
written, “By reason of you is my name
430
continually blasphemed among the
nations.”
431
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
