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| In What Manner Christ Shall Deliver Up the Kingdom to God, Even the Father. The Kingdom Having Been Delivered to God, Even the Father, Christ Will Not Then Make Intercession for Us.
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Chapter 10.—In What Manner
Christ Shall Deliver Up the Kingdom to God, Even the Father. The
Kingdom Having Been Delivered to God, Even the Father, Christ Will
Not Then Make Intercession for Us.
20. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
therefore, will so deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father,
Himself not being thence excluded, nor the Holy Spirit, when He
shall bring believers to the contemplation of God, wherein is the
end of all good actions, and everlasting rest, and joy which never
will be taken from us. For He signifies this in that which He says:
“I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy
no man taketh from you.”108
Mary, sitting at the feet of the
Lord, and earnestly listening to His word, foreshowed a similitude
of this joy; resting as she did from all business, and intent upon
the truth, according to that manner of which this life is capable,
by which, however, to prefigure that which shall be for eternity.
For while Martha, her sister, was cumbered about necessary
business, which, although good and useful, yet, when rest shall
have succeeded, is to pass away, she herself was resting in the
word of the Lord. And so the Lord replied to Martha, when she
complained that her sister did not help her: “Mary hath chosen
the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.”109
He did not
say that Martha was acting a bad part; but that “best part that
shall not be taken away.” For that part which is occupied in the
ministering to a need shall be “taken away” when the need
itself has passed away. Since the reward of a good work that will
pass away is rest that will not pass away. In that contemplation,
therefore, God will be all in all; because nothing else but Himself
will be required, but it will be sufficient to be enlightened by
and to enjoy Him alone. And so he in whom “the Spirit maketh
intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered,”110
says, “One
thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I
may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to
contemplate the beauty of the Lord.”111
For we shall then contemplate God,
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, when the Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, shall have delivered up
the kingdom to God, even the Father, so as no longer to make
intercession for us, as our Mediator and Priest, Son of God and Son
of man;112
but that He
Himself too, in so far as He is a Priest that has taken the form of
a servant for us, shall be put under Him who has put all things
under Him, and under whom He has put all things: so that, in so far
as He is God, He with Him will have put us under Himself; in so far
as He is a Priest, He with us will be put under Him.113
And
therefore as the [incarnate] Son is both God and man, it is rather
to be said that the manhood in the Son is another substance [from
the Son], than that the Son in the Father [is another substance
from the Father]; just as the carnal nature of my soul is
more another substance in relation to my soul itself, although in
one and the same man, than the soul of another man is in relation
to my soul.114
| 114 [The animal soul is different in
kind from the rational soul though both constitute one person;
while the rational soul of a man is the same in kind with that of
another man. Similarly, says Augustin, there is a difference in
kind between the human nature and the divine nature of Christ,
though constituting one theanthropic person, while the divine
nature of the Son is the same in substance with that of the Father,
though constituting two different persons, the Father and
Son.—W.G.T.S.] |
21. When, therefore, He “shall
have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father,”—that
is, when He shall have brought those who believe and live by faith,
for whom now as Mediator He maketh intercession, to that
contemplation, for the obtaining of which we sigh and groan, and
when labor and groaning shall have passed away,—then, since the
kingdom will have been delivered up to God, even the Father, He
will no more make intercession for us. And this He signifies, when
He says: “These things have I spoken unto you in similitudes;115
but the time
cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in similitudes,116
but I shall
declare117
to you
plainly of the Father:” that is, they will not then be
“similitudes,” when the sight shall be “face to face.” For
this it is which He says, “But I will declare to you plainly of
the Father;” as if He said I will plainly show you the Father.
For He says, I will “declare” to you, because He is His word.
For He goes on to say, “At that day ye shall ask in my name; and
I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the
Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have
believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father,
and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the
Father.”118
What is
meant by “I came forth from the Father,” unless this, that I
have not appeared in that form in which I am equal to the
Father, but otherwise, that is, as less than the Father, in the
creature which I have taken upon me? And what is meant by “I am
come into the world,” unless this, that I have manifested to the
eyes even of sinners who love this world, the form of a servant
which I took, making myself of no reputation? And what is meant by
“Again, I leave the world,” unless this, that I take away from
the sight of the lovers of this world that which they have seen?
And what is meant by “I go to the Father,” unless this, that I
teach those who are my faithful ones to understand me in that being
in which I am equal to the Father? Those who believe this will be
thought worthy of being brought by faith to sight, that is, to that
very sight, in bringing them to which He is said to “deliver up
the kingdom to God, even the Father.” For His faithful ones, whom
He has redeemed with His blood, are called His kingdom, for whom He
now intercedes; but then, making them to abide in Himself there,
where He is equal to the Father, He will no longer pray the Father
for them. “For,” He says, “the Father Himself loveth you.”
For indeed He “prays,” in so far as He is less than the Father;
but as He is equal with the Father, He with the Father grants.
Wherefore He certainly does not exclude Himself from that which He
says, “The Father Himself loveth you;” but He means it to be
understood after that manner which I have above spoken of, and
sufficiently intimated,—namely, that for the most part each
Person of the Trinity is so named, that the other Persons also may
be understood. Accordingly, “For the Father Himself loveth
you,” is so said that by consequence both the Son and the Holy
Spirit also may be understood: not that He does not now love us,
who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all;119
but God
loves us, such as we shall be, not such as we are, for such as they
are whom He loves, such are they whom He keeps eternally; which
shall then be, when He who now maketh intercession for us shall
have “delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father,” so as
no longer to ask the Father, because the Father Himself loveth us.
But for what deserving, except of faith, by which we believe before
we see that which is promised? For by this faith we shall arrive at
sight; so that He may love us, being such, as He loves us in order
that we may become; and not such, as He hates us because we are,
and exhorts and enables us to wish not to be always.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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