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| By a like simile, the reasonableness of the work of redemption is shewn. How Christ wiped away our ruin, and provided its antidote by His own teaching. Scripture proofs of the Incarnation of the Word, and of the Sacrifice He wrought.
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§10. By a like simile, the
reasonableness of the work of redemption is shewn. How Christ wiped
away our ruin, and provided its antidote by His own teaching. Scripture
proofs of the Incarnation of the Word, and of the Sacrifice He
wrought.
Now in truth this great work was peculiarly
suited to God’s goodness. 1. For if a king, having founded a
house or city, if it be beset by bandits from the carelessness of its
inmates, does not by any means neglect it, but avenges and reclaims it
as his own work, having regard not to the carelessness of the
inhabitants, but to what beseems himself; much more did God the Word of
the all-good Father not neglect the race of men, His work, going to
corruption: but, while He blotted out the death which had ensued by the
offering of His own body, He corrected their neglect by His own
teaching, restoring all that was man’s by His own power. 2. And
of this one may be assured at the hands of the Saviour’s own
inspired writers, if one happen upon their writings, where they say:
“For the love of Christ227
constraineth us;
because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died, and He
died for all that we should no longer live unto ourselves, but unto Him
Who for our sakes died and rose again,” our Lord Jesus Christ.
And, again: “But228
we behold Him, Who
hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of
the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace
of God He should taste of death for every man.” 3. Then He also
points out the reason why it was necessary for none other than God the
Word Himself to become incarnate; as follows: “For it became Him,
for Whom are all things, and through Whom are all things, in bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect
through suffering;” by which words He means, that it belonged to
none other to bring man back from the corruption which had begun, than
the Word of God, Who had also made them from the beginning. 4. And that
it was in order to the sacrifice for bodies such as His own that the
Word Himself also assumed a body, to this, also, they refer in these
words229
: “Forasmuch then as the children are
the sharers in blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook
of the same, that through death He might bring to naught Him that had
the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver them who,
through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to
bondage.” 5. For by the sacrifice of His own body, He both put an
end to the law which was against us, and made a new beginning of life
for us, by the hope of resurrection which He has given us. For since
from man it was that death prevailed over men, for this cause
conversely, by the Word of God being made man has come about the
destruction of death and the resurrection of life; as the man which
bore Christ230
saith: “For231
since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
alive:” and so forth. For no longer now do we die as subject to
condemnation; but as men who rise from the dead we await the general
resurrection of all, “which232
in its own times He shall show,” even
God, Who has also wrought it, and bestowed it upon us. 6. This then is
the first cause of the Saviour’s being made man. But one might
see from the following reasons also, that His gracious coming amongst
us was fitting to have taken place.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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