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| Why the Cross, of all deaths? (1) He had to bear the curse for us. (2) On it He held out His hands to unite all, Jews and Gentiles, in Himself. (3) He defeated the “Prince of the powers of the air” in His own region, clearing the way to heaven and opening for us the everlasting doors.
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§25. Why the Cross, of all deaths? (1)
He had to bear the curse for us. (2) On it He held out His hands to
unite all, Jews and Gentiles, in Himself. (3) He defeated the
“Prince of the powers of the air” in His own region,
clearing the way to heaven and opening for us the everlasting
doors.
And thus much in reply to those without who pile
up arguments for themselves. But if any of our own people also inquire,
not from love of debate, but from love of learning, why He suffered
death in none other way save on the Cross, let him also be told that no
other way than this was good for us, and that it was well that the Lord
suffered this for our sakes. 2. For if He came Himself to bear the
curse laid upon us, how else could He have “become266
a curse,” unless He received the death
set for a curse? and that is the Cross. For this is exactly what is
written: “Cursed267
is he that hangeth on
a tree.” 3. Again, if the Lord’s death is the ransom of
all, and by His death “the middle268
wall
of partition” is broken down, and the calling of the nations is
brought about, how would He have called us to Him, had He not been
crucified? For it is only on the cross that a man dies with his hands
spread out. Whence it was fitting for the Lord to bear this also and to
spread out His hands, that with the one He might draw the ancient
people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in
Himself. 4. For this is what He Himself has said, signifying by what
manner of death He was to ransom
all: “I, when269
I am lifted
up,” He saith, “shall draw all men unto Me.” 5. And
once more, if the devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from
heaven, wanders about our lower atmosphere, and there bearing rule over
his fellow-spirits, as his peers in disobedience, not only works
illusions by their means in them that are deceived, but tries to hinder
them that are going up (and about this270
the
Apostle says: “According to the prince of the power of the air,
of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience”);
while the Lord came to cast down the devil, and clear the air and
prepare the way for us up into heaven, as said the Apostle:
“Through271
the veil, that is to say, His
flesh”—and this must needs be by death—well, by what
other kind of death could this have come to pass, than by one which
took place in the air, I mean the cross? for only he that is perfected
on the cross dies in the air. Whence it was quite fitting that the Lord
suffered this death. 6. For thus being lifted up He cleared the air272
| 272 Cf.
Lightfoot on Coloss. ii. 15, also the fragment of Letter 22, and
Letter 60. 7. | of the malignity both of the devil and of
demons of all kinds, as He says: “I beheld273
Satan as lightning fall from heaven;” and made a new opening of
the way up into heaven as He says once more: “Lift274
up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lift
up, ye everlasting doors.” For it was not the Word Himself that
needed an opening of the gates, being Lord of all; nor were any of His
works closed to their Maker; but we it was that needed it whom He
carried up by His own body. For as He offered it to death on behalf of
all, so by it He once more made ready the way up into the heavens.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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