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| Chapter V. Certain passages from Scripture, urged against the Omnipotence of Christ, are resolved; the writer is also at especial pains to show that Christ not seldom spoke in accordance with the affections of human nature.
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Chapter V.
Certain passages from Scripture, urged against the
Omnipotence of Christ, are resolved; the writer is also at especial
pains to show that Christ not seldom spoke in accordance with the
affections of human nature.
39. Although it is
written concerning God, “Blessed and only
Potentate,”1948
yet I have no
misgiving that the Son of God is thereby severed from Him, seeing that
the Scripture entitled God, not the Father by Himself, the “only
Potentate.” The Father Himself also declares by the
prophet, concerning Christ, that “I have set help upon one that
is mighty.”1949
It is not
the Father alone, then, Who is the only Potentate; God the Son also is
Potentate, for in the Father’s praise the Son is praised
too.
40. Aye, let some one show what there is
that the Son of God cannot do. Who was His helper, when He made
the heavens,—Who, when He laid the foundations of the
world?1950
Had He any
need of a helper to set men free, Who needed none in
constituting1951
| 1951 Cf. the Collect for
the Feast of St. Michael and all Angels. | angels and
principalities?1952
41. “It is written,” say
they: “‘My Father, if it be possible, take away this
cup from Me.’1953
| 1953 S. Matt. xxvi. 39 ff.; xiv. 35 ff.; S. Luke
xxii. 41 ff.. | If, then,
He is Almighty, how comes He to doubt of the possibility?”
Which means that, because I have proved Him to be Almighty, I have
proved Him unable to doubt of possibility.
42. The words, you say, are the words of
Christ. True—consider, though, the occasion of His speaking
them, and in what character He speaks. He hath taken upon Him the
substance of man,1954
| 1954 i.e. human
nature. Cf. “Athanasian” Creed, clause 31. | and therewith its
affections. Again, you find in the place above cited, that
“He went forward a little further, and fell on His face, praying,
and saying: Father, if it be possible.”1955
Not as God, then, but as man,
speaketh He, for could God be ignorant of the possibility or
impossibility of aught? Or is anything impossible for God, when
the Scripture saith: “For Thee nothing is
impossible”?1956
43. Of Whom, howbeit, does He doubt—of
Himself, or of the Father? Of Him, surely, Who saith:
“Take away from Me,”—being moved as man is moved to
doubt. The prophet reckons nothing impossible with God. The
prophet doubts not; think you that the Son doubts? Wilt thou put
God lower than man? What—God hath doubts of His Father, and
is fearful at the thought of death! Christ, then, is
afraid—afraid, whilst Peter fears nothing. Peter
saith:
“I will
lay down my life for Thy sake.”1957
Christ saith: “My soul
is troubled.”1958
44. Both records are true, and it is equally
natural that the person who is the less should not fear, as that He Who
is the greater should endure this feeling, for the one has all a
man’s ignorance of the might of death, whilst the other, as being
God inhabiting a body, displays the weakness of the flesh, that the
wickedness of those who deny the mystery of the Incarnation might have
no excuse. Thus, then, hath He spoken, yet the Manichæan
believed not;1959
| 1959 The principle
common to these and other like heretics (who ignored or misconstrued
many passages of Scripture which plainly declare the completeness and
truth of our Lord’s humanity) was that matter is inherently and
by its very nature evil. Mani, therefore, and the rest were
easily led to think shame of attributing to Christ a real, tangible,
visible body. For the doctrines of Mani, see note on I. 57.
Valentinus was a Gnostic, who lived at Rome (whither he came from
Alexandria) between 140 and 160 a.d.
Marcion became known as a heresiarch in the papacy of Eleutherius
(177–190 a.d.). For the doctrines
of Valentinus and Marcion, see Robertson’s Church History,
Bk. I. ch. iv. | Valentinus
denied, and Marcion judged Him to be a ghost.
45. But indeed He so far put Himself on a
level with man, such as He showed Himself to be in the reality of His
bodily frame, as to say, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as
Thou wilt,”1960
though truly it is
Christ’s especial power to will what the Father wills, even as it
is His to do what the Father doeth.
46. Here, then, let there be an end of the
objection which it is your custom to oppose to us, on the ground that
the Lord said, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt;” and
again, “For this cause I came down from heaven, not to do My own
will, but the will of Him that sent Me.”1961
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