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| Chapter V. From the gifts of Divine grace which we receive through Christ he infers that He is truly God.
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Chapter V.
From the gifts of Divine grace which we receive through
Christ he infers that He is truly God.
Although we began to
speak some time back on this Divine grace of our Lord and Saviour, I
want to say somewhat more on the same subject from the Holy Scriptures.
We read in the Acts of the Apostles that the Apostle James2409
| 2409 Jacobum. So
Petschenig, after his authority. It is however an error on
Cassian’s part, as the words quoted were spoken not by S. James
but by S. Peter. (The text of Gazæus reads apparently with no
authority Petrum.) | thus refuted those who thought that when
they received the gospel they ought still to bear the yoke of the old
Law: “Why,” said he, “do ye tempt God, to put a yoke
upon the necks of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have
been able to bear. But by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we believe
to be saved in like manner as they also.”2410
The Apostle certainly speaks of the gift of this grace as given by
Jesus Christ. Answer me now, if you please: do you think that this
grace which is given for the salvation of all men, is given by man or
by God? If you say, By man, Paul, God’s own vessel, will cry out
against you, saying: “There appeared the grace of God our
Saviour.”2411
He teaches that
this grace is the result of a Divine gift, and not of human weakness.
And even if the sacred testimony was not sufficient, the truth of the
matter itself would bear its witness, because fragile earthly things
cannot possibly furnish a thing of lasting and immortal value; nor can
anyone give to another that in which he himself is lacking, nor supply
a sufficiency of that, from the want of which he admits that he himself
is suffering. You cannot then help admitting that the grace comes from
God. It is God then who has given it. But it has been given by our Lord
Jesus Christ. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is God. But if He be, as
He certainly is, God: then she who bore God is Theotocos, i.e., the
mother of God. Unless perhaps you want to take refuge in so utterly
absurd and blasphemous a contradiction as to deny that she from whom
God was born is the mother of God, while you cannot deny that He who
was born is God. But, however, let us see what the gospel of God thinks
about this same grace of our Lord: “Grace and truth,” it
says, “came by Jesus Christ.”2412
If
Christ is a mere
man, how did these come by Christ? Whence was there in Him Divine power
if, as you say, there was in Him only the nature of man? Whence comes
heavenly largesse, if His is earthly poverty? For no one can give what
he has not already. As then Christ gave Divine grace, He already had
that which He gave. Nor can anyone endure a diversity of things that
are so utterly different from each other, as at one and the same time
to suffer the wants of a poor man, and also to show the munificence of
a bounteous one. And so the Apostle Paul, knowing that all the
treasures of heavenly riches are found in Christ, rightly writes to the
Churches: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you.”2413
For though he
had already often enough taught that God is the same as Christ, and
that all the glory of Deity resides in Him, and that all the fulness of
the Godhead dwelleth in Him bodily, yet here he is certainly right in
praying for the grace of Christ alone, without adding the word God: for
while he had often taught that the grace of God is the same as the
grace of Christ, he now most perfectly prays only for the grace of
Christ, for he knows that in the grace of Christ is contained the whole
grace of God. Therefore he says: “The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you.” If Jesus Christ was a mere man, then in his
wish that the grace of Christ might be given to the Churches he was
wishing that the grace of a man might be given; and by saying:
“The grace of Christ be with you” he meant: the grace of a
man be with you, the grace of flesh be with you, the grace of bodily
weakness, the grace of human frailty! Or why did he ever even mention
the word grace, if his wish was for the grace of a man? For there was
no reason for wishing, if that was not in existence which was wished
for; nor ought he to have prayed that there might be bestowed on them
the grace of one who, according to you, did not possess the reality of
that grace for which he was wishing. And so you see that it is utterly
absurd and ridiculous—or rather not a thing to laugh at but to
cry over, for what is a matter for laughter to some frivolous persons
becomes a matter for crying to pious and faithful souls, for they shed
tears of charity for the folly of your unbelief, and weep pious tears
at the folly of another’s impiety. Let us then recover ourselves
for a while and take our breath, for this idea is not only without
wisdom but also without the Spirit, as it is certainly wanting in
spiritual wisdom and has nothing to do with the Spirit of
salvation.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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