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| Chapter VIII. When confessing the Divinity of Christ we ought not to pass over in silence the confession of the cross.
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Chapter VIII.
When confessing the Divinity of Christ we ought not to
pass over in silence the confession of the cross.
But let us see what else
follows. In writing to the church of Corinth, he whom we spoke of
above, the instructor of all the churches viz. Paul, speaks thus:
“The Jews,” says he, “seek signs, and the Greeks ask
for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a
stumbling-block, to the Gentiles foolishness: but to them that are
saved, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
God.”2437
O most
powerful teacher of the faith, who even in this passage, when teaching
the Church thought it not enough to speak of Christ as God without
adding that He was crucified on purpose that for the sake of the open
and solid teaching of the faith he might proclaim Him, whom he called
the crucified, to be the wisdom of God. He then employed no subtilty or
circumlocution, nor did he when he preached the gospel of the Lord
blush at the mention of the cross of Christ. And though it was a
stumbling-block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Gentiles to hear of
God as born, God in bodily form, God suffering, God crucified, yet he
did not weaken the force of his pious utterance because of the
wickedness of the offence of the Jews: nor did he lessen the vigour of
his faith because of the unbelief and the foolishness of others: but
openly, persistently, and boldly proclaimed that He, whom a
mother2438
| 2438 Mater
(Petschenig): Caro (Gazæus). | had borne,
whom men had slain, the spear had pierced, the cross had
stretched—was “the power and wisdom of God, to the Jews a
stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness.” But still that
which was to some a stumbling-block and foolishness, was to others the
power and wisdom of God. For as the persons differed, so was there a
difference of their thoughts: and what a man who was void of sound
understanding, and incapable of true good, foolishly denied in
unbelief, that a wise faith could feel in its inmost soul to be holy
and life giving.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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