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| Chapter XIII. He explains who are those in whose person the Prophet Isaiah says: “Thou art our God, and we knew Thee not.”
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Chapter XIII.
He explains who are those in whose person the Prophet
Isaiah says: “Thou art our God, and we knew Thee not.”
“Thou art
then,” he says, “our God, and we knew Thee not, O God of
Israel the Saviour.” Who do you imagine chiefly say this; and in
whose mouths are such words specially suitable, Jews or Gentiles? If
you say Jews: certainly the Jews did not know Christ, as it is said,
“But Israel hath not known Me, My people have not
considered;”2487
and,
“The world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came
unto His own, and His own received Him not.”2488
But if you say Gentiles, it is clear
that the Gentile world was given over to idols, and knew not Christ,
though it knew not the Father any more; but still if it has now come to
know Him, it is only through Christ. You see then that whether the
believing people belong to the Jews or the Gentiles, in either case
they can truly say for themselves: “Thou art our God; and we knew
Thee not, O God of Israel the Saviour.” For the Gentiles who
formerly worshipped idols knew not God; and the Jews who denied the
Lord, knew not the Son of God. And thus both truly say of Christ:
“Thou art our God and we knew Thee not.” For those who did
not believe in God were as ignorant of Him as those who denied the Son
of God. If therefore Christ is to be believed in, as the truth
declares, as the Deity asserts, as indeed Christ Himself declares, who
is both, why are you miserably trying in your madness to interpose
between God and Christ? Why do you seek to divide His body from the Son
of God, and try to separate God from Himself? You are severing
what is one, and dividing what is joined together. Believe the Word of
God concerning God: for you cannot possibly make a better confession of
God’s Divinity than by confessing with your voice that which God
teaches about Himself. For you must know that, as the Prophet says,
“the Lord Himself is God, who found out all the way of knowledge;
who was seen upon earth and conversed with men.”2489
He brought the light of faith into the
world. He showed the light of salvation. “For God is the Lord,
and hath given us light.”2490
Then believe
Him, and love Him, and confess Him. For since, as it is written,
“Every knee shall bow to Him, of things in heaven, and things on
earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord in the glory of God the Father,”2491
whether you will or no, you cannot deny
that Jesus Christ is Lord in the glory of God the Father. For this is
the crowning virtue of a perfect confession, to acknowledge that Jesus
Christ is ever Lord and God in the glory of God the
Father.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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