To John the Steward, on Glorifying Christ

Rest and a life free from care are very welcome to me. So I have shut the door of the monastery, and I decline to meet with my friends. [a] But I have been told that fresh attacks are being made on the faith of the Gospels, and so I conclude that there may be danger in my silence. When a wrong has been done to some mortal prince, it is not only the guilty men who committed the outrage who are in danger of punishment, but also those who stood by and made no effort to drive the attackers off. What penalty, then, should not be suffered by men who dare to make light of blasphemy spoken against our God and Savior? This is the fear that has driven me now to write and to expose the novelties I have been told about.

It is said to be common talk in the city that certain presbyters had offered prayer and closed it in the usual way. Some said, “For to you belongs glory, and to your Christ, and to the Holy Spirit”; others said, “Through the grace and loving-kindness of your Christ, with whom glory belongs to you, with your Holy Spirit.” Then the very wise archdeacon forbade the use of the expression “the Christ,” and said that it was the “only Son” who ought to be glorified. If this is true, no impiety could go further. Either he divides the one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons, and regards the only Son as legitimate and natural but the Christ as adopted and illegitimate, and so unfit to be honored in the doxology; or else he is trying to support the heresy that has now burst in on us with the riot of wild revelry. If a heavy storm were pressing on us now, someone might suppose that the blasphemer had fitted his blasphemy to the need of the moment, out of fear of the power of those who started the heresy. But now the one who is blasphemed has rebuked the winds and the sea, and has blessed the storm-tossed churches with a calm, and everywhere, by land and sea, the message of the apostles is preached. What room is there for the blasphemy? Not even those who lately and shamefully slipped into the doctrines of the church the teaching that flesh and Godhead are of one and the same nature have ever forbidden praise to be offered to the Lord Christ. This can easily be learned from those who have come back from there. A man who holds the first place in the ranks of the church ought to have known the divine Scripture. He ought to have learned from it that just as the heralds of the truth rank the only Son with the Father, so too, using the title “the Christ” in place of “Son,” they number him sometimes with the Father and sometimes with the Holy Spirit. For the Christ is no other than the only Son of God. So we may quote the divine Paul, writing to the Corinthians but teaching the world: “There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things … and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things.” Here he calls the same person Christ, Jesus, Lord, and Creator of all things. And writing to the Thessalonians he says, “Now may God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you.” In his second letter to the same church he puts the Christ before the Father. He does this not to turn the order upside down, but to teach that the order of the names does not mark a difference of dignity or of nature. His words are: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.” And at the end of his letter to the Romans, after certain exhortations, he adds, “I urge you, brothers, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the love of the Spirit.” Now if he had known the Christ as anyone other than the Son, he would not have put him before the Holy Spirit. Writing to the Corinthians, at the very beginning of his letter, he names Christ as the one name that is enough to move the faithful: “Now I urge you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing.” And writing to them a second time, he closes like this: “The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Here he puts the name of Christ not only before the Spirit but before the Father too. And in all the churches these words are the opening of the liturgy of the mystery. [b]

According to this extraordinary rule, then, the august name of our God and Savior Jesus Christ ought to be struck out of the mystical writings. But there is no need to say more on this point. The divine apostle marks the opening of every one of his letters with this address. At one time it is “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle.” At another, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.” At another, “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ.” And fitting his blessing to his opening, he draws it from the same source and joins the title of the Son with God the Father, saying, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” And he crowns the end of his letters with the blessing, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” [g] Plenty more evidence can be found, from which it may be learned without difficulty that our Lord Jesus Christ is no other person than the Son who completes the Trinity. For the same one was, before the ages, the only Son and God the Word; and after the resurrection he was called Jesus and Christ, taking these names from what had taken place. Jesus means Savior: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” [i]

He is named Christ because as man he was anointed with the Holy Spirit, and he is called our High Priest, Apostle, Prophet and King. Long ago the divine Moses cried out, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from your brothers, like me.” And the divine David cries, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” The divine apostle confirms this prophecy. And again: “Since, then, we have a great High Priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” [j] That as God he is king before the ages, the prophet’s song teaches us in the words, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness.” [k] His majesty as man is also shown to us. For though as God and Creator he holds sovereignty over all things, as man he takes this majesty on himself. That is why the psalm adds, “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.” And in the second psalm the anointed one himself says, “But I was set up as king by him on the holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree of the Lord. The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.’” This he said as man, for as man he receives what as God he possesses. And at the very beginning of the psalm the gift of prophecy ranks him with God the Father, in the words, “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed.” [l]

So let no one foolishly suppose that the Christ is anyone other than the only Son. Let us not imagine ourselves wiser than the gift of the Spirit. Let us hear the words of the great Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Let us hear the Lord Christ confirming this confession: “On this rock,” he says, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” That is why the wise Paul too, the most excellent master builder of the churches, laid no other foundation than this. “I,” he says, “as a wise master builder, have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take care how he builds on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” How then can they think of any other foundation, when they are told not to lay a foundation but to build on the one already laid? The divine writer recognizes Christ as the foundation and glories in this title, as when he says, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” And again, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” And again, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” And a little before that he says, “But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” And in his letter to the Galatians he writes, “But when it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.” But when writing to the Corinthians he does not say that we preach “the Son,” but “Christ crucified.” In this he does no violence to his commission, for he recognizes the same one to be Jesus, Christ, Lord, only Son, and God the Word. For the same reason, at the beginning of his letter to the Romans, he calls himself a “servant of Jesus Christ,” and describes himself as “set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power,” and so on. He calls the same one Jesus Christ, and Son of David, and Son of God, as God and Lord of all. And yet in the middle of his letter, after mentioning the Jews, he adds, “to whom belong the fathers, and from whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” Here he says that the one who according to the flesh was descended from the Jews is eternal God, and is praised by the right-minded as Lord of all created things. The same teaching is given us in the apostle’s words to the excellent Titus: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Here he calls the same one both Savior, and great God, and Jesus Christ. And in another place he writes, “In the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Moreover, the choir of the angels announced to the shepherds, “To you is born this day in the city of David … Christ the Lord.” [m]

But to men who meditate on God’s law day and night there is really no need to write out all the proofs of this kind. The ones above are enough to persuade even the most stubborn opponents not to divide the divine titles. One point, however, I cannot bear to leave out. He is reported to have said that there are many Christs but one Son. I suppose he fell into this error through ignorance. For if he had read the divine Scripture, he would have known that our generous Lord has given the title of son to many as well. The lawgiver Moses, the writer of the ancient history, says, “And the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves from among them.” And the God of all himself said to this prophet, “You shall say to Pharaoh, Israel is my son, my firstborn.” In the great song he says, “Rejoice, you nations, with his people, and let all the sons of God be strong in him.” Through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah he says, “I have reared and brought up sons, and they have rebelled against me.” And through the thrice-blessed David, “I said, You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.” And the wise Paul wrote to the Romans like this: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father. For the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified together.” And to the Galatians he writes, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ.” The lesson he gives the Ephesians is: “In love he predestined us to adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself.” [p]

If, then, because the name of the Christ is shared by others, we ought not to glorify the Christ as God, we will equally shrink from worshiping him as Son, since this too is a name that has been given to many. And why do I speak of the Son? The very name of God itself has been given by God to many: “The Lord, the God of gods, has spoken and called the earth.” And, “I said, You are gods.” And, “You shall not revile the gods.” Many, too, have taken this name for themselves. The demons who have deceived mankind have given this title to idols. That is why Jeremiah cries out, “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.” And again, “They made for themselves gods of silver and gods of gold.” And the prophet Isaiah, after mocking the making of idols and saying, “He burns part of it in the fire; with part of it he eats meat; he warms himself and says, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire,” goes on, “and the rest of it he makes into a god, and falls down before it and says, ‘Deliver me, for you are my god.’” And so the prophet laments over them and says, “Know that their heart is ashes.” And the psalmist David has taught us to sing, “For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.” [q] But this shared use of titles gives no offense to men instructed in true religion. We know that the demons have falsely given the divine name to themselves and to idols, while the saints have received this honor as a free gift of grace.

In reality and by nature, it is the God of all, and his only Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are God. The admirable Paul teaches us this plainly in the words, “For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord, through whom are all things, and we through him.” The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God, and so too the soul of man is called spirit; for it is written, “His breath goes forth,” and, “O you spirits and souls of the righteous, bless the Lord.” And the psalmist David called the angels spirits: “Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” But why do I mention the angels and the souls of men? Even the demons are called spirits by the Lord: “He will take with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they will enter in, and the last state of that man will be worse than the first.” But even this use of the name gives no offense to the devout reader. For the Father and his only Son and his Holy Spirit are one God by nature; and the divine Word made man, our Lord Jesus Christ, is by nature one Son, the only Son of the Father; and the Comforter, who completes the number of the Trinity, is one Holy Spirit. So, though many are called fathers, we worship one Father, the Father before the ages, who himself gave this title to men, as the apostle says: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named.” Let us not, then, rob ourselves of the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ because others are called christs. For though many are called gods and fathers, there is one God and Father over all and before the ages. Though many are called sons, there is one true and natural Son. Though many are called spirits, there is one Holy Spirit. In just the same way, though many are called christs, there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things. And the church very rightly clings to this name. For she has heard Paul, who escorts the Bride, crying out, “I have betrothed you to one husband, so that I may present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” And again, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church.” And again, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Listen to him as he says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” And elsewhere, “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” And in another place, “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” And again, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its cravings.” [r]

Those who are blessed with God’s gifts, and have come to know these passages and others like them, are kindled with warm love for their generous Master. They constantly carry on their lips this, his dearest name, and cry out in the words of the Song of Songs, “My beloved is mine, and I am his,” and, “I sat down in his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” And besides all this, the name of ours that we love so well we have taken from the name of Christ. We are called Christians. [u] Of this name the Lord of all says, “The Lord God shall call his servants by another name, which shall be blessed on the earth.” And this is the reason the church clings especially to this name. It was when the only Son of God was made man that he was named Christ; it was then that human nature received the rays of the light of the mind; it was then that the heralds of the truth shed their rays on the world. The teachers of the church, however, have constantly used the names of the only Son without distinction. At one time they glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; at another, the Father with Christ and the Holy Spirit; yet as far as the sense goes there is no difference here. That is why, after the Lord had given the command to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the blessed Peter said to those who received his preaching and asked what they must do, “Believe, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” as though this name held in itself all the force of the divine command. The same teaching is plainly given us by the great Basil, the light of the Cappadocians, or rather of the world. His words are: “The name of Christ is the confession of the whole.” It points at once to the Father, who anointed, the Son, who was anointed, and the Holy Spirit, with whom he was anointed. Furthermore, the thrice-blessed Fathers gathered in council at Nicaea, after saying that we must believe in one God, the Father, added, “and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God.” By this they teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is himself the only Son of God. [v]

To what has been said this must also be added: we must not claim that after the ascension the Lord Christ is not the Christ but the only Son. The divine Gospels, and the history of the Acts, and the letters of the apostle himself were, as we know, written after the ascension. It is after the ascension that the divine Paul cries out, “Since, then, we have a great High Priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” And again, “For Christ has not entered into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” And again, after speaking of our hope in God, he adds, “This hope we have as an anchor, both sure and steadfast, which enters into the place behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, made a High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” And writing to the blessed Titus about the second coming, he says, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” And to the Thessalonians he wrote in the same way: “For they themselves report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come.” And again, “And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” And writing to them a second time he says, “Now we urge you, brothers, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him.” A little further on, foretelling the destruction of the antichrist, he adds, “whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming.” And urging the Romans to live in harmony, he says, “But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” And the Lord himself, when he announced his second coming, said this among other things: “Then if anyone says to you, Look, here is the Christ, or there, do not believe it. For as the lightning comes out of the east and shines even to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” [x]

And even after his body had become immortal and incorruptible, he called himself Son of Man, naming himself from the nature that was seen; for the divine nature is invisible even to angels, as the Lord himself had said, “No one has ever seen God.” And to the great Moses he said, “No one shall see me and live.” [z] The words, “From now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer,” were not written by the divine apostle in order to do away with the nature that was taken on. They were written to confirm our own future incorruption, immortality and spiritual life. [aa] That is why the apostle goes on, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; look, all things have become new.” He speaks of what is still to come as though it had already happened. We have not yet been given immortality, but we will be; and when we are given it, we will not become bodiless, but we will put on immortality. “For,” says the divine apostle, “we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed over, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” And again, “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” So he did not speak of the Lord as bodiless. He taught us to believe that even the visible nature is incorruptible, and glorified with the divine glory. He has given us this teaching still more clearly in the letter to the Philippians: “For our citizenship,” he writes, “is in heaven, from which we also wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body so that it may be made like his glorious body.” By these words he teaches us plainly that the body of the Lord is a body, but a divine body, glorified with the divine glory. [ab]

Let us not, then, shun the name by which we enjoy salvation, and by which all things are made new, as our teacher himself says in his letter to the Ephesians: “According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the plan for the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both the things in heaven and the things on earth, in him.” Let us rather learn from this blessed language how we are bound to glorify our benefactor, by joining the name of Christ with our God and Father. In his letter to the Romans the apostle speaks of “my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret since the world began, but is now revealed, and through the writings of the prophets, by the command of the eternal God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: to God alone will be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” Writing to the Ephesians, he gives praise like this: “Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, forever and ever. Amen.” And a little before that he says, “For this reason I bow my knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named.” And a good deal further on he says, “Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And when he repays the generosity of the Philippians with a blessing, he says, “But my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” And for the Hebrews he prayed, “Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” And not only when giving glory, but also when urging and solemnly charging, the apostle joins the Christ with God the Father. To the blessed Timothy he cries out, “I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” And again, “I charge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Jesus Christ, who made the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot and above reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will show in his own times, he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in the light that no one can approach, whom no one has seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal power. Amen.” [ac] These are the lessons we have learned from the divine apostles. This is the teaching given us by John and Matthew, those mighty rivers of the gospel message. Matthew says, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” And John, when he revealed the things that were before the ages, wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him.” [ae]