Sent Not by Man but by Christ

The apostle declares this, indeed, throughout the whole body of his writings, and in writing to the Galatians he puts it admirably: “Paul, an apostle not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father.” You see how thoroughly consistent he is with himself in the earlier passage and in this one. There he says, “Now we no longer know Christ according to the flesh.” Here he says, “Not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ.” Plainly his teaching here is the same as in the earlier passage. For where he says that he is not sent by man, he implies, “We have not known Christ according to the flesh”; and so, he means, I am “not sent by man” but “by Christ.” For if I am sent by Christ, I am not sent by man but by God. There is no longer any room for the name of man in him whom divinity claims wholly for itself. So when he had said that he was sent “not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ,” he rightly added, “and God the Father.” In this way he showed that he was sent by God the Father and God the Son. In them, because of the mystery of the sacred and unspeakable begetting, there are two persons, the one who begets and the one who is begotten; but there is only one single power of God who sends. And so, in saying that he was sent by God the Father and God the Son, he shows that the persons are two in number, but he also teaches that their power in sending is one. [a]