The Old Prophets Bear the Same Witness

Up to this point we have made use mostly of the witness of the evangelists and apostles, which is comparatively new. Let us now bring forward the testimony of the old prophets, mixing new things with old at times, so that everyone may see that the Holy Scriptures proclaim, as if with one mouth, that Christ was to come in the flesh, with a complete body of his own. [a]

So that famous and renowned prophet Jeremiah, as richly endowed with God’s gifts as with his testimony, the only one to whom it was given to be made holy before he was born, says: “This is our Lord, and no other will be counted in comparison with him. He found out the whole way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved. Afterward he was seen on earth and lived among men.” “This,” then, he says, “is our God.” You see how the prophet points to God as if with his hand, and indicates him as if with his finger. “This,” he says, “is our God.”

Tell me, then: who was it whom the prophet showed by these signs and tokens to be God? Surely it was not the Father? What need was there to point him out, when all believed that they knew him? Even then the Jews were not ignorant of God, for they were living under God’s law. No, he was clearly aiming at this, that they might come to know the Son of God as God. And so the prophet said very well that he who had found out all knowledge, that is, had given the law, was to be seen on earth, that is, was to come in the flesh. He said it so that, since the Jews did not doubt that he who had given the law was God, they might recognize that he who was to come in the flesh was God; especially since they heard that he in whom they believed as God, the giver of the law, was to be seen among men by taking manhood upon himself, just as he himself promises his own coming through the prophet: “For I myself who spoke, look, I am here.”

“There will be no other,” then, the Scripture says, “counted in comparison with him.” Here the prophet beautifully foresees false teaching, and so shuts out the interpretations of heretical perversity. “No other will be counted in comparison with him.” For he alone is begotten to be God of God: at his bidding the completion of the universe followed; his will is the beginning of all things; his rule is the framework of the world; he spoke all things and they came to be, he commanded all things and they were created. He alone, then, is the one who spoke to the patriarchs, lived in the prophets, was conceived by the Spirit, was born of the Virgin Mary, appeared in the world, made his home among men, nailed to the wood of the cross the written record of our offenses, and triumphed in himself. By his death he slew the powers that were at enmity with us and hostile to us; he gave all people belief in the resurrection; and by the glory of his body he put an end to the corruption of man’s flesh. You see, then, that all these things belong to the Lord Jesus Christ alone; and therefore no other will be counted in comparison with him, for he alone is God begotten of God in this glory and unique blessedness. This, then, is what the prophet’s teaching was aiming at: that he might be known by all to be the only Son of God the Father, and that when they heard that no other was counted as God in comparison with the Son, they might confess that there is but one God in the Persons of the Father and the Son.

“After this,” he said, “he was seen on earth and lived among men.” You see how plainly this points to the coming and the birth of the Lord. For surely the Father, of whom we read that he can be seen only in the Son, was not seen on earth, nor born in the flesh, nor lived among men? Certainly not. You see, then, that all this is spoken of the Son of God. For since the prophet said that God would be seen on earth, and no one but the Son was seen on earth, it is clear that the prophet said this only of him of whom the facts later proved it was spoken. For when he said that God would be seen, he could not have said it truly except of him who was in fact seen afterward. But enough of this. Now let us turn to another point.

“The labor of Egypt,” says the prophet Isaiah, “and the merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be your servants. They will walk after you, bound in chains, and they will worship you and make supplication to you: for in you is God, and there is no God besides you. For you are our God, and we did not know you, O God of Israel, the Savior.” How wonderfully consistent the Holy Scriptures always are! The first prophet said, “This is our God,” and this one says, “You are our God.” In the one there is the teaching of the Godhead, in the other the confession of men. The one shows the character of the Master teaching, the other that of the people confessing. For think of the prophet Jeremiah teaching every day in the church, as he does, and saying of the Lord Jesus Christ, “This is our God.” What else could the whole church reply, as it does, but what the other prophet said to the Lord Jesus, “You are our God”? So the mention of their past ignorance could very fittingly be joined to their present acknowledgment, in the words of the people: “You are our God, and we did not know you.” For those who in times past were taken up with the superstitions of demons and did not know God may well say, now that they are converted to the faith, “You are our God, and we did not know you.”