How the Son Was Highly Exalted

But since they appeal to the divine words of Scripture and force a wrong meaning on them, according to their own private sense, it becomes necessary to answer them just far enough to clear these passages, and to show that they bear an orthodox sense and that our opponents are in error. They say, then, that the apostle writes, “Therefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a Name which is above every name, that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth”; and that David writes, “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.” Then they press this on us, as though it were something clever: “If he was exalted and received grace because of a ‘therefore,’ and because of a ‘therefore’ he was anointed, then he received a reward for his choice. But since he acted from choice, he is altogether of an alterable nature.” This is what Eusebius and Arius have dared to say, and even to write, while their followers do not shrink from talking about it openly in the marketplace, not seeing how mad an argument they are using. For if he received what he had as a reward for his choice, and would not have had it unless he had needed it and had his work to show for it, then he gained it by virtue and promotion. In that case he would have been called Son and God only because of a ‘therefore,’ without being truly Son. For what comes from another by nature is a real offspring, as Isaac was to Abraham, and Joseph to Jacob, and the radiance to the sun. But those called sons because of virtue and grace have, in place of nature, only a grace they have acquired, and they are something other than the gift itself. Such are the men who have received the Spirit by sharing in it, of whom Scripture says, “I begot and exalted children, and they rebelled against me.” And of course, since they were not sons by nature, when they changed, the Spirit was taken away and they were disinherited. And again, when they repent, the God who gave them grace in this way at the beginning will receive them, give them light, and call them sons again. [a]

But if they say this of the Savior too, it follows that he is neither true God nor true Son, nor like the Father. Nor does he have God as the Father of his being by substance at all, but only of the grace given to him; while of his being by substance God is his Creator, just as he is of everyone else. And if he is such as they maintain, it will be clear further that he did not have the name ‘Son’ from the first, if indeed it was the prize of works done and of that very advance which he made when he became man and took the form of the servant. He would have had it only then, when, after becoming ‘obedient to death,’ he was, as the text says, ‘highly exalted,’ and received that ‘Name’ as a grace, ‘that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow.’ What then was he before this, if it was only then that he was exalted, only then that he began to be worshiped, only then that he was called Son, when he became man? For it would seem that he did not promote the flesh at all, but was rather promoted himself through it, if, as their perverseness has it, he was exalted and called Son only when he became man. What then was he before this? The question must be pressed on them again, to make it understood where their impious doctrine leads. For if the Lord is God, Son, and Word, yet was not all these before he became man, then either he was something else besides these, and afterwards came to share in them because of his virtue, as we have said; or they must take the other alternative (may it come back on their own heads!), that he did not exist before that time, but is wholly man by nature and nothing more. But this is not the mind of the church; it is the mind of the man from Samosata and of the Jews of today. Why then, if they think as Jews, are they not circumcised with them too, instead of pretending to Christianity while they are its enemies? For if he did not exist, or existed indeed but was promoted afterwards, how were all things made through him? Or how did the Father delight in him, if he was not perfect? And how, on the other hand, if he is only now promoted, did he rejoice before in the Father’s presence? And if he received his worship only after dying, how is Abraham seen worshiping him in the tent, and Moses at the bush? And how did Daniel see myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands ministering to him? And if, as they say, he received his promotion only now, how did the Son himself speak of that glory of his, before and above the world, when he said, “Glorify me, O Father, with the glory which I had with you before the world was”? If, as they say, he was exalted only then, how did he before that ‘bow the heavens and come down,’ and again, ‘The Highest gave his thunder’? Therefore, if even before the world was made the Son had that glory, and was Lord of glory and the Highest, and came down from heaven, and is always to be worshiped, it follows that he did not receive promotion from his coming down. Rather, he himself promoted the things that needed promotion. And if he came down to bring about their promotion, then he did not receive the name of Son and God as a reward. Rather, he himself has made us sons of the Father, and deified men by becoming man himself. [d]

So he was not man and then became God; he was God and then became man, and that in order to deify us. For suppose he was called Son and God only when he became man. Yet before he became man, God called the ancient people sons, and made Moses a god to Pharaoh (and Scripture says of many, “God stands in the assembly of gods”). Then plainly he is called Son and God later than they were. How then are all things through him, and he before all? Or how is he ‘firstborn of the whole creation,’ if he has others before him who are called sons and gods? And how is it that those first sharers do not share in the Word? This opinion is not true; it is a device of the Judaizers of our day. For in that case how could anyone at all know God as Father? There could be no adoption apart from the real Son, who says, “No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son will reveal him.” And how can there be deifying apart from the Word and before him? Yet he says to their brothers the Jews, “If he called them gods, to whom the Word of God came.” And if all who are called sons and gods, whether on earth or in heaven, were adopted and deified through the Word, and the Son himself is the Word, it is plain that they all exist through him, and he himself is before all. Or rather, he alone is truly Son, and he alone is true God from the true God. He does not receive these privileges as a reward for his virtue, nor is he something else besides them; he is all these things by nature and by substance. For he is the Offspring of the Father’s substance, so that no one can doubt that, after the likeness of the unalterable Father, the Word too is unalterable. [i]

So far we have met their irrational notions with the true ideas contained in the word ‘Son,’ as the Lord himself has given it to us. But it will be well next to cite the divine words of Scripture, so that the Son’s unalterableness and his unchangeable nature, which is the Father’s, and also their perverseness, may be proved still more fully. The apostle, then, writing to the Philippians, says: “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not count it a prize to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave him a Name which is above every name, that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Can anything be plainer or more explicit than this? He was not promoted from a lower state. Rather, existing as God, he took the form of a servant, and in taking it he was not promoted but humbled himself. Where then is there any reward of virtue here, or what advancement and promotion is there in being humbled? For if, being God, he became man, and having come down from on high he is still said to be exalted, where is he exalted, being God? It is plain besides that, since God is highest of all, his Word must necessarily be highest too. Where then could he be exalted higher, who is in the Father and like the Father in all things? Therefore he is beyond the need of any addition, and he is not what the Arians think him. For even granting that the Word came down in order to be exalted, and that it is so written, what need was there for him to humble himself, as though to seek what he already had? And what grace did he receive, who is the Giver of grace? Or how did he receive that Name to be worshiped, who is always worshiped by his Name? Indeed, before he became man, the sacred writers call on him: “Save me, O God, for your Name’s sake”; and again, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God.” And while he was worshiped by the patriarchs, it is written of the angels, “Let all the angels of God worship him.” [l]

And if, as David says in the seventy-first Psalm, “His Name remains before the sun, and before the moon, from generation to generation,” how did he receive what he always had, even before he received it now? Or how is he exalted, who was the Most High before his exaltation? Or how did he receive the right to be worshiped, who was always worshiped before he received it now? This is not a riddle but a divine mystery. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”; but afterwards, for our sakes, “the Word became flesh.” And the term in question, ‘highly exalted,’ does not mean that the substance of the Word was exalted, for he always was and is ‘equal to God.’ The exaltation is of his humanity. That is why this is not said before the Word became flesh: so that it might be plain that ‘humbled’ and ‘exalted’ are said of his human nature. For where there is a humble state, there can also be exaltation; and if ‘humbled’ is written because he took flesh, it is clear that ‘highly exalted’ is also said because of it. For this is what human nature lacked, because of the humble state of the flesh and of death. The Word, then, being the Image of the Father and immortal, took the form of the servant, and as man underwent death for us in his flesh, so that through death he might offer himself for us to the Father. Therefore, as man, he is also said to be highly exalted because of us and for us, so that as by his death we all died in Christ, so again in Christ himself we might be highly exalted, being raised from the dead and going up into heaven, “where the forerunner Jesus has entered for us, not into the copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” But if Christ has now entered heaven itself for us, though even before, and always, he was Lord and Maker of the heavens, then that present exaltation is written for us. He who sanctifies all says also that he sanctifies himself to the Father for our sakes. This is not so that the Word may become holy, but so that he himself may sanctify all of us in himself. In the same way we must take the present phrase, ‘He highly exalted him.’ It does not mean that he himself should be exalted, for he is the highest, but that he may become righteousness for us, and we may be exalted in him, and may enter the gates of heaven, which he has also opened for us, while the forerunners say, “Lift up your gates, you rulers, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.” For here too the gates were not shut against him, since he is Lord and Maker of all. This too is written because of us, against whom the door of paradise was shut. And so, speaking of him as man, because of the flesh he bore, Scripture says of him, ‘Lift up your gates’ and ‘shall come in,’ as though a man were entering. But speaking of him as God, on the other hand, since ‘the Word was God,’ it says that he is the ‘Lord’ and the ‘King of Glory.’ The Spirit announced this exaltation of ours beforehand in the eighty-ninth Psalm, saying, “And in your righteousness they shall be exalted, for you are the glory of their strength.” And if the Son is Righteousness, then he is not exalted as though he himself were in need; it is we who are exalted in that Righteousness, which is he. [n]

So too the words ‘gave him’ are not written because of the Word himself. For even before he became man he was worshiped, as we have said, by the angels and the whole creation, because he is the Father’s own. This too is written of him because of us and for us. For as Christ died and was exalted as man, so as man he is said to receive what as God he always had, so that even such a gift of grace might reach to us. For the Word was not made less by receiving a body, so as to seek to receive a grace. Rather, he deified what he put on, and more than that, he ‘gave’ it freely to the human race. For as he was always worshiped as being the Word and existing in the form of God, so, being what he always was, though he has become man and is called Jesus, he nonetheless has the whole creation under his feet. They bend their knees to him in this Name, and confess that the Word’s becoming flesh, and undergoing death in the flesh, has not happened against the glory of his Godhead, but ‘to the glory of God the Father.’ For it is the Father’s glory that man, who was made and then lost, should be found again; and that, when dead, he should be made alive and should become God’s temple. For whereas the powers in heaven, both angels and archangels, were always worshiping the Lord, as they are now worshiping him in the Name of Jesus, this is our grace and our high exaltation: that even when he became man, the Son of God is worshiped, and the heavenly powers will not be astonished to see all of us, who are of one body with him, brought into their realms. And this would not have been, unless he who existed in the form of God had taken a servant’s form on himself, and had humbled himself, yielding his body to come to death. [r]

See, then: what men thought the foolishness of God, because of the cross, has become the most honored of all things. For our resurrection is stored up in it. No longer Israel alone, but from now on all the nations, as the prophet foretold, leave their idols and acknowledge the true God, the Father of Christ. The deception of the demons has come to nothing, and he alone who is truly God is worshiped in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord, even when he had come in a human body and was called Jesus, was worshiped and believed to be God’s Son, and through him the Father was known. This shows, as has been said, that it was not the Word, considered as the Word, who received this great grace, but we. For because of our kinship with his body we too have become God’s temple, and so are made God’s sons, so that even in us the Lord is now worshiped, and those who see us report, as the apostle says, that God is truly in them. As John too says in the Gospel, “As many as received him, to them he gave power to become children of God”; and in his letter he writes, “By this we know that he abides in us, by his Spirit which he has given us.” And this too is evidence of his goodness toward us. We were exalted because the Highest Lord is in us, and grace was given to him on our account, because the Lord who supplies the grace has become a man like us. He, the Savior, on the other hand, humbled himself in taking ‘our body of humiliation,’ and took a servant’s form, putting on that flesh which was enslaved to sin. And he has gained nothing from us for his own promotion, for the Word of God lacks nothing and is full. Rather, we were promoted by him; for he is the ‘Light which enlightens every man coming into the world.’ And it is useless for the Arians to lay stress on the word ‘therefore,’ because Paul has said, ‘Therefore God has highly exalted him.’ For in saying this he did not imply any prize of virtue, or promotion from advancement, but the cause why the exaltation was given to us. And what is this, but that he who existed in the form of God, the Son of a noble Father, humbled himself and became a servant in our place and on our behalf? For if the Lord had not become man, we would not have been redeemed from our sins, nor raised from the dead, but would have remained dead under the earth; we would not have been exalted into heaven, but would be lying in Hades. It is because of us, then, and on our behalf, that the words ‘highly exalted’ and ‘gave’ are said. [s]

This, then, is what I take the sense of this passage to be, and it is very much the church’s sense. There is, however, another way one might comment on it, giving the same sense along a parallel line. Though the passage does not speak of the exaltation of the Word himself, so far as he is Word (for he is, as was said just now, most high and like his Father), yet because he became man it points to his resurrection from the dead. For after saying, ‘He humbled himself even to death,’ he immediately added, ‘Therefore he has highly exalted him.’ He wished to show that, although as man he is said to have died, yet, as being Life, he was exalted at the resurrection. For ‘he who came down is the same who also rose again.’ He came down in the body, and he rose again because he was God himself in the body. And this again is why, in this sense, he brought in the word ‘therefore’: not as a reward of virtue or of advancement, but to show the cause why the resurrection took place, and why, while all other men from Adam down to this time have died and remained dead, he alone rose whole from the dead. The cause is this, which he himself has already taught us: that, being God, he became man. For all other men, being merely born of Adam, died, and death reigned over them. But he, the Second Man, is from heaven, for ‘the Word became flesh’; and this Man is said to be from heaven and heavenly because the Word came down from heaven. That is why he was not held under death. For though he humbled himself, yielding his own body to come to death, in that it was capable of dying, yet he was highly exalted from the earth, because he was God’s Son in a body. So what is said here, ‘Therefore God also has highly exalted him,’ corresponds to Peter’s words in the Acts: “Whom God raised up, having loosed the bonds of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.” For as Paul has written, ‘Since, being in the form of God, he became man and humbled himself to death, therefore God also has highly exalted him,’ so Peter too says, ‘Since, being God, he became man, and signs and wonders proved him to be God to those who saw them, therefore it was not possible that he should be held by death.’ For a man it was not possible to succeed in this, since death belongs to man. That is why the Word, being God, became flesh: so that, being put to death in the flesh, he might give life to all by his own power. [v]

But since he himself is said to be ‘exalted,’ and God ‘gave’ to him, and the heretics think this implies a defect, or something undergone, in the substance of the Word, it is necessary to explain how these words are used. He is said to be exalted from the lower parts of the earth because death is ascribed even to him. Both events are counted as his, since it was his body, and no one else’s, that was exalted from the dead and taken up into heaven. And again, since the body was his and the Word was not outside it, it is natural that when the body was exalted, he, as man, should be spoken of as exalted because of the body. If, then, he did not become man, let this not be said of him. But if the Word became flesh, then of necessity the resurrection and exaltation must be ascribed to him, as in the case of a man, so that the death ascribed to him may be a redemption of the sin of men and an abolition of death, and that the resurrection and exaltation may, for his sake, remain secure for us. In both respects Paul has said of him, ‘God has highly exalted him’ and ‘God has given to him.’ He wished to show by this, moreover, that it is not the Father who has become flesh, but his Word, who has become man, and receives from the Father in the manner of men, and is exalted by him, as has been said. And it is plain, and no one would dispute it, that what the Father gives, he gives through the Son. And it is truly marvelous and overwhelming: the grace that the Son gives from the Father is the very grace the Son himself is said to receive; and the exaltation that the Son bestows from the Father is the very exaltation with which the Son is himself exalted. For he who is the Son of God became himself the Son of Man. As Word, he gives from the Father, for all things that the Father does and gives, he does and supplies through him. And as the Son of Man, he himself is said, in the manner of men, to receive what proceeds from him, because his body is none other than his own, and is by nature a receiver of grace, as has been said. For he received it insofar as his humanity was exalted; and that exaltation was its being deified. But such an exaltation the Word himself always had, by virtue of the Father’s Godhead and perfection, which was his own. [y]