Anointed with the Oil of Gladness

This explanation of the apostle’s words refutes these impious men. And what the sacred poet says also allows the same orthodox sense. They misinterpret it, but in the psalmist it is plainly reverent. He says, then: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.” Look, you Arians, and recognize the truth even from this. The singer speaks of all of us as the Lord’s “companions,” that is, those who share in him. But if he were one of the things that come out of nothing, one of the things that have come into being, he himself would have been one of those who share. But the psalmist praised him as the eternal God, saying, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,” and declared that all other things share in him. What conclusion must we draw, then, except that he is distinct from the things that have come into being, and that he alone is the Father’s true Word, Radiance, and Wisdom, in whom all things that have come into being share, being sanctified by him in the Spirit? So he is “anointed” here, not so that he may become God, for he was God even before; nor so that he may become King, for he had the kingdom eternally, since he exists as God’s Image, as the sacred word shows. Rather, this is written on our behalf, as before. For the kings of Israel became kings when they were anointed, and were not kings before: David, for example, and Hezekiah, and Josiah, and the rest. But with the Savior it is the opposite. He is God, and always rules in the Father’s kingdom, and he himself is the one who supplies the Holy Spirit. Even so, he is said here to be anointed, so that, as before, by being said as man to be anointed with the Spirit, he might provide for us men not only exaltation and resurrection, but also the Spirit’s dwelling in us and closeness to us. The Lord himself signified this with his own mouth in the Gospel according to John: “I have sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they may be sanctified in the truth.” In saying this he showed that he is not the one sanctified but the one who sanctifies. For he is not sanctified by another; he sanctifies himself, so that we may be sanctified in the truth. He who sanctifies himself is Lord of sanctification. How, then, does this take place? What does he mean, if not this: “I, the Father’s Word, give the Spirit to myself when I become man; and myself, now become man, I sanctify in the Spirit, so that from now on all may be sanctified in me, who am Truth (for ‘your word is truth’)”? [a]

If, then, he sanctifies himself for our sake, and does this when he has become man, it is very plain that the Spirit’s descent on him in the Jordan was a descent on us, because he bore our body. It did not take place to promote the Word, but again for our sanctification, so that we might share his anointing, and so that it might be said of us, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” For when the Lord, as man, was washed in the Jordan, it was we who were washed in him and by him. And when he received the Spirit, it was we who were made receivers of the Spirit through him. And for this reason too he was not anointed with oil, as Aaron or David or the rest were, but in another way, above all his companions, “with the oil of gladness.” He himself explains this to be the Spirit, when he says through the prophet, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me”; as the apostle also said, “how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit.” When, then, were these things said of him, if not when he came in the flesh and was baptized in the Jordan, and the Spirit descended on him? Indeed, the Lord himself said, “The Spirit will take of what is mine,” and “I will send him,” and to his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And yet he who, as the Word and Radiance of the Father, gives to others is now said to be sanctified, because he has now become man, and the body that is sanctified is his. From him, then, we have begun to receive the anointing and the seal. John says, “And you have an anointing from the Holy One”; and the apostle, “And you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” So these words are because of us and for us. What advance in promotion, then, what reward for virtue or for conduct in general, does this prove in our Lord’s case? If he was not God and had then become God, if he was not King and had been promoted to the kingdom, your reasoning would have had some faint plausibility. But if he is God, and the throne of his kingdom is everlasting, how could God advance? Or what was lacking to him who was sitting on his Father’s throne? And if, as the Lord himself has said, the Spirit is his, and takes of what is his, and he sends the Spirit, then it is not the Word, considered as the Word and Wisdom, who is anointed with the Spirit that he himself gives. It is the flesh he took that is anointed in him and by him, so that the sanctification that came to the Lord as man may come from him to all men. For the Spirit does not speak on his own, he says; it is the Word who gives the Spirit to the worthy. This is like the passage considered above. As the apostle wrote, “Who, existing in the form of God, did not think it a prize to be equal with God, but emptied himself and took a servant’s form,” so David celebrates the Lord as the everlasting God and King, but sent to us and taking our body, which is mortal. For this is his meaning in the psalm: “All your garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia.” And this is pictured by Nicodemus and by the women with Mary: he came bringing “a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds,” and they brought “the spices they had prepared” for the burial of the Lord’s body. [d]

What advancement, then, was it to the Immortal to have taken on the mortal? Or what promotion is it to the Everlasting to have put on what lasts only for a time? What reward can be great to the everlasting God and King, who is in the bosom of the Father? Do you not see that this too was done and written because of us and for us, so that the Lord, having become man, might make us immortal, we who are mortal and live for a time, and bring us into the everlasting kingdom of heaven? Are you not ashamed to tell lies against the divine words? For when our Lord Jesus Christ had been among us, we were indeed promoted, as people rescued from sin; but he is the same. Nor did he change when he became man (to repeat what I have said), but, as it is written, “The Word of God endures forever.” Surely, just as before he became man he, the Word, gave the Spirit to the saints as his own, so also when he was made man he sanctifies all by the Spirit, and says to his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He gave the Spirit to Moses and to the seventy besides; and through him David prayed to the Father, saying, “Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.” On the other hand, when he was made man, he said, “I will send you the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth”; and he sent him, he, the Word of God, being faithful. So “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” remaining unalterable. He both gives and receives at once: he gives as God’s Word, and he receives as man. It is not the Word, then, viewed as the Word, who is promoted, for he had all things and always has them. It is men who are promoted, who have in him and through him the beginning of their receiving them. For when he is now said to be anointed as man, it is we who are anointed in him; just as, when he is baptized, it is we who are baptized in him. The Savior throws much light on all these things when he says to the Father, “And the glory that you gave me I have given to them, so that they may be one, just as we are one.” It was because of us, then, that he asked for glory, and that the words “took” and “gave” and “highly exalted” are used: so that we might take, and it might be given to us, and we might be exalted in him; just as for us he sanctifies himself, so that we might be sanctified in him. [i]

But suppose they seize for their own purposes on the word “therefore,” as it stands in the passage of the psalm, “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you.” Then let these beginners in Scripture and masters of impiety know that, as before, the word “therefore” does not imply a reward for virtue or conduct in the Word. It gives the reason why he came down to us, and the reason for the Spirit’s anointing that took place in him for our sakes. For it does not say, “Therefore he anointed you, so that you might be God or King or Son or Word”; for he was all these before and is forever, as has been shown. Rather it means, “Since you are God and King, therefore you were anointed; for no one but you could unite man to the Holy Spirit, you, the Image of the Father, after which we were made in the beginning; for even the Spirit is yours.” For the nature of things that have come into being could give no guarantee of this, since angels had transgressed and men had disobeyed. So there was need of God, and the Word is God, so that he himself might set free those who had come under a curse. If, then, he were from nothing, he would not have been the Christ, the Anointed One, since he would be one among others, and would share as the rest do. But since he is God, as being the Son of God, and is the everlasting King, and exists as the Radiance and Exact Imprint of the Father, he is therefore fittingly the expected Christ, whom the Father announces to mankind by revealing him to his holy prophets. This was so that, as we came to be through him, so also in him all men might be redeemed from their sins, and by him all things might be ruled. This is the cause of the anointing that took place in him, and of the Word’s presence in the flesh. The psalmist foresaw it, and first celebrates his divinity and kingdom, which is the Father’s, in these words: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.” Then he announces his coming down to us in this way: “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.” [k]

What is there to wonder at, or to disbelieve, if the Lord who gives the Spirit is here said himself to be anointed with the Spirit, at a time when, as need required, he did not refuse to call himself inferior to the Spirit with respect to his humanity? For when the Jews said that he cast out demons by Beelzebub, he answered them in order to expose their blasphemy, “But if I cast out demons through the Spirit of God.” See, the Giver of the Spirit says here that he cast out demons by the Spirit. But this is said only because of his flesh. For since man’s nature is not able of itself to cast out demons, but only by the power of the Spirit, he said as man, “But if I cast out demons through the Spirit of God.” Of course, he also showed that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is greater than blasphemy against his humanity, when he said, “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him.” Such were those who said, “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” But those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, and ascribe the deeds of the Word to the devil, will have punishment they cannot escape. This is what the Lord said to the Jews, as man. But to the disciples he showed his divinity and his majesty, and made known that he was not inferior but equal to the Spirit, when he gave the Spirit and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and “I send him,” and “He will glorify me,” and “Whatever he hears, that he will speak.” So, just as here the Lord himself, the Giver of the Spirit, does not refuse to say as man that he casts out demons through the Spirit, in the same way he, the same Giver of the Spirit, did not refuse to say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me,” in respect of his having become flesh, as John has said. This was so that it might be shown on both these points that we are the ones who need the Spirit’s grace for our sanctification, and who cannot cast out demons without the Spirit’s power. Through whom, then, and from whom should the Spirit have been given, if not through the Son, whose the Spirit also is? And when were we made able to receive the Spirit, except when the Word became man? The passage of the apostle shows that we would not have been redeemed and highly exalted unless he who exists in the form of God had taken a servant’s form. In the same way David also shows that we would not have shared in the Spirit and been sanctified in any other way than this: that the Giver of the Spirit, the Word himself, spoke of himself as anointed with the Spirit for us. And so we have received the Spirit securely, since he is said to be anointed in the flesh. For the flesh was first sanctified in him, and he is said, as man, to have received for its sake; and so the Spirit’s grace follows on to us, as we receive “from his fullness.” [m]

Nor do the words added in the psalm, “You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity,” show, as you suppose again, that the nature of the Word is alterable. Rather, by their very force they signify that he is unalterable. For the nature of things that have come into being is alterable. One part of them had transgressed and the other had disobeyed, as has been said, and it is not certain how they will act. It often happens that someone who is good now later changes and becomes different, so that one who was righteous just now is soon found unrighteous. So here too there was need of one who was unalterable, so that men might have the unchanging righteousness of the Word as an image and pattern for virtue. This thought strongly commends itself to the right-minded. Since the first man, Adam, changed, and through sin death came into the world, it was fitting that the second Adam should be unalterable. This was so that, should the serpent attack again, even the serpent’s deceit might be foiled, and, since the Lord is unalterable and unchangeable, the serpent might become powerless in his attack against all. For as, when Adam had transgressed, his sin reached to all men, so, when the Lord had become man and had overthrown the serpent, that great strength of his is to extend through all men, so that each of us may say, “For we are not ignorant of his schemes.” With good reason, then, the Lord, who by nature is always unalterable, loving righteousness and hating iniquity, was anointed and was himself sent, so that, being and remaining the same, by taking this alterable flesh he “might condemn sin in it,” and might win its freedom and its power from now on “to fulfill the righteousness of the law” in itself, so as to be able to say, “But we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in us.” [o]

So here again, you Arians, you have made this guess in vain, and cited the words of Scripture in vain. For God’s Word is unalterable, and is always in one state, not haphazardly but as the Father is. For how is he like the Father unless he is so? Or how is all that is the Father’s also the Son’s, if he does not have the Father’s unalterableness and unchangeableness? He does not love the one and hate the other as one subject to laws and inclined to one side; for if he chose the one out of fear of falling away, we would have to admit that he is alterable in other respects as well. Rather, as God and the Father’s Word, he is a just judge and a lover of virtue, or rather its giver. Therefore, being just and holy by nature, he is said for this reason to love righteousness and to hate iniquity. That is as much as to say that he loves and chooses the virtuous, and rejects and hates the unrighteous. Divine Scripture says the same of the Father: “The righteous Lord loves righteousness; you hate all who work iniquity,” and “The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob,” and “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” And in Isaiah the voice of God says again, “I the Lord love righteousness, and hate the robbery of unrighteousness.” Then let them explain those earlier words as they explain these later ones, for the earlier ones too are written of the Image of God. Otherwise, by misinterpreting these as they do those, they will imagine that the Father too is alterable. But since even hearing others say this is not without danger, we do well to think that God is said to love righteousness and to hate the robbery of unrighteousness, not as though he were inclined to one side and capable of the opposite, so as to select the one and not choose the other, for that belongs to things that have come into being. Rather, as a judge, he loves and takes to himself the righteous, and withdraws from the bad. It follows that we should think the same about the Image of God too: that he loves and hates in no other way than this. For the nature of the Image must be such as its Father’s is, though the Arians in their blindness fail to see either that Image or any other truth of the divine words. For when they are driven from the conceptions, or rather misconceptions, of their own hearts, they fall back on passages of divine Scripture. And here too, as usual, from lack of understanding they do not see the meaning. Instead they lay down their own impiety as a kind of rule of interpretation, and twist the whole of the divine words to agree with it. So at the bare mention of such teaching they deserve no other reply than, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.” And if they persist in it, they must be silenced with the words, “Give to man the things that are man’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” [p]