Created for the Works, Not into Being

For the passage in Proverbs, as I have said before, signifies not the substance but the humanity of the Word. When he says that he was created ‘for the works,’ he shows that he means to signify, not his substance, but the plan of salvation that took place ‘for his works,’ which comes second to being. For things that are being formed and created are made first of all so that they may be and exist; next they have to do whatever the Word commands them, as may be seen in the case of all things. Adam was created, not so that he might work, but so that first he might be a man; it was after this that he received the command to work. And Noah was created, not because of the ark, but so that first he might exist and be a man; after this he received the command to prepare the ark. And the same will be found in every case if one looks into it. So the great Moses was first made a man, and next was entrusted with the government of the people. So here too we must suppose the same. For you see that the Word is not created into existence; rather, “In the beginning was the Word,” and afterward he is sent ‘for the works’ and for the plan of salvation toward them. Before the works were made, the Son always was, and there was not yet any need for him to be created. But when the works had been created, and need arose afterward for the plan of salvation for their restoration, then it was that the Word took upon himself this stooping down to the works and this likeness to them; and he has shown us this by the word ‘he created.’ And wishing to signify the same thing through the prophet Isaiah, he says again: “And now thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to gather Jacob to him, and Israel. I shall be brought together and be glorified before the Lord.” [a]

See, here too he is formed, not into existence, but in order to gather the tribes, which existed before he was formed. For as the former passage has ‘he created,’ so this one has ‘he formed’; and as there it says ‘for the works,’ so here it says ‘to gather.’ So from every point of view it appears that ‘he created’ and ‘he formed’ are said after ‘the Word was.’ For as the tribes existed before he was formed, and it was for their sake that he was formed, so it appears that the works exist for which he was created. And when “in the beginning was the Word,” the works did not yet exist, as I have said before; but when the works had been made and need required it, then ‘he created’ was said. It is as if some son were sent by his father when the servants had been lost through their own carelessness and were in the hands of the enemy, and the need was urgent, to help them and recover them. On setting out, he would put on clothing like theirs and make himself look like them, so that their captors would not recognize him as the master, take flight, and keep him from going down to those they had hidden under the earth. Then, if anyone were to ask him why he did this, he would answer, ‘My father formed and prepared me in this way for his works.’ In saying this he does not imply that he is a servant, or one of the works, nor does he speak of the beginning of his own origin, but of the charge given him afterward over the works. In the same way the Lord too, having put on our flesh and “being found in appearance as a man,” would say, if he were questioned by those who saw him thus and marveled, “The Lord created me the beginning of his ways, for his works,” and “He formed me to gather Israel.” This again the Spirit foretells in the Psalms, saying, “You set him over the works of your hands”; and elsewhere the Lord signified it of himself: “I am set as King by him upon his holy hill of Zion.” And when he shone forth in the body upon Zion, that was not the beginning of his existence or of his reign. Being God’s Word and everlasting King, he was pleased to let his kingdom shine in a human way in Zion, so that, redeeming them and us from the sin that reigned in them, he might bring them under his Father’s kingdom. So too, on being set ‘for the works,’ he is not set for things that did not yet exist, but for things that already were and needed restoration. [c]

‘He created,’ then, and ‘he formed,’ and ‘he set,’ having the same meaning, do not denote the beginning of his being, or of his substance as created, but his beneficent renewal, which came to pass for us. Accordingly, though he speaks this way, he also taught that he himself existed before this, when he said, “Before Abraham came to be, I am,” and “When he prepared the heavens, I was present with him,” and “I was with him, setting things in order.” He himself was before Abraham came to be, and Israel came into being after Abraham; plainly he exists first and is formed afterward, and his forming signifies not his beginning of being but his taking humanity, in which he also gathers together the tribes of Israel. In the same way, as ‘being always with the Father,’ he himself is the Maker of creation, and his works are evidently later than himself; and ‘he created’ signifies not his beginning of being, but the plan of salvation that took place for the works, which he carried out in the flesh. For it was fitting that he, being other than the works, or rather their Maker, should take their renewal upon himself, so that, since he is created for us, all things may now be created in him. When he said ‘he created,’ he at once added the reason, naming ‘the works,’ so that his being created for the works might signify his becoming man for their renewal. And this is the usual way of divine Scripture. When it signifies the Son’s origin in the flesh, it also adds the cause for which he became man; but when he himself speaks, or his servants declare, anything about his Godhead, everything is said in simple words, in an absolute sense, and without any reason added. For he is the Father’s Radiance; and as the Father is, but not for any reason, so we must not seek the reason of that Radiance either. So it is written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and it gives no reason why. But when “the Word became flesh,” then it adds the reason, saying, “and dwelt among us.” And again, the apostle, saying, “Who, being in the form of God,” brings in no reason until “he took on himself the form of a servant”; for then he goes on, “He humbled himself to death, even the death of the cross.” For it was for this that he both became flesh and took the form of a servant. [d]

The Lord himself has spoken many things in proverbs; but when he gives us words about himself, he has spoken absolutely: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” and “I and the Father are one,” and “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” and “I am the Light of the world,” and “I am the Truth.” He does not set down the reason or the ‘why’ in every case, so that he would not seem to be second to the things for which he was made. For that reason, without which he would not even have come into being, would have to take precedence over him. Paul, for instance, “set apart as an apostle for the gospel, which the Lord had promised beforehand through the prophets,” was by that very fact made subordinate to the gospel whose minister he was made. And John, chosen to prepare the Lord’s way, was made subordinate to the Lord. But the Lord is not made subordinate to any reason why he should be the Word, except only that he is the Father’s Offspring and his one and only Wisdom. It is when he becomes man that he gives the reason why he is about to take flesh. For man’s need came before his becoming man, and apart from it he would not have put on flesh. And he himself signifies what the need was for which he became man: “I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that of all he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” And again: “I have come as a light into the world, so that whoever believes in me should not remain in darkness.” And again he says: “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” And John has written: “For this the Son of God was revealed, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” [f]

To bear witness, then, and to undergo death for our sakes, to raise man up and to destroy the works of the devil, the Savior came; and this is the reason for his presence in the flesh. For otherwise there would have been no resurrection, unless there had been death; and how could there have been death unless he had a mortal body? The apostle, having learned this from him, sets it out like this: “Since, then, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise took part in the same, so that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to bondage all their lives.” And, “Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.” And again, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, so that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” And John says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” And again, the Savior has spoken in his own person: “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” So he has come, not for himself, but for our salvation: to abolish death, to condemn sin, to give sight to the blind, and to raise all from the dead. But if he came not for himself but for us, it follows that he is created not for himself but for us. And if he is created not for himself but for us, then he is not himself a creature; it is because he has put on our flesh that he uses such language. And we may learn that this is the sense of the Scriptures from the apostle, who says in Ephesians, “Having broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man out of the two, so making peace.” But if the two are created in him, and they are in his body, then it is reasonable that, bearing the two in himself, he is as if he himself were created. For those who were created in him he made one, and he was in them, as they are. And so, the two being created in him, he may fittingly say, ‘The Lord created me.’ He is said to be weak himself because he received our weaknesses, though he is not himself weak, for he is the Power of God. He became sin for us and a curse, though he had not sinned himself, but because he himself bore our sins and our curse. In the same way, because he creates us in himself, let him say, ‘He created me for the works,’ though he is not himself a creature. [i]

For if, as they hold, the substance of the Word is of a created nature, and that is why he says, ‘The Lord created me,’ being a creature, then he was not created for us. But if he was not created for us, we are not created in him; and if we are not created in him, we do not have him in ourselves but only outside us, as, for instance, when we receive instruction from him as from a teacher. And if that is how it is with us, sin has not lost its reign over the flesh, for it remains in the flesh and has not been cast out of it. But the apostle opposes such a teaching a little before, when he says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.” And if we are created in Christ, then it is not he who is created, but we in him; and so the words ‘he created’ are said for our sake. For because of our need, the Word, though he is Creator, endured words that are used of creatures. These words do not belong to him as the Word; they are ours, who are created in him. And since the Father always is, so is his Word; and being always, he always says, “I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him,” and “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” So when he became man for our need, it is consistent that he uses language like ours, ‘The Lord has created me,’ so that by his dwelling in the flesh sin might be completely driven out of the flesh, and we might have a mind set free. For what should he say when he was made man? ‘In the beginning I was man’? That would be neither fitting for him nor true. And as it was not fitting to say this, so it is natural and proper, in the case of man, to say ‘he created’ and ‘he made’ him. For this reason, then, the reason for ‘he created’ is added, namely the need of the works; and where the reason is added, the reason surely explains the passage rightly. So here, when he says ‘he created,’ he sets down the cause, ‘the works.’ On the other hand, when he signifies absolutely his birth from the Father, he at once adds, “Before all the hills he begets me.” He does not add the ‘why,’ as in the case of ‘he created,’ where he says ‘for the works’; he says absolutely, ‘he begets me,’ as in the text, “In the beginning was the Word.” For even if no works had been created, still ‘the Word’ of God ‘was,’ and ‘the Word was God.’ And his becoming man would not have taken place if the need of men had not become a cause. The Son, then, is not a creature. [k]