He Took What Is Ours to Give Us What Is His

The Arians have a weak and merely human idea: they suppose that the Lord is in need, because he says, “It is given to me” and “I received,” and because Paul says, “That is why he highly exalted him” and “He set him at his right hand,” and the like. In answer we must say this. Our Lord, being the Word and Son of God, bore a body and became Son of Man, so that, having become Mediator between God and men, he might minister the things of God to us and our things to God. So when he is said to hunger and weep and grow weary, and to cry “Eloi, Eloi,” which are our human experiences, he receives them from us and offers them to the Father, interceding for us, so that in him they may be done away with. And when it is said, “All power is given to me,” and “I received,” and “That is why God highly exalted him,” these are gifts given from God to us through him. For the Word was never in need, nor did he come into being. Nor again were men able to minister these things to themselves; they are given to us through the Word. That is why they are given as if to him, and so are passed on to us. For this was the reason he became man: so that, being given to him, they might pass on to us. Man by himself had not become worthy of such gifts, and the Word by himself had no need of them. So the Word was united to us, and then he passed power on to us and highly exalted us. For the Word, being in man, highly exalted man himself; and when the Word was in man, man himself received. Since, then, with the Word in flesh, man himself was exalted and received power, these things are referred to the Word, because they were given on his account. It was on account of the Word in man that these gifts were given. And as “the Word became flesh,” so too man himself received the gifts that came through the Word. For everything man himself has received, the Word is said to have received. This shows that man himself, though unworthy to receive as far as his own nature goes, has nevertheless received because of the Word who became flesh. So if anything is said to be given to the Lord, or the like, we must consider that it is given, not to him as one who needed it, but to man himself through the Word. For anyone who intercedes for another receives the gift in his own person, not because he needs it, but on account of the one he intercedes for. [a]

For he takes our weaknesses, though he is not weak, and he hungers though he does not hunger, but sends up what is ours so that it may be abolished. In the same way he himself receives the gifts that come from God in place of our weaknesses, so that man, being united to him, may be able to share in them. That is why the Lord says, “Everything that you have given me, I have given them,” and again, “I pray for them.” For he prayed for us, taking on himself what is ours, and he was giving what he received. The Word, then, was united to man himself, and the Father, looking upon him, granted to man to be exalted, to have all power, and the like. That is why everything we receive through him is referred to the Word himself, as if it were given to him. For as he became man for our sake, so we are exalted for his sake. There is nothing absurd, then, if, as he humbled himself for our sake, so too he is said to be highly exalted for our sake. So “he gave to him” means “to us for his sake,” and “he highly exalted him” means “us in him.” And when we are exalted, and receive, and are helped, the Word himself, as if he himself were exalted and received and were helped, gives thanks to the Father, referring what is ours to himself and saying, “Everything that you have given me, I have given to them.” [d]