Known by His Works

But if people do not believe that he has risen at all, because he is not seen, then it is high time for those who refuse to believe to deny the very course of nature. For it belongs to God alone to be invisible and yet to be known from his works, as has already been said above. If, then, the works are not there, they do well to disbelieve what does not appear. But if the works cry aloud and show it clearly, why do they choose to deny the life so plainly owing to the resurrection? For even if their understanding is crippled, people can still see with their outward senses the undeniable power of Christ, and that he is God. Even a blind man, though he does not see the sun, knows that there is a sun above the earth if he only feels the warmth it gives out. In the same way, let our opponents too, even if they do not yet believe, being still blind to the truth, knowing his power at least through others who believe, not deny that Christ is God, nor the resurrection he has brought about. [a]

For it is plain that if Christ were dead, he could not be driving out demons and despoiling idols; the spirits would not have obeyed a dead man. But if they are plainly driven out at the naming of his name, it must be evident that he is not dead. This is all the more so because the spirits, who see even what is unseen by human beings, could tell if Christ were dead, and would refuse him any obedience at all. But as things are, what impious people do not believe, the spirits see: that he is God. And so they flee and fall at his feet, saying just what they cried out when he was in the body: “We know who you are, the Holy One of God,” and, “Ah, what have we to do with you, Son of God? I beg you, do not torment me.”

Since, then, the demons confess him, and his works bear witness to him day by day, two things must be evident, and let no one shamelessly hold out against the truth. The first is that the Savior raised his own body. The second is that he is the true Son of God, being from God as from his Father, his own Word and Wisdom and Power. In later ages he took a body for the salvation of all. He taught the world about the Father, brought death to nothing, and gave incorruption to all by the promise of the resurrection. He raised his own body as the first fruits of this, and displayed it by the sign of the cross as a monument of victory over death and its corruption.