Catechetical Lectures 10.1–10.18

… “… except through me.” For if you deny the Door, the knowledge of the Father is shut off from you. “No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son reveals him”; for if you deny the one who reveals, you remain in ignorance. There is a sentence in the Gospels which says, “He who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” For the Father is indignant when his only-begotten Son is set at nought. It is grievous to a king when even a common soldier is dishonoured; but when one of his distinguished bodyguards or friends is dishonoured, then his anger becomes greater; and if anyone insults the king's only-begotten son himself, who will appease the father in his indignation for his only-begotten son?

If, then, anyone wishes to be devout toward God, let him worship the Son, since otherwise the Father does not accept the worship. The Father cried aloud from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The Father was well pleased in the Son; unless you too are well pleased in him, you do not have life. Do not be carried away along with the Jews, who say craftily, “There is one God alone”; but along with knowing that there is one God, know also that there is an only-begotten Son of God. I was not the first to say this; the Psalmist says in the person of the Son, “The Lord said to me, You are my Son.” Do not attend, then, to what the Jews say, but to what the prophets say. Do you wonder that those who stoned and killed the prophets reject the prophets' words?

Believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. … We say “Lord Jesus Christ” that his sonship may be only-begotten; we say “one” so that you may not suppose another; we say “one” so that you may not impiously scatter the many names of his working among many sons. For he is called a door; but do not think the name means a door of wood, but a rational, living door, which discerns those who enter. He is called a way, not one trodden by feet, but one that leads to the Father in heaven. He is called a sheep, not an irrational one, but the one that by its precious blood cleanses the world of its sins, that is led before the shearer and knows when to be silent. This sheep again is called a shepherd, who says, “I am the good shepherd”: a sheep because of his humanity, a shepherd because of the love for mankind of his Godhead. And would you know that there are rational sheep? The Saviour says to the apostles, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Again, he is called a lion, not a man-eater, but as if showing by the name the kingly, steadfast and confident character of his nature; and he is called a lion in opposition to the lion our adversary, who roars and devours those who have been deceived. For the Saviour came, not changing the gentleness of his own nature, but as the mighty lion of the tribe of Judah, saving those who believe and trampling down the adversary. He is called a stone, not a lifeless one quarried by men's hands, but a chief cornerstone, in which whoever believes shall not be put to shame.

He is called Christ, not as anointed by human hands, but as anointed eternally by the Father to a high priesthood above that of men. He is called dead, not as having remained among the dead, as all do in Hades, but as alone “free among the dead.” He is called Son of Man, not as having his birth from the earth like each of us, but as coming on the clouds to judge the living and the dead. He is called Lord, not loosely as those among men are, but as having a natural and eternal lordship. He is called Jesus fittingly, having the name from his saving healing. He is called Son, not as advanced by adoption, but as begotten by nature. And many are the titles of our Saviour. So, lest the many titles make you think there are many sons, and because of the errors of the heretics who say that Christ is one, Jesus another, the Door another, and so on, the Creed guards you beforehand, saying well, “in one Lord Jesus Christ”: for though the titles are many, the one who bears them is one.

But the Saviour becomes manifold to each person for his profit. To those who need gladness he becomes a vine; for those who need to enter he stands as a door; for those who need to offer up their prayers he stands as a mediating high priest. Again, to those who have sins he becomes a sheep, to be sacrificed for them. He becomes all things to all, remaining himself by nature what he is. For remaining so, and keeping the truly unchangeable dignity of his sonship, like a most excellent physician and a sympathetic teacher he adapts himself to our weaknesses. He is Lord in truth, not having received the lordship by advancement, but having the dignity of lordship by nature; and he is not called Lord loosely, as we are, but is Lord in truth, since by the Father's assent he rules over his own works. For our lordship is over men equal in honour and of like passions, often even over our elders; and often a young master rules over older servants. But with our Lord Jesus Christ the lordship is not so: he is first Maker, then Lord. First he made all things by the Father's will, then … [6] Christ the Lord is he who was born in the city of David. And would you know that Christ is Lord with the Father even before his becoming man, so that you may not only accept the statement by faith but also receive proof from the Old Scripture? Come to the first book, Genesis. God says, “Let us make man,” not “in my image” but “in our image.” And after Adam was made, it says, “And God made man; in the image of God he made him.” For it did not confine the dignity of the Godhead to the Father alone, but included the Son as well, to show that man is the work not only of God but also of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself also true God. This Lord, who works together with the Father, worked with him also in the case of Sodom, according to the Scripture that says, “And the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven.”

This Lord was seen again by Moses, as far as Moses was able to see. For the Lord loves mankind, always adapting himself to our weaknesses.

And that you may know that this is the one who appeared to Moses, receive the testimony of Paul, who says, “For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ”; and again, “By faith Moses left Egypt,” and a little later he says, “considering the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures in Egypt.” This Moses says to him, “Show yourself to me.” You see that the prophets also saw Christ in those days, but each as far as he could receive him. “Show yourself to me, that I may see you clearly.” But he says, “No one shall see my face and live.” For this reason, then, since no one could see the face of the Godhead and live, he took on the face of humanity, so that seeing this we might live. And yet when he wished to show even this with a little majesty, when his face shone like the sun, the disciples fell down in fear. Now if the face of his body, shining not as much as he who worked it was able, but as much as the disciples could receive, frightened them, so that even so they could not bear it, how could anyone gaze upon the majesty of the Godhead? “It is a great thing you desire, Moses,” says the Lord, “and I accept your insatiable desire, and I will do this thing for you, but as far as you can receive it. Behold, I put you in the cleft of the rock; for being small, you shall stay within a small space.” [8] Now here, I pray, make sure of what is going to be said, because of the Jews; for our aim is to prove that the Lord Jesus Christ was with the Father. The Lord, then, says to Moses, “I will pass by before you in my glory, and I will call on the name of the Lord before you.” Being Lord, on what Lord does he call? You see how he was teaching in a veiled way the godly doctrine of the Father and the Son. And again in what follows it is written word for word: “And the Lord came down in a cloud and stood beside him there, and called on the name of the Lord; and the Lord passed by before his face, and called: The Lord, the Lord, compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and abounding in mercy and true, keeping righteousness and showing mercy to thousands, taking away iniquities and wrongdoings and sins.” Then, next, Moses, bowing down and worshipping before the Lord who called upon the Father, says, “Go along with us, O Lord.”

You have this as the first proof; receive also a second, plain one. “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand.” The Lord says this to the Lord, not to a servant, but to the Lord of all things and his own Son, to whom

he subjected all things. “But when he says that all things are subjected to him, it is plain that he is excepted who subjected all things to him,” and what follows, “that God may be all in all.” The only-begotten Son is Lord of all things, but the obedient Son of the Father; he did not seize the lordship, but received it, by nature, from the Father's own free choice. For neither did the Son seize it, nor did the Father begrudge the giving. He it is who says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father”: handed over to me, not as though I did not have them before; and I keep them well, not depriving the giver.

The Son of God, then, is Lord: he is Lord who was born in Bethlehem of Judea, according to the angel who said to the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy, that there is born to you today in the city of David Christ the Lord”; of whom one of the apostles says elsewhere, “The word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ: he is Lord of all.” And when he says “of all,” exempt nothing from his lordship. For whether angels or archangels or principalities … or powers, or anything created that the apostles name, all are under the lordship of the Son. He is Lord of angels, as you have it in the Gospels: “Then the devil left him, and the angels came and ministered to him.” For it does not say that they helped him, but that they ministered to him, that is, as servants. When he was about to be born of the Virgin, Gabriel then served him, receiving his service as his own dignity. When he was about to go into Egypt, to overthrow the handmade gods of Egypt, again an angel appears to Joseph in a dream. When he had been crucified and had risen, the angel brought the good news, and says to the women, like a good servant, “Go, tell his disciples that he is risen, and he goes before you into Galilee; behold, I have told you”: all but saying, “I have not transgressed the command; I testify that I have told you, so that if you neglect it the blame may not fall on me, but on those who neglected it.” This, then, is the one Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the reading just now also speaks: “For even if there are so-called gods many, whether in heaven or on earth,” and so on, “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.”

He is called by a double name, Jesus Christ: Jesus because he saves, Christ because he is priest. And knowing this, Moses, the most inspired of the prophets, bestowed these two names on two men chosen above all: Auses, the successor to his rule, he renamed Jesus; and his own brother Aaron he surnamed Christ; so that through two chosen men he might represent at once the high-priestly and the kingly office of the one Jesus Christ who was to come. For Christ is high priest like Aaron, since he did not glorify himself to become high priest, but it was he who said to him, “You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” And Jesus the son of Nave was a type of him in many things. For when he began to rule the people he began from the Jordan; whence Christ also, after being baptized, began to preach the gospel. The son of Nave appoints twelve to divide the inheritance; and Jesus sends out the twelve apostles as heralds of the truth into all the world. The Jesus of the type saved Rahab the harlot when she believed; but the true one says, “Behold, the tax collectors and the harlots go before you into the kingdom of God.” In the time of the type the walls of Jericho fell at a shout alone; and because Jesus said, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another,” the temple of the Jews opposite us has fallen: not that the sentence was the cause of its fall, but the sin of the transgressors became the cause of its falling.

There is one Lord Jesus Christ, a wondrous name announced beforehand by the prophets indirectly. For Isaiah the prophet says, “Behold, your Saviour comes, having his own reward.” Now among the Hebrews “Jesus” means “Saviour.” For the prophetic grace, foreseeing the Jews' killing of the Lord, veiled the name, lest, knowing it plainly beforehand, they should readily plot against him. But he was called Jesus openly, not by men, but by an angel, who came not by his own authority but was sent by the power of God, and who said to Joseph, “Do not fear to take Mary your wife; for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.” And at once he gives the reason for the name: “For he will save his people from their sins.” Consider how one who was not yet born has a people, unless he existed even before he was born. And the prophet says this in his person: “From my mother's womb he called my name,” because the angel foretold that he would be called Jesus. And again, of Herod's plot, he says, “And under the shelter of his hand he hid me.”

Jesus, then, means “Saviour” according to the Hebrews, but in the Greek tongue “the Healer”; since he is physician of souls and bodies, and curer of spirits: curer of the bodily blind and giver of light to minds; physician of the visibly lame and guide of sinners' steps to repentance; saying to the paralytic, “Sin no more,”

and, “Take up your bed and walk.” For since the body was paralysed because of the sin of the soul, he cured the soul first, so as to bring healing to the body too. If, then, anyone suffers in soul from sins, he has the physician; and if anyone here is of little faith, let him say to him, “Help my unbelief.” If anyone is beset with bodily ailments too, let him not disbelieve, but let him draw near (for he heals these too), and let him know that Jesus is the Christ. [14] For the Jews accept that he is Jesus, but not further that he is Christ. Therefore the Apostle says, “Who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” And Christ is high priest, having a priesthood that does not pass to another, neither having begun his priesthood in time, nor having any successor in his high priesthood, as you heard on the Lord's day when we discoursed at the assembly on “after the order of Melchizedek.” He did not receive the high priesthood by bodily succession, nor was he anointed with prepared oil, but before the ages by the Father; and he surpasses the others as much as he is priest with an oath. For they are priests without an oath, but he with an oath, through him who says, “The Lord has sworn and will not repent.” The Father's will alone would have been enough for certainty; but the manner of the certainty is doubled when an oath follows along with the will, “so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong encouragement” of faith, we who accept Christ Jesus as the Son of God.

This Christ, when he came, the Jews denied, but the demons confessed. But his forefather David was not ignorant of him, saying, “I have prepared a lamp for my Christ.” Some have interpreted the lamp as the brightness of prophecy, others as the flesh taken from the Virgin, according to the saying in the Apostle, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” The prophet was not ignorant of him, saying, “And declaring to men his Christ.” Moses knew him, Isaiah knew him, Jeremiah knew him; none of the prophets was ignorant of him. Even demons recognized him; for he rebuked them, and it says, “because they knew him to be the Christ.” Chief priests did not know him, and demons confessed him; chief priests did not know him, and a Samaritan woman proclaimed him, saying, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did; can this be the Christ?”

This is Jesus Christ, who came as high priest of the good things to come; who, because of the bounty of his Godhead, has given us all a share in his own name. For human kings keep the title of their kingship unshared with other men; but Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, has counted us worthy to be called Christians. But someone will say, “The name of Christians is new, and was not in use before this”; and new things are often opposed because they are strange. The prophet guarded against this beforehand, saying, “But on those who serve me a new name shall be called, which shall be blessed on the earth.” Let us question the Jews: Do you serve the Lord, or not? Show us, then, your new name. For you were called Jews and Israelites in the time of Moses and the other prophets, and after the return from Babylon, and up to the present: where, then, is the new name? But we, since we serve the Lord, have the new name: new indeed, but the new name “which shall be blessed on the earth.” This name has taken hold of the whole world. For the Jews reach only to a certain country, but Christians to the ends of the world; for it is the name of the only-begotten Son of God that is proclaimed.

Would you know that the apostles knew and proclaimed the name of Christ, or rather had Christ himself within them? Paul says to his hearers, “Or do you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me?” Paul proclaims Christ, saying, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.” Who, then, is this? The former persecutor. O great wonder! The former persecutor himself proclaims Christ. But why? Was he won over by money? But there was no one to persuade him that way. Was it, then, that he saw him present and was put to shame? He had already been taken up into heaven. He went out to persecute, and after three days the persecutor is a preacher in Damascus. By what power? Others call their own friends as witnesses for their own side; but I have set before you as witness the former enemy. Do you still doubt? The testimony of Peter and John is great, but it might be suspected, for they were his intimates. But when the former enemy afterwards dies for him, who would still doubt the truth?

Having come to this point of my discourse, I truly marvel at the dispensation of the Holy Spirit: how he confined the letters of the others to a small number, but granted to Paul, the former persecutor, to write fourteen letters. Not because Peter or John was inferior did he restrain the gift (God forbid!), but so that the teaching might be beyond doubt he granted to the one who was formerly an enemy and persecutor to write more, so that we might all be brought to believe in this way. For all were amazed at Paul, and said, “Is not this he who formerly persecuted? Did he not come here to bring us bound to Jerusalem?” “Do not be amazed,” says Paul; “I know that it is hard for me to kick against the goads; I know that I am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God; but I did it in ignorance. For I thought that the preaching about Christ was the destruction of the law, and I did not know that he came to fulfil the law and not to destroy it. But the grace of God abounded exceedingly in me.” [19] Many, beloved, are the true testimonies concerning Christ. The Father bears witness from heaven concerning the Son; the Holy Spirit bears witness, descending bodily in the form of a dove; Gabriel the archangel bears witness, bringing the good news to Mary; the Virgin, the Theotokos, bears witness; the blessed place of the manger bears witness. Egypt bears witness, which received the Master while he was still young in body; Symeon bears witness, who received him in his arms and said, “Now, Master, you let your servant go in peace according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples.” Anna the prophetess, a most devout woman, continent and ascetic, bears witness concerning him. John the Baptist bears witness, the greatest among the prophets and the leader of the New Covenant, who in a way joined both covenants, the Old and the New, in himself. The Jordan bears witness among rivers, the sea of Tiberias among seas; the blind bear witness, the lame bear witness, the dead who were raised bear witness; demons bear witness, saying, “What have we to do with you, Jesus? We know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Winds bear witness, rebuked and silenced; five loaves bear witness, multiplied for five thousand. The holy wood of the cross bears witness, seen among us to this day, and from here already filling almost the whole world through those who in faith take pieces of it. The palm tree in the valley bears witness, which supplied the branches to the children who then hailed him. Gethsemane bears witness, all but showing Judas still to those who reflect. This holy Golgotha, rising above us, bears witness to the sight. The tomb of holiness bears witness, and the stone that lies there to this day. The sun now shining bears witness, which was eclipsed then at the time of the saving passion; the darkness bears witness, which came then from the sixth hour to the ninth; the light bears witness, which shone forth from the ninth hour until evening. The holy Mount of Olives bears witness, from which he went up to the Father; the rain clouds bear witness, which received the Master; and the gates of heaven bear witness, which received the Master, of which the Psalmist said, “Lift up your gates, O rulers, and be lifted up, eternal gates, and the King of glory shall come in.” Those who were once enemies bear witness, one of whom is the blessed Paul, an enemy for a short time but a servant for a long time. The twelve apostles bear witness, who proclaimed the truth not only in words, but also by their own tortures and deaths. The shadow of Peter bears witness, which healed the sick in the name of Christ. The handkerchiefs and aprons bear witness, which healed in like manner … by the power of Christ through Paul at that time. Persians and Goths and all those from the Gentiles bear witness, dying for him whom they have not seen with eyes of flesh; … who to this day through the faithful … bear witness; demons being driven out bear witness. … [20] So many and so varied witnesses there are, and more: is Christ, so witnessed, still disbelieved? If anyone, then, did not believe before, let him believe now; and if he was a believer before, let him receive a greater increase of faith, believing in our Lord Jesus Christ, and let him know whose name he bears. You have been called a Christian: spare the name; let not our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, be blasphemed because of you; but rather let your good works shine before men, so that the men who see them may glorify in Christ Jesus our Lord the Father who is in heaven; to whom be glory, now and to the ages of ages. Amen.