On the Trinity 14–17

And yet the heretic still hesitates to say that Christ is God, though he sees him proved God by so many facts and sayings. If Christ is only man, how did he, coming into this world, come to his own, when a man made no world? If Christ is only man, how is the world reported to have been made through him, when it is reported that the world was not made through man, but man was established after the world? If Christ is only man, how is Christ not only from the seed of David, but the Word became flesh and dwelt in us? For although the first-formed man was not from seed either, yet the first-formed man was not compounded from the union of the Word and flesh: for he is not the Word become flesh and dwelling in us. If Christ is only man, how does he who came from heaven testify to what he has seen and heard, when it is agreed that man cannot come from heaven, since he cannot be born there? If Christ is only man, how are things visible and invisible, Thrones, Virtues, and Dominions, reported to have been created through him and in him, when the heavenly Virtues could not have been made through a man, since they must have existed before man himself? If Christ is only man, how is he present everywhere when called upon, when this is not the nature of man but of God, to be able to be present in every place? If Christ is only man, why is a man invoked in prayers as Mediator, when the invocation of a man is judged ineffective for granting salvation? If Christ is only man, why is hope placed in him, when hope in man is declared accursed? If Christ is only man, why may Christ not be denied without the destruction of the soul, when it is declared that a sin committed against a man can be forgiven?

If Christ is only man, how does John the Baptist testify and say, “He who comes after me has been set before me, because he was before me”? For if Christ is only man, born after John, he could not be before John, unless he preceded him in that he is God. If Christ is only man, how is it that whatever the Father does, the Son also does likewise, when man cannot do works like the heavenly works of God? If Christ is only man, how is it that as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself? For after the example of God the Father a man cannot have life in himself, since he is not glorious in eternity, but has been made in the material of mortality. If Christ is only man, how does he say, “I am the bread of eternal life, who came down from heaven”, when a man, himself mortal, can neither be the bread of life, nor have come down from heaven, since no material of frailty was established in heaven? If Christ is only man, how does he say that no one has ever seen God the Father except him who is from God; he has seen God? For if Christ is only man, he could not have seen God, because no one among men has seen God; but if, being from God, he saw God, he wished to be understood as more than man, since he saw God. If Christ is only man, why does he say, “What if you should see the Son of man ascending where he was before?” Now he ascended into heaven; he was therefore there, since he returns to where he was before. And if he was sent from heaven by the Father, he is certainly not only man: for man, as we have said, could not come from heaven. It was not, then, as man that he was there before; but he ascended to where he had not been. But the Word of God, which was there, came down: the Word, I say, of God, and God, through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. It was not, then, as man that he came thus from heaven; but the Word of God, that is, God, came down from there.

If Christ is only man, how does he say: “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, because I know where I have come from and where I am going; you do not know where I have come from or where I am going; you judge according to the flesh”? See, here too he says that he will return to the place from which he testifies that he came before, sent, that is, from heaven. He came down, then, from where he came, just as he goes to the place from which he came down. Hence, if Christ were only man, he would not have come from there, and therefore would not be going away there either, since he would not have come from there. But by coming from where man cannot come, he showed that he had come as God. But the Jews, ignorant and unskilled regarding this very descent, have made these heretics their heirs, to whom it is said, “You do not know where I come from and where I am going; you judge according to the flesh.” These men, like the Jews, holding that Christ's birth was only fleshly, have believed Christ to be nothing other than a man, not considering this: that since man could not come from heaven so as rightly to be able to return there, he who came down from where man could not come is God.

If Christ is only man, how does he say, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world”? Now if every man is from this world, and Christ is therefore in this world, is he then only man? Far from it. But consider what he says: “I am not of this world.” Does he then lie when he says he is not of this world, if he is only man? Or if he does not lie, he is not of this world. He is not, then, only man, since he is not of this world. But lest it should be hidden who he was, he declared where he was from: “I,” he says, “am from above”; that is, from heaven, from where man cannot come, for he was not made in heaven. He who is from above, then, is God, and therefore is not of this world; although in a certain way he is also of this world, and so Christ is not only God, but also man. So that rightly, just as he is not of this world according to the divinity of the Word, so he is of this world according to the frailty of the body he took up: for he is man joined with God, and God united with man. But Christ here leaned now to one side, that of his divinity alone, because Jewish blindness looked only at the fleshly side in Christ; and so in the present passage, passing over in silence the frailty of the body, which is of the world, he spoke only of his divinity, which is not of the world: so that, as far as they had leaned toward believing him only a man, so far Christ might draw them to consider his divinity, that they might believe him God; wishing, leaving aside for the moment any mention of his human lot, to overcome their unbelief about his divinity by setting his divinity alone against it.

If Christ is only man, how does he say, “I came forth from God and have come”, when it is agreed that man was made by God, not that he proceeded from God? But as man did not proceed from God, so the Word of God did proceed, of whom it was said, “My heart has uttered a good Word.” And since it is from God, rightly it is also with God. And since it was not uttered to no purpose, rightly it makes all things. “For all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.” But this Word, through whom all things were made, [is God]. “And the Word,” it says, “was God.” God, then, proceeded from God, since the Word who proceeded is God who proceeded from God. If Christ is only man, how does he say, “If anyone keeps my word, he will not see death forever”? What else is not seeing death forever than immortality? And immortality is the companion of divinity, because divinity is immortal and immortality is the fruit of divinity. But every man is mortal, and immortality cannot come from what is mortal. Therefore immortality cannot be born from Christ, if he is a mortal man. But “Whoever keeps my word,” he says, “will not see death forever.” Therefore the word of Christ grants immortality, and through immortality divinity. And if one who is himself mortal cannot make another immortal, but this word of Christ both shows and grants immortality, then surely he who grants immortality is not only man, for if he were only man he could not grant it; but by granting divinity through immortality, he proves himself God by offering divinity, which he could not grant unless he were God.

If Christ is only man, how does he say, “Before Abraham I am”? For no man can exist before him from whom he himself comes; nor can it be that anyone existed before him from whom he took his origin. But Christ, though he is from Abraham, says that he is before Abraham. Either, then, he lies and deceives, if he who was from Abraham did not exist before Abraham; or he does not deceive, if he is also God, since he existed before Abraham. And had he not been so, then, since he was from Abraham, he could not have been before Abraham. If Christ is only man, how does he say, “And I know them, and my own follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish forever”? But since every man is bound by the laws of mortality, and therefore cannot preserve himself forever, much less will he be able to preserve another forever. Yet Christ promises that he will give salvation forever; if he does not give it, he is a liar; if he gives it, he is God. But he does not deceive, for he gives what he promises. He is God, then, who offers everlasting salvation, which a man, who cannot preserve himself, will not be able to grant to another.

If Christ is only man, what does he mean by saying, “I and the Father are one”? For how are “I and the Father one”, unless he is both God and the Son? He can be called one with him because he is from him, and because he is his Son, and because he is born from him, since he is found to have proceeded from him, by which he is also God. When the Jews thought this offensive and believed it blasphemous, because by these words he had shown that he, Christ, was God, and therefore had run together for stones and were eager to hurl blows of rocks at him, he boldly refuted his opponents by the example and testimony of the Scriptures. “If,” he says, “he called them gods to whom the words of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into this world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” By these words he did not deny that he was God; on the contrary, he affirmed that he was God. For since those to whom the words of God came are without doubt said to be gods, much more is he God who is found better than all of them. And nonetheless he fittingly refuted the slanderous charge of blasphemy by a lawful distinction: for he wished to be understood as God in such a way that he would be understood as the Son of God, and not the Father himself. For he said that he had been sent, and showed that he had displayed many works from the Father; by which he wished to be understood not as the Father but as the Son; and in the last part of his defense he made mention of the Son, not the Father, saying, “You say, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” So as far as the charge of blasphemy is concerned, he says he is the Son, not the Father; but as far as concerns his divinity, by saying, “I and the Father are one”, he proved himself to be the Son and God. He is God, then; but God in such a way that he is the Son, not the Father.

If Christ is only man, how does he himself say, “And everyone who lives and believes in me will not die forever”? But one who believes in a solitary and bare man is said to be accursed; whereas here one who believes in Christ is declared not accursed, but never to die. Hence, if he is only man, as the heretics would have it, how will whoever believes in him not die forever, since he who trusts in man is held to be accursed? Or if he is not accursed, but rather destined, as we read, to the attainment of eternal life, then Christ is not only man but also God: whoever believes in him both lays down the danger of the curse and comes to the fruit of righteousness.

If Christ is only man, how does he say that the Paraclete will take from what is his the things he is to announce? For the Paraclete does not receive anything from man; rather the Paraclete offers knowledge to man. Nor does the Paraclete learn things to come from man; rather the Paraclete instructs man about things to come. Therefore, either the Paraclete did not receive from Christ, a man, what he announces, since a man can give nothing to the Paraclete, from whom man himself must receive; and in this place Christ is deceiving and misleading when he says that the Paraclete will receive from him, a man, the things he will announce: or he does not deceive us, as indeed he does not deceive, and the Paraclete received from Christ what he announces. But if he received from Christ what he announces, then Christ is greater than the Paraclete, since the Paraclete would not receive from Christ unless he were less than Christ. And the Paraclete, being less than Christ, proves by this very fact that Christ, from whom he received what he announces, is also God; so that the testimony to Christ's divinity is great, since the Paraclete, found to be less than Christ, takes from him what he hands on to the rest. For if Christ were only man, Christ would receive from the Paraclete what he was to say, not the Paraclete from Christ what he was to announce.

If Christ is only man, why did he lay down for us such a rule of believing as to say, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one and true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”? If he had not wished to be understood as God too, why did he add, “and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”, unless he wished to be received as God as well? For if he did not wish to be understood as God, he would have added, “and the man Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” But as it is, he did not add it, and Christ did not present himself to us as man only, but joined himself to God, so that through this conjunction he might wish to be understood as God also, as he is. We must therefore believe, according to the rule laid down, in the Lord, the one true God, and consequently in him whom he sent, Jesus Christ, who would never, as we have said, have joined himself to the Father unless he wished to be understood as God too; for he would have separated himself from him if he had not wished to be understood as God. For he would have placed himself only among men, if he knew himself to be only man; and he would not have joined himself with God if he did not know himself to be God as well. As it is, he is silent about the man, since no one doubts that he is man; and he rightly joins himself to God, in order to lay down for those who would believe the formula of his divinity.

If Christ is only man, how does he say, “And now honor me with the glory which I had with you before the world was”? If before the world was he had glory with God and held glory with the Father, he existed before the world; for he would not have had glory unless he himself, who could hold glory, had existed first. For no one can have anything unless he who holds something has himself existed before. But Christ has glory before the founding of the world; therefore he existed before the founding of the world. For unless he had existed before the founding of the world, he could not have had glory before the founding of the world, since he himself would not have existed. But a man, who came after the world, could not have had glory before the founding of the world; yet Christ had it; therefore he existed before the world. He was not, then, only man, who existed before the world: he is therefore God, since he existed before the world and held glory before the world. Nor let this be said to be predestination, since it is not written; or let those who think so add it. But woe is written to those who add, as also to those who take away; so what cannot be added cannot be said. Predestination, then, which is not written, being set aside, Christ existed in substance before the founding of the world. For he is the Word through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. For even if he is said to be glorious in predestination, and the predestination existed before the founding of the world, then let order be kept, and a great number of men will be destined to glory before him. For by that destination Christ will be understood to be less than the others, since he is marked as later than they. For if this glory was in predestination, Christ received this predestination to glory last of all: for Adam will be seen to have been predestined before him, and Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and all the rest. For since with God the order of all persons and things has been arranged, many will be said to have been predestined before this predestination of Christ to glory. And on this reckoning Christ, who is found to be better and greater and older even than the angels themselves, is detected to be less than other men. Either, then, let all these things be taken away, so that divinity may be taken from Christ; or, if these things cannot be taken away, let the heretics give back to Christ his own divinity.

What if Moses follows this same rule of truth, and has handed it down to us at the beginning of his writings, so that we may learn that all things were created and founded through the Son of God, that is, through the Word of God? For he says what John says, what the others say; indeed, John and the others are understood to have received from him what they say. For if John says, “All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made”; and the prophet declares, “I speak my works to the King”; and Moses presents God commanding first that light be made, the heaven made firm, the waters gathered, the dry land shown, fruit called forth according to its seeds, living creatures produced, lights and stars set in the heaven: he shows that no other was then present with God, to whom these works were commanded to be done, than he through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. And if this is the Word of God (for “my heart has uttered a good word”), he shows that the Word was in the beginning, and that this Word was with the Father, and moreover that the Word was God, and that all things were made through him. But this Word became flesh and dwelt in us, namely Christ, the Son of God; and since we both receive him afterwards as man according to the flesh, and see him before the founding of the world as the Word of God and God, we rightly, according to the ordering of the Old and New Testaments, both believe and hold Christ Jesus to be God and man.

What if the same Moses presents God saying, “Let us make man to our image and likeness”, and below, “And God made man; to the image of God he made him; male and female he made them”? If, as we have already shown, it is the Son of God through whom all things were made, surely it is the Son of God through whom man also was established, for whose sake all things were made. But when God commands that man be made, it is God who is reported to make man; and the Son of God makes man, namely the Word of God, through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. And this Word became flesh and dwelt in us: therefore Christ is God. Man, then, was made through Christ, as through the Son of God. But God made man to the image of God; he who made man to the image of God is therefore God; Christ therefore is God. So that rightly the authority of the Old Testament does not waver concerning the person of Christ, since it is propped up by the manifestation of the New Testament; nor is the power of the New Testament cut off, since its truth rests on the roots of the Old Testament. Hence those who presume Christ, the Son of God and of man, to be only man and not also God act against the Testament both Old and New, since they corrupt the authority and truth of both the Old and New Testaments.

What if the same Moses everywhere presents God the Father as immeasurable and without end, not one who is enclosed by place, but one who encloses every place; not one who is in a place, but rather in whom every place is; containing all things and embracing all, so that rightly he neither comes down nor goes up, since he himself both contains and fills all things; and yet nonetheless he presents God coming down to the tower that the sons of men were building, seeking to look at it, and saying, “Come”; and then, “Let us go down and confound their tongues there, so that each may not hear the voice of his neighbor”? Whom do they suppose to have come down here to that tower, seeking then to visit those men? God the Father? Then he is now enclosed by place; and how does he himself embrace all things? Or does he mean that an angel came down with angels, saying, “Come”, and then, “Let us go down and confound their tongues there”? But in Deuteronomy we observe that these things are reported of God, and that God said them, where it is written: “When he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.” Neither, then, did the Father come down, as the matter shows; nor did an angel command these things, as the facts prove. It remains, then, that he came down of whom the apostle Paul says: “He who came down is the same who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”, that is, the Son of God, the Word of God. But the Word of God became flesh and dwelt in us: this will be Christ: Christ therefore will be declared God.