They who are blessed by the boons of God and have learnt to know these passages and others like them, kindled with warm love for their bountiful Master, constantly carry on their lips this His dearest name and cry in the words of the Song of Songs "My beloved is mine and I am his;" "I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." [2110] And besides all this that name of ours which we love so well we have derived from the name of Christ. We are called Christians. [2111]
Of this name the Lord of all says, "The Lord God shall call His servants by another name which shall be blessed on the earth" [2112] and the following is the reason why the Church specially clings to this name. When the only-begotten Son of God was made man, then He was named Christ, then human nature received the beams of intellectual light; then the heralds of the truth shed their beams upon the world. Teachers of the Church, however, constantly used the names of the only begotten without distinction; at one time they glorify the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost; at another the Father with Christ and the Holy Ghost; yet as far as the sense is concerned there is here no difference. Wherefore after the Lord had commanded to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost the blessed Peter said to them who received his preaching and asked what they must do, "Believe and be baptized every one of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," [2113] as though this name contained in itself all the potency of the divine command. The same teaching is clearly given us by the great Basil, luminary of the Cappadocians, [2114] or rather of the world. His words are "the name of Christ is the confession of the whole." It indicates at once the Father, who anointed, the Son, who was anointed, and the Holy Ghost whereby He was anointed. Furthermore the thrice blessed Fathers assembled in council at Nicæa, after saying that we must believe in one God, the Father, added "and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God." Thereby they teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is Himself the only begotten Son of God.
To what has been said it must also be added that we must not affirm that after the ascension the Lord Christ is not Christ but only begotten Son. The divine Gospels and the history of the Acts and the Epistles of the Apostle himself were, as we know, written after the ascension. It is after the ascension that the divine Paul exclaims "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." [2115] And again, "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." [2116] And again after speaking of our hope in God he adds "which hope we have as an anchor both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." [2117] And when, writing to the blessed Titus about the second advent he says, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." [2118] And to the Thessalonians he wrote in similar terms "For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how we turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." [2119] And again "And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." [2120] And again when writing to the same a second time he says, "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him." [2121] And a little further on when predicting the destruction of antichrist he adds, "Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." [2122] And when exhorting the Romans to concord he says, "But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." [2123] And the Lord Himself when announcing His second advent besides other things says too this "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." [2124]
And after the immortality and incorruptibility of His body He called Himself Son of Man, naming Himself from the nature which was seen, inasmuch as the divine nature is indeed invisible to angels, as the Lord Himself had said "No one hath seen God at any time." [2125] And to the great Moses He said "There shall no man see me and live." [2126]
The words "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh; yet now henceforth know we Him no more," [2127] were not written by the divine Apostle in order to annul the assumed nature, but for the confirmation of our own future incorruption, immortality, and spiritual life.
The Apostle therefore continues "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." [2128] He speaks of what is to be in the future as though it had already come to pass. We have not yet been gifted with immortality, but we shall be; and when so gifted we shall not become bodiless, but we shall put on immortality. "For" says the divine Apostle, "we would not be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." [2129] And again "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." [2130] Thus he did not speak of the Lord as bodiless, but taught us to believe that even the visible nature is incorruptible, and glorified with the divine glory. This instruction he has given us yet more clearly in the Epistle to the Philippians; "For our conversation" he writes "is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." [2131] By these words he teaches us distinctly that the body of the Lord is a body, but a divine body, and glorified with the divine glory.
Let us, then, not shun the name whereby we enjoy salvation, and whereby all things are made new, as says our teacher himself in his Epistle to the Ephesians,--"According to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of time He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him." [2132] Let us rather learn from this blessed language how we are bound to glorify our benefactor, by connecting the name of Christ with our God and Father. In his Epistle to the Romans the Apostle says "my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith; to God only will be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen." [2133] Writing to the Ephesians he thus gives praise--"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." [2134] And a little before he says, "For this cause I bow my knee unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." [2135] And considerably farther on he says "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." [2136] And when he requites with benediction the liberality of the Philippians he says "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." [2137] And for the Hebrews he prayed, "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." [2138] And not only when glorifying, but also when exhorting and protesting, the Apostle conjoins the Christ with God the Father. To the blessed Timothy he exclaims "I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ." [2139] And again "I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in His times He shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see; to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen." [2140]
These are the lessons we have learnt from the divine Apostles; this is the teaching given us by John and Matthew, those mighty rivers of the gospel message. The latter says "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham;" [2141] and the former when he shewed the things which were before the ages wrote, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him."
[2046] Cf. note on page 288. This letter, or rather doctrinal statement is incomplete. Garnerius supposes it to have been written during Theodoret's retirement after the Council of Chalcedon. There he cut himself off from society and wished to devote himself to study and contemplation.
[2047] 1 Cor. viii. 6
[2048] 1 Thess. iii. 11
[2049] 2 Thess. ii. 16, 17
[2050] Romans xv. 30
[2051] 1 Cor. i. 10
[2052] 2 Cor. xiii. 14
[2053] Romans i. 1
[2054] 1 Cor. i. 1
[2055] Titus i. 1
[2056] Romans i. 7
[2057] Romans xvi. 4
[2058] Matt. i. 21
[2059] Deut. viii. 15
[2060] Psalm cxii. 4
[2061] Hebrews vii. 21
[2062] Hebrews iv. 14
[2063] Psalm xlv. 6
[2064] Psalm xlv. 7
[2065] Psalm ii. 6, 7, 8, lxx.
[2066] Psalm ii. 1, 2
[2067] Matt. xvi. 16
[2068] It will be observed that our author omits the verse containing the famous paronomasia, and that what he regards the Saviour as confirming is not any supposed authority on the part of the speaker but the identification of Himself with the Christ and of the Christ with the Son of the living God.
[2069] 1 Cor. iii. 10, 11
[2070] Gal. ii. 19
[2071] Phil. i. 21
[2072] 1 Cor. ii. 2
[2073] 1 Cor. i. 23, 24
[2074] Gal. i. 15, 16
[2075] Romans i. 1-4
[2076] Romans ix. 5
[2077] Titus ii. 13
[2078] Ephes. v. 5. Here the A.V. rather obscures the force of the original. The R.V. alters to "in the kingdom of Christ and God," but even this hardly brings out Theodoret's views of en te basilei& 139; tou Christou kai Theou, "in the kingdom of the Christ and God." The mss. do not vary. At the same time it will be borne in mind that the anarthrous use of "Theos" is not infrequent, and that some commentators (cf. Alford ad loc.) would hesitate to ground on this passage the argument of the text. The reading of ' and B in John i. 18 "ho monogenes Theos" is significant.