Commentary on John 1 part 84/94

In order, therefore, that we too might come together and be commingled into unity, both toward God and toward one another, even though we stand apart into individuality both in souls and bodies by the difference conceived in each, the Only-begotten devised a certain manner, discovered through the wisdom befitting Him and the counsel of the Father;

for by one body, namely His own, blessing through the mystical partaking those who believe in Him, He renders them of one body both with Himself and with one another.

For who could sever, and estrange from natural union with one another, those who are bound together through the one holy body into unity in Christ? For if we all partake of the one bread, we all are rendered one body;

for it is not possible that Christ should be divided.

For this reason also the Church has been named the body of Christ, and we are severally members, according to the understanding of Paul.

For all of us, being united to the one Christ through the holy body, inasmuch as we receive Him who is one and indivisible in our own bodies, owe our own members rather to Him than to ourselves.

And that, the Saviour being appointed as Head, the rest, the Church, is called a body, as being fitly joined together out of the members that are severally there, Paul will demonstrate, saying: 'That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness unto the wiles of error; but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.' And that we, having come to be in participation of His holy flesh, gain also the union conceived according to the body—I mean that toward Christ—Paul will again testify, speaking concerning the mystery of godliness: 'Which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and partakers together of the promise in Christ.' And if we are all of one body with one another in Christ—and not only with one another, but plainly also with Him who comes to be in us through His own flesh—

how are we not already clearly one, all of us, both in one another and in Christ? For Christ is the bond of unity, being in one and the same both God and man.

But concerning the union that is in the Spirit, running along the same path of considerations, we shall again say that all of us, having received one and the same Spirit—I mean the Holy Spirit—are in a certain manner commingled both with one another and with God.

For even though we are many severally, and Christ makes both the Spirit of the Father and His own Spirit to dwell in each, yet it is one and indivisible, holding together into unity the spirits that are severed from mutual unity—according, that is, to their being—in the property that pertains to their subsistence, and making all appear through itself and as one thing in itself.

For just as the power of the holy flesh renders of one body those in whom it comes to be, in the same manner, I think, the one indivisible Spirit of God, dwelling in all, gathers all together into spiritual unity.

For this reason the all-wise Paul again addressed us: 'Forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;'

over all, and through all, and in all. For since one Spirit lodges within us, the one Father of all will be in us as God through the Son, holding us together into unity—the unity toward one another and toward Himself—we who are partakers of the Spirit.

And that we are united with the Holy Spirit by way of participation will in some way be clear also through this.

For if, having abandoned living in a merely soulish (natural) way, we have once for all yielded the mastery to the laws of the Spirit, how is it not thenceforth beyond all dispute to anyone that, having as it were denied our own life, and having taken up the supramundane conformation of the Holy Spirit interwoven with us, we are all but transferred, as it were, into another nature—being named not only men, but sons of God and heavenly men, through having been shown to be partakers of the divine nature? Therefore we all are one in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—one, I mean, also in the identity that is according to condition (disposition).

For I think one ought to keep in mind the things stated at the beginning:

namely, that this comes to pass both in the conformation that is according to godliness, and in the communion of the holy flesh of Christ, and in the communion of the one and Holy Spirit, as has already been said before.

That the Son is by nature one with His own Father and God, even though He says that He received the being one with the Father as it were in the manner of grace.

'And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.'

But since, for the sake of the dispensation on our behalf—of salvation and of life—He as it were departed from the place He held in the beginning, I mean the equality with the Father and God, and seems in some way to have been shaken down into the descent to a less conspicuous glory;

for this was the meaning of 'He emptied Himself';

He who of old and from the beginning existed with the Father receives this along with the flesh, along with the earthly and perishable covering and the human form—the form, I mean, that is conceived in the natural account—which necessarily demands, as it were in the manner of grace, that which belongs to Him by nature;

for He was, and is, in the form and equality of the Father.

Therefore, since the flesh from woman is not consubstantial with God and the Father, nor yet the same in nature—that is, the temple wholly from the Virgin—yet having been once received into the body of the Word, it is thenceforth reckoned as one thing with Him;

for Christ is one, and one is the Son, even when He became man.

In this way He is conceived to have received the union, having been received into this even along with the flesh, which does not of itself have the being one with God.

And if one must speak more concisely and more clearly, the Only-begotten says that there was given to Himself that which was given to His own flesh;

and that which was given was assuredly given from the Father through Him in the Spirit.

For the mode of union with God has no other way, even if perchance it be conceived in the case of Christ, inasmuch as He appeared and was named man;

namely, by union with the Spirit, according to the ineffable manner of the coming-together—the flesh, plainly, being sanctified, and thus ascending without confusion into union with God the Word, and through Him with the Father—by relation, plainly, and not by nature.

'This grace and glory, therefore, which was given Me from Thee, O Father,'—plainly the grace of being one with Thee—'I have given them, that they may be one, even as We are one.'

For we are united to one another according to the modes already set forth before;

and according to what principle, or how, the Lord made for us the clearest exposition, rendering conspicuous the benefit of His own teaching: 'I,' He says, 'in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one.'

For the Son comes to be in us: bodily, indeed, as man, being commingled and united with us through the mystic blessing;

and by the working and grace of the Spirit He renews the spirit within us unto newness of life, and constitutes us partakers of His own divine nature.

Christ therefore is manifestly shown to be the bond of our unity with God the Father: as man He attaches us to Himself, while as God, existing by nature in His own Begetter, He is in God.

For it was not otherwise possible for the nature that lay subject to corruption to leap up to incorruption, unless there descended upon it that Nature which is above all corruption and change—lifting up, in a manner, toward its own good that which is ever falling down, and by fellowship and admixture with itself all but drawing it forth to the bounds more fitting to created nature, and refashioning toward itself that which of itself was not so disposed.

We have therefore been perfected into unity with God the Father through Christ the Mediator.

For having received within ourselves, both bodily and spiritually, the One who is by nature and in truth the Son, who has an essential union with Him (the Father)—as I said just now—we have been glorified, becoming sharers and partakers of the Nature that is above all things.

Moreover, Christ wills that we should be received into union with God the Father, at once procuring for our nature through Himself the benefit that comes from the Father, and declaring that the power that comes from grace will prove a kind of transparent refutation of those who suppose that He is not from God.

For what place or room will the argument of the slanderers on this point yet have, if through Himself He brings up into union with the Father those who have been drawn near to Him—evidently through faith and sincere love? Therefore, O Father, when they gain the union with You through Me, then shall the world know that You sent Me—that is, by Your good pleasure I have come to help the earth, and to accomplish the salvation of those who wander in it.

And besides this, He says, those who have shared in so thrice-desired a grace will know, no less, that You loved them even as You loved Me.

For He who received into unity the One who is according to us and from us—that is, Christ—and counted Him worthy of so great a love;

and the discourse here concerns Him again as man;

and who granted us also to be able to attain this—how has He not accounted the measure of love in equal terms? And let this trouble none of the more thoughtful.

But neither would God the Father love His own Son in equal measure with the works of His hands.

Yet this must be considered: that Him who is loved from all ages, we behold as having a beginning of being loved when He became man.

Therefore that which He received, having received, He surely did not receive for Himself, but for us—and this too will be found to be the case.

For just as He returned to life, having dissolved the might of death—not accomplishing the resurrection for Himself, in that He is the Word and God, but giving this to us through Himself and in Himself—

for the whole nature of man was in Christ, being led in triumph out of the bonds of death;

so also He will be understood to have received the love from the Father not for Himself;

for He was always and continually beloved;

but in order that He might procure for us the love from the Father, He receives this from Him also when He became man.

Just as, therefore, we shall be, and have already become, conformed both to His resurrection and to His glory—as in the firstfruits of the race and in the first Christ—so also we have obtained, as it were, a conformity to His love, yielding in all things the victory to the Only-begotten;

while rightly marveling at the incomparable gentleness of the divine Nature toward such as we are, in that it graciously bestows its own upon those who have come into being from it, and makes common to the creatures the things which belong to it, and to it alone.

"Father, those whom You have given Me, I will that where I am, they also may be with Me;

that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world."

Having prayed for His own disciples, or rather for all who draw near to Him through faith, and having asked from the Father that there might be union and love and sanctification, He forthwith adds these words as well:

when they have already been united through Him to the Father and have obtained the love which He too would be understood to have with the Father.

For we have been loved as sons, in likeness to Him who is by nature and in truth the Son.

For even if it be not perhaps in equal measure, yet the most exact imitation of the thing, running along in some way with that which is according to truth, fashions the glory of that reality.

"I will, therefore, O Father," He says, "that those who have become Mine by approach through faith and through the illumination that comes from You, may both be with Me and behold My glory."

But how great a good we shall grant it to be, to be with Christ Himself—what discourse could unveil it to us? For indeed we shall be in unspeakable gladness, and eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. For what could those still lack who are counted worthy of unmixed joys—those, that is, who have received as their lot to be even with Christ Himself, the Lord of all? And indeed the wise and most holy Paul himself appears to us to have deemed the matter worthy of every wonder;

for he says, "It is far better to depart and to be with Christ." And he who sets this great and most admirable thing above even the dignity of life in this present world—how shall he not enter in as a true witness, that He who richly gives all things to all bestows upon His own genuine ones a great gift of communion with Himself? And the word spoken again through him to us contends no less on behalf of this argument.

For having within himself Christ speaking and revealing the powers of the age to come, he said again thus:

"For the dead will rise," he says, "but we also who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself has clearly promised that He will grant us this very thing, saying: "I go and will prepare a place for you; I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, you also may be with Me." For either, thinking not too harshly and rather simply, we shall take it that by this are signified the mansions above; or, proceeding to another sense, we shall grant that a place will be apportioned the same for us and for Christ—honors, as it were, from likeness and on equal terms, according indeed to resemblance and imitation.

For we shall be conformed to His glory, and shall reign together with Him, according to the holy Scriptures;

and He promises, in the manner He Himself knows, that He will also recline at table together with us in the kingdom of heaven.

That, therefore, we shall be with Christ and shall together partake of His glory and be sharers of His kingdom—leaving aside for the present to demonstrate this yet more fully, as being in no way disputable—let us pass on to the other point, I mean to this: "That they may behold My glory that is Mine."

It will belong, therefore, not to the profane and to sinners, nor yet to those who dishonor the divine law, to come to be in the sight of the glory of Christ, but rather to the holy and good alone.

And this again we shall learn, since the prophet says, "Let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord"; while in the evangelical proclamations of Christ the Savior it is said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Then who could they be that have their heart pure, if not surely those very ones who, by the union with God that is through the Son in the Spirit, have withdrawn from all love of the flesh, and have set worldly pleasure as far off as possible, and have as it were denied their own life, and have devoted themselves to the will of the Spirit alone, and have ordered their conduct purely and wholly for Christ—such as was Paul also, who out of the very great purity that dwelt in him did not fear to say, "I am crucified with Christ;

now no longer I live, but Christ lives in me." And I hear also another of the saints singing and saying, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within my inward parts;

cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me;"

for he calls the Spirit "the gladness of salvation," inasmuch indeed as it is the procurer of joy unending and continual, and the bestower of dominion over the passions that are in the world;

for it is the Spirit of Him who is in truth the salvation, that is, of Christ.

Naming it in manifold ways, he both spoke of a "clean heart" and called it a "right spirit," seeing that those have not their heart upright—but rather crooked and perverse, as the psalmist says—who have not yet been united to God and come into participation of the blessing of Christ that is through the Spirit.

To speak, therefore, as in summary: the Savior willed that a special grace should be apportioned to His own acquaintances—that which comes from being with Him and beholding His glory;

and He says that He was loved even before the foundation of the world, thereby showing very well the exceedingly ancient power of the mystery concerning Himself, and that the way of our salvation, accomplished through the mediation of Christ, was foreknown to God the Father.

The knowledge was not given, then, in the beginning to those on earth, but the Law, the pedagogue of the God-inspired manner of life, entered in alongside, shaping in us a dim knowledge in types, since the grace of God the Father, that comes through the Savior, was kept for the fitting time.

And the knowledge concerning these things appears to us very profitable toward the overthrow of Jewish haughtiness and the unholy arrogance of those of Israel, who chose to plead for the Law forever—even when, the truth being present, the types ought thenceforth to have been reckoned as nothing.

And it is exceedingly useful also toward the refutation of others, who suppose that a fresh and new counsel of the Father devised for us the power of the mystery.

For this reason Paul also, doing away with the supposition of those thus disposed, said somewhere concerning Christ:

that He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in these last times of the age.

It should be noted that He says that these things were given to Him by the Father—both the disciples themselves, and the glory befitting God, and the power over all things—not in so far as He is understood to be by nature God, the Lord of glory, having the royal dignity essentially;

but rather in so far as He appeared as man, to whom all things are given by God and not from His own nature.

For to the creation all things come from God;

and there is nothing at all that is its own in it, even if it be seen to have some of the good things.

"Righteous Father, the world also has not known You; but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me."

For indeed He is devout, holy, undefiled, Creator and Fashioner, and whatever else may befit the Nature that is Queen of all.

What, then, is the reason for His being called "righteous," although it was also possible for Him to be named otherwise by Christ—this it is truly worth the lover of learning to see.

For not to allow the truths in the God-inspired Scripture to gallop past us would beget in us much profit.

This, then, we say, having looked all around at the sense contained in the passage before us:

When, therefore, He willed that we should be sanctified according to the good pleasure of His own Father, Christ—fulfilling the person of the Paraclete and the office of the Mediator—made intercession on behalf of us all, saying, "Holy Father, keep them in Your truth"—declaring the truth to be none other than His own Spirit, through whom He secures our souls, sealing them into likeness to Himself, and walling them up, as it were, by an ineffable power unto invincible courage, and moreover, evidently, whetting them unto unbridled eagerness for unmixed doings of good, so that, with nothing at all lying before their feet and able to call them back, they may be borne with the swiftest course toward what is pleasing to God, and may make no account of the manifold devices of the devil or of the love of pleasure that is in the world.

For those who have once been sealed with the Holy Spirit and have the pledge of grace in their mind, have their heart fortified as with a tower, seeing that they have also put on the power from on high.

In order, therefore, that we might enjoy such lovely good things, Christ called down upon us the sanctification that comes from the Father.

For in addition to those things in which He spoke of our needing to be sanctified by the Father, He added these words also concerning us: "And the glory which You have given Me I have given them, that they may be one, even as We are one;

for You loved them even as You loved Me," and again, "Father, those whom You have given Me, I will that where I am, they also may be with Me." After saying these things, therefore, He immediately calls the Father "righteous," and very fittingly—He by whose good pleasure and will the Son became man, in order that He might become for human nature the procurer of sanctification through the Spirit, and of union with God, and of dwelling in the mansions above, and of being with Him and reigning together with Him—that nature which was created unto good works; for God did not create man in the beginning for wickedness;

but it was turned aside toward baseness by the unholy machinations of the devil, and was as it were prized loose, like a foundation of its own, from that ancient and God-beloved manner of conduct.

For it was indeed truly most befitting the righteous Father to raise up again that which had been dashed down through covetousness, and to set once more in its original position that which had been dragged off to things that were not proper, and to deliver it from the most unlovely sin, and to remold it, as it were, into the first image—that which in the beginning had also been made thus;

and, on the other hand, to subject to the punishments befitting him the one who had shattered it and had unholily dared to corrupt it—that is, Satan—although, I think, every kind of penalty would seem small for one who displayed so great a madness against God.

"But O the folly!" He says;

"For though You are such a One, the world has not known You."

For otherwise, having straightway considered the so-benevolent verdict and the serene nod of assent, they would have run to the One who saves, and would have willingly offered You their worship.

These things, then, Christ spoke to the Father, ascribing to Him, as it were, thanksgiving on our behalf and for our sake, since, being just, He gave His assent to salvation for those who had suffered through the greed of the devil, while condemning the devil to destruction.

And He says that the world—that is, those who set themselves against the divine and gospel proclamation because they are minded toward the things of the world—being just, did not come to know the Father;

for, as Paul says, 'the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should not dawn upon them.' But to His own disciples He bore witness, as those who both knew and had recognized Him, thereby again investing them with a splendid and enviable dignity.

For He declares them to have risen above all worldly lowliness and pettiness, because they know the Father—and it is surely clear and confessed that they know the Son also.

Since, therefore, the world is accused as not knowing the Father—that is, the true God who is God by nature—

while the disciples are attested as knowing Him;

for they shine forth as luminaries in the world, holding fast the word of life. And because, though walking upon the earth, they live as citizens of heaven, and having renounced the desires of the flesh—rather, having set their own mind above every worldly desire—they leapt up to a certain transcendent and most exalted virtue, according to that which is said in the Psalms: 'For the mighty ones of the earth are greatly exalted unto God.' For the valiant, driving out for God's sake the earth-grovelling lowness of an earthly mind, have resolved to mind the things above.

For this, I think, is what is signified by the words 'they were exalted.'

Therefore, He says: The world, O Father, was ignorant of You, though You are just;

for I am Your counsel and Your wisdom;

not being greatly concerned for the dignity befitting God, I emptied Myself and descended into human poverty, that I might save, according to Your good pleasure, the race that, by kinship with us, had fallen away.

And whereas the world was ignorant even of this, the disciples have been enriched with knowledge, having understood in truth that You sent Me—that is, I have come at Your beck to set the good work to its consummation, by rescuing the earth that was in peril.

'And I made known to them Your name, and will make it known;

that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.'

He says that He has known the Father and God, and at the same time both Himself and the disciples who attend upon Him.

But lest anyone, led astray by deception into absurd suppositions, should perhaps imagine that the knowledge comes about in the same manner both in Christ Himself and in the disciples, He straightway makes a distinction and draws the sharpest of contrasts, showing that He reveals Himself, while those who lay hold of the knowledge do so through Him.

For our Lord Jesus the Christ, inasmuch as He is both the Word and the counsel and the wisdom of the Father, knows without being taught the things that are in Him, and searches out the depths of Him who begot Him—just as, indeed, the human mind knows the things within itself, and the understanding conceived in us and according to us is manifestly ignorant of nothing at all of the things within us.

But the inspired disciples do not have the ability to conceive anything concerning God as the fruit of their own knowledge; rather, being illumined through the Spirit, they attain to the exactness of the mysteries of the Son, and thus are able to understand the Father.

Fittingly, then, and very reasonably, Christ added that 'I both made known to them Your name and will make it known.'

Observe how, through both—I mean the Father and the Son—an equal working is manifestly accomplished toward the apprehension of the vision of God.

For the Father makes wise, revealing His own Son;

and the Son no less makes wise, revealing the Father.

And indeed to the blessed Peter, in the region of Caesarea which is called Philippi, He says: 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father who is in the heavens.' For the disciple had confessed, and had firmly maintained his faith, that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God.

But now He says concerning Himself: 'For I made known to them Your name, and will make it known.'

For the Only-begotten did not cease revealing to us the power of the mystery concerning Himself when He revealed it to the first ones at the beginning;

rather, He works this continually, sowing in each one the illumination that comes through the Spirit, and leading by the hand into the recognition of things beyond mind and speech those who love Him.

But what He accomplishes, and in what manner He benefits us by affirming that He has already revealed the Father to the disciples and will make Him known also to those who come after them, He Himself again indicated, saying: 'That the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.'

For to those who through pure contemplation have been able to recognize God the Father, and who have been accurately instructed in the word of the mystery concerning Christ, there will surely and beyond dispute accrue the being perfectly loved by the Father, in the likeness of the Son.

For the Father loves His own Son most perfectly;

and Christ Himself also takes up His dwelling—namely through the Holy Spirit—joining to God and the Father, through Himself, in spiritual kinship, the one who has come to know Him and who travails to bring forth within himself the incorrupt word of the knowledge of God.

And He made known to us the name of the Father by showing Himself to us as Son.

For the knowledge concerning the One who begot Him will accompany and run wholly and altogether abreast with the knowledge concerning the Offspring—just as, of course, the reverse also is true.

But if the statement is true and unquestionably to be accepted, that the Son is understood together with the Father and the Father together with the Son, and each is introduced along with the other, and the knowledge of each runs together through both;