But if you also desire to learn from Scripture who is the one from below and who is the one from above, listen: since 'where each one's treasure is, there also is his heart,' if someone stores up treasure on earth, by that very act of storing up treasure on earth he becomes one of those from below; but if someone stores up treasure in the heavens, he is born from above and takes on the image of the heavenly one; and moreover, having passed through all the heavens, he is found in the end in a most blessed state.
And each person's works would also be an example—so as to say that the one from below does the works of the flesh, while the one from above bears the fruit of the Spirit; and again, love for this world belongs to the one from this world. Since, according to John, 'he who has the love of God ...'—that one is not of this world, namely he who does not love the world nor the things in the world, but says, 'God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world,' and who has room to love the Lord his God with his whole heart and his whole soul and his whole mind, because such love is not oppressed by love for the world and the things in the world; for it is impossible for love of the world to coexist with love of God, just as it is impossible for light and darkness to coexist with one another, or Christ and Belial, or for the same place to be a temple of God together with being a temple of idols.
Since there is indeed a difference among the things below in relation to one another, it is said in the superlative degree, 'They put me in the lowest pit,' and 'He who descended into the lowest parts of the earth is the very one who also ascended.' Therefore, before Christ all who descend into the lower parts of the earth, into Hades, shall fall prostrate, since it is true that 'there is no one who remembers you in death, and in Hades who will give you thanks?'
But if someone objects that he descends into the lower parts of the earth, you will observe that it is said of those who descend into the earth, 'They shall fall prostrate'; for as they fall down before Christ, bending the knee at the name of Jesus, some fall prostrate before him sooner, others later.
And perhaps those on earth will fall prostrate and be subjected before others; for it belongs to the worse beings to be subjected later, wherefore also death, as the last enemy, is abolished.
After this you will inquire whether, just as there is a difference among the things below—since something is called 'lowest'—so too there is a difference among the things above, especially since there is an inheritance of the kingdom of the heavens, all the heavens being 'above,' yet not possessing the state of being above in the same way.
But also, in the case of the intelligible descent of the soul on account of vice and wicked doctrines, and its intelligible ascent, if you attend to it you will not find the difference to be simple; so you will need to consider this further, intellectually.
At the same time see whether you should not hear, in a more mystical sense and not spatially, the phrase concerning the soul of Jesus: 'Having ascended far above all the heavens'; for the intelligible ascent of that soul has leapt over even all the heavens, and, so to speak, has already arrived at God himself.
However, there is also another world besides the visible and sensible world that is composed of heaven and earth, or of heavens and earth—a world in which are the things not seen; and this whole world is an invisible world, a world not seen, and an intelligible world, whose vision and beauty the pure in heart shall behold, being prepared beforehand by beholding it, so as to pass over into it, so that they may also see God himself, in the way that God is by nature seen.
You will inquire whether, in accordance with one of the things signified, the firstborn of all creation can be 'world,' and especially according to that in which he is manifold wisdom; for since he contains in himself the rational principles of absolutely everything, according to which all things made by God in wisdom have come to be (as the prophet says, 'You have made all things in wisdom'), in him—even if he himself is 'world'—that world is all the more varied and different from the sensible world, to the degree that the Logos of the whole world, bare of all matter, differs from the world composed of matter, things adorned not from matter but from participation in the Word and the wisdom of those who order matter.
And see whether the one who says, 'I am not of this world,' can be the soul of Jesus, dwelling as a citizen in that whole world, traversing the whole of it, and leading by the hand toward it those who are being made disciples.
That world has nothing 'below' in it, just as this world, when examined precisely, has nothing 'above' in it. For how can this world be in any way 'above,' since its creation is a 'casting-down'? For one must not hear 'before the foundation of the world' casually, since the saints deliberately fashioned this notion, the name 'foundation'; and indeed they could have said 'before the creation of the world' and not used the term 'foundation.'
The whole world, then, and the things in it, are in a state of foundation; but outside the foundation of the whole world are the genuine disciples of Jesus, whom he chose out of the world, that they might no longer be of the world, bearing their own cross and following him. 'I told you, then, that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.'
When did he say to them, 'You will die in your sins,' except when he was saying, 'You will seek me, and you will die in your sins'? And what is the cause of men dying in their sins, other than not believing that Jesus is the Christ? For he himself says, 'If you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.'
If, then, he who does not believe that Jesus is the Christ will die in his own sins, it is clear that he who does not die in his sins has believed in Christ, while he who dies in his own sins, even if he says he believes in Christ, has not, in truth, believed in him; for if faith is professed but is found without works, such faith is dead, as we have read in the letter circulating under the name of James.
Who, then, is 'the one who believes,' other than the one who has come to be so disposed, through being disposed in accordance with the Logos and being united by nature with him, that he will not fall—so far as concerns these very words—into what are called 'sins unto death'?
But so far as concerns the text, 'Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God'—[is not the believer one so disposed as] not to sin even in regard to anything whatsoever done contrary to right reason? And you will understand still more what 'If you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins' means, by reckoning it in relation to the firstborn of all creation: for example, he who believes what righteousness is would not act unrighteously.
And he who, because he has contemplated what wisdom is, has come to believe in wisdom, would not say or do anything foolish, since he who has believed in the Word who is with God, by having understood him, would do nothing wicked.
In addition to these, he who believes that 'He himself is our peace' would not perform any act of war or discord. But also, if Christ is not only the wisdom of God but also the power of God, he who believes in him in respect of his being power would not be powerless in regard to what is good.
And necessarily, since we understand him also as endurance and strength, because of 'And now, what is my endurance? Is it not the Lord?' and 'My strength' and 'my support is the Lord,' we shall say that if we give way before hardships, we do not believe in him in respect of his being endurance; and if we grow weak, we have not believed in him in respect of his being strength.
If we gather up the rest of the epinoiai (conceptions) of Christ, we will not find it difficult, from what has been said, to discover in what manner the one who does not believe in Christ will die in his own sins; for by coming to be in the opposites of the epinoia which Christ is, he dies in those very sins. 'They said to him therefore, "Who are you?"'
It was fitting that those who heard these words, spoken with much authority by the Lord, should inquire who it was that said these things; for the Savior, by saying 'If you do not believe that I am he,' was showing that he was something greater than man and possessed of a more divine nature.
'... you will die in your sins.' The question 'Who are you?' then, was, as it were, on the part of those asking for an answer, expecting him to say, 'I am the Christ,' or 'I am the prophet,' or 'I am Elijah,' or perhaps 'I am an angel of God'; for unless he were one of these, or something similar to them, he would not have uttered such genuine words. ……