'Christ according to the flesh we now know no longer.' The outward form of the words is different, but the force of the reality is one. For the very same One whom there he proclaims to be God over all, born according to the flesh, that same One he here affirms he now knows no longer according to the flesh -- for this reason, namely, because that same One whom he had known born in the flesh he confesses to be God forever, and therefore that He is unknown to him according to the flesh, because He is over all things, God blessed forever. And by this, both that saying there, 'who is over all things God,' says this: 'we now know Christ no longer according to the flesh'; and here, 'we now know Christ no longer according to the flesh,' says this: 'who is God blessed forever.'
The preaching of the apostolic doctrine therefore ascends, as it were, to a higher step; and although in either statement it agrees with itself in sense, yet it confirms the mystery of the perfect faith with a more explicit sentence, as it were, saying: 'and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer' -- namely, because before we knew Him both as man and as God, but now only as God. For with the infirmity of the flesh ceasing, we now know nothing in Him except the power of the Godhead, because the whole in Him is the power of the divine majesty, where the infirmity of human weakness has ceased to be. So then by this testimony he set forth the whole mystery both of the flesh assumed and of the Godhead made perfect.
For in saying 'and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh,' he spoke of the mystery of God born in the flesh; but in adding 'yet now we know Him no longer,' he explained the force of the infirmity laid aside. And by this, that knowing according to the flesh pertains to the signification of the man, but the not-knowing to the honour of the Godhead. For this is what it means to say: 'we knew Christ according to the flesh' -- so long as there was that which was recognized according to the flesh; 'now we know Him no longer' -- after it ceased to be. For the nature of the flesh has been translated into a spiritual substance, and that which had once been of man has become wholly of God.
And therefore we do not know Christ according to the flesh, because, the bodily infirmity being absorbed by the divine majesty, nothing remained in the sacred body by which the weakness of the flesh could be recognized in Him. And by this, whatever had before been of a twofold substance has become of a single power, since surely there is no doubt that Christ, who was crucified out of our weakness, yet lives wholly by the divine majesty. This indeed the Apostle, proclaiming it throughout the whole body of his writings, also well says in writing to the Galatians: 'Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father.' You see how well it agrees with the earlier and the present passages. For there he says:
'we now know Christ no longer according to the flesh'; here he says: 'not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ.' It is plain how here too he teaches the same thing as in the earlier passages. For in saying that he was sent not through man, he says this: 'we do not know Christ according to the flesh.' And therefore 'I was sent not through man, but through Christ,' because sent through Christ I was not sent through man, but through God. For the name of man no longer falls upon Him in whom the Godhead has claimed the whole. And therefore, when he had said that he was sent not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, he well added 'and God the Father,' that is, signifying that he was sent by God the Father and by God the Son.
In these words, indeed, although on account of the mystery of the sacred and ineffable generation there is a twofold person -- of the Begetter and of the Begotten -- yet the power of the sending God is one. And therefore he, saying that he was sent by God the Father and God the Son, shows indeed a twofold number in the persons, but teaches one power in the sending. 'But through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.'
A most excellent and admirable teacher indeed, knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ must be proclaimed as true God and likewise as true man, so proclaims the majesty of the Godhead in Him that he by no means abandons the confession of the incarnation; excluding surely both the phantom of Marcion by the true incarnation, and the poverty of Ebion by the perfect Godhead, lest, that is, through either perversity of blasphemy the Lord Jesus Christ should be believed either as wholly man without God or as God without man. Well then did the Apostle, proclaiming that he was sent both by God the Father and by God the Son, at once join the confession of the Lord's incarnation, saying:
'who raised Him from the dead' -- teaching, that is, that the true body of the incarnate God was raised from the dead, according to that saying: 'and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh,' well adding: 'yet now we know Him so no longer.' For he says that he knows this in Him according to the flesh, namely that He was raised from the dead; but that he now knows Him no longer according to the flesh, in that, the frailty of the flesh ceasing, he has come to know Him to be by the power of God alone: a faithful witness, indeed, of the Lord's Godhead which must be preached, and a sufficiently competent one, who at the beginning of his calling, chastened from heaven, believed the majesty of the risen Lord Jesus Christ not only by the faith of his mind but had also confirmed it by his bodily eyes.
Whence also, discoursing before King Agrippa and the other judges of the world, he says thus: 'As I was going to Damascus with the authority and permission of the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw on the road a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and those who were together with me; and when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew tongue: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad. And I said: Who are you, Lord? But the Lord said to me: I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.' You see that the Apostle, whom he had seen in so great a splendour of majesty, rightly now said that he did not know Him according to the flesh.
For when he had seen that ray of divine light, which he could not endure, in his very prostration, this voice followed: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' To him asking who it was, the Lord answered with a clear signification of His own person: 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.' You, you, I say, heretic, I now question; you I address: do you believe the Apostle concerning himself, or do you not believe? Or, if you count that of little worth, do you believe the Lord concerning Himself, or do you not believe? If you believe, the question is finished. For it is necessary that you believe what we believe. For we, according to the Apostle, 'even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer':
we do not treat Christ with insults, we do not separate the flesh from God, and we believe that the whole of what Christ is, is in God. You therefore, if you believe the same as we believe, must confess the same mysteries of the faith. But if you dissent from us, if you believe neither the churches nor the Apostle nor finally God Himself concerning Himself, show us, in this which the Apostle saw, what is flesh and what is God. For I am able to distinguish nothing here. I see an ineffable illumination, I see an inexplicable brightness, I see a splendour intolerable to human frailty, and beyond what mortal eyes can bear, the majesty of God shining with unmeasurable light. What division here, what distinction is there?
In the voice we hear Jesus, in the majesty we behold God: what else is this than that in one and the same substance we should believe God and Jesus to be? Yet I wish still to say something more to you about this very matter. Tell me, I pray, if now, as you persecute the catholic faith, there should appear to you what appeared then to the Apostle who did not know Him -- if that radiance should surround you, unexpecting and secure, and the splendour of that immense light should overwhelm you, struck down and terrified, and you should lie in the darkness of your eyes and of your errors, which the immense and ineffable dread of your mind would increase for you:
tell me, I beseech you, when the dread of imminent death pressed upon you and the terror of the majesty threatening from above urged you, and you should also hear, in so great a confusion of mind, that name worthy of your treachery: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' and to you asking who it was, there should be answered from heaven: 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute' -- what would you say? 'I do not know; I do not yet fully believe: I wish to deliberate further with myself, whom I should judge you to be who speak from heaven, who overwhelm me with the splendour of your divinity, whose voice I hear and whose majesty I cannot bear.'
I must deliberate about this matter, whether I ought to believe you or not, whether you are Christ or God, whether you are God alone or in Christ, whether you are Christ alone or in God. I wish this distinction to be subtly observed and diligently considered, as to what you are to be believed to be, what you are to be judged. For I do not wish to lose anything of my duty, so that, while I despise you as a man, I should bestow on you some divine honour.' If then, as Paul, at that time an apostle, lay prostrate on the ground, you were lying cast down and, overshadowed by the splendour of the divine light, were drawing your last breaths, these perhaps you would say, these you would chatter with the babbling of idle loquacity.
But how does it stand, that something else then seemed good to the Apostle, and when, trembling and half-dead, he had fallen, he judged that he must dissemble no longer, thought that he must deliberate no further, and it sufficed him that, admonished by ineffable experiences, He whom he had believed to be a man, though not knowing it, he came to know to be God? He did not dissemble, he did not delay, nor did he hold his ill-conceived error in suspense by any further faithless deliberation; but, hearing from heaven the name of Jesus his Lord, he answered with a voice submissive as a servant, trembling as one scourged, devoted as one converted: 'What shall I do, Lord?'
And so by a most ready and most devoted faith he at once merited this: that he whom he faithfully believed, that very One he should thenceforth never lack; and to whom he had passed over with his heart, He Himself should pass over into his heart, the Apostle himself saying of himself: 'Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?' At which point I do not wish, heretic, that you should argue to me whether this One whom the Apostle says speaks within him is man or God. If man, how could the body of another speak in his heart? If God, then Christ is now no longer man but God, since, as Christ spoke in the Apostle and none but God could speak in him, therefore it was Christ God who spoke in him.
You see therefore that there is now nothing here that can be said, nor can any disjunction or division be made between Christ and God, because the whole God is in Christ and the whole Christ is in God. No separation can be admitted here, no cleaving apart: there is only one confession, simple, only one pious, only one sound -- to adore, to love, to worship Christ as God. But do you wish to know still more fully and more abundantly that there is no distance between God and Christ, and that the very same One is to be understood as God whom you understand as Christ? Hear the Apostle speaking to the Corinthians: 'For we must all,' he says, 'be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may render account of the things done in his own body, according as he has done, whether good or evil.'
But in another place, writing to the Roman church, he says: 'we shall all stand before the tribunal of God. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, that to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God.' You see therefore that one and the same tribunal of God will be that of Christ. Understand then, without doubt, that Christ is God, and where you see that the substance of Christ and of God is inseparable, recognize also that the person is inseparable: unless perhaps, because the Apostle said in one epistle that we are to be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ, and in another before the tribunal of God, you should make perhaps two tribunals and reckon some to be judged by Christ, others by God. But these things are frivolous and mad, and more insane than the ravings of the insane.
Recognize therefore the Lord of all, recognize the God of the universe, recognize in the tribunal of God the tribunal of Christ, recognize in the tribunal of Christ the tribunal of God; love your life, love your salvation, love Him by whom you were created, fear Him by whom you are to be judged. For, whether you will or not, you are to be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ; and, setting aside the blasphemy of impiety and the sing-song of faithless words, if you think the tribunal of God to be other than that of Christ, you will come before the tribunal of Christ and will surely find, by inexplicable proof, that the very tribunal of God is that of Christ, and that in Christ the Son of God are both the whole majesty of the Son of God and the power of God the Father. 'For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son as they honour the Father.'
'For whoever denies the Father, denies the Son also; everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also.' Learn therefore that the honour of the Father and of the Son is inseparable, their dignity inseparable, and that the Son cannot be honoured without the Father, nor the Father without the Son. But no one is able to honour God and the Son of God except in Christ the only-begotten Son of God, because he cannot possess the very Spirit of honouring God except in the Spirit of Christ, the Apostle saying: 'But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His'; and again: 'Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who shall condemn?'
'It is Christ Jesus who died, yes rather who rose again.' You see therefore now, even if you are unwilling, that there is no distance at all, either between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, or between the judgment of God and the judgment of Christ. Choose you which you prefer: for one of two things must come to pass, that you either understand Christ to be God by faith, or come to know God in Christ by your condemnation. But let us nevertheless look at the rest that follows. Writing to the church of the Corinthians, that same teacher of all the churches, Paul, of whom we spoke above, spoke thus:
'The Jews,' he says, 'ask for signs, and the Greeks seek wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, but to the Gentiles foolishness; yet to those who are saved, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.' O most mighty teacher of the faith, to whom, in teaching the churches, it seemed too little even here to say that Christ was God, unless he had added 'crucified' -- namely, so that by the most explicit and forceful doctrine of the faith he should proclaim the same One, whom he called crucified, to be the wisdom of God. He did not therefore use any subtlety or circumlocution of words, nor was he ashamed of the name of the cross of Christ in preaching the Lord's Gospel.
And although this was a stumbling-block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles -- to hear that God was born, that God was corporeal, that God suffered, that God was crucified -- yet he did not for the sake of the impiety of the Jewish stumbling-block enervate the power of his godliness, nor for the sake of the unbelief of another's foolishness diminish the strength of his faith; but openly, constantly, boldly he proclaimed Him, whom a mother had brought forth, whom men had slain, whom a lance had pierced, whom a cross had stretched out, to be the power of God and the wisdom -- to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, but to the Gentiles foolishness. Yet that same thing which was to some a stumbling-block and foolishness, was to others the power of God and wisdom.
For according to the diversity of persons there was a diversity of perceptions; and that which foolish diffidence, devoid of sound understanding and incapable of the true good, had denied, that the wise faith perceived, within the very recesses of the soul, to be sacred and salutary. Tell me then, heretic -- enemy indeed of all, but most of all your own -- to whom the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is both a stumbling-block with the Jews and foolishness with the Gentiles, you who spit out the mysteries of true salvation both by their stumbling and by these men's dullness are without perception of them: why was the preaching of Paul the Apostle either foolishness to the pagans or a stumbling-block to the Jews? Could it possibly have offended men, if he too had taught, as you assert, that Christ was a solitary man?
For to whom could His nativity, His passion, His cross, His slaying have been incredible or grievous? Or what new or unheard-of thing would the preaching of Paul have contained, if he had said that Christ was a man who suffered that which the human condition daily and everywhere endures among men? But this surely was what pagan folly did not receive, what Jewish unbelief spat out: that Christ, whom they, like you, thought to be a solitary man, the Apostle said to be God. This surely was what the mind of the impious refuted, what the ears of the faithless could not bear -- that in the man Jesus Christ the nativity of God should be preached, the passion of God asserted, the cross of God announced.
This surely was the grievous thing, this the incredible thing, because this was incredible to human hearing, which had been unheard-of as having befallen the divine nature. And so you are secure with such an affirmation and doctrine, that never will your preaching be either foolishness to the Gentiles or a stumbling-block to the Jews: never will you be either crucified with Peter or stoned with James or beheaded with Paul by the Jews and Gentiles, for your preaching does not carry their offence. You assert that a solitary man was born, that a solitary man suffered. You cannot fear that they should harm you by their persecution, since by your preaching you confirm them. But let us nevertheless still look at something about this very matter.
Christ therefore, according to the Apostle, is the power of God and the wisdom of God. What have you to answer? Whither have you to betake yourself? You cannot go out hence nor advance anywhere. Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God. He, I say, whom the Jews pursued, whom the Gentiles mocked, whom you yourself persecute along with them; He, I say, who is both foolishness to the pagans and a stumbling-block to the Jews and to you both; He, I say, is the power of God and the wisdom of God. What have you to do? Perhaps you will close your ears, that you may not hear: this the Jews also did while the Apostle preached. Whatever you may do, Christ is in heaven and in God and with Him and in Him in the heights, in whom He was also in the depths.
You can no longer persecute Him along with the Jews, but you do the one thing you can: you persecute Him in the faith, you persecute Him in the church, you persecute Him with the dart of impious opinion, you persecute Him with the sword of a depraved dogma. You perhaps do something more than certain of the ancient Jews did: you now persecute Christ, after even those who had persecuted Him believed. But perhaps you think it a lesser crime, that you can no longer lay hands upon Him. It is no less, I say, no less grievous is that persecution in which the impious persecute Him in His own. But the name of the Lord's cross offends you: this too always offended the Jews. You shudder to hear that God suffered: this too the error of the Gentiles derided.
I ask therefore now in what part you differ from them, since in this perversity you agree with them. But I, so far from diminishing this preaching of the sacred cross, this preaching of the Lord's passion, rather, as far as lies in my will and my substance, magnify it. For Him who was crucified I will proclaim not only the power and wisdom of God, than which nothing is greater, but also the Lord of all Godhead and majesty -- all the more, because in this my speech is the doctrine of God, the Apostle saying: 'We speak wisdom among the perfect:'
'yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the princes of this world, who are being brought to nothing; but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which is hidden, which God foreordained before the ages unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew: for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty; but as it is written: What eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.' You see how briefly the apostolic word says how great things. He says that he speaks wisdom, but a wisdom which only the perfect know, which the prudent of this world do not know.
For he says that this is the wisdom of God, which is veiled in a divine mystery and foreordained before all ages unto the glory of the saints, and therefore known only to those who savour God, but wholly unknown to the princes of this world. And he added the cause by which he might prove both of the things he had said, saying: 'For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty. But as it is written: What eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.' You see therefore that the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery and foreordained before the ages, was unknown to those who crucified the Lord of majesty, but known to those who received it.
And rightly he says that the wisdom of God was hidden in a mystery, because no man's eye could ever see, nor ear hear, nor heart conceive, that the Lord of majesty would either be born of a virgin, or come in the flesh, or be afflicted with the passion of every penalty and insult. But as these gifts of God are such that, while they were hidden in a mystery, there is no one who could ever have understood them, so blessed is he who, when they are revealed, has come to know them; whence whoever have not recognized it must needs be reckoned among the princes of this world, but those who have recognized it, among the wise of God. He therefore does not recognize God born in the flesh who denies it; therefore you also, who deny it, do not recognize it.
But whatever you may do, however impiously you may deny it, we believe the Apostle more. And why do I say the Apostle? We believe God more: for through the Apostle we believe God Himself, whom we are certain spoke in the Apostle. The divine word says that the Lord of majesty was crucified by the princes of this world; you deny it: and those who crucified Him also denied that they were crucifying God. Those therefore who confess have their part with the confessing Apostle; you must needs have your portion with those who persecute. What then is there now that can be said? The Apostle says that the Lord of majesty was crucified. Change this, if you can: separate now, if you are able, Jesus from God. You cannot deny that Christ was crucified by the Jews; but it is the Lord of majesty who was crucified.
Therefore it is necessary either that you deny Christ was fastened to the cross, or that you confess God was fastened to it. But perhaps it offends you that for so long I speak with the testimonies of one, and chiefly of Paul the Apostle. He whom God chose is sufficiently competent for me. For I am not ashamed to have Him as a witness of my faith whom God willed to be the teacher of the whole world. But yet, that I may yield in this to your wish -- you who perhaps think that I have no others whose testimonies I may use -- hear Martha in the Gospel proclaiming the perfect mystery of human salvation and everlasting blessedness. For what does she say? 'Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, who have come into this world.'
Learn from a woman the true faith, learn the confession of eternal hope. Yet you have great consolation: do not be ashamed to acknowledge the mystery of salvation from her, from whom God did not refuse to receive testimony.
But if perhaps the authority of a greater person pleases you (although neither the person nor the sex of anyone ought to displease, to whom the confession of the mystery gives authority; for however lowly anyone's condition or station may be, the strength of faith yet knows no diminishing), let us nevertheless question -- not some little boy just beginning, whose training is raw, nor a woman whose faith might perhaps seem to be beginning, but that supreme one, disciple among the disciples and master among the masters, who, guiding the helm of the Roman church, held the primacy of the priesthood as he held that of the faith. Tell us then, tell us, we pray, Peter, prince of the Apostles, tell us how the churches ought to believe in God.
For it is fitting that you, taught by the Lord, should teach us, and open to us the door whose key you have received. Shut out all who dig beneath the heavenly house, and turn away those who strive to enter through adulterous burrows and unlawful approaches, because it is certain that no one will be able to enter the gate of the kingdom, unless the key placed by you in the churches shall have unlocked it for him. Tell us then how we ought to believe Christ to be God and to confess Him as the common Lord. You will surely answer without doubt: Why do you consult me as to how the Lord is to be confessed, when you have how I myself confessed? Read the Gospel, and you will not require my person, since you have my confession:
Nay, there you have my person, where you have my confession; for since my person has no authority apart from its confession, the very confession is the authority of my person. Speak, then, evangelist; tell us the confession; declare the faith of the chief apostle: did he confess Jesus to be man only, or God as well? Did he say that in Him there was flesh only, or did he proclaim Him the Son of God? When therefore the Lord Jesus Christ asked whom the disciples believed and confessed Him to be, Peter, the first of the apostles, answered—one man indeed on behalf of all, for the response of the one had that which was the faith of all; yet it was fitting that the first should answer, so that the order of answering might be the same as that of honour, and that he who went before in age should go before in confession as well.
What then does he say? 'Thou art,' he says, 'the Christ, the Son of the living God.' With a plain and unpolished questioning must I deal with you, heretic, in order to refute you. Tell me, I pray, who was He to whom Peter thus answered? You cannot deny that it was Christ. I ask therefore: this Christ whom you name—do you call Him man or God? Man, of course, without a doubt. For hence springs your whole heresy, in that you deny Christ to be the Son of God. And for this reason you also say that Mary is Christotokos, not Theotokos, because she is the mother of Christ, not of God. You assert, then, that Christ is man only, not God, and therefore that He is the Son of man, not of God. What then did Peter answer to this? 'Thou art,' he says, 'the Christ... the Son of the living God.'