約伯倫理 第 161 章

Verse 6. And the Lord said to Satan: Behold, he is in your hand; nevertheless preserve his life. Satan's members are all who live wickedly. Satan's hand is his power. The Lord, delivering Himself to him, while He compels him to serve Himself. Who, even foolish, would believe that the Creator of all was delivered into the hand of Satan? But yet, taught by the truth, who does not know that all who are joined to Satan by living perversely are the members of that same Satan? A member of his, indeed, was Pilate, who, even to the extremities of death, did not recognize the Lord coming for our redemption. His body were the chief priests, who strove to repel the Redeemer of the world from the world, persecuting Him even to the cross.

When, therefore, the Lord for our redemption delivered Himself to the hands of Satan's members, what else did He do than permit the hand of that same Satan to rage against Himself; so that whence He Himself outwardly fell, thence He might free us outwardly and inwardly? If, therefore, by Satan's hand his power is understood, He endured according to the flesh the hand of him whose power over His body He tolerated even to the spittings, the buffetings, the scourges, the cross, and the lance. Whence also to Pilate, that is, to his body, coming to the passion He says: 'You would have no power over me, unless it were given you from above' (John 19:11). But yet this power, which He had outwardly given to him against Himself, He inwardly compelled to serve His own gains.

For Pilate, or Satan, who had been the head of that same Pilate, was held under the power of Him over whom he had received power; because the Superior Himself had disposed that which, coming beneath, He tolerated from the persecutor; so that while it arose from the evil mind of the unbelieving, that very cruelty might nevertheless serve the profit of all the elect. Piously, therefore, He disposed within that which He wickedly permitted Himself to suffer without. For hence it is that concerning Him at the supper it is said: 'Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and goes to God, rises from the supper, and lays aside His garments' (John 13:3). Behold, about to go into the hands of His persecutors, He knew that He had received into His own hand those very persecutors.

For He who knew that He had received all things, it is established that He held also those very ones by whom He was held; so that He might turn back upon Himself, to the use of loving-kindness, whatever of their malice, being permitted, raged against Him. Let it therefore be said to him: Behold, he is in your hand; because he received license to strike the flesh, but unknowingly served His power. The devil is convinced that he cannot overcome the soul of Christ. But His soul is commanded to be preserved, not because he is forbidden to tempt it, but because he is convinced that he cannot overcome it. For not as we, who are mere men, are often shaken by an assailing temptation, so was the soul of our Redeemer disturbed by any necessity of temptation.

For our enemy, even if, being permitted, he took Him up onto a high mountain, if he declared that he would give the kingdoms of the world, if he showed stones as it were to be turned into bread (Matt. 4:8; Luke 4:3), yet he could not by temptation shake the mind of the Mediator of God and men. For He so deigned outwardly to undertake all these things, that His mind, inwardly cleaving to His own divinity, remained unshaken. And even if He is said at some time, troubled in spirit, to have groaned (John 11:33, 38), He Himself divinely disposed how much He Himself was humanly troubled, immutably presiding over all things, and showing Himself mutable in the satisfaction of infirmity.

Remaining, therefore, quiet in Himself, He disposed whatever, even in a troubled manner, He did for the showing forth of the humanity which He had assumed. The elect can be called the soul of Christ. These are exempted from the power of the devil. But because, when we love rightly, we love nothing among created things more dearly than our own soul; and just as we are said to love as our soul those to whom we endeavor to express the weight of our love, so the life of the elect can be signified by His soul. And when Satan is permitted to strike the flesh of the Redeemer, he is separated from the soul; because when he receives His body for the passion, he loses the elect from the jurisdiction of his power; and when His flesh dies through the cross, the mind of these is made solid against temptations. Let it therefore be said:

Behold, he is in your hand; nevertheless preserve his life. As if he plainly heard: Receive license against his body, and lose the right of your depraved dominion over his elect, whom, foreknowing before the ages, He possesses with Himself.