<<   Title  Contents  >>

III Jesus Christ

2. THE PERSON OF CHRIST

And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the works of thine hands; they shall perish, but thou remainest. . . . Heb. 1:10-11.

At first this testimony may seem not to fit the case of Christ, since it has to do with the creation of heaven and earth. But this whole passage has to do with the glory not of God but of Christ. It is true that the psalm is a celebration of God's majesty, and makes no mention of Christ. I admit this. At the same time, it is clearly a public praise of God's Kingdom, and everything that is said in it fits Christ very well. For, where are the following prophecies fulfilled except in Christ: " Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Zion, that the nations may fear thy name, and all the kings of the earth thy glory" ; or again, " When the people shall be gathered together, and the kingdom, to serve the Lord." Where except in Christ are we to look for this God by whom the whole world shall be united in one faith and worship of God? All the rest of the psalm fits the person of Christ; among other things, because he is the eternal God, the Creator of heaven and earth, everlasting and changeless; therefore, high and lifted up in majesty, and set apart from all that has been created. David declares that the heavens shall pass away; but some get around this statement by making him say, " should the heavens pass away," as though he had made no positive assertion. But what reason is there for such a strained exposition? After all, we know that everything comes to an end. And why do even the heavens yearn and travail with hope for a renewal, unless they are marked for destruction? Besides, the eternity of Christ affords no small comfort to the believers who, according to the psalm, shall participate in it as Christ communicates himself and all his riches to his body.

And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. John 17:5.

He declares that he has no desire except for what is his own; that he only wants to be seen in the flesh with the glory which was his before the world was made; or, more plainly, that the divine majesty which was eternally his might shine in the person of the Mediator and in the human flesh he has put on. This is a striking passage which teaches us that Christ is not an upstart and temporary God. For as his glory was eternal, so he himself always was. Add to this that there is here a distinction made between him and the Father; which means that he is not only God eternal but also the eternal Word of God begotten of the Father before all ages.

Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. John 1:45.

Many argue deeply about Christ, but they get so subtle and involved that they can never find him. So it is with the papists who refuse to call Christ the son of Joseph. They are particular about his name: but yet they so empty him of his power, that in Christ's place they have a ghost. Were it not better to babble crudely with Philip and hold on to the real Christ, rather than with clever and high-sounding talk end up with only a fiction? There are many poor dunces today who, even though they speak as rude and ignorant men, teach Christ much more faithfully than the theologians of the pope, with their deep speculations. So we are warned that when we hear simple and ignorant men speak inaptly, we should not take offense and reject them, provided they lead us to Christ. However, we must seek pure knowledge from the Law and the Prophets, in order that we may not be driven away from Christ by falsehoods invented by men.

Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you; for him hath the Father sealed. John 6:27.

He confirms the first part of this verse by saying that the Father has appointed him for this end (to give us an imperishable food). The ancient fathers tortured and misused this verse in order to prove the divine essence of Christ; as though sealed here meant that Christ bore the stamp of the Father. But he speaks here, not subtly of his eternal essence, but of his mandate and mission in our behalf, and of what we are to hope and expect from him. By an apt metaphor, he refers to the ancient custom of sealing with a ring, which made an agreement authoritative and binding. Christ's intention is to declare that his task was imposed upon him by the Father, and that the appointment of the Father is as a seal engraved upon him. In this way, he emphasizes that all he has is from the Father. In short, it is not for everybody to feed souls with incorruptible food, when Christ comes forth with the promise of so great a blessing. He adds that he has God's approval and has been sent to us with God's own seal as the mark of his mission.

I and my Father are one. John 10:30.

He sets out to meet the mockery of the wicked, who claimed that he was in no position to protect his disciples, since he did not possess God's power. He, therefore, testifies that his business and the Father's are one; which means that the Father will never deny his help to him or to his sheep. The ancient fathers misused this verse when they brought it up as proof that Christ is o( moou/ sioV(of one essence) with the Father. Christ is not here arguing that he is one substance with the Father, but that he is of one mind with him; which means that whatever Christ does has behind it the power of God.

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself. John 14:10.

These words refer not to Christ's divine essence, but to the manner of revelation. For, as to his secret deity, Christ is known to us no better than the Father. He is rightly called the express image of God, for the Father revealed himself totally in the Son: but in the sense that God's unbounded goodness, wisdom, and power appeared in him. Therefore, the fathers were not wrong when they found in this verse a basis for asserting the divinity of Christ. Still, since Christ is here speaking not of what he is in himself, but of what he is toward us, it is a question of power rather than of essence. The Father therefore is said to be in Christ because the fullness of Divinity dwells in him, and manifests his power in him. On the other hand, Christ is said to be in the Father, because by his divine power he shows that he is one with the Father.

The words which I speak to you. He proves by the effects of his words that we should seek God nowhere but in him. He contends that his teaching, which is heavenly and truly divine, is evidence and the brilliant reflection of God's own presence. If anyone objects that the prophets also were sons of God, because, inspired by the Spirit, they spoke in a divine manner, so that God was the author also of their teaching -- the answer is easy. We should consider the content of their teaching: the prophets send their disciples to someone else; Christ on the other hand holds them as his own. We must keep in mind what the apostle says in the first chapter of Hebrews: namely, that God spoke by the mouth of his Son from heaven; whereas he spoke by Moses, as it were, from the earth.

Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again untoyou. If ye loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father; for my Father is greater than I. John 14:28.

This passage has been variously distorted. The Arians, in order to prove that Christ is beneath (second to) God, objected that he is less than the Father. The orthodox fathers, in order to cut such calumny short, said that this statement refers to Christ's human nature. Even though the Arians abused this statement wickedly, the answer given by the fathers was neither right nor relevant. It is a question neither of the human nature of Christ nor of his eternal divinity, but of mediation between us and God because of our own weakness. Since it is not given to us to go up to the height of God, Christ came down to us in order to raise us there. Rejoice, he says, because I return to the Father; because this is the ultimate destination at which you yourselves ought to aim. With these words he does not show how he differs from the Father; he tells us that he descended to us, to unite us with God. Unless we arrive at this point, we remain stranded midway. Unless he lead us to God, we only imagine a mutilated Christ, cut into half.

Of a similar import is 1 Cor. 15:24, where Paul says that Christ will turn over the Kingdom to God and the Father, that he be all in all. Obviously, Christ does reign not only in his human nature, but as God manifest in the flesh. How then will he put aside his Kingship? Plainly, the divinity which we now discern only on the face of Christ will then be seen openly and conspicuously in him as his. The only difference is that Paul is here referring to the ultimate and perfect manifestation of divine brightness, whose rays began to shine when Christ ascended to heaven. To make the matter more plain, let us speak more bluntly. Here Christ does not compare the divinity of the Father with his own; neither does he compare his human nature with the divine essence of the Father. But rather, he contrasts his present state with the glory of heaven where he was soon to be received again. What he means is, " You want to keep me in this world, but it is better that I ascend to heaven." So therefore let us see Christ emptied of the flesh, that he may lead us to the fountainhead of blessed immortality. He is our leader, not in order to raise us to the sun or to the moon, but to unite us with God the Father.

Jesus answered, and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go: but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. John 8:14.

Though I testify. Christ answers that the authority of his witness is sufficient as the ground for faith, because the status (persona) he bears is very different from that of a private man picked out of a crowd of common people. He sets himself apart from the common run of men by saying that he knows where he comes from and where he is going. What he means is that although we must suspect an ordinary man who pleads his own cause, and although our own laws warn us not to believe a man who speaks on his own behalf, we are not to apply such reservations to the Son of God who has a pre-eminence above the whole world. Christ, who has the privilege from the Father to bring all men in line (ordo) by his mere word, must not be reckoned as of the order (ordino) of men.

I know whence I came. By these words he discloses that he is not of this world, but has come from the Father; and that for this reason it is foolish and wicked to subject his teaching, which is from God, to human standards. These people treated him with contempt because he had put on our lowly flesh and was among them in the form of a servant; therefore, he turns their attention to the future glory of his resurrection, in which his divinity, now hidden and unknown, was to shine forth in all its proper glory. The lowly position of Christ among them should not have prevented the Jews from submitting to the unique Ambassador of God, who had been promised shortly before in the law itself.

When he says that he knows and they do not know, he means that their unbelief does not in the least take away from his glory. Besides, since he has given the same testimony to us, faith ought to despise all the chicaneries and vicious outcries of wicked men; for, if it is founded upon God, it is far above the loftiness of the world. Moreover, if the majesty of his gospel is to remain before us, we need to see him always in his heavenly glory; we need so to hear him speaking in the world that we may keep in mind where he came from and what sovereignty he has obtained, now that his work as ambassador is finished. For, as he humbled himself for a season, so he now sits at the right hand of the Father, that every knee may bow to him.

And the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. John 14:24.

No matter how great, therefore, the mad insolence of the world, let us follow the teaching of Christ which rises high above heaven and earth. When Christ denies that the word is his own, it is for his disciples' sake. He means that the Word is not from man, and that he teaches by the authority of the Father. Still we know that since he is the eternal wisdom of God, he is the foundation of all doctrine; and all prophets since the beginning have spoken by his Spirit.

And the Word was made flesh. John 1:14.

The Evangelist has already spoken of Christ's coming. He now tells us he came putting on our flesh and showing himself openly to the world. He touches briefly upon the ineffable mystery that the Son of God put on human nature. Even though brief, he is astonishingly clear. At this point, some mad people amuse themselves with frivolous subtleties and make fools of themselves. They say, The Word is said to have been made flesh in the sense that God conceived the Son in his own mind and then sent him into the world as a man; as though the Word were I do not know what sort of shadowy image. But we have shown that the statement refers to a real hypostasis in the essence of God.

By saying " flesh," the writer expresses himself more forcibly than if he had saidHe was made man. He means to state that the Son of God, for our sakes, left the height of his heavenly glory and humbled himself to a state at once low and abject. When Scripture speaks of man with contempt, it calls himflesh. In spite of the vast distance between the spiritual glory of the Word of God and the stink of our filthy flesh, the Son of God stooped so low as to take upon himself this same flesh which is subject to so many miseries.Fleshhere means not, as so often with Paul, our nature corrupted by sin, but mortal men in general. Still, it refers to our nature with disdain as frail and perishing; so we read in Scripture in Ps. 78:39,Thou art mindful that they are flesh, and in Isa. 40:6,All flesh is grass. (There are other passages of this kind.) At the same time, however, we must notice that this is a figure of speech: [flesh] which is one part of man, stands for him as a whole. Therefore Apollinaris[82]was foolish to fancy that Christ put on a human body without the soul.

Now my soul is troubled. . . . John 12:27.

At first this verse seems to differ greatly from the preceding discourse. There he showed more than heroic courage in exhorting his disciples not only to undergo death, but to face it willingly and eagerly whenever needful. But now he shrinks from death and seems to go soft. However, here we do not read anything that does not agree with the believers' own experience. If scoffers laugh at this, it is no wonder; one cannot understand it except by experience.

Besides, it was necessary for our salvation that the Son of God should have been affected in this way. In his death, we must first consider the work of expiation which appeased the wrath and curse of God; this he certainly could not have done unless our sin had been transferred to him. The death, therefore, to which he was subjected had to be dreadful even to him, because he could not have made satisfaction for us unless he had known God's dreadful judgment; we know better the enormity of sin because the Heavenly Father exacted such a dire punishment of his only-begotten Son. Therefore, we must realize that death was not a pleasure or a game for Christ, and that he suffered excruciation to the utmost for our sakes.

And it was not absurd that the Son of God should have been thus troubled. In the act of expiation, the secret divinity of the Son was quiescent and did not exercise its power. Christ in fact put on not only our flesh but also our human feeling; and this he did voluntarily. He was afraid not by constraint, but because he willingly subjected himself to fear. It must be firmly held that his fear was real and not fictitious. But he was unlike the rest of mankind in that, as we have said elsewhere, his feelings were tempered by obedience to the righteous God.

Christ's humanity in feeling has a further value for us. If Christ had not been troubled by the fear of death, which of us would take his example seriously? It is not given to us that we should face death without a troubled mind; so, when we hear that he was not made of iron, we gather our forces and set out to follow him; and the weakness of our flesh which troubles us at death does not hinder us from joining our Leader in battle.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, andshoweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. . . . Matt. 4:5-8.

It is no great matter that Luke puts this temptation second, while Matthew puts it last. The Evangelists did not arrange their stories exactly in time, but so as to put together, as in a mirror or picture, the main events which are most useful for our knowledge of Christ. It is enough to learn that there were three temptations of Christ. It is foolish to worry our heads over which came second and which third. In this exposition, I shall follow Matthew's text.

It is said that Christ was placed on the pinnacle of the Temple. But the question is whether he was actually lifted up there, or whether this happened in a vision. There are many who assert obstinately that Christ was taken up there, as we say, really and truly; because, they say, it was unworthy of Christ that he should have been subject to delusion at the hand of Satan. This objection is easily disposed of, since it would by no means have been absurd for Christ to have been tempted with God's permission and his own willing subjection [to God's will], provided he did not yield inside himself, that is, in his mind and spirit. And what is said further, namely, that he was shown all the kingdoms of the world, or, as Luke has it, that in the twinkling of an eye he was carried to faraway places, fits best the supposition that all this happened in visions. In a doubtful matter like this, where ignorance does no harm, I prefer to pass no judgment, rather than to provide contentious people with something to quarrel about. It is in fact probable that the second temptation was not continuous with the first, or the third with the second. It may well be that some time elapsed between the first temptation and the second, and the second and the third. This may be so in spite of Luke's saying that Christ rested awhile, which suggests that the time in question was short.

He will charge his angels concerning thee. Satan's malice should not escape us. He misuses the testimony of Scripture, to make the life (Scripture) deadly for Christ, or to turn bread itself into poison. He does not cease using the same trick daily. When the Son of God chose to submit to this trial in his own person, he became an example to all believers, so that they may carefully avoid falling into Satan's snares by a wrong use of Scripture. And without a doubt, the Lord gives our enemy so much leeway, not to put us at our ease and make us lazy, but that we may rather be on our guard. We must be especially careful not to be like those preposterous people who, just because Satan corrupts Scripture, throw it aside as much too doubtful. According to this rule we should stop eating, since there is always danger of being poisoned. Satan does profane the Word of God and twist it around for our undoing; but still Scripture was ordained for our salvation. Shall God's purpose become invalid, just because our own indolence keeps us from using it for our good?

There is no need to argue this point at length. Let us only see what Christ prescribes by his example, which is the rule we are to follow. Does he yield when Satan gives Scripture a wicked twist? Seeing that Satan had armed himself with Scripture, does he let him hold on to it and make away with it? On the contrary, he in turn takes up Scripture, and with it refutes the wicked calumnies which Satan had thrown at him. In the same way, when Satan hides his deceptions under Scripture, or when godless men attack us and try to subvert our faith under the pretext of using Scripture, we should borrow our arms from Scripture alone, and so defend our faith.

Now, even though the promise,He shall charge his angels concerning thee, belongs to all the faithful, it applies peculiarly to Christ; because as the head of the church, he has authority over the angels, and they watch over us by his command. Satan was not wrong in using this text to show that the angels were given to Christ as his servants, to protect him and bear him upon their hands. He was wrong in presenting angelic protection as something vague and haphazard; on the contrary, it is promised to the children of God only as they keep to the way which leads to the fulfillment of God's purpose for them. Whatever the force of the phrasein all thy ways(Ps. 91:11), Satan wickedly corrupts and mutilates the prophet's words, and both tortures and confuses them when he makes them include any kind of way, however wrong and errant. God commands us to walk in the ways he has set before us, and in this connection declares that his angels shall protect us. When Satan brings up the matter of angelic protection, his intention is to make Christ walk into any danger that comes along; what he says amounts to this: " If you throw yourself at death in defiance of God, his angels will defend your life!"

It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Christ answered most aptly that believers cannot hope to receive the promise of God's help except as they humbly let him guide them. We are in no position to rely upon God's promises unless we obey his commandments. Now, we tempt God in many ways. But hereto temptis to neglect the means he puts in our hands. This is what men do when they make trial of God's power and prowess, at the same time that they set aside the means provided by God; this is like cutting off a man's hand and arms, and then telling him to do something! In short, whoever desires to experiment with God's power unnecessarily, tempts God by subjecting his promises to unlawful scrutiny.

The devil takes him to a high mountain. As I have said before, we must remember that Satan had this power over Christ's eyes not because of a weakness in his nature, but by a free purpose and permission. Even though Christ's senses were affected and moved by the glory of the kingdoms presented to him, no inward lustful desire pierced his soul; quite otherwise the lusts of the flesh lay hold of us like powerful beasts, and drag us to the things that give us pleasure. Christ had our feelings, but not our unruly appetites. Now, the temptation put before Christ was to seek the inheritance God has promised his children elsewhere than in God. And the daring sacrilege of the devil appears in his seeking to rob God of his empire and to usurp it for himself. " All these things," he said, " are mine; and no one can have them except by my power."

We ourselves have to struggle with the same imposture, which every believer knows within himself, and which we see even more clearly in the whole life of the ungodly. For, even though we know that we owe our security, goods, and comforts to the blessing of God, our senses flatter and bewitch us into seeking Satan's help, as though God were not enough for us. Therefore, the greater part of mankind deny God's authority and sovereignty over the whole world, and imagine that the giver of every good thing is Satan. For, how does it come about that men are universally addicted to evil machinations, to rapine and fraud, if not because they credit Satan with what God alone can do; namely, enriching us by his benediction and according to his good pleasure. They say with their mouth that God gives them their daily bread; but with their mouth only. In fact, they set Satan up as one who dispenses all the riches of the world.

[82]Apollinaris (d. 392) taught that Christ had a human body and the life of a man, but that in him the rational soul or mind was replaced by the <foreign lang=" gkc" >lo/goc</greek>. Thus he represented Christ as neither God nor man, but a mixture (<foreign lang=" gkc" >mi/jic</greek>) of the two. He was repudiated, but orthodoxy was permanently infected by him.

<<   Title  Contents  >>