On the Trinity, Book 1

Anyone reading this discussion of the Trinity should know that it was written to guard against the deceptive arguments of those who refuse to begin with faith and are misled by an immature and misguided love of reason. One group of these people tries to apply to nonphysical and spiritual things ideas formed from physical things through sensory experience, natural intelligence and keen observation, or learned skills; they try to measure and understand spiritual things in terms of physical things. Another group forms whatever ideas it has about God from the nature or feelings of the human mind. This mistake leads them to base their arguments about God on distorted and misleading rules. A third group tries to go beyond the whole of creation, which certainly changes, and direct its thought toward the unchanging substance that is God. Yet these people are weighed down by their mortality. They want to seem to know what they do not know, and cannot know what they want to know. They block their own path to understanding by asserting their presumptuous opinions too boldly. They prefer to leave a mistaken opinion uncorrected rather than change an opinion they have already defended. This is the sickness shared by all three groups I have mentioned: those who base their ideas of God on physical things, those who base them on created spirits, such as the soul, and those who base them on neither bodies nor created spirits but still think falsely about God. These last are even further from the truth, because nothing corresponds to their ideas in a body, in a spirit that has been made or created, or in the Creator Himself. For example, someone who thinks that God is white or red is mistaken, although these colors do exist in bodies. Likewise, someone who thinks that God sometimes forgets and sometimes remembers, or does anything similar, is also mistaken, although these things do happen in the mind. Someone who thinks that God has the power to have brought Himself into existence is even more mistaken, because neither God nor any created spirit or body exists in this way; nothing at all brings itself into existence. To cleanse the human mind of false ideas like these, Holy Scripture adapts itself to infants and freely uses words drawn from every kind of thing that actually exists, so that these words can feed our understanding and help it rise step by step to divine realities beyond us. When speaking of God, it uses words taken from physical things, as when it says, “Hide me under the shadow of Your wings;” and takes many expressions from created spirits to describe what is not literally like this but must be expressed in this way. For example, “I the Lord your God am a jealous God;” and, “I regret having made humanity.” It draws no words at all from things that do not exist, whether to form figures of speech or riddles. That is why people who cut themselves off from the truth through the third kind of error fall into more harmful and empty delusions than the others: they imagine things about God that are true neither of Him nor of any created thing. Divine Scripture regularly makes what we might call things that appeal to children out of things found in creation. Through these, within their own limited capacity and as though step by step, the gaze of the weak can be drawn toward seeking the things above and leaving the things below. Scripture rarely uses expressions that apply specifically to God and to no created thing; one example is what was said to Moses, “I am who I am;” and, “He Who Is has sent me to you.” Since bodies and souls are also said to exist in some sense, Holy Scripture would not use this expression unless it intended a special sense of existence. The same applies to the Apostle’s words, “Who alone has immortality.” The soul is also described as immortal and is immortal in a certain sense. Scripture would not say “alone has” unless true immortality were freedom from change, which no created being can possess because it belongs to the creator alone. James says the same: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow caused by turning.” David also says, “You shall change them, and they shall be changed; but You are the same.” It is difficult to contemplate and fully know God’s substance: He makes things that change without changing Himself, and creates things that exist in time without any movement through time in Himself. Our minds therefore need to be cleansed so that we can see what cannot be expressed, in a way that also cannot be expressed. Since we have not yet reached this state, we must be fed by faith and led along paths better suited to our abilities, so that we can become fit and able to understand it. That is why the Apostle says that “in Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden;” yet he has presented Him to us as to infants in Christ. Although we have already been born again by His grace, we are still fleshly and governed by merely natural life. He has presented Christ through His human weakness rather than His divine power, in which He is equal to the Father; it was through that human weakness that He was crucified. He says, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified;” and then he continues, “I was with you in weakness and fear, trembling greatly.” A little later he tells them, “And I, brothers, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as fleshly people, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk rather than solid food: you were not ready for it before, and you are still not ready now.” Some people are angry when they hear this kind of language and think it insults them. They generally prefer to believe that those who speak to them like this have nothing to say, rather than that they themselves cannot understand what has been said. Sometimes we do offer them an explanation, though certainly not the explanation they seek in their questions about God, because they cannot grasp it, and perhaps we cannot understand or express it either. Instead, we give them an explanation that shows how incapable and unprepared they are to understand what they demand from us. Because they do not hear what they want, they think we are either deceiving them to hide our ignorance or speaking maliciously because we resent their gaining knowledge; so they leave angry and upset.

With the help of our Lord God, we will do our best to give the explanation they demand so insistently: that the Trinity is the one and only and true God, and how it is right to say, believe, and understand that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are of one and the same substance or essence. In this way, they need not imagine that we are mocking them with excuses, but can discover through experience that the highest good is seen by the most purified minds, and that they themselves cannot see or understand it for this reason: the human mind’s eye is weak and is dazzled by that light far beyond it, unless it is strengthened by feeding on the righteousness of faith. First, we must use the authority of the Holy Scriptures to show whether this is what the faith teaches. Then, if God is willing to help us, we may at least be able to help these talkative debaters, whose pride exceeds their ability and whose sickness is therefore more dangerous, find something they cannot doubt. Then, when they cannot find the same certainty elsewhere, they may come to blame their own minds rather than the truth itself or our arguments. If they have any love or fear of God, they may then return and begin with faith, as they should. They may finally recognize the healing medicine provided for the faithful in the holy Church: attentive devotion heals the mind’s weakness and can enable it to perceive the unchanging truth, preventing it from rushing recklessly into harmful and false opinions. I will not hesitate to investigate whenever I am in doubt, or be ashamed to learn whenever I am mistaken.

I also ask anyone reading this to go forward with me wherever we are both certain; wherever we both hesitate, to join me in investigating; wherever they recognize their own mistake, to return to me; and wherever they recognize my mistake, to call me back. In this way we can enter the path of love together and move toward Him of whom it is said, “Seek His face always.” I want to make this devout and secure agreement, in the presence of our Lord God, with all who read my writings, in all cases, but especially in those that investigate the unity of the Trinity, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; because no other subject makes error more dangerous, investigation more demanding, or discovering the truth more beneficial. If someone reading this says, This is badly expressed because I do not understand it, they are criticizing my language rather than my faith. Perhaps it really could have been expressed more clearly; yet no one has ever spoken so that everyone understood everything. Anyone who finds this fault with my discussion should see whether, despite not understanding me, they can understand others who have addressed similar subjects and questions. If they can, they should put down my book or even throw it away if they wish, and spend their time and effort on writers they understand instead. They should not conclude that I ought to have remained silent because I have not expressed myself as smoothly and clearly to them as the writers they understand. After all, not everything that everyone writes reaches everyone. Some people who can understand these writings of mine may never find those clearer books and may encounter only mine. It is therefore useful for many people to write many books, differing in style but not in faith, even about the same questions, so that the subject can reach as many people as possible, some in one way and others in another. If someone who complains about not understanding these things has never been able to follow any careful and precise arguments on these subjects, they should work on themselves with determination and study to improve their understanding, rather than argue and quarrel with me to make me keep quiet. Someone who reads my book and says, Certainly I understand what is said, but it is not true, may state their own opinion if they wish and refute mine if they can. If they do this with love and truth and take the trouble to let me know (if I am still alive), I will gain the richest reward for my effort. If they cannot inform me, I would be very glad for them to inform whomever they can. For my part, “I meditate in the law of the Lord,” if not “day and night,” at least for the short periods I can manage; I write down my reflections so that I do not forget them, hoping that God in His mercy will make me hold firmly to every truth of which I am certain; “but if I think differently about anything, He Himself will reveal this to me too,” whether through inward inspiration and correction, through His own clear statements, or through my brothers’ arguments. This is what I pray for, and I entrust this hope and desire to Him, who is fully able to preserve what He has given me and give what He has promised. I expect that some people whose understanding is slower will imagine that parts of my books express opinions I do not hold, or fail to express opinions I do hold. Everyone should recognize that their error should not be blamed on me if they have followed my steps into false teaching without understanding me, as I struggle to find my way through a difficult and obscure subject. Likewise, no one can rightly blame the sacred statements of the divine books themselves for the many different errors of heretics, although all of them try to defend their own false and mistaken opinions from those same Scriptures. The law of Christ, which is love, clearly instructs me and gently but firmly commands me, when people think my books express a false belief I do not hold, and one person disapproves of that false belief while another approves of it, to prefer criticism from the person who condemns the falsehood to praise from the person who approves of it. Although the first person is wrong to blame me for an error I never held, they are right to condemn the error itself; the second person is wrong to praise either me, whom they suppose to hold a belief condemned by the truth, or the belief itself, which the truth also condemns. Let us therefore begin the task we have undertaken in the name of the Lord.

All the Catholic interpreters of the divine Scriptures, both Old and New, whose writings I have been able to read and who wrote before me about the Trinity, Who is God, have aimed to teach this doctrine from the Scriptures: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit show a divine unity of one and the same substance, with an equality that cannot be divided; they are therefore one God rather than three Gods. Yet the Father has begotten the Son, and so He who is the Father is not the Son; and the Son is begotten by the Father, and so He who is the Son is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Himself also co-equal with the Father and the Son, and belonging to the unity of the Trinity. They do not teach that this Trinity was born of the Virgin Mary, and crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven, but that only the Son was. Nor do they teach that this Trinity descended on Jesus in the form of a dove when He was baptized; or that, on the day of Pentecost, after the ascension of the Lord, when “there came a sound from heaven, like a powerful rushing wind,” the same Trinity “rested on each of them in divided tongues that looked like fire,” but that only the Holy Spirit did. They also do not teach that this Trinity said from heaven, “You are my Son,” whether when He was baptized by John, or when the three disciples were with Him on the mountain, or when the voice sounded, saying, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again;” but that these were the Father’s words alone, spoken to the Son; yet the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit act inseparably, just as they are inseparable. This is also my faith, since it is the Catholic faith.

Some people find this faith difficult when they hear that the Father is God, and the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God, and yet that this Trinity is not three Gods, but one God, and ask how they should understand this. This is especially difficult when they are told that the Trinity acts inseparably in everything God does, yet the Father spoke with a voice that is not the Son’s voice; and that no one except the Son was born in the flesh, and suffered, and rose again, and ascended into heaven; and that no one except the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove. They want to understand how the Trinity produced the voice that belonged to the Father alone; and how the same Trinity created the flesh in which the Son alone was born of the Virgin; and how that very same Trinity produced the form of a dove in which the Holy Spirit alone appeared. Otherwise, the Trinity does not act inseparably, since the Father would do some things, the Son others, and the Holy Spirit still others; or, if they do some things together and others separately, the Trinity is not inseparable. They also find it difficult to understand how the Holy Spirit belongs to the Trinity, since neither the Father nor the Son, nor both together, have begotten Him, although He is the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son. Since people tire us out by asking these questions, let us explain to them as well as we can whatever wisdom God has given us in our weakness on this subject; let us not “go on our way consumed by envy.” It would be untrue to say that we do not usually think about these things; yet if we admit that we often think about them, because our love of searching for the truth absorbs us, then the law of love requires us to tell them what we have been able to discover about them. “Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect” (for if the Apostle Paul says this, how much more must I, who am far beneath his feet, consider myself not yet to have grasped it!); yet, within my own limits, “if I forget what is behind and reach forward to what is ahead, pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling,” I am asked to describe the stretch of road I have already traveled and the point I have reached, from which I still have to complete the course. The people making this request are those whom generous love compels me to serve. It is also necessary, and God will grant, that I benefit too by providing them with something to read, and that, in trying to answer their questions, I also discover what I was seeking. So, at the command and with the help of the Lord my God, I have undertaken this task less to speak with authority about things I already know than to learn about them through devout discussion.

Those who say that our Lord Jesus Christ is not God, or not truly God, or not the one and only God together with the Father, or not truly immortal because changeable, are proved wrong by the clear and unanimous statements of the divine Scriptures, such as “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It is clear that we should understand the Word of God to be the only Son of God, of whom it later says, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us,” referring to His birth as a human being, which took place in time from the Virgin. This declares not only that He is God, but also that He is of the same substance as the Father; because, after saying, “And the Word was God,” it is said also, “He was with God in the beginning: all things were made by Him, and nothing was made without Him.” This refers not simply to “all things,” but to everything that was made, that is, the whole of creation. This clearly shows that He through whom everything was made was not Himself made. And if He was not made, then He is not a creature; but if He is not a creature, then He is of the same substance as the Father. Every substance that is not God is a created thing, and everything that is not a created thing is God. And if the Son is not of the same substance as the Father, then He is a substance that was made: and if He is a substance that was made, then not everything was made by Him; but “all things were made by Him,” therefore He is of one and the same substance as the Father. And so He is not only God, but truly God. The same John states this explicitly in his letter: “For we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know the true One and be in the true One, His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” It also follows that the Apostle Paul did not say, “Who alone has immortality,” about the Father alone, but about the one and only God, the Trinity itself. What is itself eternal life cannot be mortal through any kind of change; so the Son of God, because “He is Eternal Life,” is also included with the Father in the words, “Who alone has immortality.” We too are given a share in this eternal life and become immortal within our own limits. Yet the eternal life in which we are given a share is one thing; we who will live forever by sharing in it are another. Even if he had said, “Whom the Father will reveal at His own time, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who alone has immortality;” this would still not necessarily exclude the Son. The Son has not separated the Father from Himself when He, speaking elsewhere as wisdom (for He Himself is the Wisdom of God), says, “I alone traveled around the circuit of heaven.” There is even less reason to insist that the words, “Who has immortality,” refer to the Father alone and exclude the Son when the passage says: “Keep this commandment without fault or blame until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ: whom He will reveal at His own time, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who alone has immortality, living in light that no one can approach; whom no one has seen or can see: to Him be honor and power forever. Amen.” These words do not specifically name the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit, but the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; that is, the one, only, and true God, the Trinity itself. Perhaps the following words might seem to conflict with this interpretation, since the passage says, “Whom no one has seen or can see:” yet this can also refer to Christ in His divinity, which the Jewish people who saw and crucified Him in the flesh did not see; His divinity cannot be seen at all with human sight, but is seen with a sight through which those who see are no longer merely human but beyond the human condition. It is therefore right to understand God Himself, the Trinity, as the “blessed and only Ruler,” who “reveals the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ at His own time.” For the words, “Who alone has immortality,” are said in the same way as it is said, “Who alone does wonderful things.” I would like to know whom they think these words describe. If they describe only the Father, how can the Son’s own words be true: “Whatever the Father does, the Son also does in the same way?” Is any wonderful deed more wonderful than raising the dead and giving them life? Yet the same Son says, “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whomever He wishes.” How, then, does the Father alone “do wonderful things,” when these words must refer neither to the Father alone nor to the Son alone, but to the one and only true God, that is, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit? When the same apostle says, “For us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things come and in whom we exist; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things come and through whom we exist,” who can doubt that he is speaking of everything that has been created, as John does when he says, “All things were made by Him”? So I ask whom he describes elsewhere: “For all things are from Him, through Him, and in Him: to whom be glory forever. Amen.” If he is speaking of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, assigning each clause separately to each person: of Him, that is, of the Father; through Him, that is, through the Son; in Him, that is, in the Holy Spirit, then it is clear that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, since the passage continues in the singular, “To whom be glory forever.” At the beginning of the passage, he does not say, “How deep are the riches of the wisdom and knowledge” of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit, but “of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” “How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways beyond discovery! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has given to Him first and will be repaid? For all things are from Him, through Him, and in Him: to whom be glory forever. Amen.” If they insist that this refers only to the Father, how can all things be through the Father, as this passage says, and all things through the Son, as the letter to the Corinthians says, “And one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,” and as in the Gospel of John, “All things were made by Him?” For if some things were made by the Father, and some by the Son, then not everything was made by the Father or everything by the Son; but if all things were made by the Father, and all things by the Son, then the same things were made by the Father and by the Son. The Son is therefore equal to the Father, and the action of the Father and the Son is inseparable. If the Father also made the Son, whom the Son Himself certainly did not make, then not everything was made by the Son; but all things were made by the Son: therefore He was not Himself made, so that He could make everything that was made together with the Father. The apostle does not avoid the actual word, but explicitly says, “Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God;” here using the name God specifically for the Father, as he does elsewhere: “But the head of Christ is God.” Similar evidence has also been collected about the Holy Spirit, and those who discussed the subject before us have used it extensively to show that He too is God rather than a created being. If He is not a created being, then He is not merely called God (for human beings are also called gods ), but truly is God; and therefore absolutely equal to the Father and the Son, and, in the unity of the Trinity, of the same substance and equally eternal. The clearest evidence that the Holy Spirit is not a created being is the passage commanding us to serve the Creator rather than a created being; this does not refer to the sense in which we are commanded to “serve” one another by love, which is in Greek δουλεύειν, but to the service given to God alone, which is in Greek λατρεύειν . That is why those who give images the service owed to God are called idolaters. This is the service meant in the words, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.” This is also clearer in the Greek Scriptures, which use λατρεύσεις . If we are forbidden to give a created being this kind of service, since it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve” (which is also why the apostle rejects those who worship and serve a created being rather than the Creator), then the Holy Spirit certainly is not a created being, since all the saints give Him this service. As the apostle says, “For we are the circumcision, who serve the Spirit of God,” which is in the Greek λατρεύοντες . Most Latin copies also say, “We who serve the Spirit of God;” and all or almost all Greek copies have this wording. Some Latin copies, however, have not “We worship the Spirit of God,” but, “We worship God in the Spirit.” Those who are mistaken about this and refuse to yield to the stronger authority should tell us whether they also find manuscript variations in this passage: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God?” What could be more senseless or irreverent than daring to say that Christ’s members are the temple of someone they consider a created being inferior to Christ? The apostle says elsewhere, “Your bodies are members of Christ.” If Christ’s members are also the temple of the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit is not a created being; we necessarily owe Him, whose temple our body is, the service that should be given to God alone, which in Greek is called λατρεία . Accordingly, the apostle says, “Therefore glorify God in your body.”

Through these and similar statements in the divine Scriptures, which, as I have said, our predecessors freely used to refute the heretics’ deceptive arguments and errors, the unity and equality of the Trinity are made known to our faith. Yet because the Word of God became human to accomplish our salvation, so that the man Christ Jesus might be the Mediator between God and humanity, many passages in the sacred books indicate, or even explicitly declare, that the Father is greater than the Son. People have gone wrong by failing to examine carefully or consider the overall meaning of the Scriptures, and have tried to apply statements about Jesus Christ in His flesh to His substance, which was eternal before He became human and remains eternal. For example, they say that the Son is less than the Father, because it is written that the Lord Himself said, “My Father is greater than I.” Yet the truth shows that, in the same sense, the Son is less also than Himself; for how could He not also have become less than Himself when He “emptied Himself, and took the form of a servant?” He did not take the form of a servant in a way that made Him lose the form of God, in which He was equal to the Father. If He took the form of a servant without losing the form of God, He remains the same only-begotten Son of God the Father in both forms: in the form of God, He is equal to the Father; in the form of a servant, He is the Mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus. Can anyone fail to see that He Himself in the form of God is also greater than Himself, and likewise in the form of a servant less than Himself? Scripture therefore has good reason to say both things: both that the Son is equal to the Father, and that the Father is greater than the Son. There is no confusion when the first statement is understood to refer to the form of God, and the second to the form of a servant. This rule for clarifying the question throughout the sacred Scriptures is given in one chapter of an epistle of the Apostle Paul, where this distinction is explained clearly enough. For he says, “Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself, and took the form of a servant, and came to be in human likeness and was found in human appearance.” The Son of God, then, is equal to God the Father in nature, but less in His human “appearance.” For in the form of a servant which He took He is less than the Father; but in the form of God, in which also He was before He took the form of a servant, He is equal to the Father. In the form of God He is the Word, “by whom all things are made;” but in the form of a servant He was “born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.” In the same way, in the form of God He made humanity; in the form of a servant He became human. If the Father alone had made humanity without the Son, it would not have been written, “Let us make humanity in our image, according to our likeness.” Because the form of God took the form of a servant, the two together are God and human; together they are God because the One who takes is God, and together they are human because what is taken is human. This taking does not turn or change either one into the other: the divine nature is not changed into a created nature and does not stop being divine, nor is the created nature changed into the divine nature so that it stops being created.

The apostle says, “When all things have been subjected to Him, the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him.” One reason for this phrasing may be to prevent anyone from thinking that Christ’s “appearance,” which He took from created humanity, would later be transformed into the divine nature, or, more precisely, into the Godhead itself, which is not a created being but the unity of the Trinity: a nonphysical, unchanging nature, of the same substance and equally eternal within itself. Alternatively, if anyone argues, as some have thought, that the text, “The Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him,” is phrased this way so that this very “subjection” may be understood as a future change and transformation of a created being into the Creator’s very substance or essence, that is, what was the substance of a created being would become the Creator’s substance, they must at least admit this, which cannot be doubted: this had not yet happened when the Lord said, “My Father is greater than I.” He said this not only before ascending into heaven, but also before suffering and rising from the dead. Those who think that His human nature will be changed and transformed into the substance of the Godhead, and understand the words “The Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him,” as though they meant, Then the Son of man Himself and the human nature taken by the Word of God will be changed into the nature of Him who put all things under Him, must also think that this will happen when, after the day of judgment, “He has handed over the kingdom to God the Father.” So, even on this view, the Father is greater than the form of a servant taken from the Virgin. If some go further and claim that the man Christ Jesus has already been changed into the substance of God, they still cannot deny that His human nature remained when He said before His suffering, “For my Father is greater than I;” so there is no doubt about the meaning: that the Father is greater than the form of a servant, while the Son in the form of God is equal to the Father. Nor should anyone who hears the apostle’s words, “When it says that all things are put under Him, this clearly excludes the One who put all things under Him,” understand the statement that the Father has put all things under the Son as denying that the Son Himself has put all things under Himself. The apostle states this clearly when he says to the Philippians, “Our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who will transform our humble body to be like His glorious body, through the power by which He can subject all things to Himself.” The action of the Father and the Son is inseparable. Otherwise, the Father would not Himself have put all things under Himself, but the Son has put all things under Him, since the Son hands over the kingdom to Him and abolishes all rule, authority, and power. These words describe the Son: “When He has handed over,” says the apostle, “the kingdom to God the Father, when He has abolished all rule, authority, and power.” The same One who abolishes also subjects. We should not think that Christ will hand over the kingdom to God the Father in a way that takes it away from Himself. Some empty talkers have even thought this. For when it is said, “He has handed over the kingdom to God the Father,” He Himself is not excluded; because He is one God together with the Father. The word “until” misleads those who read the divine Scriptures carelessly but eagerly pursue arguments. For the text continues, “He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet;” as though He would stop reigning once He had done so. They do not recognize that this is like the other passage, “His heart is secure: He will not be afraid until He sees His desire fulfilled against His enemies.” He will not become afraid once He has seen it. What, then, is meant by “When He has handed over the kingdom to God the Father,” as though God the Father does not have the kingdom now? It means that He will later bring all the righteous, who now live by faith under the rule of the Mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus, to the sight the same apostle calls “face to face;” so the words, “When He has handed over the kingdom to God the Father,” are equivalent to saying, When He has brought believers to the contemplation of God the Father. He says, “My Father has handed over all things to me: no one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” The Father will then be revealed by the Son, “when He has abolished all rule, authority, and power;” that is, when there will no longer be any need for an arrangement of symbolic likenesses through angelic rulers, authorities, and powers. The words spoken to the bride in the Song of Songs can fittingly be understood as coming from these powers: “We will make you likenesses in gold, with silver studs, while the King sits at His table;” that is, as long as Christ remains in His hidden place, since “our life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ, who is your life, appears, you too will appear with Him in glory.” Until then, “we now see through a mirror, in a riddle,” that is, through likenesses, “but then face to face.” This contemplation is promised to us as the goal of all actions and the eternal fullness of joy. For “we are the sons of God; and what we will be has not yet been revealed: but we know that, when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.” What He said to His servant Moses, “I am who I am; this is what you shall tell the children of Israel, He Who Is has sent me to you;” is what we will contemplate when we live in eternity. As it is said, “This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” This will happen when the Lord has come and “has brought the hidden things of darkness to light;” when the darkness of our present mortality and decay has passed away. Then our morning will come, as the Psalm says, “In the morning I will stand before You and contemplate You.” I understand this contemplation to be the meaning of the words, “When He has handed over the kingdom to God the Father;” that is, when He has brought the righteous, who now live by faith under the rule of the Mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus, to the contemplation of God the Father. If I am foolish about this, let someone who knows better correct me; this is at least how it seems to me. We will seek nothing else once we have come to contemplate Him. That contemplation has not yet arrived while our joy remains in hope. For “hope that is seen is not hope: why would someone still hope for what they already see? If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it patiently,” namely, “as long as the King sits at His table.” Then what is written will happen: “You will fill me with joy in Your presence.” We will want nothing beyond that joy, because there will be nothing more to want. The Father will be revealed to us, and that will be enough for us. Philip understood this much well enough to say to the Lord, “Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” He had not yet understood that he could also say the same thing this way: Lord, show Yourself to us, and that will be enough for us. To help him understand this, the Lord replied, “Have I been with you so long, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Since He wanted Philip to live by faith before he could see this, He went on to say, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?” For “while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight.” Contemplation is the reward of faith, and our hearts are purified by faith for this reward; as it is written, “Purifying their hearts by faith.” The clearest proof that our hearts must be purified for this contemplation is the passage, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” That this is eternal life is shown by God’s words in the Psalm, “I will satisfy him with long life and show him my salvation.” Whether we hear, Show us the Son, or, Show us the Father, it amounts to the same thing, since neither can be revealed without the other. For they are one, as He Himself says, “My Father and I are one.” Because of this very inseparability, it is enough sometimes to name the Father alone or the Son alone as the One who will fill us with joy through His presence. Nor does this exclude the Spirit of both, that is, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son; the Holy Spirit, who is specifically called “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.” To enjoy God the Trinity, in whose image we are made, is the fullness of our joy, beyond which there is nothing greater. For this reason the Holy Spirit is sometimes spoken of as though He alone were enough for our happiness; and He alone is enough, because He cannot be separated from the Father and the Son; as the Father alone is enough, because He cannot be separated from the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the Son alone is enough because He cannot be separated from the Father and the Holy Spirit. What does He mean when He says, “If you love me, keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, to remain with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,” meaning those who love the world? For “the natural person does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.” It may still seem that the words, “And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,” were spoken as though the Son alone were not enough. Yet the other passage speaks of the Spirit as though He alone were entirely enough: “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.” Does this exclude the Son, as if He did not teach all truth, or as though the Holy Spirit were to supply what the Son could not fully teach? Then let them say, if they wish, that the Holy Spirit is greater than the Son, whom they usually call lesser. Or is it because the passage does not say, He alone, or, No one else except Him, will guide you into all truth, that they allow us to believe that the Son also teaches together with Him? By that reasoning, the apostle has excluded the Son from knowing the things of God when he says, “Likewise, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God:” on this basis these misguided people could go on to say that only the Holy Spirit teaches even the Son the things of God, as a greater person teaches a lesser one. The Son Himself attributes so much to Him that He says, “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Yet I tell you the truth: it is better for you that I go away, because if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you.”

This is not said because of any inequality between the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, but because the Son of man’s presence with them would seem to hinder the coming of the Spirit, who was not lesser, since He did not “empty Himself, taking the form of a servant,” as the Son did. The form of a servant therefore had to be removed from their sight, because they looked at it and thought Christ was only what they could see. This also explains the words, “If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I go to the Father; for my Father is greater than I:'” that is, I need to go to the Father because while you see me like this, you judge me to be less than the Father on the basis of what you see; absorbed in the created nature and the “appearance” I have taken, you fail to recognize my equality with the Father. This also explains: “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to my Father.” Touch sets a kind of limit to their understanding, and He did not want their hearts’ thought about Him to be so limited that they considered Him only what He appeared to be. The “ascension to the Father” meant being seen in His equality with the Father, so that the vision that satisfies us might reach its goal there. Sometimes the Son alone is also said to be enough, and seeing Him is promised as the full reward of our love and longing. As it is said, “The one who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me; my Father will love the one who loves me; and I will love him, and reveal myself to him.” Since He has not said here, I will also show him the Father, has He therefore excluded the Father? On the contrary, because it is true, “I and my Father are one,” when the Father is revealed, the Son also, who is in Him, is revealed; and when the Son is revealed, the Father also, who is in Him, is revealed. Just as the words, “I will reveal myself to him,” are understood to mean that He also reveals the Father, so the words, “When He has handed over the kingdom to God the Father,” are understood to mean that He does not take it away from Himself; when He brings believers to the contemplation of God the Father, He will certainly bring them to the contemplation of Himself, who has said, “And I will reveal myself to him.” Accordingly, when Judas asked Him, “Lord, how is it that You will reveal Yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.” Notice that He does not reveal only Himself to the one who loves Him, because He comes to him together with the Father, and remains with him. Could anyone think that when the Father and the Son make their home with the person who loves them, the Holy Spirit is excluded from that home? What, then, is meant by the earlier words about the Holy Spirit: “Whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him: but you know Him; for He remains with you, and is in you”? He is therefore not excluded from that home, since it is said of Him, “He remains with you, and is in you;” unless someone is foolish enough to think that when the Father and the Son come to make their home with the one who loves them, the Holy Spirit will leave and, so to speak, make room for those who are greater. Scripture itself answers this fleshly idea; for it says a little earlier: “I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, to remain with you forever.” He will therefore not leave when the Father and the Son come, but will share the same home with them forever; He will not come without them, nor will they come without Him. To make the Trinity known, some statements are made separately, with each Person named individually; yet these statements should not be understood as excluding the other Persons, because of the unity of the same Trinity and the one substance and Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Our Lord Jesus Christ will therefore hand over the kingdom to God the Father, without excluding Himself or the Holy Spirit, when He brings believers to the contemplation of God, where all good actions reach their goal, with eternal rest and joy that will never be taken from us. He expresses this when He says: “I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” Mary, sitting at the feet of the Lord, and listening intently to His word, foreshadowed this joy through a likeness of it; she rested from every task and concentrated on the truth in the way that this life permits, while foreshadowing what will last for eternity. While her sister Martha was burdened with necessary tasks, good and useful tasks that will nevertheless pass away when rest replaces them, Mary was resting in the Lord’s word. So the Lord replied to Martha when she complained that her sister did not help her: “Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.” He did not say that Martha had chosen a bad part, but spoke of the “best part that shall not be taken away.” The part devoted to meeting a need will be “taken away” when the need itself has passed away. The reward for good activity that passes away is rest that does not pass away. In that contemplation, God will be all in all; because nothing beyond God Himself will be wanted, and being enlightened by Him and enjoying Him alone will be enough. So the one in whom “the Spirit intercedes with groans that cannot be expressed,” says, “I have desired one thing from the Lord, and that is what I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to contemplate the beauty of the Lord.” We will contemplate God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, when the Mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus, has handed over the kingdom to God the Father, and no longer intercedes for us as our Mediator and Priest, Son of God and Son of man; He Himself, as the Priest who has taken the form of a servant for us, will be subject to Him who has put all things under Him, and to whom He has subjected all things. As God, He will have subjected us to Himself together with the Father; as Priest, He will be subject to the Father together with us. Since the [incarnate] Son is both God and human, it is more correct to say that the humanity in the Son is a different substance [from the Son] than to say that the Son in the Father [is another substance from the Father]. Similarly, the flesh belonging to my soul differs more in substance from my soul itself, although they belong to one and the same person, than another person’s soul differs from my soul. When He “has handed over the kingdom to God the Father,” that is, when He has brought those who believe and live by faith, for whom He now intercedes as Mediator, to the contemplation we sigh and groan to attain, and when labor and groaning have passed away, then, since the kingdom will have been handed over to God the Father, He will no longer intercede for us. He expresses this when He says: “I have told you these things through likenesses; but the time comes when I will no longer speak to you through likenesses, but will tell you plainly about the Father:” that is, there will no longer be “likenesses” when we see “face to face.” This is what He means when He says, “I will tell you plainly about the Father;” as though He said, I will show you the Father clearly. He says, I will “tell” you, because He is His word. For He goes on to say, “On that day you shall ask in my name; I do not say that I will ask the Father for you: for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came from the Father, and have come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” What is meant by “I came from the Father,” except that I have not appeared in that form in which I am equal to the Father, but in another way, that is, as less than the Father, in the created nature I have taken? And what is meant by “I have come into the world,” except that I have shown even to sinners who love this world the form of a servant I took when I emptied myself? And what is meant by “Again, I leave the world,” except that I take away from those who love this world what they have seen? And what is meant by “I go to the Father,” except that I teach those who believe in me to understand me in my equality with the Father? Those who believe this will be considered worthy to be brought from faith to sight, that is, to the very sight to which He brings them when He is said to “hand over the kingdom to God the Father.” Those who believe in Him, whom He has redeemed with His blood, are called His kingdom, and He now intercedes for them; then, making them remain in Himself where He is equal to the Father, He will no longer ask the Father for them. “For,” He says, “the Father Himself loves you.” He “asks” as one who is less than the Father; as one equal to the Father, He grants requests together with the Father. Therefore He certainly does not exclude Himself from His statement, “The Father Himself loves you;” He means it to be understood in the way I have already described and sufficiently explained: each Person of the Trinity is often named in a way that includes the other Persons as well. Accordingly, “For the Father Himself loves you,” is said in a way that also includes the Son and the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that He does not love us now, for He did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for us all. God loves us as we will be, rather than as we are. This is because He preserves us forever in the condition in which He loves us. This will happen when He who now intercedes for us has “handed over the kingdom to God the Father,” and no longer asks the Father, because the Father Himself loves us. What deserves this except faith, through which we believe before seeing what is promised? Through this faith we will arrive at sight, so that He may love us as the people He loves us to become, rather than as the people He hates us for being, and urges and enables us not to want to remain forever.

Once we have understood this rule for interpreting the Scriptures about the Son of God, distinguishing what they say about the form of God, in which He is equal to the Father, from what they say about the form of a servant He took, in which He is less than the Father, we will not be troubled by statements in the sacred books that seem to conflict or contradict one another. For both the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the form of God, are equal to the Father, because neither of them is a creature, as we have already shown: but in the form of a servant He is less than the Father, because He Himself has said, “My Father is greater than I;” and He is less than Himself, because it is said of Him, He emptied Himself; and He is less than the Holy Spirit, because He Himself says, “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” He also performed miracles in the Spirit, saying: “If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” In Isaiah, in the passage He Himself read in the synagogue and showed beyond any doubt to be fulfilled in Himself, He says, “The Spirit of the Lord God,” He says, “is upon me: because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the meek; He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives,” etc.: He says He is “sent” to do these things because the Spirit of God is on Him. In the form of God, all things were made by Him; in the form of a servant, He Himself was born of a woman, born under the law. In the form of God, He and the Father are one; in the form of a servant, He came to do the will of the One who sent Him rather than His own will. In the form of God, “As the Father has life in Himself, so He has given the Son life in Himself;” in the form of a servant, His “soul is sorrowful to the point of death;” and, “My Father,” He says, “if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” In the form of God, “He is the True God, and eternal life;” in the form of a servant, “He became obedient to death, even death on the cross.” 23. In the form of God, all things that the Father has are His, and “All mine,” He says, “are Yours, and Yours are mine;” in the form of a servant, His teaching is not His own but belongs to the One who sent Him.

Again, “No one knows that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven or the Son, but only the Father.” He is said not to know this because He keeps others from knowing it; that is, He did not know it in the sense of revealing it to His disciples at that time, as it was said to Abraham, “Now I know that you fear God,” meaning, I have now made you know it; because Abraham came to know himself through that test. He certainly intended to tell His disciples this at the right time; speaking of this future event as though it had already happened, He says, “From now on I call you friends rather than servants, because a servant does not know what his master does; but I have called you friends; for everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you;” He had not yet done this, but spoke as though He had, because He certainly would do it. For He says to the disciples themselves, “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now.” These should also be understood to include, “About the day and hour.” The apostle also says, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified;” because he was speaking to those who were unable to receive higher teachings about Christ’s Godhead. A little later he tells them, “I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as fleshly people.” Among them, he was therefore “ignorant” of what they were unable to learn from him. He said he knew only what it was appropriate for them to learn from him. Among the mature, he knew what he did not know among infants; for he says there: “We speak wisdom among the mature.” A person is said not to know what they conceal, using the same figure of speech by which a hidden ditch is called blind. The Scriptures use the same kinds of speech that people use, because they speak to people. In the form of God, it is said “Before all the hills He begot me,” that is, before all the heights of created things and, “Before the dawn I begot You,” that is, before all times and things that exist in time; but in the form of a servant, it is said, “The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways.” In the form of God He said, “I am the truth;” and in the form of a servant, “I am the way.” As the first-begotten of the dead, He Himself opened a passage to God’s kingdom and eternal life for His Church, whose Head He is, making the body immortal too; that is why He was “created in the beginning of the ways” of God in His work. In the form of God, He is the beginning who also speaks to us, in which “beginning” God created the heaven and the earth; but in the form of a servant, “He is a bridegroom coming out of His chamber.” In the form of God, “He is the first-born of every creature, and He is before all things and all things hold together through Him;” in the form of a servant, “He is the head of the body, the Church.” In the form of God, “He is the Lord of glory.” This clearly shows that He Himself glorifies His saints: for, “Those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified.” Accordingly, it is said of Him that He justifies the ungodly; it is said of Him that He is just and a justifier. If, therefore, He has also glorified those whom He has justified, the One who justifies also glorifies; He is, as I have said, the Lord of glory. Yet in the form of a servant, He replied to His disciples, when they asked about their own glorification: “To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them] for whom it is prepared by my Father.” What His Father prepares is also prepared by the Son Himself, because He and the Father are one. For we have already shown, through many expressions in the divine Scriptures, that, in this Trinity, what is said of each is also said of all, because the one and same substance acts inseparably. He also says about the Holy Spirit, “If I depart, I will send Him to you.” He did not say, We will send; but spoke as though only the Son would send Him, rather than the Father; yet He says elsewhere, “I have told you these things while I am still with you; but the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things.” Here again He speaks as though only the Father would send Him and the Son would not. As in these passages, so also when He says, “But for them for whom it is prepared by my Father,” He means that He Himself, together with the Father, prepares seats of glory for whomever He wishes. Someone may object: There, when He spoke of the Holy Spirit, He says that He Himself will send Him without denying that the Father will send Him; in the other passage, He says the Father will send Him without denying that He will do so Himself; but here He expressly says, “It is not mine to give,” and so goes on to say that these things are prepared by the Father. This is precisely what we have already explained as referring to the form of a servant: namely, we should understand “It is not mine to give,” as meaning, This is not something human power can give; He should therefore be understood to give it in His divinity, in which He is equal to the Father. “It is not mine,” He says, “to give;” that is, I do not give these things by human power, but “to those for whom it is prepared by my Father;” but be sure also to understand that if “everything the Father has is mine,” then this certainly is mine also, and I with the Father have prepared these things. I ask again how we should understand, “If anyone does not hear my words, I will not judge him?” Perhaps His words here, “I will not judge him,” have the same meaning as His words there, “It is not mine to give.” But what follows here? “I did not come,” He says, “to judge the world, but to save the world;” and then He adds, “Whoever rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge.” We would understand this to mean the Father, if He had not added, “The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” Then will neither the Son, because He says, “I will not judge him,” nor the Father judge, but only the word the Son has spoken? No; listen to what follows: “For I,” He says, “have not spoken on my own; but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak; and I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatever I say, I say just as the Father told me.” If the Son does not judge, but “the word which the Son has spoken;” and the word He has spoken judges because the Son “has not spoken on His own, but the Father who sent Him commanded Him what to say and speak:” then the Father certainly judges, since the Son has spoken His word; and the same Son Himself is the very Word of the Father. The Father’s commandment is not one thing and His word another; for He has called it both a word and a commandment. Let us consider whether, when He says, “I have not spoken on my own,” He meant, I am not born from myself. For if He speaks the word of the Father, then He speaks Himself, because He is Himself the Word of the Father. He often says, “The Father gave to me;” meaning that the Father begot Him: He did not give something to a Son who already existed without it; rather, To have given so that He might have means To have begotten so that He might exist. Created beings are not like the Son of God before He became human and took our flesh, the Only-begotten through whom all things were made: He is not one thing while possessing another; He is what He has. For anyone capable of grasping it, this is stated more clearly in the passage where He says: “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given the Son life in Himself.” He did not give life in Himself to a Son who already existed without life; in His very being, He is life. Therefore “He gave the Son life in Himself” means, He begot the Son as unchanging life, which is eternal life. Since, therefore, the Word of God is the Son of God, and the Son of God is “the true God and eternal life,” as John says in his letter, what else should we recognize here when the Lord says, “The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day,” and calls that very word the Father’s word and commandment, and calls that very commandment eternal life? “And I know,” He says, “that His commandment is life everlasting.” I ask, therefore, how we should understand, “I will not judge him; but the Word I have spoken will judge him:” from what follows, this seems to mean, I will not judge; but the Word of the Father will judge. But the Word of the Father is the Son of God Himself. Should we understand this as: I will not judge, but I will judge? How can this be true, except in this way: I will not judge by human power, because I am the Son of man; but I will judge by the power of the Word, because I am the Son of God? If it still seems contradictory and inconsistent to say, I will not judge, but I will judge; what should we say about the passage where He says, “My teaching is not mine?” How “mine,” when “not mine?” For He did not say, This teaching is not mine, but “ My teaching is not mine:” He calls the very same thing His own and not His own. How can this be true, unless He has called it His own in one respect and not His own in another? In the form of God, the teaching is His own; in the form of a servant, it is not His own. For when He says, “It is not mine, but belongs to the One who sent me,” He directs us back to the Word itself. For the Father’s teaching is the Word of the Father, which is the Only Son. What does this also mean: “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me?” How can someone believe in Him and yet not believe in Him? How can we understand something so contradictory and inconsistent: “Whoever believes in me,” He says, “does not believe in me, but in the One who sent me;” unless it means, Whoever believes in me does not believe in what they see, so that our hope is not placed in a created being; but in Him who took a created nature, through which He could appear to human eyes and so cleanse our hearts by faith to contemplate Himself as equal to the Father? So that in turning the attention of believers to the Father, and saying, “Does not believe in me, but in the One who sent me,” He certainly did not mean Himself to be separated from the Father, that is, from the One who sent Him; He meant that people should believe in Him in the same way as in the Father, to whom He is equal. He says this explicitly elsewhere: “You believe in God, believe also in me:” that is, in the same way as you believe in God, so also believe in me; because I and the Father are One God. Just as here He seems to draw people’s faith away from Himself and direct it toward the Father, by saying, “Does not believe in me, but in the One who sent me,” without in fact separating Himself from the Father, so also, when He says, “It is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them] for whom it is prepared by my Father,” I think it is clear in what respect both statements should be understood. The other statement is similar: “I will not judge;” yet He Himself will judge the living and the dead. Since He will not do so by human power, He directs attention back to the Godhead and raises human hearts upward; He Himself came down to lift them up.

Unless the very same person were the Son of man because of the form of a servant He took and the Son of God because of the form of God in which He exists, Paul the apostle would not say of this world’s rulers, “For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” He was crucified in the form of a servant, and yet “the Lord of glory” was crucified. That “taking” made God human and the human being God. Yet which statements refer to which grounds and which nature can be discerned by anyone who reads thoughtfully, carefully, and devoutly, with the Lord’s help. For example, we have said that He glorifies His own, as God, and therefore as the Lord of glory. Yet the Lord of glory was crucified, because even God is rightly said to have been crucified, in the weakness of the flesh rather than the power of divinity. Similarly, we say that He judges as God, that is, by divine power, rather than human power. Yet the man Himself will judge, just as the Lord of glory was crucified. He says explicitly: “When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, and all nations are gathered before Him;” followed by everything else predicted there about the coming judgment, right up to the final statement. The Jewish people who will be punished in that judgment for persisting in their wickedness, as it is elsewhere written, “will look at Him whom they have pierced.” Although both good and bad will see the Judge of the living and dead, the bad will certainly see Him only in the form in which He is the Son of man; yet they will see Him in the glory in which He will judge, rather than the humble condition in which He was judged. The ungodly will certainly not see that form of God in which He is equal to the Father. For they are not pure in heart; and “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” That sight is face to face, the very sight promised as the highest reward to the righteous, and it will take place when He “has handed over the kingdom to God the Father;” and in this “kingdom” He means to include the sight of His own form, with the whole of creation subjected to God, including the created nature in which the Son of God became the Son of man. In this created nature, “The Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” If the Son of God were to judge in the form in which He is equal to the Father and appear in that form to the ungodly too, what would become of the great promise He makes to the one who loves Him, saying, “And I will love him, and reveal myself to him?” Therefore He will judge as the Son of man, yet not by human power, but by the power through which He is the Son of God; conversely, He will judge as the Son of God, yet without appearing in that [unincarnate] form in which He is God equal to the Father, but in that [incarnate form] in which He is the Son of man. Both ways of speaking can therefore be used: the Son of man will judge, and, the Son of man will not judge: since the Son of man will judge, in keeping with the truth of the passage, “When the Son of man comes, all nations will be gathered before Him;” and the Son of man will not judge, in keeping with the truth of the passage, “I will not judge him;” and, “I do not seek my own glory: there is One who seeks and judges.” Because at the judgment the form of the Son of man will appear rather than the form of God, the Father Himself will not judge; this is the meaning of the words, “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.” This may be said in the sense we have already discussed, where it is said, “So He has given the Son life in Himself,” meaning that He begot the Son in this way, or in the sense of the apostle’s words, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name.” This is said of the Son of man, in whom the Son of God was raised from the dead; He was equal to the Father in the form of God, from which He “emptied” Himself by taking the form of a servant, and He acts, suffers, and receives in that same form of a servant, what the apostle describes next: “He humbled Himself, and became obedient to death, even death on the cross; therefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, in the Glory of God the Father:” Whether the words, “He has entrusted all judgment to the Son,” are spoken in one sense or the other, this passage makes it clear enough that if they had the same sense as the words, “He has given the Son life in Himself,” it certainly would not say, “The Father judges no one.” Insofar as the Father has begotten the Son equal to Himself, He judges with Him. It is therefore said because at the judgment the form of the Son of man will appear rather than the form of God. This does not mean that the One who entrusted all judgment to the Son will not judge, since the Son says of Him, “There is One who seeks and judges:” rather, the words, “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son;” mean, No one will see the Father at the judgment of the living and the dead, but everyone will see the Son: because He is also the Son of man, so that He can be seen even by the ungodly, since they too will see Him whom they have pierced. To show that this is clearly proven rather than merely a guess, let us give a clear and definite statement from the Lord Himself to show why He said, “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,” specifically, because He will appear as Judge in the form of the Son of man, which is not the form of the Father, but of the Son; nor the form of the Son in which He is equal to the Father, but that in which He is less than the Father; so that at the judgment He can be visible both to the good and to the bad. A little later He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever hears my word and believes in the One who sent me has everlasting life, and will not be condemned, but will pass from death to life.” This eternal life is the sight that is not given to the bad. Then He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, The hour is coming, and is already here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” This belongs to the godly, who hear of His becoming human and believe that He is the Son of God, that is, who receive Him as having become less than the Father for their sake in the form of a servant, while believing Him equal to the Father in the form of God. He continues by emphasizing this very point: “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given the Son life in Himself.” He then speaks of the sight of His own glory, in which He will come to judge; both the ungodly and the righteous will see it. For He goes on to say, “And has given Him authority to judge as well, because He is the Son of man.” I think nothing could be clearer. Insofar as the Son of God is equal to the Father, He does not receive this power of judging, but He has it with the Father in secret; but He receives it, so that the good and the bad may see Him judging, insofar as He is the Son of man. The bad too will see the Son of man: only the pure in heart will see the form of God, because they shall see God. This is granted only to the godly, whom He promises to show Himself to in response to their love. Notice what follows: “Do not be amazed at this,” He says. Why does He tell us not to be amazed? Everyone who does not understand is amazed that He said the Father gave Him authority to judge because He is the Son of man; one might instead have expected Him to say, since He is the Son of God. The wicked cannot see the Son of God as He is in the form of God equal to the Father. Yet both the righteous and the wicked must see the Judge of the living and dead, when they are judged in His presence. “Do not be amazed at this,” He says, “for the hour is coming, when everyone in the graves will hear His voice and come out: those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation.” For this purpose He had to receive that authority because He is the Son of man, so that everyone who rises again can see Him in the form visible to all, some for condemnation and others for eternal life. What is eternal life except the sight not granted to the ungodly? “That they may know You,” He says, “the One true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” And how are they to know Jesus Christ Himself also, except as the one true God, who will show Himself to them, rather than as He will appear in the form of the Son of man to those who will be punished? He is “good,” in the sight in which God appears to the pure in heart; for “truly God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are pure.” When the wicked see the Judge, He will not seem good to them; because they will not rejoice in their heart to see Him, but all “peoples of the earth will then mourn because of Him,” as people counted among all the wicked and unbelieving. This is also why He replied to the man who had called Him Good Teacher, who asked Him how to attain eternal life, “Why do you ask me about good? no one is good except One, that is, God.” And yet the Lord Himself, in another place, calls a human being good: “A good man,” He says, “out of the good treasure of his heart, brings out good things: and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings out evil things.” Yet that man was seeking eternal life, and eternal life consists in that contemplation in which God is seen, for eternal joy rather than punishment; and he did not understand with whom he was speaking, and thought He was only the Son of man. Why, He says, do you ask me about good? That is, as for the form you see, why do you ask about good, and call me, on the basis of what you see, Good Teacher? This is the form of the Son of man, the form He has taken, the form that will appear in judgment, not only to the righteous, but also to the ungodly; and seeing this form will not be good for the wicked. Yet there is also a sight of that form of mine, in which I did not consider it robbery to be equal with God: I emptied myself to take this form. That one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, will appear only for a joy that cannot be taken from the righteous; the one who says the following sighs for that future joy: “I have desired one thing from the Lord, and that is what I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to see the beauty of the Lord:” that one God Himself, I say, is alone good, because no one sees Him for sorrow and mourning, but only for salvation and true joy. If you understand me in this latter form, then I am good; but if only in that former form, then why do you ask me about good? If you are among those who “will look at Him whom they have pierced,” that very sight will be bad for them because it will be a punishment. The evidence I have given makes this a probable meaning of the Lord’s words, “Why do you ask me about good? No one is good except One, that is, God.” In that sight of God, we will contemplate His substance, which is unchanging and invisible to human eyes. This sight is promised to the saints alone. The Apostle Paul calls it “face to face;” and the Apostle John says of it, “We will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.” It is also said of it, “I have desired one thing from the Lord, to see the beauty of the Lord,” and the Lord Himself says of it, “I will love him and reveal myself to him.” It is for this sight alone that we cleanse our hearts by faith, that we may be those “pure in heart who are blessed for they shall see God.” As for everything else said about that sight, anyone who turns the eye of love toward seeking it can find many such passages throughout the Scriptures. That sight alone, I say, is our highest good, and attaining it is the aim of everything we do rightly. Yet the predicted sight of the Son of man, when all nations are gathered before Him and say, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, etc.?” will be neither a good for the ungodly, who will be sent into eternal fire, nor the highest good for the righteous. He goes on to call the righteous to the kingdom prepared for them from the world’s foundation. Just as He will tell the first group, “Depart into everlasting fire;” so He will tell the second, “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” And those will go into eternal burning, while the righteous will go into eternal life. What is eternal life, except “that they may know You,” He says, “the One true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent?” They will know Him in the glory of which He says to the Father, “Which I had with You before the world existed.” For then He will hand over the kingdom to God the Father, so that the good servant can enter into the joy of his Lord, and He can hide those whom God keeps in the shelter of His presence from human confusion, that is, from those who will then be dismayed to hear this judgment. On hearing this bad news, “the righteous man shall not be afraid” provided he is kept in “the tabernacle,” that is, in the true faith of the Catholic Church, from “the strife of tongues,” that is, from the deceptive arguments of heretics. If there is another explanation of the Lord’s words, where He says, “Why do you ask me about good? No one is good except One, that is, God;” provided it does not lead us to believe that the Father’s substance is better than the Son’s, in which He is the Word by whom all things were made; and if it has nothing incompatible with sound teaching, we can safely use it, and not one explanation only, but as many as we can find. The more ways we have to escape their traps, the more powerfully the heretics are proved wrong. Let us now make a fresh start and consider what remains.