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15. But what is meant by "justified in His blood?" What power
is there in this blood, I beseech you, that they who believe should
be justified in it? And what is meant by "being reconciled by the
death of His Son?" Was it indeed so, that when God the Father
was wroth with us, He saw the death of His Son for us, and was
appeased towards us? Was then His Son already so far appeased
towards us, that He even deigned to die for us; while the Father was
still so far wroth, that except His Son died for us, He would not
be appeased? And what, then, is that which the same teacher of the
Gentiles himself says in another place: "What shall we then say to
these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; how has
He not with Him also freely given us all things?" Pray, unless the
Father had been already appeased, would He have delivered up His own
Son, not sparing Him for us? Does not this opinion seem to be as it
were contrary to that? In the one, the Son dies for us, and the
Father is reconciled to us by His death; in the other, as though the
Father first loved us, He Himself on our account does not spare the
Son, He Himself for us delivers Him up to death. But I see that
the Father loved us also before, not only before the Son died for
us, but before He created the world; the apostle himself being
witness, who says, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world." Nor was the Son delivered up for us as
it were unwillingly, the Father Himself not sparing Him; for it is
said also concerning Him, "Who loved me, and delivered up Himself
for me."3 Therefore together both the Father and the Son, and the
Spirit of both, work all things equally and harmoniously; yet we are
justified in the blood of Christ, and we are reconciled to God by the
death of His Son. And I will explain, as I shall be able, here
also, how this was done, as much as may seem sufficient.
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