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1. AFTER the Lord Jesus had prayed for His disciples whom He
had with Him at the time, and had conjoined with them others who were
also His own, by saying, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also who shall believe on me through their word," as if we were
inquiring what or wherefore He prayed for them, He straightway
subjoined, "That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, [art]
in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us." And a
little above, while still praying for the disciples alone who were then
with Him, He said, "Holy Father, keep in Thine own name those
whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are" (ver.
11). It is the same thing, therefore, that He now also prayed
for in our behalf, as He did at that time in theirs, namely, that
all to wit, both we and they may be one. And here we must take
particular notice that the Lord did not say that we all may be one,
but, "that they all may be one; as Thou Father, in me, and I in
Thee" (where is to be understood are one, as is more clearly
expressed afterwards); because He had also said before of the
disciples who were with Him, "That they may be one, as we are."
The Father, therefore, is in the Son, and the Son in the
Father, in such a way as to be one, because they are of one
substance; but while we may indeed be in them, we cannot be one with
them; for they and we are not of one substance, in as far as the Son
is God along with the Father. But in as far as He is man, He is
of the same substance as we are. But at present He wished rather to
call attention to that other statement which He made use of in another
place, "I and the Father are one," where He intimated that His
own nature was the same with that of the Father. And accordingly,
though the Father and Son, or even the Holy Spirit, are in us, we
must not suppose that they are of one nature with ourselves. And hence
they are in us, or we are in them, in this sense, that they are one
in their own nature, and we are one in ours. For they are in us, as
God in His temple; but we are in them, as the creature in its
Creator.
2. But then after saying, "That they also may be one in us," He
added, "That the world may believe that Thou hast sent me." What
does He mean by this? Is it that the world will then be brought to
the faith, when we shall all be one in the Father and Son? Is not
such a state the everlasting peace, and the reward of faith, rather
than faith itself? For we shall be one not in order to our believing,
but because we have believed. But although in this life, because of
the common faith itself, all who believe in one are one according to
the words of the apostle, "For ye are all one in Christ Jesus ;"
even thus we are one, not in order to our believing, but because we do
believe. What, then, is meant by the words, "That they all may be
one, that the world may believe"? This, doubtless, that the
"all" are themselves the believing world. For those who shall be one
are not of one class, and the world that is thereafter to believe on
this very ground that these shall be one, of another; since it is
perfectly certain that He says, "That they all may be one," of
those of whom He had said before, "Neither pray I for these alone,
but for those also who shall believe on me through their word,"
immediately adding as He does, "That they all may be one." And
this "all," what is it but the world; not certainly that which is
hostile, but that which is believing? For you see here that He who
had said, "I pray not for the world," now prayeth for the world
that it may believe. For there is a world whereof it is written,
"That we might not be condemned with this world." For that world
He prayeth not, for He is fully aware to what it is predestinated.
And there is a world whereof it is written, "For the Son of man
came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be
saved ;" and hence the apostle also says, "God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself." For this world it is that He
prayeth, in saying, "That the world may believe that Thou hast sent
me." For through this faith the world is reconciled unto God when it
believes in the Christ whom God has sent. How, then, are we to
understand Him when He says, "That they also may be one in us,
that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me," but just in this
way, that He did not assign the cause of the world believing to the
fact that those others are one, as if it believed on the ground that it
saw them to be one; for the world itself here consisteth of all who by
their own believing become one; but in His prayer He said, "That
the world may believe," just as in His prayer He also said, "That
they all may be one;" and still further in the same prayer, "That
they also may be one in us." For the words, "they all may be
one," are equivalent to "the world may believe," since it is by
believing that they become one, perfectly one; that is, those who,
although one by nature, had ceased to be so by their mutual
dissensions. In fine, if the verb which He uses, "I pray," be
understood in the third clause, or rather, to make the whole fuller,
be everywhere supplied, the explanation of this sentence will be all
the clearer: I pray "that they all may be one; as Thou, Father,
in me, and I in Thee ;" I pray "that they also may be one in us
;" I pray "that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me."
And, mark, He added the words "in us" in order that we may know
that our being made one in that love of unchanging faithfulness is to be
attributed to the grace of God, and not to ourselves: just as the
apostle, after saying, "For ye were at one time darkness, but now
are ye light," that none might attribute the doing of this to
themselves, added, " in the Lord."
3. Furthermore, our Saviour in thus praying to the Father showed
Himself to be man; while He now also shows that He Himself, as
being God along with the Father, doeth that which He prayeth for,
when He says, "And the glory which Thou gavest me, I have given
them." And what was that glory but immortality, which human nature
was henceforth to receive in Him? For not even He Himself had as
yet received it, but in His own customary way, on account of the
absolute fixedness of predestination, He intimates what is future in
verbs of the past tense, because being now on the point of being
glorified, or in other words, raised up again by the Father, He
Himself is going to raise us up to the same glory in the end. What we
have here is similar to what He says elsewhere, "As the Father
raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth
whom He will." And "whom," but just the same as the Father?
"For what things soever the Father doeth," not other things, but
"these also doeth the Son," not in a different way, but "in like
manner." And in this way He also raised up even His own self. For
to this effect he said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up again." Accordingly the glory of immortality, which
He says had been given Him by the Father, He must be also
understood as having bestowed upon Himself, although He does not say
it. For on this very account He more frequently says that the Father
alone doeth, what He Himself also doeth along with the Father, that
everything whatever He may attribute to Him of whom He is. But
sometimes also He is silent about the Father, and says that He
Himself doeth what He only doeth along with the Father: that we may
thereby understand that the Son is not to be separated from the working
of the Father, when He is silent about Himself, and ascribes some
work or other to the Father; as, on the other hand, the Father is
not separated from the working of the Son, when the Son is said,
without any mention being made of [the Father] Himself, to be doing
some work in which nevertheless both are equally engaged. When,
therefore, in some work of the Father, the Son says nothing of His
own working, He commends humility, that He may become the source of
sounder health to us; but when, in turn, in the case of some work of
His own, He says nothing of the working of the Father, He commends
His own equality, that we may not suppose Him to be inferior. In
this way, then, and in this passage, He neither estranges Himself
from the Father's working, although He has said, "The glory which
Thou gavest me ;" for He also gave it to Himself: nor does He
estrange the Father from His own working, although saying, "I have
given to them ;" for the Father also gave it to them. For the works
not only of the Father and the Son, but also of the Holy Spirit,
are inseparable. But just as, because of His praying the Father in
behalf of all His people, it was His own pleasure that this should be
done, "that they all may be one;" so also on the ground of His own
beneficence, as expressed in the words, "The glory which Thou
gavest me, I have given them," the doing of that was none the less
His pleasure; for He immediately added, "That they may be one, as
we also are one."
4. And then He added: "I in them, and Thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one." Here He briefly intimated Himself as
tim Mediator between God and men. Nor was this said in any such way
as if the Father were not in us, or we were not in the Father; since
He had also said in another place, "We will come unto him, and make
our abode with him;" and a little before in this present passage He
had not said," I in them and Thou in me," as He said now; or,
They in me, and I in Thee; but, "Thou in me, and I in Thee,
and they in us." Accordingly, when He now says, "I in them, and
Thou in me," the words take this form in reference to the person of
the Mediator, like that other expression used by the apostle," Ye
are Christ's, and Christ is God's." But in adding, "That
they may be made perfect in one," He showed that the reconciliation,
which is effected by the Mediator, is carried to the very length of
bringing us to the enjoyment of that perfect blessedness, which is
thenceforth incapable of further addition. Hence the words that
follow, "That the world may know that Thou hast sent me," are
not, I think, to be taken as if He had again said, "That the
world may believe;" for sometimes, to know, is also used in the same
sense as to believe, as it is in the words He uttered some time
before: "And they have known truly that I came out from Thee, and
they have believed that Thou didst send me." He expressed the same
thing by the later words, "they have believed," as He had done by
the earlier, "they have known." But inasmuch as He here speaks of
the consummation, the knowledge must be taken for such, as it shall
then be by sight, and not, as it now is, by faith. For an order
seems to have been preserved in reference to what He said a little
before, "that the world may believe;" while here it is, "that the
world may know." For although He said there, "that they all may be
one," and "may be one in us," yet He did not say, "they may be
made perfect in one," and so subjoined the words, "that the world
may believe that Thou hast sent me;" but here He said, "That they
may be made perfect in one," and then added, not, "that the world
may believe," but, "that the world may know that Thou hast sent
me." For so long as we believe what we do not see, we are not yet
made perfect, as we shall be when we have merited the sight of that
which we believe. Most correctly, therefore, did He say in that
previous place, "That the world may believe," and here "That the
world tray know ;" yet both there and here, "that Thou hast sent me
;" that we may know, so far as belongs to the inseparable love of the
Father and the Son, that at present we only believe what we are on
the way, by believing, to know. And had He said, That they may
know that Thou hast sent me, it would be just of the same force as
what He actually does say, "that the world may know." For they are
the world that abideth not in enmity, as doth the world that is
foreordained to damnation; but one that out of an enemy has been
transformed into a friend, and on whose account "God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself." Therefore said He, "I in
them, and Thou in me;" as if He had said, I in those to whom
Thou hast sent me; and Thou in me, reconciling the world unto
Thyself through me.
5. In close relation to these come also His further words: "And
Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me." That is to say, in the
Son the Father loveth us, because in Him He hath chosen us before
the foundation of the world. For He who loveth the Only-begotten,
certainly loveth also His members which, through His
instrumentality, He engrafted into Him by adoption. But we are not
on this account equal to the only-begotten Son, by whom we have been
created and re-created, that it is said, "Thou hast loved them as
[Thou hast] also [loved] me." For one does not always intimate
equality when he says, As this, so also that other; but sometimes
only, Because this is, so also is the other; or, That the one is,
in order that the other may be also. For who could say that the
apostles were sent by Christ into the world in exactly the same way as
He Himself was sent by the Father? For, to say nothing of other
differences, which it would be tedious to mention, they at all events
were sent when they were already men; but He was sent in order that
He might be man; and yet He said above, "As Thou hast sent me
into the world, even so have I sent them into the world ;" as if He
had said, Because Thou hast sent me, I have sent them. So also in
the passage before us He says, "Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast
loved me ;" which is nothing else than this, Thou hast loved them
because that Thou hast also loved me. For He could not but love the
members of the Son, seeing that He loveth the Son Himself; nor is
there any other reason for loving His members, save that He loveth
Himself. But He loveth the Son as regards His Godhead, because
He begat Him equal with Himself; He loveth Him also in regard to
what He is as man, because the Only-begotten Word was Himself made
flesh, and on account of the Word is the flesh of the Word dear to
Him; but He loveth us, inasmuch as we are the members of Him whom
He loveth; and in order that we might be so, He loved us on this
account before we existed.
6. The love, therefore, wherewith God loveth, is incomprehensible
and immutable. For it was not from the time that we were reconciled
unto Him by the blood of His Son that He began to love us; but He
did so before the foundation of the world, that we also might be His
sons along with His Only-begotten, before as yet we had any
existence of our own. Let not the fact, then, of our having been
reconciled unto God through the death of His Son be so listened to or
so understood, as if the Son reconciled us to Him in this respect,
that He now began to love those whom He formerly hated, in the same
way as enemy is reconciled to enemy, so that thereafter they become
friends, and mutual love takes the place of their mutual hatred; but
we were reconciled unto Him who already loved us, but with whom we
were at enmity because of our sin. Whether I say the truth on this,
let the apostle testify, when he says: "God commendeth His love
toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us." He, therefore. had love toward us even when we were practising
enmity against Him and working iniquity; and yet to Him it is said
with perfect truth, "Thou hatest, O Lord, all workers of
iniquity." Accordingly, in a wonderful and divine manner, even when
He hated us, He loved us; for He hated us, in so far as we were
not what He Himself had made; and because our own iniquity had not in
every part consumed His work, He knew at once both how, in each of
us, to hate what we had done, and to love what He had done. And
this, indeed, may be understood in the case of all regarding Him to
whom it is truly said, "Thou hatest nothing that Thou hast made."
For He would never have wished anything that He hated to exist, nor
would aught that the Omnipotent had not wished exist at all, were it
not that in what He hated there was also something that He loved.
For He justly hateth and reprobateth vice as utterly repugnant to the
principle of His procedure, yet He loveth even in the persons of the
vitiated what is susceptible either of His own beneficence through
healing, or of His judgment by condemnation. In this way God at the
same time hateth nothing of what He has made; for as the Creator of
natures, and not of vices, it was not He who made the evil that He
hateth; and of these same evils, all is good that He really doeth,
either by mercifully healing them, or by judicially regulating them.
Seeing, then, that He hateth nothing that He hath made, who can
worthily describe how much He loveth the members of His
Only-begotten, and how much more the Only-begotten Himself, in
whom are hid all things visible and invisible, which were ordained in
their various classes, and which He loves in fullest harmony with such
ordination? For the members of His Only-begotten He is leading on
by the liberality of His grace to an equality with the holy angels;
while the Only-begotten Himself, being Lord of all, is doubtless
Lord of angels, being by nature, as God, the equal not of angels,
but rather of the Father Himself; while through grace, in respect of
which He is man, how can He otherwise than surpass all angelic
excellence, seeing that in Him human flesh and the Word constitute
but one personality?
7. Nevertheless there are not wanting some who place us likewise
before the angels; because, they say, Christ died for us and not for
angels. But what else is such a notion than the desire to glory over
our very impiety? For "Christ," as the apostle says, "in due
time died for the ungodly." Where it is not any desert of ours, but
the mercy of God, that is commended. For what can be the character
of the man who wishes himself to be lauded, because he has become so
abominably diseased through his own wickedness, that he can only be
healed by the death of his physician? That surely is not the glory of
our deserts, but the medicine of our diseases. Or do we prefer
ourselves to the angels on this account, that, while there are angels
also who have sinned, there has been no such labor expended on their
healing? As if something that was at least small in amount had been
undertaken for them, and what was greater for us. But had even such
been the case, it might still be a subject of inquiry whether it was so
because we had once stood in a position of superior excellence, or
because we were now lying in a more desperate condition. But knowing
as we do that the Creator of all good has imparted no grace for the
reparation of angelic evils, why do we not rather draw the inference
that their fault was judged all the more damnable, that the nature of
those who committed it was of a loftier sublimity? For to the same
extent as they less than we ought to have fallen into sin, were they
superior in nature to us. But now in offending against the Creator
they became all the more detestably ungrateful for His beneficence,
that they were created capable of exercising the greater beneficence;
nor was it enough for them to become deserters from Him, but they must
also become our deceivers. This, therefore, is the great goodness of
which we are to be made the subjects by Him, who hath loved us even as
He hath loved Christ, that, for His sake, whose members He wished
us to he, we may be equal to the holy angels, to whom we were created
with an inferiority of nature, and have by our sin fallen into such
greater depths of unworthiness, as to make it incumbent that we should
be in some sort their associates.
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