God’s Glory in the Face of Christ; Treasure in Earthen Vessels

…our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

By this phrase our guide into the mysteries makes clear that faith is directed to God, even when it is exercised in the face of Christ. For both Jews and Greeks have been called to the knowledge of Christ: the one group, as it were, out of error and false worship into the true knowledge of God; the other, who were schooled under the Law, into a knowledge more exact than that of the Law. That is why the inspired Paul too is seen to have cared little for the lessons of the Law, “because of the surpassing worth of the knowledge” of Christ (Philippians 3:8).

Since, then, the guides into the mysteries preach Christ, and those who believe in God believe in the one God, and believe truly, how is Christ not God? He is not spurious, not falsely so called, not of another nature than the Father; rather, He is true God, as being from Him by nature.

The mind of those who go astray is filled with a darkness of the mind and with demonic deceit, but God promised that light would shine out of darkness for us (2 Corinthians 4:6). For He said somewhere through the voice of Isaiah, “The people that sits in darkness, see a great light; you who dwell in the land and shadow of death, a light will shine on you” (Isaiah 9:2). And the inspired David says, as if speaking for those in gloom and darkness, “For You will light my lamp, O Lord; my God, You will light up my darkness” (Psalm 18:28). Since the Father’s promise has now been fulfilled in us, and the divine light, seen by the mind, has dawned on us, we have come to know His glory in the face of Christ.

And then, if Christ is not God by nature and in truth, how have we beheld the Father’s glory in Him? Yet I plainly hear God the Father say, “My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 42:8); and see, He has given it to the Son. The Son, then, is not other than He, except in His own hypostasis and in His distinct existence; otherwise the Father would seem to have spoken falsely when He set His own glory in the face of the Son. It shows, too, that He who is God by nature is known both in Him and through Him. For the Son is the face and image and radiance of His hypostasis (Hebrews 1:3). The Son is revealed by the Father, and He in turn reveals the Father to us in Himself (Matthew 11:27).

Volume 3, Discourse 1.

“In earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7). He calls the plainness of his speech “earthen vessels.” For the divine mysteries were not handed down to us in pompous words, but in the language that everyone is used to, so that all might learn and understand.

What then, Paul? Was it not within the power of God, who makes all wise, to make the holy apostles exceedingly eloquent with ease, far more polished in speech than those others, and skilled at stunning their hearers with the din of words? “Yes,” he says, “for He Himself is the giver of wisdom.” But He has shut up the divine treasure for us in earthen vessels, that is, in a lowly form. For what reason? “So that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

For in this way the apostles persuaded all to run to the faith. If their speech had been brilliant, it might at times have seemed that the faith of those who were called was not the work of His power. But since they persuaded with plain words, no one doubts that the surpassing power at work in this came from God.

By “earthen vessels” we mean the bodies we wear while we live among the things of sense, and we mean it in this way: since, while still clothed in flesh, which hinders the contemplation of the truth, we have the knowledge of the Trinity, the surpassing greatness of this knowledge is made known to us as coming not from ourselves but from the power of God.

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed,” and so on (2 Corinthians 4:8).

For they are seen to have endured even death itself for the sake of their devotion to Him. Yet even if this befell them, still they live, since they are to live to God. And, as the book of Wisdom says, “In the eyes of men they seemed…” (Wisdom of Solomon 3:2).