Kingship and the Distinction of Terms

To have power. I say power means capacity. Someone might think that this is not contained in the Scripture. But it is contained: 'God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will make the way of escape to endure' (1 Cor 10:13). He speaks of capacity; for they say equal to equal. And thus the adversary has the power to endure and to receive the outcome of victory. See then, it is contained.

And again: 'the power of sin is the law' (Rom 7:7). The law is able and to be transgressed. It does not have it by actual operation. And well and timely the apostle has used this expression: 'the power of sin is the law'; for he wants us to be in the capacity of sin and not in the operation. If it had been said: 'the power of righteousness is the law', we would not have been righteous by operation, but in capacity. And being in capacity, we were unjust by operation. Thus the apostle set down the auspicious word; since it also has the power equally for both, for guarding and for transgressing; but because of what is advantageous.

And power also signifies capacity. And the king's camp also signifies it: 'he cast Pharaoh's chariots and his power into the sea' (Ex 15:1). 'A king is not saved by much power,' by much hand and camp. The Savior, therefore, apart from these things signified, is called the power of God; for by what word the Father is able, not having this from power, but from essence, and his essence, according to which he is able, might be called power, so also the Son. He says therefore: 'he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God' (Rom 6:9). As far as it reached human weakness, he underwent the cross. Therefore this God was not able to undergo it, but man was able to suffer this. And indeed he has suffered, but by the power of God he lives. The power, therefore, of God is Christ, as he is God. 'In the power' therefore 'the king rejoices' (Rom 16:20). And the king was spoken of in more ways. We have said.

Kings are to be understood historically as David, by upward leading as the man from Mary, and by imitation and following as those who imitate him. And we have presented, from the epistle to the Corinthians, another kingship besides the immediate one.

'Lord,' therefore, 'in your power the king shall rejoice.' This is said either from the spirit-bearing man or from the Holy Spirit himself who happens to be in him; for when the Holy Spirit says 'Lord,' he says this not only of a man who is already released, but also when he prepares someone to be spirit-bearing. He is therefore the one saying, as in: 'the Lord says to my Lord' (Ps 110:1). And the Savior says: 'If in the Holy Spirit he said Lord, how is he his son?' (Matt 12:42). If he is his son, how is he a slave, and if a slave, how is he a son? He thus shows a certain relation and disposition; for even if the Savior says: 'the Lord created me' (John 10:36), he says it at the right time; for he did not say: 'the Lord begat me'; for to beget belongs to a father, but to create belongs to a lord. When he speaks concerning his own divinity, he does not say 'Lord,' but: 'I am in the Father and the Father in me' (John 10:30). 'I and my Father are one' (John 10:30). And 'Lord' and 'Father' are different things.

Often when we speak concerning a quality, we attribute the things of the quality to the quality, and the things of the quality to the one possessing it. I say that knowledge is to know. It is a falsehood to say that knowledge is ignorant. Opposites are found co-existing, knowledge and ignorance. And I say that the one who knows is knowing. Furthermore, many people often say that a physician ought not to be a lover of money. Then they say that medical science knows how to abstain from greed. He says the habit not apart from the one having it, nor the one having it apart from the habit. Therefore such things are common to both the one having and the one being had. And we have often presented from the teaching of the Apostle, that he calls 'love' the one having love; for when he says: 'love never behaves unseemly' (1 Cor 13:5).