The Unending Kingdom of the Son

How great is the faith and the confession that the true Son is God and not a creature, the only-begotten God the Word.

Peter did not hesitate seeing God indwelling on earth in flesh and blood; for this is that 'flesh and blood did not reveal to you' (Matt 16:17). He recognized the consubstantial and participating branch of God; in this he honored the root which was revealed to him, being self-begotten and unoriginated; he believed in his unity with the Father regarding divinity. He was made blessed by the only blessed Master. The churches were built upon this rock, whose 'gates of Hades' (Matt 16:18)—that is, the arguments of heretics—did not prevail; the keys of the heavens were handed to him, so that for those believing—as Peter himself seems to answer perfectly and as he heard from Christ along with the other apostles: 'baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt 28:19)—they might be opened in the kingdom of God; but for those not thus glorifying the tri-blessed and most desirable entrance, he shall shut it.

For by this, by which he was made blessed, he himself accepted this glory, whereas those speaking against him were caught and cast out. Having truthfully confessed him as the Son of God, that is, genuine and consubstantial, he heard something nearby: 'Bar Jonah', which is interpreted: 'Son of Jonah' (Mark 8:29). Peter was by no means of a different substance to the one who begot him. Along with these things he received authority, and rather all through him, not to forbid those stumbling, but to receive those repenting. For no one is without sin, except he who permitted this authority to Peter, for this is: 'whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in the heavens' (Matt 18:18). He then cast off the inhumanity of Nauatus and Sabbatius.

And Paul, writing to the Galatians, follows these things: 'But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb, was pleased to reveal his Son in me' (Gal 1:15); and to the Colossians: 'giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us for the portion of the inheritance of the saints in light, who has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom...' (Col 1:13).

Therefore, 'the redemption, the forgiveness of sins' (1 Cor 15:22), and to the Corinthians: 'God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord' (1 Cor 1:9), and to the Ephesians: 'and having come, he preached peace to you, the distant and peace to the near, because through him we both have the access in one Spirit to the Father' (Eph 2:17-18).

Concerning the fact that there is no end to the kingdom of the Only-begotten. And so, to be ashamed of heretics saying that after the general resurrection the Son is to hand over the kingdom to the Father, he proclaims that the power of the Son is without end, in this way: Gabriel, being announced by Luke regarding the Theotokos: 'and the Lord God will give to him the throne of David his father, and he will reign over the house of Israel forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end' (Luke 1:32-33), says. And most truly; for if they are restored, in what kingdom of his and when shall we reign with him?

And Paul, writing to the Ephesians: 'every fornicator or unclean person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God' (Eph 5:5). Nevertheless, he speaks of the kingdom after the resurrection. When then, in fact, according to them, does he hand over the kingdom?

And to Timothy in the second epistle: 'I testify before God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearance and his kingdom: preach the word' (2 Tim 4:1). It is clear, then, that he speaks of a kingdom which he possesses indivisibly and without succession with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and into the coming age.

And to the Hebrews: 'and to the angels he says: He who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire; but to the Son: Your throne, O God, is unto the age of ages' (Heb 1:7, 8). And David in the 45th Psalm: 'Your throne, O God, is unto the age of ages; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You loved righteousness and hated iniquity. For this reason God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness among your companions' (Ps 45:6-7). Behold again his kingdom as boundless and his divinity as without beginning.