Cyril, the Trinity & Christ the Uncreated Imprint of God’s Nature

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to all the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus.”

He who was appointed to the apostleship by the will of God and the Father, as he himself here firmly asserts, calls the Son the radiance of the Father and the imprint of His substance. How then could the Son be the imprint of the uncreated and unbegotten essence and substance of the Father, if, as some claim, He came into being from non-existence? For it is absolutely necessary that an exact image of something bear a precise likeness to that of which it is an image. But if the Son is the imprint of the unbegotten Father, He too must be, in accordance with Him, [having the divine essence which is] unbegotten, uncreated, and in every respect truly God. And if this is so, He is not a creature.

“Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

If during the time when the Gentiles were wandering, they were separated from Christ, and for that reason were devoid of good hope and godless in the world — then Christ is the hope and God of all; and if the Gentiles come to know Him, they will escape henceforth from living in godlessness, having learned to know the truly existing Lord. How then could He who is recognized as God by those who were formerly wandering, and who saves those who find Him and brings them within the reach of every good hope, be a creature or a made thing? — in accordance with the saying: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things; enter into the joy of your Lord.”

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, the enmity, in His flesh, having abolished the law of commandments contained in ordinances.”

It is written somewhere concerning the laws of God that nothing is to be added to them and nothing is to be taken away from them. Since God has declared this absolutely, saying that no one is permitted to add anything to what He has ordained, or to take anything away — Christ alone is found to have done this very thing. For He took away by abolishing the law of commandments; and He added the doctrines concerning faith in Him and godliness. How then shall He be numbered among created things — He who possesses the authority that befits God alone, and who alone has accomplished what is fitting for God alone?

“So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”

How then will the Son not be God, if those who are joined to Him through faith are on that account called members of the household of God? And He Himself, when showing the manner of spiritual kinship, says of His own disciples: “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”

Things that come to be by adoption are always modeled after those that exist by nature. And again, things formed by imitation of something fall short of the truth of the originals. If therefore the name of family passes even to us from the fatherhood of God — how greatly do those sin who say that we must be by nature fathers of those who come from us (being and being called such only by imitation of the true Father), while the archetypal and first Father God is to be robbed of the truth of begetting, and the Son is not to be confessed as having proceeded from Him essentially and substantially, but is imagined to be something alien to and imported into the Father’s essence? And how could He be Father at all who has begotten nothing, if indeed the name “Father” signifies the capacity to beget, and binds the one who begets to the one begotten, through the begetting as through a birth-pangs, in a unity of essence? Since then the Father speaks truly when He says to His own Son: “From the womb, before the morning star, I have begotten You” — and He has truly begotten Him from Himself (for this is what “from the womb” signifies) — He cannot be a creature, but is rather God as from God, and Son as naturally from the Father.

“One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all.”

Since there is one Lord, God and Father, how will the Son be Lord, if He is a creature or a made thing? For it is evident that created things have a servile nature. And since there is one faith, how does the one who believes in the Son believe in the Father — if, according to the recklessness of some, He has been cut off from natural communion with the Father? But since God the Father is Lord, the Son also is Lord, and the one who believes in Him believes in the Father. For the Son, who evidently exists from the Father and naturally in the Father, and who in turn has the Father in Himself, is glorified and worshiped together with Him. And so the faith of those who draw near ascends to one single Godhead. How then can He be among creatures — He who has all things in common with the Father as the true fruit of His essence, and not as we who are sons by adoption and grafted shoots?

“Therefore be imitators of God, as dear children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us.”

See again how he knows and names Christ as God. For having said that we must be imitators of God, he at once sets Him before us, and teaches how we ought to imitate Him, saying: “Just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us.” Since Christ is by nature and is named God — and this by the one entrusted with the Gospel by God and the Father — who will tolerate those who say otherwise? And He who is God by nature, how could He be a creature or a made thing?

“For this you know, that no fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”

Behold again: having named Christ, he immediately brings Him in also as God, since God the Father reigns in Him, and He in turn reigns in the Father, according to what He Himself says to the Father: “All that is Mine is Yours, and what is Yours is Mine.” And the kingdom of all things is one — shared by the Son with the Father, and shared by the Father with the Son — with the Holy Spirit reigning together; for thus the holy and worshiped Trinity is referred to the one nature of the Godhead. How then is God the Word, who reigns in the Father and with the Father, a creature?

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”

And who would the sons of disobedience be, if not simply those who have strayed from the Savior’s laws through transgression? And if He, in bringing wrath upon them, is Himself the Savior — through the words: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire” — and blessed Paul both knows Him to be God and presents Him as such through these words, who will endure those who call Him a creature?

“Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'”

If the ability to give light belongs to the Lord, it is the work of light; and Christ gives light; therefore He is light, and true light — “for the darkness did not overtake Him.” And the Father too is true light; therefore the Son is light from light, and God from God. And if this is so, He is not a creature.

That which has received the ability to give light by participation in another has an acquired grace, and could not properly be called light itself. But the Son is not like this: “For I am,” He says, “the Light.” Therefore He is true light, just as the Father also is. And that which is by nature exactly identical to God the Father — how could it be a creature or a made thing? For it would then be time to call the Father Himself by that name too — which is the most absurd thing possible and involves blasphemy beyond measure.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her with the washing of water by the word.”

If none of the prerogatives belonging to the divine nature is found to exist naturally and properly in any created thing — but is rather implanted and placed there by the One who made them, as indeed Paul, setting down this truest of all rules concerning everything, says: “For what do you have that you did not receive?” — it is clear that holiness too resides in God alone, and no longer in others. For they are sanctified by the holy God, receiving sanctification as if from a spring; they themselves cannot sanctify. Therefore, if none of the created things has the power to sanctify, and Christ is found doing this very thing, He is of a different nature in relation to them. And He who has escaped being a creature and possesses the good things of the divine nature — how would He not be God by nature?

Speaking of our Savior Jesus Christ, “In whom also you, having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance.”

If by being sealed with the Holy Spirit we are conformed to God — since the image of the divine essence is engraved in us and the marks of the unbegotten nature are stamped upon us — how can that through which the image of the divine essence is impressed on us, and the seals of the uncreated nature are left in us, be a created thing? For the Spirit does not, after the manner of a painter, depict the divine essence in us as something other than and separate from that essence, nor does He lead us toward the likeness of God in that fashion. Rather, being Himself God and having proceeded from God, He is pressed into the hearts of those who receive Him invisibly as a seal into wax, and through communion and likeness with Himself He repaints our nature into the beauty of the archetype and reveals man once again as the image of God. How then will that through which our nature is refashioned toward God — inasmuch as it has been made a partaker of God — be a creature or a made thing?

Speaking likewise of the coming of our Savior: “And coming, he proclaimed peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near, because through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”

If by receiving the Spirit of Christ we are brought through Him to God and the Father, having been declared partakers of His divine nature, how could that through which we are joined to God as a kind already be a creature or a made thing?

“So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of Christ, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a holy temple, a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

If we are called a holy temple through the Holy Spirit, with God dwelling in us — how will those who number the Spirit among created things not go beyond all impiety, rather than confessing that He who proceeds from the divine nature essentially, and dwells in us in the place of God, belongs to that divine nature?

“To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to illuminate what is the administration of the mystery hidden from the ages in God who created all things.”

And then a little further on he says: “As I wrote before in brief, by reading which you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.” If then the prophet speaks truly when he cries out: “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” — it is plain that none of the created things knows the divine counsel. In the case of men, even a child, I think, would grant this. But let us also consider, if anyone is inclined to doubt, whether the holy powers of the heavens are not likewise without this honor. Hear then the angel in Zechariah praying and saying: “O Lord Almighty, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, which you have overlooked these seventy years?” For if he already knew, why does he approach seeking to learn? But it is evident that he does not know. If therefore none of the other creatures has knowledge of the divine counsel, yet the Spirit searches it out and comprehends it, and knows the deep things of God, and reveals and makes plain to the saints what is hidden in Him — how could He justly be cut off from consubstantiality with God? And how is it not entirely the case that, as His Spirit, He exists from Him and in Him by nature, knowing all things that are in Him? And if this is so, He is not a creature, nor a made thing.