42. The words of the Apostle’s faith
are a barrier against your reckless and frenzied profanity, which
forbids you to turn the freedom of speculation into licence, and wander
into error. Every tongue, he says, shall confess that Jesus is
Lord in the glory of God the Father Phil. ii. 11. The Greek is εἰς δόξαν
θεοῦ πατρός,
to the glory of God the Father (R.V.): see note on c. 8.. The Father has glorified Him in
Himself, therefore He must be confessed in the glory of the
Father. And if He is to be confessed in the Father’s glory,
and the Father has glorified Him in Himself, is He not plainly all that
His Father is, since the Father has glorified Him in Himself and He is
to be confessed in the Father’s glory? He is now not merely
in the glory of God, but in the glory of God the Father. The
Father glorifies Him, not with a glory from without, but in
Himself. By taking Him back into that glory, which belongs to
Himself, and which He had with Him before, the Father glorifies Him
with Himself and in Himself. Therefore this confession is
inseparable from Christ even in the humiliation of His manhood, as He
says, And this is eternal life, that they should know Thee, the only
true God, Him, Whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ St. John xvii. 3.; for firstly there is no life eternal in
the confession of God the Father without Jesus Christ, and secondly
Christ is glorified in the Father. Eternal life is precisely
this, to know the only true God and Him, Whom He sent, even Jesus
Christ; deny that Christ is true God, if you can have life by believing
in God without Him. As for the truth that God the Father is the
only true God; let this be untrue of the God Christ, unless
Christ’s glory is wholly in the only true God the Father.
For if the Father glorifies Him in Himself, and the Father is the only
true God, Christ is not outside the only true God, since the Father,
Who is the only true God, glorifies in Himself Christ, Who is raised
into the glory of God. And in that He is glorified by the only
true God in Himself, He is not estranged from the only
true God, for He is glorified by
the true God in Himself, the only God.