{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4225","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":1,"chapter_to":1,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":10,"verse_to":10},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: the whole world has its circumscription in man, because man, as has been frequently stated, is the bond which holds all the world together. When man, therefore, rose again on the same night of the Lord's day, incorruptible and immortal and unchangeable, he gave a pledge to the whole creation visible and invisible that it would obtain like benefits. Wherefore the Apostle saith: To sum up all things in the Christ, both the things that are in heaven and that are in the earth; and: If any one be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things have become new<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 2</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes ((quoting John Chrysostom, Commentary on Ephesians))</b>: According to his good pleasure, he says, which he purposed in him; that is, He longed for this, He was in throes, as one may say, to bring forth this mystery. And of what nature is this? It is that it is His will to set man on high, and this He desires with a view to a dispensation of the fulness of the times to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 10</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: For if man, who is the bond of the whole creation, shall be renewed, becoming incorruptible and immortal in body, and immutable in soul, is it not evident that all the elements of which the body of man is composed, and all rational beings, as being akin to the soul of man, shall be renewed and brought into a better state? For all things, saith the Apostle, are summed up in Christ, both the things that are in the heavens and the things that are on the earth.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 7</i></p><p><b>Gaius Marius Victorinus</b>: It is not all things indifferently that are restored but all things that are in Christ—both those that are in heaven and those that are on the earth but only those that are in Christ. Others are strange to him. Whatever things then are in Christ, it is these that are revitalized and rise again, whether in heaven or in earth. For he is salvation, he is renewal, he is eternity.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 1.1.10</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: The God of all things therefore became truly, according to the Scriptures, without conversion, sinless man, and that in a manner known to Himself alone, as He is the natural Artificer of things which are above our comprehension. And by that same saving act of the incarnation He introduced into the flesh the activity of His proper divinity, yet without having it (that activity) either circumscribed by the flesh through the exinanition, or growing naturally out of the flesh as it grew out of His divinity, but manifested through it in the things which He wrought in a divine manner in His incarnate state. For the flesh did not become divinity in nature by a transmutation of nature, as though it became essentially flesh of divinity. But what it was before, that also it continued to be in nature and activity when united with divinity, even as the Saviour said, \"The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.\" And working and enduring in the flesh things which were proper to sinless flesh, He proved the evacuation of divinity (to be) for our sakes, confirmed as it was by wonders and by sufferings of the flesh naturally. For with this purpose did the God of all things become man, viz., in order that by suffering in the flesh, which is susceptible of suffering, He might redeem our whole race, which was sold to death; and that by working wondrous things by His divinity, which is unsusceptible of suffering, through the medium of the flesh He might restore it to that incorruptible and blessed life from which it fell away by yielding to the devil; and that He might establish the holy orders of intelligent existences in the heavens in immutability by the mystery of His incarnation, the doing of which is the recapitulation of all things in himself. He remained therefore, also, after His incarnation, according to nature, God infinite, and more, having the activity proper and suitable to Himself,-an activity growing out of His divinity essentially, and manifested through His perfectly holy flesh by wondrous acts economically, to the intent that He might be believed in as God, while working out of Himself by the flesh, which by nature is weak, the salvation of the universe.<br/><i>— Fragments - Dogmatic and Historical</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father \"to gather all things in one,\" and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, \"every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess\" to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send \"spiritual wickednesses,\" and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning [of their Christian course], and others from [the date of] their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book I</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: There is therefore, as I have pointed out, one God the Father, and one Christ Jesus, who came by means of the whole dispensational arrangements [connected with Him], and gathered together all things in Himself. But in every respect, too, He is man, the formation of God; and thus He took up man into Himself, the invisible becoming visible, the incomprehensible being made comprehensible, the impassible becoming capable of suffering, and the Word being made man, thus summing up all things in Himself: so that as in super-celestial, spiritual, and invisible things, the Word of God is supreme, so also in things visible and corporeal He might possess the supremacy, and, taking to Himself the pre-eminence, as well as constituting Himself Head of the Church, He might draw all things to Himself at the proper time.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book III</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: Into this paradise the Lord has introduced those who obey His call, \"summing up in Himself all things which are in heaven, and which are on earth;\" but the things in heaven are spiritual, while those on earth constitute the dispensation in human nature. These things, therefore, He recapitulated in Himself: by uniting man to the Spirit, and causing the Spirit to dwell in man, He is Himself made the head of the Spirit, and gives the Spirit to be the head of man: for through Him (the Spirit) we see, and hear, and speak.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book V</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Heavenly things, he means to say, had been severed from earthly. They had no longer one Head. So far indeed as the system of the creation went, there was over all One God, but so far as management of one household went, this, amid the wide spread of Gentile error, was not the case, but they had been severed from His obedience.</p><p>\"Unto a dispensation,\" saith he, \"of the fulness of the times.\"</p><p>The fulness of the times, he calls it. Observe with what nicety he speaks. And whereas he points out the origination, the purpose, the will, the first intention, as proceeding from the Father, and the fulfillment and execution as effected by the agency of the Son, yet no where does he apply to him the term minister.</p><p>\"He chose us,\" saith he, \"in Him, having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself;\" and, \"to the praise of the glory of His grace, in whom we have redemption through His blood,-which He purposed in Him, unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ;\" and no where hath he called Him minister. If however the word \"in\" and the word \"by\" implies a mere minister, look what the matter comes to. Just in the very beginning of the Epistle, he used the expression \"through the will of the Father.\" The Father, he means, willed, the Son wrought. But neither does it follow, that because the Father willed, the Son is excluded from the willing; nor because the Son wrought, that the Father is deprived of the working. But to the Father and the Son, all things are common. \"For all Mine are Thine,\" saith He, \"and Thine are Mine.\"</p><p>The fullness of the times, however, was His coming. After, then, He had done everything, by the ministry both of Angels, and of Prophets, and of the Law, and nothing came of it, and it was well nigh come to this, that man had been made in vain, brought into the world in vain, nay, rather to his ruin; when all were absolutely perishing, more fearfully than in the deluge, He devised this dispensation, that is by grace; that it might not be in vain, might not be to no purpose that man was created. This he calls \"the fulness of the times,\" and \"wisdom.\" And why so? Because at that time when they were on the very point of perishing, then they were rescued.</p><p>That \"He might sum up\" he saith.</p><p>What is the meaning of this word, \"sum up?\" It is \"to knit together.\" Let us, however, endeavor to get near the exact import. With ourselves then, in common conversation, the word means the summing into a brief compass things spoken at length, the concise account of matters described in detail. And it has this meaning. For Christ hath gathered up in Himself the dispensations carried on through a lengthened period, that is to say, He hath cut them short. For \"by finishing His word and cutting it short in righteousness.\" He both comprehended former dispensations, and added others beside. This is the meaning of \"summing up.\"</p><p>It has also another signification; and of what nature is this? He hath set over all one and the same Head, i.e., Christ according to the flesh, alike over Angels and men. That is to say, He hath given to Angels and men one and the same government; to the one the Incarnate, to the other God the Word. Just as one might say of a house which has some part decayed and the other sound, He hath rebuilt the house, that is to say, He has made it stronger, and laid a firmer foundation. So also here He hath brought all under one and the same Head. For thus will an union be effected, thus will a close bond be effected, if one and all can be brought under one and the same Head, and thus have some constraining bond of union from above. Honored then as we are with so great a blessing, so high a privilege, so great loving-kindness, let us not shame our Benefactor, let us not render in vain so great grace. Let us exemplify the life of Angels, the virtue of Angels, the conversation of Angels, yea, I entreat and conjure you, that all these things turn not to our judgment, nor to our condemnation, but to our enjoyment of those good things, which may God grant we may all attain, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Ghost, be glory, strength, etc.<br/><i>— Homily 1 on Ephesians</i></p><p><b>John Damascene</b>: As much as Adam's sin had never tainted Him, we are then truly renewed in Christ. We therefore are cleansed through Christ; His very being is incorruptible, even though He came into corruption, His is eternal, even though He died, and from paradise He came, and left paradise for us. These things proceed from God, therefore to summarize and repeat, and truly on behalf of the Only-Begotten Son of Man, if He has destroyed death, and destroyed corruption, and sin He has cast out, we can truly be born again in Christ. This One, therefore, is in the heavens; This One had the means; for the world's sorrow was great and unceasing, and His message of redemption was for sinners, and by Him being cursed. And I declare it was truly said of the Lord \"Grace is born of heaven and comes upon the repentant sinner.\" It is said, therefore, that when the Lord came, that the whole earth came to life, and the very heavens themselves, that the sorrow of the angels came to and end, and the anguish of mankind went away. It was upon them that God's grace first touched, and healed!</p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Which evidences of ignobility suit the First Advent, just as those of sublimity do the Second; when He shall be made no longer \"a stone of offence nor a rock of scandal,\" but \"the highest corner-stone,\" after reprobation (on earth) taken up (into heaven) and raised sublime for the purpose of consummation, and that \"rock\"-so we must admit-which is read of in Daniel as forecut from a mount, which shall crush and crumble the image of secular kingdoms.<br/><i>— An Answer to the Jews</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: When, therefore, he speaks of their \"following the commandments and doctrines of men,\" he refers to the conduct of those persons who \"held not the Head,\" even Him in whom all things are gathered together; for they are all recalled to Christ, and concentrated in Him as their initiating principle -even the meats and drinks which were indifferent in their nature.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: Only God's nature needs nothing. The whole creation stood in need of his healing order of gifts. For, since the elements came into being to serve human needs, he made them subject to corruption, for he could foresee that transgression was going to make humanity mortal also. As for the unseen powers, they were naturally aggrieved when they saw human beings living in wickedness.… By recapitulation he means the complete transformation of things. For through the gift given through Christ the Lord the human nature is raised anew and puts on incorruptibility. Ultimately the visible creation, delivered from corruption, will receive incorruption. The hosts of unseen powers will rejoice continually, because sorrow and grief and sighing have fled away. This is what the divine apostle teaches through these words; for he said not simply \"heaven and earth\" but \"those in heaven\" and \"those on earth.\"<br/><i>— Interpretation of the Epistle to the Ephesians 1.10</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"fc560a33ab1abe1c769830e5b71dbf36f8f97e1be06c9e7c78062f0c07d65b53","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4225,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"d4b3a0b1287eb7516141a5281f57280454b4fbe16cdfce345531d1677af95c70","translator":null,"work":null}