St Cyril of Alexandria Commentary on John (Fifth Part)

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Page 41

But we believe rather that it was to secure the benefits for all nature through Himself and in Himself first as in the firstfruits of humanity, that the Only-begotten has become like us. For like as we have followed after not only death but all the sufferings of the flesh, undergoing this suffering in the first man by reason as well of the transgression as of the divine curse; after the same sort, I conceive, shall we all of us follow Christ, as He saves in many ways and sanctifies the nature of the flesh in Himself. Wherefore also Paul said: And as we love the image of the earthy, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly. For the image of the earthy, to wit of Adam, is to be in sufferings and corruption; and the image of the heavenly, to wit of Christ, is to be in impassibility and incorruption. So then the Word being God by nature condemned sin in His own flesh, by charging it to cease its activity, or rather so amending it as that it should move after the good pleasure of God, and no longer at its own will; and so whereas the body was natural, He made it spiritual. This then is one method of the gathering together; but the method that is most befitting and appropriate to the drift of the passage before us shall follow it. And it will be our task to speak touching eternal life and the slaying of Death, and how the Only-begotten removed from human nature the corruption that came of the transgression. Therefore forasmuch as the children are partakers of blood and flesh, He also in like manner took part in the same with intent to slay Death, and that He that created all things unto immortality and made the generations of the world healthful, according as it is written, might remould once more the fashion of things unto their ancient estate.

And once again, albeit my argument be more minute than behoves, yet, as it needs must, it shall proceed, setting forth the ancient condition of our estate. For I conceive the sincere purpose to grasp the meaning of the words before us, will wholly escape the dangers that come of mere loitering. So then this rational creature upon earth, I mean man, was made from the beginning after the image of Him that created him, according to the Scriptures; and the meaning of image is various. For an image may be, not after one sort, but after many; howbeit the element of the likeness to God that made him, which is far the most manifest of all, was his incorruptibility and indestructibility. But never, I conceive, would the creature have been sufficient unto himself to be so, merely by virtue of the law of his own nature; for how could he that is of the earth in his own nature have been shown to possess the glory of incorruption, unless it were from the God that is by nature both incorruptible and indestructible and ever the same, that he was enriched with this boon in like manner as with all others? For what hast thou that thou didst not receive? saith somewhere unto us the inspired Paul, with exceeding reason and truth. With intent then that what was once brought into being out of that which is not, might not, by sinking back to its own original, once more vanish into nothing, but rather be preserved evermore----for this was the aim of Him that created it----God makes it partaker of His own nature. For He breathed into his face the breath of life, i.e. the Spirit of the Son, for He is Himself the Life with the Father, holding all things together in being. For the things that are receptive of life both move in Him and live, according to the words of Paul.

And let none of us found hereupon any words of false teaching, by supposing that we said that the Divine inbreathing has become a soul unto the living creature; for this we deny, guided unto the truth of the matter by such reasoning as this. If any suppose that the Divine inbreathing became a soul, let him tell us whether it was turned aside from its own nature and has been made into a soul, or has it remained in its own identity?

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