Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

ever things He sees the Father doing, “these also doeth the Son likewise;” 887 but He enjoys
our wonder at all that comes to pass out of the glory which comes to Him from the Only
Begotten, rejoicing in the Doer Himself as well as in the greatness of the deeds, and exalted
by all who acknowledge Him as Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “through whom [by whom,
A.V.] are all things, and for whom are all things.” 888 Wherefore, saith the Lord, “All mine
are thine,” 889 as though the sovereignty over created things were conferred on Him, and
“Thine are mine,” as though the creating Cause came thence to Him. We are not to suppose
that He used assistance in His action, or yet was entrusted with the ministry of each individual
work by detailed commission, a condition distinctly menial and quite inadequate to
the divine dignity. Rather was the Word full of His Father’s excellences; He shines forth
from the Father, and does all things according to the likeness of Him that begat Him. For
if in essence He is without variation, so also is He without variation in power. 890 And of
those whose power is equal, the operation also is in all ways equal. And Christ is the power
of God, and the wisdom of God. 891 And so “all things are made through [by, A.V.] him,” 892
and “all things were created through [by, A.V.] him and for him,” 893 not in the discharge
of any slavish service, but in the fulfilment of the Father’s will as Creator.
20. When then He says, “I have not spoken of myself,” 894 and again, “As the Father
said unto me, so I speak,” 895 and “The word which ye hear is not mine, but [the Father’s]
which sent me,” 896 and in another place, “As the Father gave me commandment, even so I
do,” 897 it is not because He lacks deliberate purpose or power of initiation, nor yet because
He has to wait for the preconcerted key-note, that he employs language of this kind. His
object is to make it plain that His own will is connected in indissoluble union with the
887 John v. 19.
888 Heb. ii. 10. cf. Rom. xi. 36, to which the reading of two manuscripts more distinctly assimilates the citation.
The majority of commentators refer Heb. ii. 10, to the Father, but Theodoret understands it of the Son, and the
argument of St. Basil necessitates the same application.
889 John xvii. 10.
890 ἀπαραλλάκτως ἔχει. cf. Jas. i. 17. παρ᾽ ῷ οὐκ ἔνι παραλλαγή. The word ἀπαράλλακτος was at first used
by the Catholic bishops at Nicæa, as implying ὁμοούσιος. Vide Athan. De Decretis, § 20, in Wace and Schaff’s
ed., p. 163.
891 1 Cor. i. 24.
892 John i. 3.
893 Col. i. 16.
In how many ways “Through whom” is used; and in what sense “with whom” is…
894 John xii. 49.
895 John xii. 50.
896 John xiv. 24.
897 John xiv. 31.
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