ACC ~ John 10 v18b

CHRIST’S DEATH NOT A CONSEQUENCE OF SIN

AUGUSTINE: Here he shows that his natural death was not the consequence of sin in him but of his own simple will, which was the why, the when and the how [of his death]. For because the Word of God is so commingled [with the flesh] as to be one with it, he says, “I have power to lay it down.” ON THE TRINITY 4.13.16. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 3:77**.

ONLY CHRIST HAS TRUE POWER OVER LIFE AND DEATH

CHRYSOSTOM: Because they had often plotted to kill him, he tells them their efforts will be useless unless he is willing…. I have such power over my own life that no one can take it from me against my will. This power does not belong to human beings. We do not have the power of laying down our own lives unless we put ourselves to death…. Our Lord alone had the power to lay down his life, showing also that he was able to take it up again by that same power. Do you see how he proved from his death that his resurrection was indisputable? HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 60.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:218**.

HOW DOES THE WORD LAY DOWN HIS LIFE?

AUGUSTINE: How then does our Lord lay down his own life?… Christ is the Word and man, not man as flesh alone but as soul and flesh, so that in Christ there is a complete humanity…. This refutes the Apollinarians, who say that Christ did not have a human, rational soul…. Does the Word lay down his life and take it again; or does the human soul, or does the flesh?… If it was the Word of God that laid down his soul and took it again… that soul was at one time separated from the Word…. But, though death separated the soul and body, death could not separate the Word and the soul…. It is still more absurd to say that the soul laid down itself; if it could not be separated from the Word, how could it be separated from itself?… The flesh therefore lays down its life and takes it again, not by its own power but by the power of the Word. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 47.9-13. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:263-65**.

CHRIST’S SOUL SEPARATED FROM BODY WITHOUT CHANGE IN GODHEAD

GREGORY OF NYSSA: He foretells that at the time of his passion he would voluntarily detach his soul from his body, saying, “No one takes my soul [1] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”… For his Godhead, alike before taking flesh and in the flesh and after his passion, is immutably the same, being at all times what it was by nature and so continuing forever. But in the suffering of his human nature the Godhead fulfilled the dispensation for our benefit by severing the soul for a season from the body, yet without being itself separated from either of those elements to which it was once for all united. And it did so by joining again the elements that had been parted in this way so as to give to all human nature a beginning and an example that it should follow of the resurrection from the dead, that is, that all the corruptible may put on incorruption and all the mortal may put on immortality, our firstfruits having been transformed to the divine nature by its union with God. AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.13. [2]

[1] Psychēn.

[2] NPNF 2 5:127**. See also Hilary of Poitiers On the Trinity 10.57-60, who furthers Gregory’s argument, and Augustine Tractates on the Gospel of John 47.9-13.

COMPLETELY HUMAN AND DIVINE

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: To say that the body of the divine Logos also had a soul does not suggest the divinity of the soul…. In this context, when something like this is stated, we understand the statement to refer to the flesh, which had a soul and was united with the divine Logos…. After all, even when Peter says, “Now I will lay down my soul for you,” [1] just like the Lord did, there is no difference. You see, just as Peter, who was a man, composed of body and soul, said this, so too Christ, being one and not two, composed of divinity and humanity, says that he lays down his soul, which belongs to him and is part of him (although he was God in nature, assuming flesh—which had soul— and uniting it to himself). [2] COMMENTARY ON JOHN, FRAGMENT 78.10.18. [3]

[1] Jn 13:37.

[2] The insistence on the reality of the human soul of Christ and the union of the divine with the human without alteration of either is a direct attack against Apollinarianism, which taught that the divine Logos replaced Christ’s human soul. This is also an important indication of Theodore’s Christology, which, in this Greek fragment, if authentic, demonstrates he held to the hypostatic union that would later be enunciated at Chalcedon.

[3] ECS 7:82-83*.

DEATH IS ONLY SLEEP TO CHRIST

AUGUSTINE: So take a look at Christ: “I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it up again; nobody takes it away from me.” “I myself went to sleep”; that, you see, is what he says in the psalm: “I myself went to sleep.” As though to say, “Why are they so excited, why so exultant? Why are the Jews waving their arms with joy, as though they themselves had done anything?” “I myself went to sleep. I,” he says, “who have authority to lay down my life, by laying it down ‘I myself went to sleep, and took my rest.’” And since he had the authority to take it up again, he added, “I rose again,” but to give the glory to the Father, “since the Lord took me up.” [1] Do not let these words, where he says, “Since the Lord took me up…” strike your minds as meaning that Christ himself did not raise up his own body. The Father raised him up, and he also raised himself up. How shall we prove to you that he raised himself up? Call to mind what he said to the Jews: “Pull down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” [2] SERMON 305.3. [3]

[1] HE WORD IN THE BEGINNING | JOHN 1:1

[2] Jn 2:19, 21.

[3] WSA 3 8:321.

Jn