ACC ~ John 12 v44

SON AND FATHER AFFIRM EACH OTHER MUTUALLY

TERTULLIAN: It is through the Son that one believes in the Father, while the Father also is the authority from which springs belief in the Son. AGAINST PRAXEAS 23.8. [1]

[1] CCL 2:1193; ANF 3:619*

IGNORANCE OF THE SON IS IGNORANCE OF THE FATHER

AMBROSE: The one who confesses the Father believes on the Son. For the one who does not know the Son does not know the Father. For everyone that denies the Son does not have the Father, but the one who confesses the Son has both the Father and the Son. [1] What, then, is the meaning of “believes not in me”? It speaks not about what you can perceive in bodily form, nor merely on the man whom you see. For he has stated that we are to believe not merely on a man, but that you may believe that Jesus Christ himself is both God and man. This is why, for both reasons, he says, “I came not from myself.” [2] And again: “I am the beginning, of which also I speak to you.” [3] ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 5.10.119-20. [4]

[1] 1 Jn 2:23.

[2] Jn 7:28.

[3] Jn 8:25.

[4] NPNF 2 10:299*; CSEL 78:261-62 (On the Christian Faith 5.10.120-21).

DEFERRING HONOR TO THE BEGETTER

AUGUSTINE: What is this we have just heard, brothers and sisters: the Lord saying, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me”? It is good for us to believe in Christ, especially since he himself also said quite plainly what you heard just now, that is, that he had come as light into the world, and that whoever believes in him will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

So it is good to believe in Christ. It is a great good to believe in Christ and a great evil not to believe in Christ. But because Christ the Son is whatever he is from the Father, while the Father is not from the Son but is the Father of the Son, that is why the Son does indeed call for faith in himself but refers the honor of it to his only-begetter. SERMON 140.1. [1]

[1] WSA 3 4:403; PL 38:773.