Chapter 6. That Man Being Lost, Must Seek Redemption in Christ

Since all mankind has perished in the person of Adam, that excellence and nobility of beginning which we have spoken of would so little profit us, that it would rather turn to our greater shame, till God appears as the redeemer in the person of his only begotten Son, who acknowledges not men defiled and corrupted with sin to be his work. Therefore since we are fallen from life into death, all that knowledge of God the creator of which we have treated, were unprofitable, unless there followed also faith setting forth God a father to us in Christ. Truly this was the natural order that the frame of the world should be a school to us to learn godliness, from where might be made a passage for us to eternal life and perfect felicity: but since our falling away, wherever we turn our eyes, upward and downward, the curse of God still presents itself to our sight, which while it possesses and enwraps innocent creatures by our fault, must inevitably overwhelm our own souls with desperation. For although God's will is that his fatherly favor toward us do still many ways appear: yet by beholding of the world we cannot gather that he is our Father when our conscience inwardly pricks us, and shows that there is in sin just cause of forsaking, why God should not account or reckon us for his children. Besides that there is in us both slothfulness and unthankfulness: because both our minds, as they be blinded, do not see the truth, and also as all our senses be perverse, we maliciously defraud God of his glory. Therefore we must come to that saying of Paul: because in the wisdom of God, the world knew not God by wisdom, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The wisdom of God he calls this honorable stage of heaven and earth, furnished with innumerable miracles, by beholding of which we ought wisely to have known God. But because we so ill profited therein, he calls us back to the faith of Christ, which for that it seems foolish, the unbelievers do disdain. Therefore although the preaching of the cross does not agree with man's wit, yet ought we humbly to embrace it, if we desire to return to God our creator and maker, that he may begin again to be our father. Truly since the fall of the first man, no knowledge of God availed to salvation, without the Mediator. For Christ speaks not of his own age only, but comprehends all ages, when he says that this is the eternal life, to know the father the one true God, and him whom he has sent Jesus Christ. And so much the fouler is their sluggishness, which take upon them to set open heaven to all profane and unbelieving men, without his grace whom the Scripture everywhere teaches to be the only gate whereby we enter into salvation. But if any will restrain that saying of Christ only to the publishing of the Gospel, we have in readiness with which to confute him. For this has been a common sentence in all ages and among all nations, that without reconciliation they that are estranged from God and pronounced, accursed and the children of wrath, can not please God. And here may be also alleged that which Christ answered to the woman of Samaria: You worship what you know not, but we worship that which we know: because the salvation is from the Jews. In which words he both condemns of falsehood all the religions of the Gentiles, and also assigns a reason why, for that the Redeemer was promised under the law to the only chosen people. Whereupon it follows, that no worship ever pleased God, but that which had respect to Christ. For which cause also Paul affirms that all the nations of the Gentiles were without God, and void of the hope of life. Now whereas John teaches, that life was from the beginning in Christ, and that all the world fell from it, we must return to the same fountain Christ. And therefore Christ, in so much as he is the reconciler, affirms himself to be the life. And truly the inheritance of heaven belongs to none, but to the children of God. But it is not fitting that they be accounted in the place and degree of children, that are not grafted into the body of the only begotten Son. And John plainly testifies, that they which believe in his name, are made the children of God. But because it is not directly my purpose yet to discourse of faith in Christ, therefore it shall for this time be sufficient to have touched it by the way.

And therefore God never showed himself merciful to the old people, nor ever did put them in any hope of grace without the Mediator. I omit to speak of the sacrifices of the law, wherein the faithful were openly and plainly taught, that salvation is nowhere else to be sought, but in the cleansing which was performed by Christ alone. Only this I say, that the blessed and happy state of the church has always been grounded upon the person of Christ. For though God comprehended all the issue of Abraham in his covenant, yet does Paul wisely reason, that Christ is properly that seed in whom all nations were to be blessed, for as much as we know that not all they were reckoned his seed that were begotten of him according to the flesh. For (to speak nothing of Ishmael and other) how came it to pass that of the two sons of Isaac, that is Esau and Jacob, brothers born at one birth, while they were yet together in their mother's womb, the one was chosen, the other refused? Indeed how came it to pass, that the elder was rejected and the younger only took place? And how also came it to pass, that the greater part should be forsaken? It appears therefore, that the seed of Abraham was principally reckoned in one person, and that the promised salvation did never stand sure till it came to Christ, whose office is to gather together the things that were scattered abroad. Therefore the first adoption of the chosen people did hang upon the grace of the Mediator. Which though it be not in so plain words expressed by Moses, yet it sufficiently appears that it was commonly known to all the godly. For before that there was any king created among the people, Hannah the mother of Samuel, treating of the felicity of the godly, even then said thus in her song: God shall give strength to his king, and shall exalt the horn of his anointed. In which words she means that God shall bless his church. With this also agrees the oracle that is within a little after adjoined: The Priest whom I shall appoint shall walk before my anointed. Neither is it to be doubted, but that the will of the heavenly Father was to have the lively image of Christ to be seen in David and his posterity. Therefore meaning to exhort the godly to the fear of God, he bids them to kiss the Son. With this this saying of the Gospel also agrees: He that honors not the Son, honors not the Father. Therefore although by falling away of ten tribes the kingdom decayed: yet it behooved the covenant to stand which God had made in David and his successors: as also he said by the Prophets: I will not altogether cut off the kingdom, for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, whom I have chosen: but there shall remain one tribe to your son. Where the same thing is repeated the second and third time. It is also expressly added: I will afflict the seed of David, but not forever. Within a little space of time after, it is said: For David his servant's sake God has given a light in Jerusalem, to raise up a son and to keep Jerusalem in safety. Now when the state grew toward destruction, it was said again: God would not scatter Judah for David his servant's sake, because he had spoken that he would give a light to him and his sons forever. Finally this is the sum, that all others being passed over, only David was chosen, upon whom the good pleasure of God should rest. As in another place it is said: He has refused the tabernacle of Shiloh, and the tabernacle of Joseph, and he has not chosen the tribe of Ephraim, but he has chosen the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he has loved. He has chosen his servant David to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. To conclude, it pleased God so to save his church, that the safety and preservation thereof should hang upon that one head, and therefore David cries out, The Lord the strength of his people, the strength of the salvations of his Christ. And by and by he added a prayer: Save your people and bless your inheritance: meaning that the state of the church is with an unseparable knot joined to the governance of Christ. And in the same meaning in another place: Lord save us: Let the king hear us in the day that we shall call upon him. In which words he plainly teaches, that the faithful did upon no other confidence flee to the help of God, but because they were hidden under the succor of the king. Which is gathered by another Psalm: Lord save us: Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Where it is plain enough, that the faithful are called back to Christ, that they may hope that they shall be saved by the hand of God. The same respect has the other prayer, where all the Church calls upon the mercy of God: Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man, whom you have preserved (or appointed) to yourself. For though the author of the Psalm bewails the scattering abroad of the whole people, yet he prays for their restoration in the head alone. Where, when the people was led away into exile, the land wasted, and all things destroyed to man's serving, Jeremiah laments the overthrow of the Church, he does principally complain that by destruction of the kingdom all hope was cut off from the faithful. Christ (says he) the spirit of our mouth is taken in our sins, to whom we said, In your shadow we shall live among the nations. Hereby now it sufficiently appears, that because God cannot be merciful to mankind without the Mediator, therefore Christ was always set before the holy fathers in time of the law, to whom they might direct their faith.

Now, where comfort is promised in affliction, specially where the deliverance of the Church is described, there the banner of affiance and hope is advanced in Christ alone. God went out to the saving of his people with his Messiah, says Habakkuk. And so often as the Prophets make mention of the restoring of the Church, they call back the people to the promise made to David, concerning the everlasting continuance of the kingdom. And no marvel. For otherwise there had been no assurance of the covenant. For which purpose serves that notable answer of Isaiah. For when he saw that the unbelieving king Ahaz refused that which he had declared to him of the raising of the siege of Jerusalem and of present safety, as it were suddenly, he passed over to Messiah. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son, meaning indirectly that though the king and his people by their stubbornness refused the promise offered to them, as though they did of purpose bend themselves to discredit the truth of God, yet the covenant should not be void, but that the Redeemer should come at his appointed time. Finally it was the care of all the Prophets, to the end they might show that God would be merciful, always to set out that kingdom of David, whereupon hanged the redemption and everlasting salvation. So Isaiah says: I will make a covenant with you, the faithful mercies of David. Behold I have given him for a witness to nations, that is, because the faithful when their state is at the worst, could not otherwise have any hope, but by the means of him being witness, that God would be appeasable toward them. Likewise Jeremiah, to raise them up being in despair, says: Behold the days come, wherein I will raise up to David a righteous branch, and then shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell in safety. And Ezekiel says, I will raise up one shepherd over my sheep, even David my servant. I the Lord will be a God to them, and my servant David for a shepherd. And I will make a covenant of peace with them. Also many other places, after he had discussed the incredible renewing, he says: my servant David shall be their King, and there shall be one shepherd over all, and I will make an everlasting covenant of peace with them. I gather here and there a few places out of many, because I only mean to have the readers put in mind, that the hope of all the godly has always been reposed nowhere else but in Christ. And all the other Prophets also speak agreeably to this, as it is said in Hosea. The children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and shall appoint to themselves one head. Which he afterward more plainly expounds, The children of Israel shall return, and shall seek for the Lord their God and David their king. And Micah speaking of the return of the people expressly says, The king shall go before them, and the Lord in their head. So Amos meaning to praise the renewing of the people, says: I will in that day raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen down, and I will hedge up the gaps, and raise up the places overthrown, even because that was the only standard of salvation, to have the royal glory to rise up again on high in the stock of David, which is fulfilled in Christ. Therefore Zechariah, as his age was nearer to the appearing of Christ, so does he more plainly cry out: be glad you daughter of Zion, rejoice you daughter of Jerusalem. Behold your king comes, righteous and saved. Which agrees with the place of the Psalm before alleged. The Lord the strength of the salvations of his anointed, and save us. Where salvation is derived from the head to the whole body.

It was God's will to have the Jews so instructed with these prophecies, that to seek for their deliverance, they should bend their eyes directly to Christ. And though they had shamefully swerved, yet could not the remembrance of that general principle be abolished, that God by the hand of Christ, as he had promised to David, would be the deliverer of his church, and so the covenant should be of his own free grant, whereby God had adopted his chosen. Hereby it came to pass, that this song sounded in the mouth of the children when Christ a little before his death entered into Jerusalem, Hosanna to the son of David. For it appears that it was commonly known and spoken of, and according to common use that they sang, that the only pledge of God's mercy remained to them, in the coming of the Redeemer. For his cause Christ himself, to make his disciples plainly and perfectly believe in God, bids them to believe on himself, Believe you in God, (says he) then believe also in me. For though (to speak properly) faith climbs up from Christ to the Father, yet he means that the same faith, albeit it rests upon God, does by little and little vanish away, unless he become a means to hold it in assured steadfastness. Otherwise the majesty of God is too high for mortal men, which creep upon the ground like worms, to attain to it. Therefore I allow that common saying, that God is the object of faith, but in such sort that it needs correction. Because Christ is not in vain called the invisible Image of God, but by this title we are put in mind, that if we find not God in Christ, salvation can not be known to us. For although among the Jews, the Scribes and Pharisees had darkened with false inventions, that which the Prophets had spoken concerning the Redeemer: yet Christ took it for a thing confessed as received by common consent, that there was none other remedy, desperate case, and no other means of delivering the church, but by giving the Mediator. Indeed that was not commonly known among the people as it ought to have been, which Paul teaches, that Christ is the end of the law. But how true and assured it is, does plainly appear by the law and the Prophets. I speak not yet of faith, because there shall be elsewhere a more convenient place for it. Only let the readers hold this as fast established, that the first degree of godliness be, to acknowledge God to be a Father to us, to defend, govern and cherish us, till he gather us together into the everlasting inheritance of his kingdom: and that hereby it plainly appears which we said even now, that the knowledge of God which brings salvation, stands not without Christ, and that therefore from the beginning he has been set forth to all the elect, that they should look upon him, and that in him should rest all their trust. According to this meaning writes Irenaeus, that the Father which is immeasurable, is in his Son measured, because he has applied himself to the measure of our capacity, lest he should drown our minds with the immeasurableness of his glory. Which thing the frenzied men not considering, do wrest a profitable sentence to a wicked fantasy, as though there were in Christ but a portion of the godhead derived from the whole perfection: whereas it means nothing else, but that God is comprehended in Christ alone. That saying of John has always been true: He that has not the Son, neither has he the Father. For though in old time many did boast that they worshipped the sovereign God, the maker of heaven and earth: yet because they had no Mediator, it was impossible that they should truly taste of the mercy of God, and so be persuaded that he was their father. Therefore because they knew not the head that is Christ, the knowledge of God was but vain among them: whereby also it came to pass, that at length falling into gross and filthy superstitions, they betrayed their own ignorance. As at this day the Turks, although they report with full mouth, that the creator of heaven and earth is their God, yet do they thrust an idol in place of the true God, while they swerve from Christ.

Since all humanity perished in Adam, the dignity and nobility of our original creation does us little good — it only adds to our shame — until God appears as our Redeemer in the person of His only begotten Son, who does not recognize people defiled and corrupted by sin as His own work. Therefore, since we have fallen from life into death, all the knowledge of God as Creator that we have discussed would be useless unless faith followed — faith that presents God to us as a Father in Christ. The natural order was this: the created world should be a school where we learn godliness, and from there we would pass on to eternal life and perfect happiness. But since our fall, wherever we turn our eyes — upward or downward — God's curse presents itself to our sight. That curse, which grips and encompasses innocent creatures because of our fault, must inevitably overwhelm our own souls with despair. Although God wills that His fatherly love still appears to us in many ways, we cannot conclude from looking at the world that He is our Father — because our conscience inwardly convicts us and shows that our sin gives God just cause to disown us as His children. Beyond this, we are burdened by laziness and ingratitude: our minds are blinded and cannot see the truth, and all our senses are so disordered that we maliciously rob God of His glory. We must therefore come to Paul's statement: since the world, through its own wisdom, did not know God in the wisdom of God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. By 'the wisdom of God' Paul means the magnificent stage of heaven and earth, furnished with countless wonders, through which we should have wisely come to know God. But because we profited so poorly from it, He calls us back to faith in Christ — which the unbelieving despise as foolishness. Therefore, although the preaching of the cross does not agree with human reasoning, we ought to embrace it humbly if we desire to return to God our Creator, so that He may once again be our Father. Since the fall of the first man, no knowledge of God has been sufficient for salvation apart from the Mediator. Christ is not speaking only of His own era but is speaking of all ages when He says that eternal life is to know the Father, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. All the more shameful, then, is the thoughtlessness of those who claim to open heaven to all unbelieving and godless people apart from Christ — the one whom Scripture everywhere teaches is the only door through which we enter salvation. But if anyone would limit Christ's statement only to the proclamation of the Gospel, we have a ready answer. It has been a common conviction in all ages and among all peoples that those who are estranged from God — declared accursed and children of wrath — cannot please Him without reconciliation. We can also cite Christ's answer to the woman of Samaria: 'You worship what you do not know, but we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.' In those words He both condemns as false all the religions of the Gentiles and gives the reason — the Redeemer was promised under the law to the one chosen people. It follows that no form of worship ever pleased God except that which had regard for Christ. This is why Paul affirms that all the Gentile nations were without God and without hope of life. Since John teaches that life was from the beginning in Christ and that the whole world fell away from it, we must return to that same source — Christ. And therefore Christ, as the Reconciler, declares Himself to be the life. The inheritance of heaven belongs only to God's children. But those who are not grafted into the body of the only begotten Son cannot rightly be counted among His children. John plainly testifies that those who believe in His name are made children of God. Since it is not yet my direct purpose to discuss faith in Christ fully, it is enough for now to have touched on it briefly.

God never showed Himself merciful to the ancient people, nor ever gave them any hope of grace, except through the Mediator. I will not discuss the sacrifices of the law here, through which the faithful were openly and clearly taught that salvation must be sought nowhere except in the cleansing accomplished by Christ alone. I will only say this: the blessed state of the church has always rested on the person of Christ. Although God included all of Abraham's descendants in His covenant, Paul rightly reasons that Christ is specifically the seed in whom all nations were to be blessed — because we know that not everyone born from Abraham according to the flesh was counted as his seed. Setting aside Ishmael and others, consider the two sons of Isaac — Esau and Jacob, twin brothers born from the same womb at the same time. While they were still together in their mother's womb, one was chosen and the other rejected. How did it happen that the elder was passed over and only the younger was accepted? And how did it happen that the greater part was forsaken? Clearly, then, Abraham's seed was principally reckoned in one person, and the promised salvation was never secure until it came to Christ, whose work is to gather together what had been scattered. The first adoption of the chosen people therefore depended on the grace of the Mediator. Although Moses does not state this in plain words, it is clear enough that all the godly understood it. Even before any king had been established among the people, Hannah, the mother of Samuel, spoke of the happiness of the godly in her song: 'God will give strength to His king and will exalt the horn of His anointed.' By those words she was speaking of God blessing His church. This is confirmed by the oracle added shortly afterward: 'The priest whom I shall appoint will walk before My anointed.' There is no doubt that the heavenly Father intended the living image of Christ to be seen in David and his descendants. And so, calling the godly to the fear of God, He commands them to kiss the Son. This agrees with the Gospel statement: 'Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father.' Though the kingdom collapsed when ten tribes fell away, the covenant God had made with David and his successors had to stand. God said through the prophets: 'I will not destroy the kingdom entirely, for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen; but one tribe will remain to your son.' The same promise is repeated a second and third time. It is also expressly added: 'I will afflict the seed of David, but not forever.' Shortly after: 'For the sake of His servant David, God has given a lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up a son and to preserve Jerusalem.' And when the kingdom was approaching ruin, it was said again: 'God would not destroy Judah for the sake of His servant David, because He had promised to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.' In short, all others were passed over and only David was chosen as the one on whom God's good pleasure would rest. As it is said elsewhere: 'He rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh and the tabernacle of Joseph; He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. He chose His servant David to shepherd Jacob His people and Israel His inheritance.' In the end, it pleased God to save His church in such a way that her safety and preservation depended on that one head. Therefore David cries out: 'The Lord is the strength of His people, the strength of the salvation of His anointed.' He immediately adds a prayer: 'Save Your people and bless Your inheritance' — meaning that the condition of the church is inseparably bound to the rule of Christ. Similarly in another place: 'Lord, save us; let the king hear us on the day we call upon him.' By those words he plainly teaches that the faithful had no other confidence in fleeing to God for help except that they were sheltered under the protection of the king. This is confirmed by another psalm: 'Lord, save us; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord' — where it is clear that the faithful are pointed back to Christ, expecting to be saved by God's hand. The same meaning appears in another prayer where the whole church calls on God's mercy: 'Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You have preserved for Yourself.' Though the psalm laments the scattering of the whole people, it prays for their restoration through the head alone. When the people were led into exile, the land was wasted, and everything was destroyed, Jeremiah lamented the ruin of the church and grieved above all that the destruction of the kingdom had cut off all hope from the faithful. 'Christ,' he says, 'the breath of our life, has been caught in our sins — the one of whom we said, under his shadow we shall live among the nations.' From all this it is now clear enough: because God cannot be merciful to mankind except through the Mediator, Christ was always set before the holy fathers in the time of the law as the one toward whom they could direct their faith.

Whenever comfort is promised in affliction — and especially when the deliverance of the church is described — the banner of hope and trust is raised in Christ alone. Habakkuk says: 'God went out to save His people, with His Messiah.' And whenever the prophets speak of the restoration of the church, they call the people back to the promise made to David concerning the eternal continuation of his kingdom. This is no surprise — otherwise there would have been no certainty in the covenant. The remarkable statement of Isaiah serves this purpose. When he saw that the unbelieving king Ahaz rejected the promise of Jerusalem's deliverance and immediate safety, Isaiah suddenly turned to the Messiah: 'Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a Son.' The point was this: though the king and his people stubbornly refused the promise offered them, as if they were determined to discredit God's truth, the covenant would not be made void — the Redeemer would come at His appointed time. In short, all the prophets were careful, whenever they wanted to show that God would be merciful, to set forth the kingdom of David — for on it hung redemption and everlasting salvation. So Isaiah says: 'I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies of David. Behold, I have given Him as a witness to the nations' — meaning that when the faithful were at their lowest, they could have no hope except through the one who bore witness that God would be gracious toward them. Similarly, Jeremiah raised the despairing people with these words: 'The days are coming when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and then Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely.' Ezekiel said: 'I will set up one shepherd over My sheep, My servant David. I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David will be their shepherd. I will make a covenant of peace with them.' And after describing the incredible renewal of the people, Ezekiel adds: 'My servant David shall be their king, and there shall be one shepherd over them all, and I will make an everlasting covenant of peace with them.' I am drawing a few passages from among many, because my only intent is to remind readers that the hope of all the godly has always rested in Christ alone. All the other prophets speak in the same way. Hosea says: 'The children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and shall appoint for themselves one head.' He explains this more plainly afterward: 'The children of Israel will return and will seek the Lord their God and David their king.' Micah, speaking of the return of the people, says expressly: 'The king will go before them, and the Lord at their head.' Amos, meaning to celebrate the renewal of the people, says: 'In that day I will raise up the fallen tabernacle of David, and I will repair its gaps and raise up its ruins' — because the only standard of salvation was the royal glory rising again from the line of David, which is fulfilled in Christ. Therefore Zechariah, whose age was closer to the appearing of Christ, proclaims it even more plainly: 'Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king comes to you, righteous and saved.' This agrees with the psalm already cited: 'The Lord is the strength of the salvation of His anointed — save us' — where salvation flows from the head to the whole body.

God's will was that the Jews should be so trained by these prophecies that they would direct their eyes straight to Christ when seeking deliverance. Even when they had badly gone astray, the memory of that fundamental principle could not be erased: that God, through the hand of Christ as He had promised to David, would be the deliverer of His church, and the covenant would rest on His own free grace, by which God had adopted His chosen people. This is why, when Christ entered Jerusalem a little before His death, the children were singing: 'Hosanna to the Son of David!' It was clearly common knowledge and widely understood — the only pledge of God's mercy remaining to them lay in the coming of the Redeemer. For this reason Christ Himself, to bring His disciples to a full and clear faith in God, commanded them to believe in Him: 'You believe in God; believe also in Me.' Although faith properly speaking rises from Christ to the Father, His point is that even though faith rests in God, it gradually dissolves unless Christ serves as the means to hold it firm and steady. Otherwise the majesty of God is too high for mortal men, who crawl on the ground like worms, to reach. I therefore accept the common saying that God is the object of faith — but with an important qualification. Christ is not called the image of the invisible God without reason: this title reminds us that if we do not find God in Christ, salvation cannot be known to us. Among the Jews, the scribes and Pharisees had obscured with false inventions what the prophets said about the Redeemer. Yet Christ took it as a commonly accepted truth that there was no remedy for mankind's desperate condition and no means of delivering the church except by the giving of the Mediator. What Paul teaches — that Christ is the end of the law — was not as widely known among the people as it should have been. But how true and certain it is appears plainly from the law and the prophets. I am not yet speaking of faith, since there will be a more fitting place for that later. For now let readers hold this as firmly established: the first step of godliness is to acknowledge God as our Father — to defend, govern, and care for us until He gathers us into the everlasting inheritance of His kingdom. From this it is plain, as we have already said, that the knowledge of God that brings salvation does not exist apart from Christ. Therefore from the beginning He has been set before all the elect, so that they might look to Him and rest all their trust in Him. Irenaeus writes in keeping with this when he says that the Father, who is immeasurable, is measured in His Son — because God has adapted Himself to the capacity of our understanding, so that His overwhelming glory would not crush our minds. Reckless people, failing to grasp this, twist a sound statement into a wicked fantasy — as though Christ contained only a portion of the deity drawn from the whole. But the statement means nothing other than that God is comprehended in Christ alone. The saying of John has always been true: 'Whoever does not have the Son does not have the Father either.' In earlier ages, many people boasted of worshipping the supreme God, maker of heaven and earth. But because they had no Mediator, it was impossible for them to truly taste God's mercy and be convinced that He was their Father. Not knowing Christ as the head, their knowledge of God was empty — and so in the end they fell into gross and vile superstitions, which exposed their own ignorance. The same is true today: the Turks loudly proclaim that the Creator of heaven and earth is their God, yet by turning away from Christ they substitute an idol in place of the true God.