By Water & Blood

Chapter 13: That the Son’s governance is necessary and saving for all

For since the nature of the things that have come into being—possessing difference among bodies and bodiless things, animate and inanimate, rational and irrational, mortal and immortal—was not able to draw near to the God who is above all and over all, nor to share in the flashing radiance of his Godhead, because of the excess of its falling short of the higher, but would have slipped away far and very far through weakness of nature, had it not obtained God the Saviour as helper, the Father’s love for mankind fittingly appointed his only-begotten Child over all, to pass through all things, to preside over all, and to water them with the supplies that come from him.

For the Father who begot him declared him alone, all at once, to be Shepherd and Saviour, Guardian and Keeper, Physician and Pilot of all things, both those in heaven and those upon earth, entrusting to him alone the helm of the constitution and governance of the universe. This he himself teaches, saying, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father,” and again, “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.”

And he, like a wise pilot who has received his allotted charge from the Father, having taken his place over the whole world and looking up to his own Father above, guides and steers the universe, holding the rudder, neither overlooking the very least of the things that need his supply nor despising the smallest. Therefore he is present to all, distributing to each what is suitable, and, after the manner of a physician, furnishing for the care of the universe what is fitting for its salvation.

Hence, fittingly, he did not despise human life either, but long before furnished his aid to the God-loving men of every age: now appearing in human form to the forefathers of the Hebrews, now ordaining fitting laws for their descendants, and already for those who came after, through the prophets, issuing oracles of his future theophany which was to shine forth upon all men. And as the time of these things drew on, he fulfilled in deeds the accomplishment of the ancient oracles, and at last was present, mingling with mortal life and dwelling among us; and he himself, the only-begotten Son of God, as in a divine statue—the instrument of the body—conversed with the race of men with teachings, with healings,

and with the secret instructions of inspired wisdom. And now, at the Father’s nod, through surpassing love for mankind, he drove on even to the very gates of death, so that he might count worthy of his grace those also who were there, drawing them up to the life that is with him. Thus “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself”; and he underwent the incarnate economy, having been before it and pre-existing it, honored with the Godhead of the Father’s glory—yet not “thinking it robbery to be equal with God,” but emptying himself and “taking the form of a servant, he humbled himself, becoming obedient” to the Father “unto death,” in order that, “as” “death” held dominion over the whole race “by one man that sinned,” so also eternal life might reign, through “his grace,” in those who believe in him and through him come to know God, his Father.