Who, then, among us will escape being in an even worse condition? How will anyone else be able to withstand it, if Peter already wavers and, as though by necessity, yields to the weight of the trial that has come? Then we have endured the labors of following Him in vain. Our difficult efforts end in harm, although they are thought able to give life with God.
There is nothing improbable if the disciples reflected within themselves in this very way. Since their shaken mind had to be restored, He sets against such thoughts and fears a necessary medicine. He commands them to make freedom from disturbance their instrument, saying, "Let not your heart be troubled."
Observe, however, how in a hidden way He promises them remission for their future faint-heartedness. He does not say directly and openly that He will show condescension to those who grow weak, or that He will again be with those who deny Him or flee. He avoids freeing them altogether from fear of negligence. He does not completely destroy in them the thought of provoking God, lest He thereby make transgression too easy for them, and teach them to count the wickedness of denial as nothing.
By saying that they ought not to be troubled, He set them midway between hope and fear. On the one hand, when they would grow weak and be subject to human infirmity, hope in God's mercy would help them rise again. On the other hand, fear of provoking God would forbid them to fall often. They did not yet have the ability to be entirely without sin, since they were not yet clothed with power from heaven and from above, that is, with grace through the Spirit (Lk 24:49).
Therefore He commands them not to be troubled. At once He teaches that those who are about to struggle and enter into labors for the highest glory must certainly be above cowardice. For an undisturbed spirit is a great aid to courage. At the same time, though not clearly or very openly, He sows hope of forgiveness, if by human faint-heartedness they should ever fall into timidity. For a mind not yet strengthened by grace from above is fearful, unstable, and quick to waver.
For this reason the most wise Paul offers this prayerful word in one of his Epistles: "And the peace of Christ, which surpasses every mind, will guard your hearts" (Phil 4:7). This is what it means not to be troubled in heart.
"Believe in God; believe also in Me." He makes the recent coward a brave warrior. He commands the one fearful before wounds to become strong through deeds by faith. For in this way, and in no other, we are saved, according to what is sung in the Psalms: "The Lord is my light and my Savior. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?" (Ps 26:1).
Indeed, when almighty God defends and helps us, who can harm us? Who can have such power as to subject the chosen to his dominion, and expose them to the miseries of his evil disposition? Or who could seize and make his captives those who possess the divine full armor?
Faith, then, is an unbreakable and mighty weapon. It turns away every cowardice from the thought of sufferings. It makes the arrows of wickedness in those who tempt wholly powerless and completely useless.
But if faith has this significance, we must also attend to the fact that He commanded them to believe not only "in God," but "also in Him." This is not because He is something other than the One who is God by nature, I mean with respect to identity of essence. It is because to believe in God, and to limit the whole content of faith by this single word, God, belongs to Jewish lack of understanding. To join faith in the name of the Son to faith in God is the command of the evangelical preaching.
Those who think rightly must believe both in God the Father, and not simply in the Son, but also in Him who became man, and in the Holy Spirit. For the holy and consubstantial Trinity is distinguished by the difference of names and by the qualities and properties of the Persons. The Father is Father, and not Son. The Son, again, is Son, and not Father. The Holy Spirit is Spirit, possessing Godhead. Yet the Trinity is united in one and the same essence, presenting to us not three gods, but one God.
Nevertheless, I say, we must believe distinctly. We should not simply say, "We believe in God," but should extend the confession and assign the same measure of glory to each Person. There must be no difference of faith in us. Our faith must not be greater in the Father and lesser in the Son or in the Holy Spirit.
Rather, one and the same limit and form of confession must pass through the three names equally. Through them also the Holy Trinity is shown to possess unity of nature. Its glory shines wholly without reproach. In our souls there is faith in the Father, in the Son, even when He became man, and in the Holy Spirit.
No one, I think, if he has a sound mind, will separate from the Logos of God the temple He received from the Virgin, since this pertains precisely to the sonship. For "there is one Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 8:6), according to Paul's word. Whoever divides the One and Only into a pair of sons should know that he entirely denies the faith.
So also the divine Paul, reasoning very beautifully and entirely rightly about this, sets before faith not simply the Only-begotten alone, but also the One who became like us. That is, he presents Him as man, dead and risen from the dead. For what does he say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom 10:8-10).
If we believe in the Son as risen, who then is the one who died, so that He might also rise? It is evident that He is understood as having died according to the flesh. His own body was enclosed in death and came to life again. It was the body of Him who is Life by nature, bearing the whole property of the One who dwelt in it and was ineffably united to it, that is, the life-giving power.
Therefore, when someone divides, and sets apart the flesh and the One who dwelt in it bodily, and dares to speak of two sons, let him know that he believes in flesh alone. For the divine Scriptures teach us to believe in the Crucified, the Dead, and the Risen from the dead, not as another distinct from God the Word present in the flesh. I say this not with respect to identity of essence, for the body is body and not the Word, although it is the body of the Word. I say it with respect to true sonship.
If someone thinks that we speak badly, let him then prove that the Word of God died, insofar as He is understood as God. This is impossible. More than that, even to think it is impious.
THEOSIS