Let no one think, he says, that He has His Son as heir only of this dignity befitting God. For 'He has given all things into His hand,' that is, every good that exists essentially in the Father is, beyond doubt, also in the power of the Son. Here he calls power the hand, as in the words of one prophet: 'My hand established the heaven' (Is 48:13), instead of 'My power.'
The Son has in Himself the whole property of the Father, not by participation, even though it is said that the Father gave. Otherwise He would also have the Godhead as something received, and not as something natural. The Father gives the Son everything that is His in the way that a man is conceived as giving the properties of humanity to the child begotten from him.
Or again, fire is said to give the qualities of its nature to the heat that proceeds from it by activity. In such cases, the communication is harmless to those who communicate. The origin of what is conceived as receiving does not take place by division or cutting off.
Likewise, what appears to receive is not a cause of deficiency for those who give. This only indicates 'that from which' something comes. What is begotten is conceived as a certain natural quality, so to speak, of the begetter. It reveals what the begetter is by essence and reflects the natural activity of its source.
But these again are only examples. God is manifestly above them. Let us not blame the weakness of human speech for this, for it is written: 'The glory of God conceals a word' (Prov 25:2). If we see only through a mirror and in an enigma, and know in part (1 Cor 13:12), must we not be still more powerless in the utterances of the tongue?
Therefore this understanding of the teaching, that all things are given to the Son by the Father, will also be pious. Yet you may also refer this again to the Incarnation. Then 'to give' and 'to receive' will indicate not the natural properties of the Son, but the authority over all creatures given to Him. Thus you may again understand something like what follows.
Let the unbeliever not persist, he says, when he sees the Lord of all as man. Let him not think of lying against the truth by refusing, because of His flesh, to believe in Him as God. Let him receive His testimony and willingly seal that God is true, so as not to offend the heavenly Father.
For the Father loves His Son. The proof of this love for Him is the granting to Him of authority over all. The Savior Himself also said of this: 'All things have been delivered to Me by My Father' (Mt 11:27). And again: 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me' (Mt 28:18).
If the Son is shown as having received, this must by no means serve as a basis for anyone to consider Him lesser. Why? Because He receives when He has become man, when He humbled Himself for our sake, when the Master was called a slave (Phil 2:7), and when the free Son became a servant.
Otherwise, how did He humble Himself or descend from equality with God the Father? Do you not see here both the One who gives in a manner befitting God, and the One who receives in a human and servile manner what He had as God?
The giving from God did not properly elevate the Son to the beginning of lordship over all. Rather, in the state of Incarnation, He accepted and received the authority that He had before the Incarnation. For He does not begin to rule over creation only when He became man.
Otherwise, into what humiliation did He descend, if He begins to rule when He became man? Or how will He appear in the form of a slave, if precisely then, in the Incarnation, He became Master of all? Away with such absurd thoughts.
But when He became man, He also begins to rule in this state. He is not deprived of His divine dignity because of the flesh. Rather, with the flesh He again ascends to what He was from the beginning. That this was Christ's reception of what was most anciently His, He Himself will assure us with the words: 'Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was' (Jn 17:5).
You see that He asks not for the beginning of glory, but for the renewal of His former glory, and He says this as man. That it is again because of His humanity that all things are said to have been given to the Son, the lover of knowledge can gather clear proofs from everywhere.
He may gather them especially from that fearful vision of Daniel. In it, as he says, he saw 'the Ancient of Days' sitting upon the throne. He states that 'thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads' were present, some serving and others standing before Him (Dan 7:9-10).
To this he adds: 'And behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like the Son of Man. He came to the Ancient of Days and was brought before Him. To Him was given authority, honor, and a kingdom, and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve Him' (Dan 7:13-14).
Do you see that in these words he describes for us the whole mystery of the Incarnation exactly? Do you see that the Son is called the One who receives the kingdom from the Father? The prophet does not behold the Word Himself in Himself, but 'like the Son of Man.'
This is because He emptied Himself, as it is written, and for our sake was 'found in form as a man' (Phil 2:7). Thus, being first led into the Kingdom, He might again appear for us as the beginning and the glorious way into the Kingdom.
Being life by nature, He descended for our sake into death according to the flesh on behalf of all. He did this to remove us from death and corruption, by joining us to Himself through likeness with us and making us partakers of eternal life. So also, being as God the Lord of glory, He takes upon Himself the form of our lowliness, in order to raise human nature to royal dignity.
For He became 'preeminent in all things' (Col 1:18), as Paul says. He is the way, the door, and the firstfruits of mankind's goods. He leads from death to life, from corruption to incorruption, from weakness to power, from slavery to sonship, and from dishonor and ingloriousness to the honor and glory of the kingdom.
Therefore, when the Son appears as receiving as man what He had as God, we must by no means be scandalized. Rather, we must understand the form of the divine economy for our sake and on our behalf. In this way we shall preserve our mind without harm or injury.
THEOSIS