Chapter 60 [XXXI.]—Christ, the Head and the Body; Owing to the Union of the Natures in the Person of Christ, He Both Remained in Heaven, and Walked About on Earth; How the One Christ Could Ascend to Heaven; The Head, and the Body, the One Christ.

Now when Nicodemus understood not what was being told him, he inquired of the Lord how such things could be. Let us look at what the Lord said to him in answer to his inquiry; for of course, as He deigns to answer the question, How can these things be? He will in fact tell us how spiritual regeneration can come to a man who springs from carnal generation. After noticing briefly the ignorance of one who assumed a superiority over others as a teacher, and having blamed the unbelief of all such, for not accepting His witness to the truth, He went on to inquire and wonder whether, as He had told them about earthly things and they had not believed they would believe heavenly things. He nevertheless pursues the subject, and gives an answer such as others should believe—though these refuse—to the question that he was asked, How these things can be? “No man,” says He, “hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”212    John iii. 13. Thus, He says, shall come the spiritual birth,—men, from being earthly, shall become heavenly; and this they can only obtain by being made members of me; so that he may ascend who descended, since no one ascends who did not descend. All, therefore, who have to be changed and raised must meet together in a union with Christ, so that the Christ who descended may ascend, reckoning His body (that is to say, His Church) as nothing else than Himself, because it is of Christ and the Church that this is most truly understood: “And they twain shall be one flesh;”213    Gen. ii. 24. concerning which very subject He expressly said Himself, “So then they are no more twain, but one flesh.”214    Mark x. 8. To ascend, therefore, they would be wholly unable, since “no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”215    John iii. 13. For although it was on earth that He was made the Son of man, yet He did not deem it unworthy of that divinity, in which, although remaining in heaven, He came down to earth, to designate it by the name of the Son of man, as He dignified His flesh with the name of Son of God: that they might not be regarded as if they were two Christs,—the one God, the other man,216    This was the error which was subsequently condemned in the heresy of Nestorius.—but one and the same God and man,—God, because “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;”217    John i. 1. and man, inasmuch as “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”218    John 1. 14. By this means—by the difference between His divinity and His humiliation—He remained in heaven as Son of God, and as Son of man walked on earth; whilst, by that unity of His person which made His two natures one Christ, He both walked as Son of God on earth, and at the same time as the very Son of man remained in heaven. Faith, therefore, in more credible things arises from the belief of such things as are more incredible. For if His divine nature, though a far more distant object, and more sublime in its incomparable diversity, had ability so to take upon itself the nature of man on our account as to become one Person, and whilst appearing as Son of man on earth in the weakness of the flesh, was able to remain all the while in heaven in the divinity which partook of the flesh, how much easier for our faith is it to suppose that other men, who are His faithful saints, become one Christ with the Man Christ, so that, when all ascend by His grace and fellowship, the one Christ Himself ascends to heaven who came down from heaven? It is in this sense that the apostle says, “As we have many members in one body, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so likewise is Christ.”219    1 Cor. xii. 12. He did not say, “So also is Christ’s”—meaning Christ’s body, or Christ’s members—but his words are, “So likewise is Christ,” thus calling the head and body one Christ.

CAPUT XXXI.

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60. Christus caput et corpus. Christus ob personae unitatem et in coelo manebat, et in terra deambulabat. Unus Christus quomodo ascendat in coelum. Caput et corpus unus Christus. Cum ergo Nicodemus ea quae dicebantur non intelligeret, quaesivit a Domino quomodo possent ista fieri. Videamus quid Dominus ad hoc respondeat. Profecto enim si ad interrogata respondere dignabitur, Quomodo possunt ista fieri? hoc dicturus est, quomodo possit fieri regeneratio spiritualis venientis hominis ex generatione carnali. Notata itaque paululum ejus imperitia, qui se caeteris de magisterio praeferebat, et omnium talium incredulitate reprehensa, quod testimonium non acciperent veritatis; addidit etiam, se illis terrena dixisse, nec eos credidisse, quaerens vel admirans quomodo essent coelestia credituri. Sequitur tamen et respondet, quod alii credent , si illi non credunt, ad illud quod interrogatus est, quomodo possint ista fieri: Nemo, inquit, ascendit in coelum, nisi qui de coelo descendit, Filius hominis, qui est in coelo. Sic, inquit, fiet generatio spiritualis, ut sint coelestes homines ex terrenis; quod adipisci non poterunt, nisi membra mea efficiantur, ut ipse ascendat qui descendit; quia nemo ascendit, nisi qui descendit. Nisi ergo in unitatem Christi omnes mutandi levandique concurrant, ut Christus qui descendit ipse ascendat, non aliud deputans corpus suum, id est, Ecclesiam suam, quam se ipsum; quia de Christo et Ecclesia verius intelligitur, Erunt duo in carne una (Gen. II, 24); de qua re ipse dixit, Itaque jam non duo, sed una caro (Marc. X, 8): ascendere omnino non poterunt; quia nemo ascendit in coelum, nisi qui de coelo descendit, Filius hominis, qui est in coelo. Quamvis enim in terra factus sit filius hominis, divinitatem tamen suam qua in coelo manens descendit ad terram, non indignam censuit nomine filii hominis, sicut carnem suam dignatus est nomine filii Dei, ne quasi duo Christi ista accipiantur , unus Deus, et alter homo: sed unus atque idem Deus et homo; Deus, quia in principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum; homo, quia Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis (Joan. I, 1, 14). Ac per hoc per distantiam divinitatis et infirmitatis filius Dei manebat in coelo, filius hominis ambulabat in terra: per unitatem vero personae, qua utraque substantia unus Christus est, et filius Dei ambulabat in terra, et idem ipse filius hominis manebat in coelo. Fit ergo credibiliorum fides ex incredibilioribus creditis. Si enim divina substantia longe distantior atque incomparabili diversitate sublimior, potuit propter nos ita suscipere humanam substantiam, ut una persona fieret, ac sic filius hominis qui erat in terra per carnis infirmitatem, idem ipse esset in coelo per participatam carni divinitatem: quanto credibilius alii homines 0145 sancti et fideles ejus fiunt cum homine Christo unus Christus, ut omnibus per ejus hanc gratiam societatemque ascendentibus, ipse unus Christus ascendat in coelum, qui de coelo descendit? Sic et Apostolus ait: Sicut in uno corpore multa membra habemus, omnia autem membra corporis cum sint multa, unum est corpus; ita et Christus (I Cor. XII, 12). Non dixit, Ita et Christi, id est, corpus Christi, vel membra Christi: sed, ita et Christus; unum Christum appellans caput et corpus.