If there be a messenger with him, a mediator, one of a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness:
All Commentaries on Job 33:23 Go To Job 33
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
2. For who is this Angel, but He who is called by the Prophet, The Angel of mighty counsel? [Is. 9, 6. lxx.] For because to declare is called “evangelize” in Greek, the Lord in announcing Himself to us is called ‘Angel.’ [as Is. 63, 9] And he well says, If there shall be a messenger [or Angel] speaking for him; [Rom. 8, 26] because, as the Apostle says, He even intercedes for us. But let us hear what he says for us; One of like things. It is the way with medicine to cure disease sometimes by similar, sometimes by contrary, remedies. For it has frequently been wont to cure the hot by warm, and the cold by cold, applications; and on the contrary, the cold by warmth, the hot by cold. Our Physician then, on coming to us from above, and finding us oppressed with such great diseases, applied to our case something of a like, and something of a contrary, nature. For He came to us as Man to men, but as a Just One to those who were in sin. He agreed with us in the truth of His nature, He differed from us in the power of His righteousness. For sinful man could not be amended, except by God. But it was necessary that He who was healing him, should be an object of sight; in order that He might amend our former sinful lives, by setting a pattern for us to imitate. But it was not possible that God could be seen by man; He therefore became man, that He might be seen. The Holy and Invisible God appeared therefore as a visible man, like ourselves; that while He seemed to be of like nature, He might teach us by His holiness. And while agreeing with our condition in verity of nature, He might put a stop to our sickness by the might of His skill.
3. Because then the Lord, when coming in the flesh, did not bear our guilt for His own fault, nor our punishment as a matter of necessity, (for untainted by spot of sin, He could not be involved in our condition of guilt, and therefore voluntarily underwent our death, when He so willed, every kind of necessity lying beneath His feet [‘calcata’],) it is rightly said, that that messenger speaks, in behalf of man when tempted, ‘one of like things,’ because He was neither born as other men, nor was like them in His dying, or His rising again. For He was conceived, not by the cooperation of natural intercourse, but by the Holy Spirit coming on His Mother. [Luke 1, 35] And when born He proved the fecundity of His Mother’s womb, though preserving its virgin purity. But again, we all die when we do not wish it; because we are constrained through the sinfulness of our nature to pay the debt of punishment. But He, from having no admixture of sin, did not submit to any punishment as a matter of necessity. But because He subdued our guilt by triumphing over [al. ‘condemning’] it, He underwent our punishment out of pity for us; as He Himself says, I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again. [John 10, 18] Who had also said before, No one taketh it from Me; but I lay it down of Myself. But again, He was not raised again like other men; because our resurrection is deferred to the end of the world, while His was celebrated on the third day. And we indeed rise by Him, for He rises by Himself. For He Who was God needed not, as we, to be raised up by any one else. In this then does His resurrection differ from ours, that we do not rise again of ourselves, as He did. For since we are simply men, we need some superior assistance to enable us to rise. But He as God displayed the same power of raising [Oxf. Mss. ‘resuscitationis.’ edd. ‘rising.’] again with the Father and the Holy Spirit, though He alone in His human nature had experience of it. Because then the Lord, though truly born, truly dead, and truly raised again, differs from us, in all these points, in the greatness of His power, but agrees only in the verity of His nature, it is well said that that Messenger speaks for us one of like things. For since He surpasses us in all His doings with His immeasurable power, yet in one point, the verity of His nature, He does not differ from us.
4. He speaks in our behalf to the Father, through that in which He shews Himself to be like us. For His speaking or intercession is His proving Himself to be very Man for man’s sake. And well, when he had said, He says one of like things, he immediately added, that he might declare the righteousness of man. Because, if He had not become like unto men, man would not appear just before God. For He announces our righteousness, by the very fact ‘that He deigned to take on Himself our infirmity. [Heb. 2, 16, 17] For that fatal persuasion had polluted us all with the infection of sin from our very origin; [Gen. 3, 3] and there was no one who, in speaking to God in behalf of sinners, could appear free from sin; because an equal guilt had involved all alike who were created from the same lump. Therefore the Only-begotten of the Father came to us, and assumed our nature without committing sin. [Rom. 5, 12] For it was requisite that one who could intercede for sinners should be free from sin, because doubtless He could not wipe away the infection of others’ guilt, if He had to bear His own. It is well said then, that in appearing in our likeness He announced righteousness to men. For He proved Himself, in interceding for sinners, to be so righteous a Man as to merit forgiveness for others.
