The Nature of the Anointing

It is asserted that his lips pour out Ps 44:8, just as it is shown in the Gospels that all marvel at the words of grace coming from his mouth.

As then the divine is anointed with oil by nature and not by participation, being joined through its own nature (not given by grace as to your partakers), and he calls Christ God, but calls his anointing God, not annulling the human constitution and the relation of the Word to the flesh through which is the anointing of spirit, and the flesh being preceded and foretold by the presence of the Spirit from the beginning and its coming again Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38.

For if it were said that the Spirit is joined by inherent beauty rather than by participation, then the anointing would be called a result of discipline. And where can anyone show such discipline? And what labor of learning is there with Christ, so that the giving of pains would be sanctification? And through diligent learning, wisdom becomes spirit, but through the struggle toward pleasures, the patient and powerful is sealed by the Spirit.

It is therefore clear that the anointing is spoken of as following nature and not as being given in return for labor, and not as the Spirit being given to man as a wage (though even this is possible; for God gives the Spirit by grace and not by wage), but as that which is inherent to God and man simultaneously, appearing from him and toward him, just as we say when we offer that which is inherent to God and man: 'I will praise you among the nations, O Lord' Ps 18:4. By mentioning the partakers, he also showed the manifestation of the anointing, since it proceeds by participation, because of this it has come by participation.

Since, insofar as regarding the Lord, there was no need for us to be naturally holy, being holy and having holiness implanted in the body and by this perfecting the human form toward maturity, but since this was not in us, nor was it possible for men to be holy by nature, but it is necessary by gift and by heavenly grace, for this reason the Spirit is upon Christ, so that He might show through bodily kinship, as being brought from Him unto us for the participation of the Spirit.

The departure of the wicked nations (Ps 44:12a) beautifully demonstrates the bride as the desired one of the King. For this is our beauty, and by this we are beautified, and by this we are made at home with God, and in this way we become exceedingly attentive to God, as one might say regarding the beauty of those who are loved, whatever anyone might say about beauty. The bride is near the King (Ps 44:15), and virgins are near her and are her followers, and through her are made at home with the King, and like maidens following as if upon a bride. In this way, according to the Song of Solomon, the Jewish synagogues were so, being second assemblies and following, according to the saying, 'The first shall be last and the last shall be first' (Ps 44:22), and 'The sojourner shall be in thee' (Ps 44:23) for a head, and you shall be in heaven. For indeed those who became the former followers of the law are now beginning the assembly with God for the purpose of being made at home with Him, and this is even more evident from the things being brought forth.

For this is the attendant of Christ, and she enters into the holy temple with Him (Ps 44:16b), and she gives the inheritance and the kingdom of the world promised to Abraham to those of his lineage according to the flesh, by the King who wills and the Queen who approves. Do not the ones who said 'maidens' now say 'sons,' having received the rank of sons, and as sons worthy of inheritance from a mother? The city shall be incorruptible, he says (Ps 45:6), so that God shall be in it, while the watchman of the perimeter ceases from the passing night. For there is a night, until the darkness is removed from everywhere, and not all authority and power is abolished, but still fighting, you will lay hold of them, moving against the righteous.

Nor when, he says, were you given over to the nations (Ps 44:25) having been overcome by God, were you given over in vain, but so that you might know the power of God, having acquired all the nations for His own rebuke, and instead of one land, having acquired every land under His own reverence; for in the same stumbling, according to the Apostle, salvation came to the nations so as to provoke them to jealousy (Rom 11:11). Concerning Israel is the psalm before this, but this is for the nations (Ps 46).