The Eternity of Christ's Reign

It has been hidden. It always sends out its own testimonies. Among men, however, it is a matter of either seeing it or not seeing it. And just as it happens to the perceptible sun that those with clouded eyes cannot see it, and we do not immediately say that the sun does not exist, so also we do not say that truth has never existed among men, lest we should disparage the Scripture.

And I say to you: if you bring me two different kinds of fruits, such as figs, because you divided them from the matter, it is necessary that other plants and other things also be. Therefore, it is impossible for the Gospel instruction to have made the truth into men, nor for the one called the old before the advent to have been enlightened according to the truth. They necessarily approached from different fruits and different qualities; not because there is a different divinity, but because of their strange beginning, this followed.

If, therefore, the Savior says: 'I am the truth' (John 14:6) and Shepherd and Door and the others, these names and what is signified by them are unshared from the natural ones. But if he says that 'I am a man', if it is said about him that he is righteous—'you killed the righteous one,' says Peter (Acts 7:52)—these names apply equally to both men and angels.

Take the same manner for me regarding a king; and since a king is something of a nature with the kingdom of the Word, unable to be either taken up or cast off, that itself is kingdom. And just as one is not called righteous because he possesses righteousness, but being righteousness itself, so also a king is not from appointment, but the king himself is from the King, as God is from God. He also has an acquired kingship, which he desired to have by appearing, so that he might also bring down those warring against the human race and bring them themselves into a lawful dominion, so that he might rule lawfully.

If, therefore, he says: 'I have been established king by him upon his holy Mount Zion' (Psalm 2:6), he is not speaking about the innate and eternal kingship, but about that which he received for our sake. And teaching is a kingship upon God. Thus, there was the teaching before the advent, which they said was spoken by him as a Word like God, and there is another for the sake of some. This, therefore, has a beginning and an end. For it has been said in...

To the twelve prophets: 'and the Lord shall reign from Zion from now and until the age'. The 'from' and 'until' signify time. But if it is said concerning a man that he reigns from this time and until that, it signifies a limited reign; for before the time from which his kingship began, he was not king, and at the end of the kingship, he is no longer king.

But concerning the Savior we do not say this, rather he reigned from the time from which he received authority through ordination, and he is no longer reigning when this reaches an end; for that end is through him. Just as divinity does not come to him through another, so neither does the kingship nor the holiness. 'God is our king before the age' (Ps 89:3). And the kingship before the age is through him.

Again: 'your kingdom is the kingdom of all the ages' (Rev 11:15). This is said of the Word God. The Word has neither a beginning having kingship nor an ending; for 'Lord' means 'reigning for the age and upon the age and yet more'. He was at a loss to signify the difference between time and age, and said 'and yet more'. We take 'yet more' thus: even if you take another age, he reigns yet more; even if another, yet more; even if all ages, yet more he reigns; from which it is shown that his beginning is without end; for the kingship which he had according to human kingship has sometimes ceased and has taken a beginning; but why is this kingship? Because of the salvation of the world, because of the removal of 'the sin of the world' (John 1:29).

And just as a physician is always a physician from the time he has the art, and as far as he practices it, he has a beginning and an end of being a physician, and for the one suffering, there is a beginning and an end of that physician being 'yet more', when he reaches a possible health and a possible recovery, so also you will say concerning teachers. There is a certain teacher from whom one has received knowledge. He becomes a teacher of this one when he comes to him; and when that one has been instructed and has fully taken up the knowledge like the teacher, he ceases to be his teacher. And it is a kind of virtue for a teacher to sometimes cease to be a teacher of this one; for having perfected them, he is no longer their teacher. But if he remains always a teacher of this one, no one is perfected according to the teaching of him. Therefore, hearing such things, those not understanding the Scriptures in this way—for example: