The Transformation through Christ's Passion

For those who are shamed do not rub the wound. Therefore, the saint fights no one. But the one being fought strives not to oppose, but to suffer nothing; and so I shall express it—since it is a violent thing and because of the vividness of the image—that he uses only a weapon, not a sword-shield, nor a defender capable of resisting and opposing.

'Fight those who fight me' (Ps 18:34). There was still in the act of doing wrong to him and in the act of fighting. So that they might no longer do wrong or fight, he asks God for an ally, not so that he might wrong them or fight, but so that he might remain unharmed while being wronged and fought. And the nature of the rational being, if it does not suffer perversion, possesses this as its own characteristic.

'Fight,' therefore, meaning prevent them from surrounding me with destruction. Take the weapon and the shield and stand up for my help (Eph 6:16). The shield of God extinguishes the flaming arrows of the enemy, of the evil one. Take therefore this shield, place it around me. I do not say this: 'You shall shield yourself with the shield.' Rather, take it in order to grant it to me, in order to make me secure. The weapon and the shield can be parallel. Perhaps also the kinds of weapons signify something.

One may pray that the incarnation might happen; for when he takes hold of a man who is able to secure us and fight on our behalf, he took hold of a weapon and a shield and rose for our help. He rose from the bosom of the Father, so that, bending the heavens, he might descend, so that he might be seen fighting on our behalf; for he has come not to fight himself, but to fight on our behalf, and he has come not to suffer simply, but to suffer on our behalf. And behold: 'By the grace of God he has overcome death' (2 Tim 1:10).

We were all under death; our whole race was mortal. And the mortal is subject to death. To say of the one suffering through so much that 'he overcame death.' And that he did not suck up the whole mire of death—for it seems appropriate—thus it was made clear to me also in Isaiah: 'By his wound we were all healed' (Isa 53:5). And his wound, they say, is the cross. Regarding the nature of the cross and the greatness of the injury, it is not a wound. But it is a wound in the sense that, as a wound to him, it is not harming the one possessing it, but benefiting those for whom he bore the wound. So also 'by grace'...

He becomes the righteousness of God through death. For having become in death, he loosed death. And the suffering of the Savior is the loosing of the sufferings; for having become in the sufferings, he loosed them, not being mastered by them.

And just as one becoming a curse looses the curse so as to provide a blessing in its place—for we say he became under a curse not so that he might suffer, but so that he might loose the curse and extend a blessing in its place—so too, he did not make sin for us who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him (cf. 2 Cor 5:21). Sin becomes the means by which those having righteousness are made righteousness. It is not called sin simply, but sin for the purpose of making those previously mastered by sin righteousness, not simply, but the righteousness of God.

This signifies a participation in the quality; that those who participate are called by the same name as the quality they possess. They possess the quality of the righteousness of God. He conquered so much and mastered so much that not only the unrighteous, but that they might be called righteousness itself. And in many places of the Scripture you will find such things. It says, 'God is love' (1 John 4:8). See the greatness of love: 'God is love' (1 John 4:8). The same essence is signified by both names, God and Love.

Then he says that the one approaching God and loving him with all heart, and with all soul, and with all power, becomes love; for are the things said about love elsewhere—'love does not swell, does not wander, is not unseemly, does not count the evil, covers all, believes all, endures all' (1 Cor 13:4-7)—not things said about virtue? For I do not say that virtue endures or covers or believes. He named the one having love 'love' by the same name. Thus also those holding to righteousness become the righteousness of God from the sin made on our behalf, no longer merely righteous of God but the righteousness of God.

And this signifies perfection, progress. For many of the optative forms in Scripture are presented in the imperative character—perhaps also with others—and so that we may not depart far: 'Hallowed be thy name' (Matt 6:10), which is 'May thy name be hallowed.' 'Thy kingdom come; thy will be done' (Matt 6:10), which is 'May thy will be done.' 'Let the deceitful lips be removed'—instead of...