Section CXCIII

For this reason he came into this world and put on our nature, that he might be the Savior and Redeemer not of one or another, or even of many, but of absolutely all men. Gregory explains this¹, after adducing the words², “Confess unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever,” writing:

He commands that God be glorified on account of his goodness alone, signifying this: that whatsoever good and salvation came from God to mortals, all of it came by his grace and goodness, οὐδεμίαν ἡμῶν αἰτίαν πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν παρασχομένων, when no cause for receiving that good existed in us. On the contrary, when we were overwhelmed by every kind of depravity, ἐκεῖνος τῆς ἰδίας οὐκ ἐξίσταται φύσεως· ἀλλ᾽ ὅπερ ἐστί, τοῦτο ποιεῖ· οὐδὲ γὰρ εἰκὸς ἦν τὸν ἀγαθὸν τῇ φύσει ἄλλο τι παρ᾽ ὃ πέφυκεν ἐνεργῆσαι, he did not depart from his own nature, but did that which he is. For neither was it fitting for him who is good by nature to do anything other than that which proceeds from his nature. “Let those who have been redeemed by the Lord say,” he declares, “whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered them from the lands, from the rising of the sun and its setting, from the north and from the sea.” Τὴν παντελῆ τοῦ γένους τῶν ἀνθρώπων πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐπάνοδον ὁ λόγος εὐαγγελίζεται. The discourse promises the perfect and consummate return of the human race to the good. Ἡ γὰρ λύτρωσις, τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας ἀνάκλησιν ἑρμηνεύει τῷ ῥήματι. Ὁ δὲ Θεὸς λύτρον δέδωκεν ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ τῶν κεκρατημένων ὑπὸ τοῦ θανάτου τῷ τὸ κράτος ἔχοντι τοῦ θανάτου, καὶ ἐπειδὴ πάντες ἦσαν ἐν τῇ τοῦ θανάτου φρουρᾷ, πάντας δηλονότι ἐξωνεῖται τῷ λύτρῳ, ὡς μηδένα καταληφθῆναι τῇ—

—δυναστείᾳ τοῦ θανάτου μετὰ τὴν γινομένην τοῦ παντὸς ἀπολύτρωσιν. For redemption signifies a recall from captivity. But God gave himself as the price of redemption for those who were held captive by death, and gave it to him who possessed dominion over death; and since all were under the power of death, he redeemed all from it by the price, so that none might be left under the empire of death after the general liberation of all. For it cannot be that anyone should remain subject to death when death has now been abolished and entirely removed. On this account, after the whole orb of lands had been divided into four parts according to position, οὐδὲν ὁ λόγος ὑπελείπετο μέρος τῆς θείας λυτρώσεως ἄμοιρον, Scripture teaches that no part remained without a share in the divine redemption. For it says, “From the rising of the sun and its setting, from the north and from the sea”; by the name of the sea the southern region is designated. Ἐν κεφαλαίῳ τοίνυν τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ προεκθέμενος εὐποιΐαν, ἧς ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἐνήργησε φύσιν, μετὰ τοῦτο διασκευαῖς τισιν τὴν τε πρὸς τὸ κακὸν ἀπορροὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐκδιηγεῖται. Therefore, after setting forth summarily the beneficence of God poured forth upon all men, he thereafter explains, by certain artifices, both the wandering of men into malice and the recall of each one to the more upright way.

Gregory depicts universal redemption in entirely similar colors when, looking to the parable³ of that sheep which wandered away from the common flock, he first says⁴:

We too were once in the number of all; for we were counted in the catalogue of rational sheep belonging to the sacred hundred. But after one sheep, namely our nature, wandered from the mountain pastures, having been drawn by vice into this dry and uncultivated place, the same number is no longer recounted in the flock of those which did not wander, but ninety-nine are named.

Then immediately he adds⁵:

Ἦλθεν οὖν ζητῆσαι καὶ σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλός, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων ἀναλαβὼν ἀποκαταστῆσαι τοῖς οὖσι τὸ τῇ ματαιότητι τῶν ἀνυπάρκτων ἐναπολλύμενον, ἵνα πάλιν ἀρτία γένηται ὁ τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀριθμός, ἀποσωθέντος τοῦ ἀπολωλότος τοῖς μὴ ἀπολλυμένοις. He came, therefore, to seek and to save that which had perished, and, taking upon his shoulders that which was perishing in the vanity of things which do not exist, to restore it to the things which exist, so that the number of God’s creation might again be whole, that which had perished having been preserved together with those which do not perish.

Whence, when the question has been proposed⁶, what cause existed that God, having assumed flesh, should cast himself down to such humility, he immediately replies⁷:

For us there is by no means lacking an answer worthy of God to these things. You ask the cause why God was born among men? If you separate from life the benefits which have been received from God, you will be unable to say from what things you recognize God. For from those things which we receive we recognize our benefactor. Looking to the things which are done, we consider through them the nature of him who acts. Εἰ οὖν ἴδιον γνώρισμα τῆς θείας φύσεως ἡ φιλανθρωπία, ἔχεις ὃν ἐπεζήτησας λόγον, ἔχεις τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς ἐν ἀνθρώποις τοῦ Θεοῦ παρουσίας. If, therefore, benevolence toward men is the proper character of the divine nature, you have the rationale which you were seeking; you have the cause why God appeared among men. For our nature, which labored under disease, had need of a physician; the man who had fallen had need of one who would raise him; he who had fallen from life had need of one who would vivify him; he who had fallen away from participation in the good had need of one who would lead him back to the good; he who was enclosed in darkness stood in need of the presence of light; the captive sought a redeemer, the bound man a helper, he who was pressed beneath the yoke of servitude a liberator. Ἆρα μικρὰ ταῦτα καὶ ἀνάξια τὸν Θεὸν δυσωπῆσαι πρὸς ἐπίσκεψιν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως καταβῆναι, οὕτως ἐλεεινῶς καὶ ἀθλίως τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος διακειμένης; Are these things small and unworthy to move God to descend in order to visit human nature, when humanity was in so wretched and miserable a condition?

After this misery of humanity is described again⁸ and its origin laid open, he continues: “Seek for me at once all those things which accord with those things believed concerning God: goodness, wisdom, justice, power, incorruption—

—and if there is anything of more excellent signification. As good, therefore, he is moved by mercy toward him who had fallen; and as wise, he is not ignorant of the manner of recalling him.”

But he executes that recall in such a manner that, according to Gregory⁹, no divine perfection can either be conceived by the mind or uttered in words which does not shine forth most splendidly in the work of restoring the human race. Yet above the others mercy shines forth, the infinite amplitude of which he explains at greater length¹⁰ in his Exhortation Concerning Repentance, and finally adds¹¹:

But I think that even Judas Iscariot, had he not hastened to become his own executioner—judging his crime graver than that he could be forgiven—but had suppliantly sought pardon, οὐκ ἂν τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν τῶν πάσης ὑπερχεομένων τῆς οἰκουμένης ἠστόχησεν, would not have failed to obtain that mercy which was diffused throughout the whole world. The Jews who, after they had fastened Christ to the cross, believed and washed both minds and hands in baptism, are indeed a testimony to this matter. But if those who had driven Christ to the cross obtained mercy, surely he himself who had betrayed him would also have obtained pardon.

By these things the font of redemption is opened, its amplitude is shown, and its manifold efficacy is declared. And as concerns the font, no other a) is proposed than the native goodness of God and his inexhaustible clemency toward men, which did not fail itself and its own office even when the human race rebelled from God through transgression. But b) its amplitude, and indeed its universality, is signified under more than one name. For it is signified 1) by explicit formulas, by which either reparation is called general or all are declared redeemed and restored. It is signified 2) by equivalent formulas, when those very persons are said to have been restored who had fallen, who had fallen away from life, who had fallen away from fellowship in the good, who lived in darkness, and who bore the yoke of servitude. For these are all men, and there is absolutely no one who does not belong to this number. It is signified 3) by negative propositions, by which no one is taught to have been excluded and rejected from participation in so great a benefit. It is signified 4) by distributive discourse, by which all are presented as restored from the rising of the sun even to its setting—

—and from the north even to the southern region. It is signified 5) by that kind of discourse which we call argument from the greater to the lesser. For if the Savior redeemed even the most lost, and Judas himself, whom at last shall we judge to be without a share in redemption? Nor 6) ought it to be thought of lesser moment for establishing its infinite amplitude that the principal cause of reparation is referred to God’s φιλανθρωπία, benevolence toward men. For this regards men themselves, and therefore comprehends all those who are contained within human nature.

Finally, c) concerning the efficacy of universal redemption, nothing more splendid should be sought than those things by which it is compared with a medicine, with light, with liberty, and with life.