{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/210/2100190.htm","path":"chr/ecf/210/2100190.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/210/2100190.htm","text":"The likeness of Christ to the Father is asserted on the authority of St. Paul, the prophets, and the Gospel, and especially in reliance upon the creation of man in God\u2019s image.\n48. The Apostle saith that Christ is the image of the Father\u2014for he calls Him the image of the invisible God, the first-begotten of all creation. First-begotten, mark you, not first-created, in order that He may be believed to be both begotten, in virtue of His nature, 1761 and first in virtue of His eternity. In another place also the Apostle has declared that God made the Son \u201cheir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds, Who is the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His substance.\u201d 1762 The Apostle calls Christ the image of the Father, and Arius says that He is unlike the Father. Why, then, is He called an image, if He hath no likeness? Men will not have their portraits unlike them, and Arius contends that the Father is unlike the Son, and would have it that the Father has begotten one unlike Himself, as though unable to generate His like.\n49. The prophets say: \u201cIn Thy light we shall see light;\u201d 1763 and again: \u201cWisdom is the brightness of everlasting light, and the spotless mirror of God\u2019s majesty, the image of His goodness.\u201d 1764 See what great names are declared! \u201cBrightness,\u201d because in the Son the Father\u2019s glory shines clearly: \u201cspotless mirror,\u201d because the Father is seen in the Son: 1765 \u201cimage of goodness,\u201d because it is not one body seen reflected in another, but the whole power [of the Godhead] in the Son. The word \u201cimage\u201d teaches us that there is no difference; \u201cexpression,\u201d that He is the counterpart of the Father\u2019s form; and \u201cbrightness\u201d declares His eternity. 1766 The \u201cimage\u201d in truth is not that of a bodily countenance, not one made up of colours, nor modelled in wax, but simply derived from God, coming out from the Father, drawn from the fountainhead.\n50. By means of this image the Lord showed Philip the Father, saying, \u201cPhilip, he that sees Me, sees the Father also. How then dost thou say, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?\u201d 1767 Yes, he who looks upon the Son sees, in portrait, the Father. 1768 Mark what manner of portrait is spoken of. It is Truth, Righteousness, the Power of God: 1769 not dumb, for it is the Word; not insensible, for it is Wisdom; not vain and foolish, for it is Power; not soulless, for it is the Life; not dead, for it is the Resurrection. 1770 p. 209 You see, then, that whilst an image is spoken of, the meaning is that it is the Father, Whose image the Son is, seeing that no one can be his own image.\n51. More might I set down from the Son\u2019s testimony; howbeit, lest He perchance appear to have asserted Himself overmuch, let us enquire of the Father. For the Father said, \u201cLet us make man in Our image and likeness.\u201d 1771 The Father saith to the Son \u201cin Our image and likeness,\u201d and thou sayest that the Son of God is unlike the Father.\n52. John saith, \u201cBeloved, we are sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: we know that if He be revealed, we shall be like Him.\u201d 1772 O blind madness! O shameless obstinacy! We are men, and, so far as we may, we shall be in the likeness of God: dare we deny that the Son is like God?\n53. Therefore the Father hath said: \u201cLet us make man in Our image and likeness.\u201d At the beginning of the universe itself, as I read, the Father and the Son existed, and I see one creation. I hear Him that speaketh. 1773 I acknowledge Him that doeth: 1774 but it is of one image, one likeness, that I read. This likeness belongs not to diversity but to unity. What, therefore, thou claimest for thyself, thou takest from the Son of God, seeing, indeed, that thou canst not be in the image of God, save by help of the image of God.\ni. e., of His Sonship. St. Ambrose refers to Col. i. 15.\n208:1762 208:1763 208:1764 208:1765\nCf. S. John xii. 45.\n208:1766\nThe brightness or effulgence of a body lasts as long as that body exists; seeing, then, that the Father is eternal, the Son, Who is His brightness, must be eternal also (H.).\n208:1767\nS. John xiv. 9-10.\n208:1768\nOr \u201cHe who beholds the Father in the Son, beholds Him in a portrait.\u201d\n208:1769\nChrist the Truth: S. John xiv. 6. Righteousness: Jer. 33:16, Jer. 23:6, 1 Cor. 1:30. Power of God: 1 Cor. i. 24.\n208:1770\nChrist the Word: S. John i. 1-18. Wisdom: 1 Cor. 1:24, 30. Life and Resurrection: S. John xi. 25.\n209:1771 209:1772 209:1773 209:1774","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. X: Dogmatic...","type":"page"}