From Origen's Commentary on
John's Gospel12. Is the Saviour All that He Is, to All?
We have thus enquired as to the life of God, and the life which
is Christ, and the living who are in a place by themselves, and have seen
how the living are not justified before God, and we have noticed the cognate
statement, "Who alone hath immortality ." We may now take up the assumption
which may appear to be involved in this, namely, that whatever being is
gifted with reason does not possess blessedness as a part of its essence,
or as an inseparable part of its nature. For if blessedness and the highest
life were an inseparable characteristic of reasonable being, how could
it be truly said of God that He only has immortality? We should therefore
remark, that the Saviour is some things, not to Himself but to others,
and some things both to Himself and others, and we must enquire if there
are some things which He is to Himself and to no other. Clearly it is to
others that He is a Shepherd, not a shepherd like those among men who make
gain out of their occupation; unless the benefit conferred on the sheep
might be regarded, on account of His love to men, as a benefit to Himself
also. Similarly it is to others that He is the Way and the Door, and, as
all will admit, the Rod. To Himself and to others He is Wisdom and perhaps
also Reason (Loges). It may be asked whether, as He has in Himself a system
of speculations, inasmuch as He is wisdom, there are some of those speculations
which cannot be received by any nature that is begotten, but His own, and
which He knows for Himself only. Nor should the reverence we owe to the
Holy Spirit keep us from seeking to answer this question. For the Holy
Spirit Himself receives instruction, as is clear from what is said about
the Paraclete and the Holy Spirit, "He shall take of mine and shall declare
it to you." Does He, then, from these instructions, take in everything
that the Son, gazing at the Father from the first, Himself knows? That
would require further consideration. And if the Saviour is some things
to others, and some things it may be to Himself, and to no other, or to
one only, or to few, then we ask, in so far as He is the life which came
in the Loges, whether he is life to Himself and to others, or to others,
and if to others, to what others. And are life and the light of men the
same thing, for the text says, "That which was made was life in Him and
the life was the light of men." But the light of men is the light only
of some, not of all, rational creatures; the word "men" which is added
shows this. But He is the light of men, and so He is the life of those
whose light he is also. And inasmuch as He is life He may be called the
Saviour, not for Himself but to be life to others, whose light also He
is. And this life comes to the Logos and is inseparable from Him, once
it has come to Him. But the Loges, who cleanses the soul, must have been
in the soul first; it is after Him and the cleansing that proceeds from
Him, when all that is dead or weak in her has been taken away, that pure
life comes to every one who has made himself a fit dwelling for the Loges,
considered as God.
