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Translated by Allan Menzies.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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128 Pages
Page 51
40. Christ as Righteousness; As the Demiurge, the Agent of the Good God, and as High-Priest.
Having expiscated the "to us" and the "absolutely"--sanctification and redemption being "to us" and not absolute, wisdom and redemption both to us and absolute--we must not omit to enquire into the position of righteousness in the same passage. That Christ is righteousness relatively to us appears clearly from the words: "Who was made to us of God wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." And if we do not find Him to be righteousness absolutely as He is the wisdom and the power of God absolutely, then we must enquire whether to Christ Himself, as the Father is sanctification, so the Father is also righteousness. There is, we know, no unrighteousness with God; [4636] He is a righteous and holy Lord, [4637] and His judgments are in righteousness, and being righteous, He orders all things righteously.
The heretics drew a distinction for purposes of their own between the just and the good. They did not make the matter very clear, but they considered that the demiurge was just, while the Father of Christ was good. That distinction may, I think, if carefully examined, be applied to the Father and the Son; the Son being righteousness, and having received power [4638] to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man and will judge the world in righteousness, but the Father doing good to those who have been disciplined by the righteousness of the Son. This is after the kingdom of the Son; then the Father will manifest in His works His name the Good, when God becomes all in all. And perhaps by His righteousness the Saviour prepares everything at the fit times, and by His word, by His ordering, by His chastisements, and, if I may use such an expression, by His spiritual healing aids, disposes all things to receive at the end the goodness of the Father. It was from His sense of that goodness that He answered him who addressed the Only-begotten with the words "Good Master," [4639] and said, "Why callest thou Me good? None is good but one, God, the Father." This we have treated of elsewhere, especially in dealing with the question of the greater than the demiurge; Christ we have taken to be the demiurge, and the Father the greater than He.
[4636] John vii. 18.
[4637] Apoc. xvi. 5, 7.
[4638] John v. 27.
[4639] Heb. ii. 9.
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/john-commentary.asp?pg=51
