Christ Fulfilled the Law

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

SUMMARY: The antithesis is between “destroy the Law” and “fulfill” or “complete”, not “destroy the Law” and “perpetuate the Law.” The Ebionites, however, were a heretical sect who continued to keep the Mosaic Law. But the early Church understood that the New Covenant abrogated the Old and Jesus Christ gave a new law. An eternal and final law—namely Christ—has been given to us. Christ fulfilled the Law: therefore the Law and the prophets were with the Jews until John the Baptist. On the other hand, a leading heretical teacher of the second century, Marcion taught many Gnostic beliefs, including the belief that the God of the Old Testament was a different God from the Father of Jesus. The early Christians understood that Christ came as the anticipated Messiah to fulfill the promises of God from the Old Testament, not to destroy the message of the Old Testament. Christ did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill, extend, and afford greater scope to it. By His advent Christ fulfilled all things, and does still fulfill in the Church the new covenant foretold by the Law. In keeping the commandments, Christ fulfilled the Law. All the Scriptures will be fulfilled because by the mouth of the Lord the Holy Spirit has spoken these things. It behooves us to obey and do that which Christ did, and what He commanded. We labor not only with words, but also deeds. The things which you teach cannot have any weight unless you shall be the first to practice them. We are exhorted to surpass the pharisaic way of living in order to be saved. For extended discussion, see Justin Martyr. Justin Martyr: We do not trust through Moses or through the law; for then we would do the same as yourselves. But now — for I have read that there shall be a final law, and a covenant, the chiefest of all, which it is now incumbent on all men to observe, as many as are seeking after the inheritance of God. For the law promulgated on Horeb is now old, and belongs to yourselves alone; but this is for all universally. Now, law placed against law, has abrogated that which was before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal and final law—namely, Christ—has been given to us.

JUSTIN MARTYR: Addressed to the Jews: Wash therefore, and be clean, and put away iniquity from your souls, as God bids you be washed in this laver, and be circumcised with the true circumcision. For we too would observe the fleshly circumcision, and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts, if we did not know for what reason they were enjoined you,—namely, on account of your transgressions and the hardness of your hearts. For if we patiently endure all things contrived against us by wicked men and demons, so that even amid cruelties unutterable, death and torments, we pray for mercy to those who inflict such things upon us, and do not wish to give the least retort to anyone, even as the new Lawgiver commanded us: how is it that we would not observe those rites which do not harm us,—I speak of fleshly circumcision, and Sabbaths, and feasts?

JUSTIN MARTYR: As, then, circumcision began with Abraham, and the Sabbath and sacrifices and offerings and feasts with Moses, and it has been proved they were enjoined on account of the hardness of your people’s heart, so it was necessary, in accordance with the Father’s will, that they should have an end in Him who was born of a virgin, of the family of Abraham and tribe of Judah, and of David; in Christ the Son of God, who was proclaimed as about to come to all the world, to be the everlasting law and the everlasting covenant, even as the aforementioned prophecies show. And we, who have approached God through Him, have received not carnal, but spiritual circumcision, which Enoch and those like him observed. And we have received it through baptism, since we were sinners, by God’s mercy; and all men may equally obtain it.

IRENAEUS: Therefore by newness of the Spirit is our calling, and not in the oldness of the letter; even as Jeremiah prophesied: “Behold the days come, says the Lord, that I will accomplish for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah the covenant: of the testament which I covenanted with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: because they did not continue in the covenant, and I did not regard them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant of the testament that I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach any more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will pardon and be merciful unto the sins of their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more.” And that these promises the calling from among the Gentiles should inherit, to whom also the new testament was opened up, Isaiah says thus: “These things says the God of Israel: In that day a man shall trust in his Maker, and his eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel: and they shall not trust in altars, nor in the work of their own hands, which their fingers have made. For very plainly this was said of such as have forsaken idols and believed in God our Maker through the Holy One of Israel. And the Holy One of Israel is Christ: and He became visible to men, and to Him we look eagerly and behold Him; and we do not trust in altars, nor in the works of our hands.” And that He should become visible amongst us, for the Son of God became Son of man, and be found of us who before had no knowledge of Him, the Word Himself says thus in Isaiah: “I became manifest to them that did not seek me; I was found of them that asked not for me. I said, Behold, here am I, to a race that called not on my name.” And that this race was to become a holy people was declared in the Twelve Prophets by Hosea, thus: “I will call that which was not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved. It shall come to pass that in the place where it was called not my people, there shall they be called sons of the Living God.” This also is that which was said by John the Baptist: “That God is able of these stones to raise up sons to Abraham.” For our hearts being withdrawn and taken away from the stony worship by means of faith behold God, and become sons of Abraham, who was justified by faith. And therefore God says by Ezekiel the prophet: “And I will give them another heart, and a new spirit will I give them: and I will withdraw and take away the stony heart from their flesh, and I will give them another heart of flesh: so that they shall walk in my precepts, and shall keep my ordinances and do them. And they shall be to me for a people, and I will be to them for a God.” So then by the new calling a change of hearts in the Gentiles came to pass through the Word of God, when He was made flesh and tabernacled with men; as also His disciple John says: “And his Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Therefore the Church bears much fruit of the redeemed: because no longer Moses as mediator nor Elijah as messenger, but the Lord Himself has redeemed us, granting many more children to the Church than to the first Synagogue; as Isaiah declared, saying: “Rejoice you barren, that did not bear.” The barren is the Church, which never at all in former times presented sons to God. “Cry out and call, you that did not travail: for the children of the desolate are more than of her which has an husband.” Now the first Synagogue had as husband the law. Moreover Moses in Deuteronomy says that the Gentiles should be the head, and the unbelieving people the tail. And again he says: “You provoked me to jealousy with those that are no gods, and angered me with your idols: and I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, and with a foolish nation will I anger you.” Because they forsook the God who is, and worshipped and served the gods who are not; and they slew the prophets of God, and prophesied for Baal, who was the idol of the Canaanites. And the Son of God, who is, they despised and condemned, but they chose Barabbas the robber who had been taken for murder: and the eternal King they disavowed, and they acknowledged as their king the temporal Caesar. So it pleased God to grant their inheritance to the foolish Gentiles, even to those who were not of the polity of God and did not know what what God is. Since, then, by this calling life has been given us, and God has summed up again for Himself in us the faith of Abraham, we ought not to turn back any more, I mean, to the first legislation. For we have received the Lord of the law, the Son of God; and by faith in Him we learn to love God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves. Now the love of God is far from all sin, and love to the neighbor works no ill to the neighbor. Therefore also we do not need the law of Moses as a tutor. Behold, with the Father we speak, and in His presence we stand, being children in malice, and grown strong in all righteousness and soberness. For no longer shall the law say, “Do not commit adultery,” to him who has no desire at all for another’s wife; and “Do not kill,” to him who has put away from himself all anger and enmity; and “Do not covet your neighbor’s field or ox or ass,” to those who have no care at all for earthly things, but store up the heavenly fruits: nor “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” to him who counts no man his enemy, but all men his neighbors, and therefore cannot stretch out his hand at all for vengeance. It will not require tithes of him who consecrates all his possessions to God, leaving father and mother and all his kindred, and following the Word of God. And there will be no command to remain idle for one day of rest, to him who perpetually keeps sabbath, that is to say, who in the temple of God, which is man’s body, does service to God, and in every hour works righteousness. The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching.

IRENAEUS: Since, then, the law originated with Moses, it terminated with John as a necessary consequence. Christ had come to fulfill it: therefore “the law and the prophets were” with them “until John.” And therefore Jerusalem, taking its commencement from David, and fulfilling its own times, must have an end of legislation when the new covenant was revealed. For God does all things by measure and in order; nothing is unmeasured with Him, because nothing is out of order.

IRENAEUS: He said, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets; I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law and the prophets till all come to pass.” For by His advent He Himself fulfilled all things, and does still fulfill in the Church the new covenant foretold by the law, onwards to the consummation of all things. To this effect also Paul, His apostle, says in the Epistle to the Romans, “But now, without the law, has the righteousness of God been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; for the just shall live by faith.” But this fact, that the just shall live by faith, had been previously announced by the prophets.

TATIAN: Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I did not come to destroy, but to complete. Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth shall pass, there shall not pass one point or one letter of the law, until all of it shall be accomplished. Every one who shall violate now one of these small commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called lacking in the kingdom of heaven: every one that shall do and teach shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. I say to you now, unless your righteousness abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: But the apostles were perfected in all. You will find, then, if you choose, in their acts and writings, knowledge, life, preaching, righteousness, purity, prophecy. We must know, then, that if Paul is young in respect to time—having flourished immediately after the Lord’s ascension—yet his writings depend on the Old Testament, breathing and speaking of them. For faith in Christ and the knowledge of the Gospel are the explanation and fulfillment of the law; and therefore it was said to the Hebrews, “If you do not believe, neither shall you understand;” that is, unless you believe what is prophesied in the law, and oracularly delivered by the law, you will not understand the Old Testament, which He by His coming expounded.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: The Lord is not “come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.” “To fulfill” does not imply that it was defective, but that by his coming the prophecies of the law are accomplished, since before the law the demand for right conduct was proclaimed by the Logos to those also who lived good lives.

TERTULLIAN: He is the subject of the prophecy, which shows that at the very outset of His ministry, He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but rather to fulfill them; for Marcion, the heretic, has erased the passage as an interpolation. It will, however, be vain for him to deny that Christ uttered in word what He forthwith did partially indeed.

TERTULLIAN: I can now make out why Marcion’s god was for so long an age concealed. He was, I suppose, waiting until he had learned all these things from the Creator. He continued his pupillage up to the time of John, and then proceeded forthwith to announce the kingdom of God, saying: “The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of God is proclaimed.” Just as if we also did not recognize in John a certain limit placed between the old dispensation and the new, at which Judaism ceased and Christianity began—without, however, supposing that it was by the power of another god that there came about a cessation of the law and the prophets and the commencement of that gospel in which is the kingdom of God, Christ Himself. For although, as we have shown, the Creator foretold that the old state of things would pass away and a new state would succeed, yet, inasmuch as John is shown to be both the forerunner and the preparer of the ways of that Lord who was to introduce the gospel and publish the kingdom of God, it follows from the very fact that John has come, that Christ must be that very Being who was to follow His harbinger John. So that, if the old course has ceased and the new has begun, with John intervening between them, there will be nothing wonderful in it, because it happens according to the purpose of the Creator; so that you may get a better proof for the kingdom of God from any quarter, however anomalous, than from the conceit that the law and the prophets ended in John, and a new state of things began after him. “More easily, therefore, may heaven and earth pass away—as also the law and the prophets—than that one tittle of the Lord’s words should fail.” “For,” as says Isaiah: “the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Since even then by Isaiah it was Christ, the Word and Spirit of the Creator, who prophetically described John as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord” and as about to come for the purpose of terminating from now on the course of the law and the prophets; by their fulfillment and not their extinction, and in order that the kingdom of God might be announced by Christ, He therefore purposely added the assurance that the elements would more easily pass away than His words fail; affirming, as He did, the further fact, that what He had said concerning John had not fallen to the ground.

TERTULLIAN: “A certain man asked him, ‘Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’” Jesus inquired whether he knew, that is, in other words, whether he kept, the commandments of the Creator, in order to testify that it was by the Creator’s precepts that eternal life is acquired. Then, when he affirmed that from his youth up he had kept all the principal commandments, Jesus said to him: “One thing you yet lack: sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Well now, Marcion, and all you who are companions in misery, and associates in hatred with that heretic, what will you dare say to this? Did Christ rescind the aforementioned commandments: “Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother?” Or did He both keep them, and then add what was wanting to them? This very precept, however, about giving to the poor, was very largely diffused through the pages of the law and the prophets. This vainglorious observer of the commandments was therefore convicted of holding money in much higher estimation than charity. This verity of the gospel then stands unimpaired: “I have not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but rather to fulfill them.” He also dissipated other doubts, when He declared that the name of God and of the Good belonged to one and the same being, at whose disposal were also the everlasting life and the treasure in heaven and Himself too—whose commandments He both maintained and augmented with His own supplementary precepts.

TERTULLIAN: The epistle which we also allow to be the most decisive against Judaism, is that wherein the apostle instructs the Galatians. For the abolition of the ancient law we fully admit, and hold that it actually proceeds from the dispensation of the Creator,—a point which we have already often treated in the course of our discussion, when we showed that the innovation was foretold by the prophets of our God. Now, if the Creator indeed promised that “the ancient things should pass away,” to be superseded by a new course of things which should arise, while Christ marks the period of the separation when He says, “The law and the prophets were until John”—thus making the Baptist the limit between the two dispensations of the old things then terminating—and the new things then beginning, the apostle cannot of course do otherwise, coming as he does in Christ, who was revealed after John, than invalidate “the old things” and confirm “the new,” and yet promote thereby the faith of no other god than the Creator, at whose instance it was foretold that the ancient things should pass away. Therefore both the abrogation of the law and the establishment of the gospel help my argument even in this epistle, wherein they both have reference to the fond assumption of the Galatians, which led them to suppose that faith in Christ, the Creator’s Christ, of course, was obligatory, but without annulling the law, because it still appeared to them a thing incredible that the law should be set aside by its own author.

TERTULLIAN: “The law and the prophets were until John,” according to the Lord. For even if we are just now beginning with the law in demonstrating the nature of adultery, it is justly with that phase of the law which Christ has “not dissolved, but fulfilled.” For it is the “burdens” of the law which were “until John,” not the remedial virtues. It is the “yokes” of “works” that have been rejected, not those of disciplines. “Liberty in Christ” has done no injury to innocence. The law of piety, sanctity, humanity, truth, chastity, justice, mercy, benevolence, modesty, remains in its entirety; in which law “blessed is the man who shall meditate by day and by night.” About that law the same David says again: “The law of the Lord is unblameable, converting souls; the statutes of the Lord are direct, delighting hearts; the precept of the Lord far-shining, enlightening eyes.” Thus, too, the apostle: “And so the law indeed is holy, and the precept holy and most good”—“Do not commit adultery,” of course. But he had withal said above: “Are we, then, making void the law through faith? Far be it; but we are establishing the law”—indeed in those points which, being even now interdicted by the New Testament, are prohibited by an even more emphatic precept: instead of, “Do not commit adultery,” “Whoever shall have seen with a view to lust, has already committed adultery in his own heart;” and instead of, “Do not kill,” “Whoever shall have said to his brother, 'Racha,' shall be in danger of hell.” Ask yourself whether the law of not committing adultery is still in force, to which has been added that of not indulging lust.

HIPPOLYTUS: The Ebionites acknowledge that the world was made by Him Who is in reality God, but they propound legends concerning the Christ similarly with Cerinthus and Carpocrates. They live conformably to the customs of the Jews, alleging that they are justified according to the law, and saying that Jesus was justified by fulfilling the law. And therefore it was, according to the Ebionites, that the Savior was named the Christ of God and Jesus, since not one of the rest of mankind had observed completely the law. For if even any other had fulfilled the commandments contained in the law, he would have been that Christ. And the Ebionites allege that they themselves also, when in like manner they fulfill the law, are able to become Christs; for they assert that our Lord Himself was a man in a like sense with all the rest of the human family.

HIPPOLYTUS: He says Himself: “Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden,” and so on. For they who keep the commandments, and do not disclaim the ordinances of the law, enjoy rest both in them and in the doctrine of our Lord. . . As the Lord says, “I have not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.” For even our Lord, in the fact that He keeps the commandments, does not destroy the law and the prophets, but fulfills them, as He says in the Gospels.

ORIGEN: He who came to put an end to things, and to fulfill what was defective in the law, by saying, “It was said to them of old time,” and, again, “That the things spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled.”

ORIGEN: The “righteous requirements” of the law are a matter of its moral aspect. For “law” is a general term; righteous requirements are but a part of the law. For the law contains righteous requirements, judgments, commands, formalities, and many other categories like this. If Paul is not saying that the uncircumcised keeps not the law itself, but the righteous requirements of the law, then he is put so far ahead of the circumcised one who transgresses the law that he may even judge the law. And he has added well, “who perfects the law.” For he who lives according to the letter is said to keep the law; but he who lives according to the spirit perfects it. The perfection of the law takes place in Christ, who said, “I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.” Now to fulfill the law means to perfect the law.

ORIGEN: It is not the same thing to say, “we set aside the law,” and, “the law is set aside.” Thus in the present passage Paul is declaring that he himself does not set aside the law. For even if the law is set aside through the glory which surpasses it, it is not set aside through Paul or through any other saint. This is also why the Lord was saying, “I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.” No saint then, not even the Lord himself, sets aside the law, but its temporal and transient glory is set aside and surpassed by the eternal and abiding glory.

ORIGEN: If we love this neighbor, we are fulfilling the entire law and all the commandments by his love. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to all who believe.” It is absolutely impossible for one who loves Christ with his whole heart and with all his inner being to do anything displeasing to Christ. For the one who loves him not only does not commit murder, which is prohibited by the law, but he does not become angry with his brother because he whom he loves takes delight in this. And not only does he not commit adultery, but he does not look at a woman in order to desire her. But instead he says to him, “My soul desires and faints for the living God.” When would one who loves Christ, who has even abandoned everything he owns to follow Christ, think about stealing? On what occasion does the one who loves Christ bear false testimony, when he knows that the one he loves was betrayed by false testimony? He who loves Christ inevitably loves his neighbor as well. For a disciple is marked as belonging to Christ by this proof alone, if he loves his neighbors. For it is certain that he who does not love his neighbor does not know Christ.

ARCHELAUS: Moreover, from the creation of the world God has always been with righteous men, and has never ceased to require their blood at the hands of the wicked, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias. From what source did righteous Abel and all those succeeding worthy men, who are enrolled among the righteous, derive their righteousness when there was not yet the law of Moses, and when the prophets had not yet arisen and discharged the functions of prophecy? Were they not constituted righteous in virtue of their fulfilling the law, “every one of them showing the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing them witness?” For when a man “who does not have the law does naturally the things contained in the law, he, not having the law, is a law to himself.” And consider now the multitude of laws thus existing among the several righteous men who lived a life of uprightness, at one time discovering for themselves the law of God implanted in their hearts, at another learning of it from their parents, and yet again being instructed in it further by the ancients and the elders. But inasmuch as only few were able to rise by this medium to the height of righteousness, that is to say, by means of the traditions of parents, when as yet there was no law embodied in writing, God had compassion on the race of man, and was pleased to give through Moses a written law to men, since verily the equity of the natural law failed to be retained in all its perfection in their hearts. In consonance, therefore, with man’s first creation, a written legislation was prepared which was given through Moses in behoof of the salvation of very many. For if we reckon that man is justified without the works of the law, and if Abraham was counted righteous, how much more shall those obtain righteousness who have fulfilled the law which contains the things that are expedient for men?

ARCHELAUS: There is the law of Moses in this world that does not give pardon to the offender; and there is the law of Christ that punishes in the future world. From this, therefore, mark how He confirms the law, not only not destroying it, but fulfilling it.

ORIGEN: But the “one dot” is not only the iota of the Greeks but also that which among the Hebrews is called the yod. And the “one iota” or “one dot” can symbolically be said to be Jesus, since the beginning of his name is written not only by Greeks with an iota but also by Hebrews with a yod. So Jesus will be the one dot, the Word of God in the law which does not pass from the law until all is accomplished.

CYPRIAN: It behooves us to obey and do that which Christ did, and what He commanded to be done, since He Himself says in the Gospel, “If you do whatsoever I command you, from now on I don't call you servants, but friends.” And that Christ alone ought to be heard, the Father also testifies from heaven, saying, “This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him.” Therefore, if Christ alone must be heard, we ought not to give heed to what another before us may have thought was to be done, but what Christ, who is before all, first did. Neither is it becoming to follow the practice of man, but the truth of God; since God speaks by Isaiah the prophet, and says, “In vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.” And again the Lord in the Gospel repeats this same saying, and says, “You reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition.” Moreover, in another place He establishes it, saying, “Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.”

CYPRIAN: All which things, most brave and faithful soldiers of Christ, you have suggested to your brothers and sisters, fulfilling in deeds what you have previously taught in words, hereafter to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, as the Lord promises and says, “Whosoever shall do and teach so, shall be called the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

CYPRIAN: To put on the name of Christ, and not to go in the way of Christ, what else is it but a mockery of the divine name, but a desertion of the way of salvation; since He Himself teaches and says that he shall come unto life who keeps His commandments, and that he is wise who hears and does His words; that he, moreover, is called the greatest in the kingdom of heaven who thus does and teaches; that, then, will be of advantage to the preacher what has been well and usefully preached, if what is uttered by his mouth is fulfilled by deeds following?

CYPRIAN: We must labor not with words, but with deeds. In Solomon, in Ecclesiasticus: “Do not be hasty with your tongue, and in your deeds useless and remiss.” And Paul, in the first to the Corinthians: “The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” Also to the Romans: “Not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Also in the Gospel according to Matthew: “He who shall do and teach so, shall be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Also in the same place: “Every one who hears my words, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it did not fall: because it was founded upon a rock. And every one who hears my words, and does not do them, I will liken him to the foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and its ruin became great.”

LACTANTIUS: For the things which you teach cannot have any weight unless you shall be the first to practice them. Justin Martyr: For He exhorted His disciples to surpass the pharisaic way of living, with the warning, that if they did not, they might be sure they could not be saved; and these words are recorded in the memoirs: “Unless your righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Justin Martyr, addressed to Jews: Furthermore, I have proved in what has preceded, that those who were foreknown to be unrighteous, whether men or angels, are not made wicked by God’s fault, but each man by his own fault is what he will appear to be. But that you may not have a pretext for saying that Christ must have been crucified, and that who transgressed must have been among your nation, and that the matter could not have been otherwise, I said briefly by anticipation, that God, wishing men and angels to follow His will, resolved to create them free to do righteousness; possessing reason, that they may know by whom they are created, and through whom they, not existing formerly, do now exist; and with a law that they should be judged by Him, if they do anything contrary to right reason: and of ourselves we, men and angels, shall be convicted of having acted sinfully, unless we repent beforehand. But if the word of God foretells that some angels and men shall be certainly punished, it did so because it foreknew that they would be unchangeably wicked, but not because God had created them so. So that if they repent, all who wish for it can obtain mercy from God: and the Scripture foretells that they shall be blessed, saying, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin;” that is, having repented of his sins, that he may receive remission of them from God; and not as you deceive yourselves, and some others who resemble you in this, who say, that even though they be sinners, but know God, the Lord will not impute sin to them. We have as proof of this the one fall of David, which happened through his boasting, which was forgiven then when he so mourned and wept, as it is written. But if even to such a man no remission was granted before repentance, and only when this great king, and anointed one, and prophet, mourned and conducted himself so, how can the impure and utterly abandoned, if they do not weep, and do not mourn, and do not repent, entertain the hope that the Lord will not impute to them sin? And this one fall of David, in the matter of Uriah’s wife, proves that the patriarchs had many wives, not to commit fornication, but that a certain dispensation and all mysteries might be accomplished by them; since, if it were allowable to take any wife, or as many wives as one chooses, and how he chooses, which the men of your nation do over all the earth, wherever they sojourn, or wherever they have been sent, taking women under the name of marriage, much more would David have been permitted to do this.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: The Christian, then, is impressed with the closest likeness, that is, with the mind of the Master; which He being possessed of, commanded and recommended to His disciples and to the prudent. Comprehending this, as He who taught wished, and receiving it in its grand sense, he teaches worthily “on the housetops” those capable of being built to a lofty height; and begins the doing of what is spoken, in accordance with the example of life. For He enjoined what is possible. And, in truth, the kingly man and Christian ought to be ruler and leader. For we are commanded to be lords over not only the wild beasts without us, but also over the wild passions within ourselves. Through the knowledge, then, as appears, of a bad and good life is the Christian saved, understanding and executing “more than the scribes and Pharisees.”

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: After abandoning idols, then, the Greeks will hear the Scripture, “Unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” who justified themselves in the way of abstinence from what was evil, so as, along with such perfection as they reveal, and “the loving of your neighbor,” to be able also to do good, you shall not “be kingly.”

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Those who think they are superior to others by their nobility of birth ought to be superior to them also in their moral characters, that they may escape incarceration in the prison. For indeed as the Lord said: “Except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.”