Gary Pollard
[This is a continuing translation of Origen’s systematic theology in modern language]
Now that we’ve laid out these points as clearly as we can, let’s return to our original purpose and refute people who claim that the Father of our master Jesus Christ is a different God from the one who gave the Law to Moses, sent the prophets, and is the God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the first and most essential point of Christian belief, and we must stay firm in it.
First, consider the repeated phrase in the gospels that shows up around many of Jesus’s actions, “…that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.” It’s clear that these prophets were sent by the same God who made the world. Therefore, the Father is the same God who sent the prophets and predicted what would happen to Christ.
Next, the way Jesus and the apostles repeatedly quote the Old Testament shows that they treat the ancient scriptures as authoritative. When Jesus told his disciples to imitate God, he said, “Be perfect, like your Father in the heavens is perfect. He makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and unjust.” It’s obvious even to a simple reader that he is referring to the Creator who made the sun and gives rain. So when Jesus teaches us how to pray, “Our Father who is in the heavens,” he teaches us to look for God in the highest and best parts of creation. He prohibits the practice of swearing oaths “by heaven, because it is God’s throne, or by earth, because it is his footstool,” He is clearly echoing the prophet’s words, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.”
When Jesus chased out the people who were buying and selling in the temple and said, “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade,” he was calling “Father” the same God for whom Solomon built the temple. And when He said, “Didn’t you read what God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” He made it clear that he was referring to the same God the prophets spoke of. Those patriarchs, being holy and alive to God, belong to him.
This is also the same God who says in the prophets, “I am God, and there is no other besides me.” Now, if Jesus knows that the God of the Law is the God who spoke these words, and he still calls this God his Father, then the idea that there exists some greater, unknown God above him becomes impossible. If the Creator didn’t know of a higher God, and Jesus says he is the Father, then Jesus would be calling his own Father ignorant. But if the Creator claimed to be the only God and was lying, then Jesus would be calling his Father a liar—an even more absurd conclusion. From all this, we must conclude that Jesus recognizes no Father other than the one true God, the Maker and Creator of all things.
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