Paul teaches us again that the
Holy Spirit is God, saying 'you are washed, sanctified, and justified in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God' (1 Cor. 6:11). On
whose account we are called temples of God, receiving the grace of the Spirit
through baptism, if the Holy Spirit is not God? Yet the same apostle teaches
that believers are called the temples of the Spirit, saying, 'don't you know
that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from
God, and you are not your own? For you were brought with a price' (1 Cor.
6:19-20). The temple proclaims the indwelling God. That is why Paul said
earlier: 'Don't you know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of
dwells in you? If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him: for
God's temple is holy, which temple you are' (1 Cor. 3:16-17). So, if believers
receive the grace of the Spirit through baptism, and we—being honoured
by this gift—are called the temple of God, it follows that the Holy
Spirit is God. (On the Holy Trinity and Vivifying Trinity, 24, in Theodoret
of Cyrus [trans. István Pásztori-Kupán; The Early Church Fathers; Oxford:
Routledge, 2006], 133)
By enduring these things, he
achieved our salvation. Because the servants of sin were liable to the punishment
of sin, therefore he, who was immune from sin and pursued righteousness in all
respects, accept the punishment of sinners. By the cross he repealed the
sentence of the ancient curse, for [Paul] says: 'Christ had redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written,
"Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree" (Gal. 3:13 and Deut.
21:23). By the thorns he put an end to Adam's punishments, because after the
fall it was heard: 'Cursed is the earth in your works, thorns and thistles
shall it bring forth to you' (Gen. 3:17-18). With the gall and passible human
life, whereas with the vinegar he accepted for himself the changing of
humankind for the worse, providing also the way of returning to the better. He
signified his kingship by the scarlet and by the reed he alluded to the
weakness and frailty of the devil's power. By the slaps [on his face] he
proclaimed our deliverance, enduring our injuries, chastisements and lashings.
His side was pierced like Adam's, yet showing not the woman coming forth from
there, who by deceit begot death, but the fountainhead of life, which by [its]
double stream vivifies the world. One of these renews us in the bath [i.e. the
water of baptism] and clothes [us] with the garment of immortality, the other
nourishes the (re)born at the divine table, as the milk nurtures the infants.
(On the Inhumanation of the Lord, 28 [27], in Theodoret of Cyrus [trans.
István Pásztori-Kupán; The Early Church Fathers; Oxford: Routledge, 2006], 165)
The slanderers who assert that we
venerate two sons [are refuted by] the blatant testimony of the facts. To all
those who come to the all-holy baptism we teach the faith laid forth at Nicaea.
And when we celebrate the mystery of rebirth we baptise those who believe into
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, pronouncing
teach name by itself. (That Even After the Inhumanation Our Lord Jesus Christ
is One, in Theodoret of Cyrus [trans. István Pásztori-Kupán; The Early
Church Fathers; Oxford: Routledge, 2006], 193)