Gold from Irenaeus

Irenaeus of Lyon was an early church father who lived circa 125 to 202 AD.

He was a student of Polycarp, who was a student of John the beloved.

Irenaeus's writings are beautiful, clear, and full of incarnation Love. I especially appreciate his early articulations of our union with God. His gospel is a gospel of union, where we are not saved unto heaven, but unto a present relationship with the Trinity through mutual indwelling and fiery love.

The quotes below have been gleaned from Irenaeus's two major works:

AH = Against Heresies

DAP = Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching

UNION

“For the way of all those who see is single and upward, illumined by the heavenly light, but the ways of those who do not see are many, dark, and divergent; the one leads to the kingdom of heaven, uniting man to God, while the others lead down to death, separating man from God” (DAP 39–40).

“This baptism is the seal of eternal life and rebirth unto God, that we may no longer be sons of mortal men, but of the eternal and everlasting God” (DAP 4).

“[Jesus] became a man amongst men, visible and palpable, in order to abolish death, to demonstrate life, and to effect communion between God and man” (DAP 43).

“And so beautiful and good was the Paradise, that the Word of God was always walking in it; He would walk and talk with the man, prefiguring the future, which would come to pass, that He would dwell with him and speak with him, and would be with mankind, teaching them righteousness” (DAP 47).

“So He united man with God and wrought a communion of God and man, we being unable to have any participation in incorruptibility if it were not for His coming to us, for incorruptibility, whilst being invisible, benefited us nothing; so He became visible, that He might, in all ways, obtain a participation in incorruptibility” (DAP 60).

“Rich in mercy was God the Father; He sent the creative Word, who, coming to save us, was in the same place and situation in which we were when we lost life, breaking the bonds of the prison” (DAP 64).

“The Word of God is preeminent in all things, for He is true man and ‘Wonderful Counsellor and Mighty God,’ calling man back again to communion with God, that by this communion with Him we may receive participation in incorruptibility” (DAP 65).

“[Jesus] appeared on earth and conversed with men, mixing and blending the Spirit of God the Father with the handiwork of God, that man might be according to the image and likeness of God” (DAP 100).

“…but following the only true and stedfast Teacher, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself” (AH 97).

HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS GIFTS

“The apostles did not commence to preach the Gospel, or to place anything on record until they were endowed with the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit” (AH 2).

“The ‘finger of God’ [in Exodus 31:18] is the Holy Spirit, who is issued from the Father” (DAP 57).

“The Spirit of God rested [upon the Christ], blending with His flesh” (DAP 66).

“The Spirit of God, conforming Himself to the person concerned, spoke in the prophets, producing words sometimes from Christ and at other times from the Father” (DAP 73).

“…others do not admit the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and cast off the prophetic grace from themselves, being watered by which, man bears as fruit the life of God” (DAP 101).

EARLY STATEMENTS OF FAITH

“…there is one and the same vivifying faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the apostles until now, and handed down in truth” (AH 5).

“…believing in one God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and all things therein, by means of Christ Jesus, the Son of God; who, because of His surpassing love towards His creation, condescended to be born of the virgin, He Himself uniting man through Himself to God, and having suffered under Pontius Pilate, and rising again, and having been received up in splendour, shall come in glory, the Saviour of those who are saved, and the Judge of those who are judged, and sending into eternal fire those who transform the truth, and despise His Father and His advent” (AH 7).

“Not by the prolixity of the Law, but according to the brevity of faith and love, men were going to be saved” (DAP 93).

BEAUTIFUL CHRISTOLOGY

“He saved the sons of Israel from this, revealing in a mystery the passion of Christ, by the slaughtering of a spotless lamb, and by its blood given to be smeared on the house of the Hebrews as s guard of invulnerability; the name of this mystery is the Pasch, source of liberation” (DAP 56).

“The Father is Lord and the Son is Lord, and the Father is God and the Son is God, since He who is born of God is God, and in this way, according to His being and power and essence, one God is demonstrated. But according to the economy of our salvation, there is both Father and Son; since the Father of all is invisible and inaccessible to creatures, it is necessary for those who are going to approach God to have access to the Father through the Son” (DAP 71).

“…our Lord Jesus Christ is the truth, and no lie is in Him” (AH).

“Therefore God has been declared through the Son, who is in the Father, and has the Father in Himself” (AH).