Origen of Alexandria

Spiritually, therefore, all indeed who come to the recognition of God through faith can be called sons of Abraham; but among these some cling to God on the basis of love, others on the basis of dread and fear of future judgment. Whence also the apostle John says, “He who fears is not perfected in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” He therefore who “is perfected in love” is born of Abraham and is “a son of the free woman.” But he who keeps the commandments, not in perfect love but in dread of future torment and in fear of punishments is, indeed, also himself a son of Abraham. He too receives gifts, that is, the reward of his work (because even “he who shall give a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, shall not lose his reward”). Nevertheless he is inferior to that person who is perfected, not in slavish fear but in the freedom of love.The apostle also shows something similar when he says, “As long indeed as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but he is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father.” He is “a child,” therefore, who is nourished “with milk” and “is unskillful in the word of justice”; nor is he able to receive the “solid food” of the divine wisdom and knowledge of the law. He cannot “compare spiritual things with spiritual.” He cannot yet say, “But when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.” He “differs,” therefore, “nothing from a servant.”
But if “leaving the word of the first principles of Christ,” he be borne to perfection and “seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, not the things that are on the earth” and “look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen,” nor in the divine Scriptures follow “the letter which kills” but “the spirit which quickens,” from those things he will doubtless be one who does not receive “the spirit of bondage again in fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father.”

Sarah is angry because the son of the bondwoman plays with the son of the free woman, and she considers that play to be a disaster. She counsels Abraham and says, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, Isaac.”I shall not now consider how these words ought to be understood. The apostle discussed them in this way, saying, “Tell me, you who have read the law, have you not heard the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman and the other by a free woman. But he indeed who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are allegorical.” What then? Is Isaac not “born according to the flesh”? Did Sarah not bear him? Is he not circumcised? In regard to this very incident, that he played with Ishmael, did he not play in the flesh? This indeed is what is astonishing in the apostle’s understanding, that he called things “allegorical” that are quite obviously done in the flesh. His purpose is that we might learn how to treat other passages, and especially these in which the historical narrative appears to reveal nothing worthy of the divine law.
Ishmael, therefore, is born “according to the flesh,” the son of the bondwoman. But Isaac, who was “the son of the free woman,” is not born “according to the flesh” but “according to promise.” And the apostle says of these words that “Hagar engendered” a carnal people “unto bondage.” But Sarah, who was free, engendered a people which is not “according to the flesh” but has been called to freedom, by which “freedom Christ has made him free.” For Christ himself said, “If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”
But let us see what the apostle adds to these words as he expounds them: “But as then he,” Scripture says, “who was according to the flesh, persecuted him who was according to the spirit, so also it is now.” Notice how the apostle teaches us that in all things the flesh is opposed to the spirit, whether that carnal people is opposed to this spiritual people, or even among ourselves, if someone is still carnal, he is opposed to the spiritual. For even you, if you live “according to the flesh” and direct your life “according to the flesh,” are a son of Hagar and for this reason are opposed to these who live “according to the spirit.” Or even if we inquire in ourselves, we find that “the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another,” and we find “a law in our members flighting against the law of our mind and leading us captive in the law of sin.” Do you see how great the battles of the flesh against the spirit are?
There is yet also another battle more violent perhaps than all these. These who understand the law “according to the flesh” are opposed to and persecute these who perceive it “according to the spirit.” Why? Because “the sensual man does not perceive the things that are of the spirit of God. For it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand because it is spiritually discerned.”

Let us see what Abraham does meanwhile after Sarah is displeased. He casts out the bondwoman and her son, but nevertheless he gives him a bottle of water. For his mother does not have a well of living water, nor could the boy draw water from a well. Isaac has wells for which he also suffers strife against the Philistines, but Ishmael drinks water from a bottle. This bottle, as it is a bottle, fails, and therefore he is thirsty and does not find a well.But you, who are a son “of promise as Isaac,” “drink water from your own fountains, and let not the waters flow forth from your wells, but let your waters run in your streets.” But one “who is born according to the flesh” drinks water from a bottle, and the water itself fails him, and he lacks in many things. The bottle of the law is the letter, from which carnal people drink and thence receives understanding. This letter frequently fails them. It cannot extricate itself, for the historical understanding is defective in many things. But the church drinks from the evangelic and apostolic fountains that never fail but “run in its streets,” because they always abound and flow in the breadth of spiritual interpretation. The church drinks also “from wells” when it draws and examines certain deeper things from the law.
On account of this mystery also, I think, our Lord and Savior said to the Samaritan woman, when, as if he were speaking with Hagar herself he said, “Whoever shall drink of this water shall thirst again; but he who shall drink of the water which I give him shall not thirst forever.” But she says to the Savior, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” After this the Lord says to her, “There shall come to be in him who believes in me a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting.”

After this, when already he had been abandoned as dead and had wept, the angel of the Lord is present with him “and opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well of living water.”How can these words be related to history? For when do we find that Hagar has closed eyes and they are later opened? Is not the spiritual and mystical meaning in these words clearer than light, that that people which is “according to the flesh” is abandoned and lies in hunger and thirst, suffering “not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a thirst for the word of God,” until the eyes of the synagogue are opened? This is what the apostle says is a “mystery”: that “blindness in part has happened in Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in, and then all Israel should be saved.” That therefore is the blindness in Hagar, who gave birth “according to the flesh,” who remains blind until “the veil of the letter be removed” by the angel of God and she sees the “living water.” For now the Jews lie around the well, but their eyes are closed, and they cannot drink from the well of the law and the prophets.
But let us also beware, for frequently we also lie around the well “of living water,” that is, around the divine Scriptures, and err in them. We hold the books and we read them, but we do not touch upon the spiritual sense. And therefore there is need for tears and incessant prayer that the Lord may open our eyes, because even the eyes of those blind men who were sitting in Jericho would not have been opened unless they had cried out to the Lord. And what am I saying? That our eyes, which are already opened, might be opened? For Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind. Our eyes therefore are opened, and the veil of the letter of the law is removed. But I fear that we ourselves may close them again in a deeper sleep while we are not watchful in the spiritual meaning. Nor are we disturbed so that we dispel sleep from our eyes and contemplate things which are spiritual, that we might not err with the carnal people set around the water itself.

What do you say to these things, Abraham? What kind of thoughts are stirring in your heart? A word has been uttered by God that is such as to shatter and try your faith. What do you say to these things? What are you thinking? What are you reconsidering? Are you thinking, are you turning over in your heart that if the promise has been given to me in Isaac but I offer him for a burnt offering, it remains that that promise holds no hope? Or rather do you think of those well-known words and say that it is impossible for him who promised to lie; be that as it may, the promise shall remain? But I, because “I am the least,” am not able to examine the thoughts of such a great patriarch, nor can I know what thoughts the voice of God which had proceeded to test him stirred in him, what feeling it caused, when he was ordered to slay his only son. But since “the spirit of prophets is subject to the prophets,” the apostle Paul, who, I believe, was teaching by the Spirit what feeling, what plan Abraham considered, has revealed it. He says, “By faith Abraham did not hesitate, when he offered his only son, in whom he had received the promises, thinking that God is able to raise him up even from the dead.”

The apostle therefore has reported to us the thoughts of the faithful man, that the faith in the resurrection began to be held already at that time in Isaac. Abraham therefore hoped for the resurrection of Isaac and believed in a future that had not yet happened. How then are they “sons of Abraham” who do not believe what has happened in Christ, which Abraham believed was to be in Isaac? No rather, that I may speak more clearly, Abraham knew himself to prefigure the image of future truth. He knew the Christ was to be born from his seed, who also was to be offered as a truer victim for the whole world and was to be raised from the dead.

But now meanwhile the text says, “God was testing Abraham and says to him: ‘Take your dearest son whom you love.’ ” For to have said “son” would not have been enough, but “dearest” also is added. Let this too be considered. Why is there still added also, “whom you love”? But behold the importance of the test. The affections of a father are roused by the dear and sweet appellations repeated frequently, that by awaking memories of love the paternal right hand might be slowed in slaying his son and the total warfare of the flesh might fight against the faith of the soul.“Take,” therefore, the text says, “your dearest son Isaac, whom you love.” Let it be, Lord, that you are reminding the father of the son; you add also “dearest,” whom you are commanding to be slain. Let this be sufficient for the father’s torment. You add again also, “whom you love.” Let the triple torment of the father be in this. Why is there need yet that you bring to mind also “Isaac”? Did Abraham not know that that dearest son of his, that one whom he loved, was called Isaac? But why is it added at this time? That Abraham might recall that you had said to him, “In Isaac shall your seed be called, and that in Isaac the promises shall be yours.” The reminder of the name also produces hopelessness in the promises that were made under this name. But all these things happened because God was testing Abraham.

Many of you who hear these words are fathers in the church of God. Do you think any one of you from the mere relating of the story acquires so much steadfastness, so much strength of soul, that when a son perhaps is lost by a death that is common and due to all, even if he be an only son, even if he be a beloved son, might bring in Abraham as an example for himself and set his magnanimity before his eyes? And indeed this greatness of soul is not required of you, that you yourself should bind your son, you yourself tie him, you yourself prepare the sword, you yourself slay your only son. All these services are not asked of you. Be constant in purpose, at least, and mind. Offer your son to God with a joyful, immovable faith. Be the priest for your son’s life. It is not fitting that the priest weeps who offers to God.Do you wish to see that this is required of you? In the Gospel the Lord says, “If you were the children of Abraham, you would do the works surely of Abraham.” Behold, this is a work of Abraham. Do the works that Abraham did, but not with sadness, “for God loves a cheerful giver.” But also if you should be so inclined to God, it will be said also to you, “Ascend into the high land and into the mountain which I shall show you, and there offer your son to me.” “Offer your son” not in the depths of the earth or “in the vale of tears” but in the high and lofty mountains. Show that faith in God is stronger than the affections of the flesh. For Abraham loved Isaac his son, the text says, but he placed the love of God before love of the flesh, and he is found not with the affection of the flesh but “with the affection of Christ,” that is, with the affection of the Word of God and of the truth and wisdom.

In this statement it is usually thrown out against us that God says that “now” he had learned that Abraham fears God, as though he were such as not to have known previously. God knew, and it was not hidden from him, since it is he “who has known all things before they come to pass.” But these things are written on account of you, because you too indeed have believed in God. But unless you fulfill “the works of faith,” unless you are obedient to all the commands, even the more difficult ones, unless you offer sacrifice and show that you place neither father nor mother nor sons before God, you will not know that you fear God. Nor will it be said of you, “Now I know that you fear God.”And yet it must be considered that an angel is related to have spoken these words to Abraham, and subsequently this angel is clearly shown to be the Lord. Whence I think that, just as among us “he was found in appearance as a man,” so also among angels he was found in appearance as an angel. And following his example the angels in heaven rejoice “over one sinner repenting” and glory in the progress people make in their relationship with God. For they, as it were, have charge over our souls, to whom, “while we are still children we are committed,” as it were, “to tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father.” And they therefore now say about the progress of each of us, “Now I know that you fear God.” For example, I intend to be a martyr. An angel could not say to me on this basis, “Now I know that you fear God,” for an intention of the mind is known to God alone. But if I shall undertake the struggles, if I shall utter a “good confession,” if I shall bear calmly all things which are inflicted, then an angel can say, as if confirming and strengthening me, “Now I know that you fear God.”

But grant that these words are spoken to Abraham, and he is said to fear God. Why? Because he did not spare his son. But let us compare these words with those of the apostle, where he says of God: “who spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all.” Behold God contending with people in magnificent generosity: Abraham offered God a mortal son who was not put to death; God delivered to death an immortal Son for humanity.What shall we say to these things? “What shall we render to the Lord for all the things that he has rendered to us?” God the Father, on account of us, “spared not his own son.” Who of you, do you suppose, will sometime hear the voice of an angel saying, “Now I know that you fear God, because you spared not your son,” or your daughter or wife? Or, you spared not your money or the honors of the world or the ambitions of the world, but you have despised all things and “have counted all things dung that you may gain Christ”? Or, “you have sold all things and have given to the poor and have followed the Word of God?” Who of you, do you think, will hear a word of this kind from the angels? Meanwhile Abraham hears this voice, and it is said to him, “You spared not your beloved son because of me.”