Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
How Christ fulfilled the promise which God promised to Abraham. For he did not say these things only for Abraham's sake, but in order to show that all who from the beginning knew God and prophesied the coming of Christ received revelation from the Son himself, who during the final age was rendered visible and open to suffering, and conversed with mankind, so that he might raise up sons of Abraham out of stones and fulfill the promise which God had promised him, and make his seed as numerous as the stars of heaven, just as John the Baptist declares: God has the power even out of these very stones to raise up children for Abraham. This Jesus accomplished, turning us away from devotion to stones and carrying us over from hard and barren notions, and building in us a trust resembling that of Abraham. As Paul likewise attests, saying that we count as sons of Abraham through a shared likeness of faith, and as heirs both of the promise and of the inheritance. One and the same God, then, called Abraham and granted him the promise. This is the very Maker who, through Christ, also sets up as lamps within the world those who put their trust in him from among the nations. For, as he says, you stand as the world's light, resembling stars. We have thus rightly demonstrated that this God is recognized by none but the Son, and by those to whom the Son chooses to disclose him. It is the Son who makes the Father known to everyone he wills to be acquainted with him, and no one may come to know God apart from the Father's favor, nor apart from the Son's service. And for this cause the Lord told his disciples: I myself am the road, the reality, and the life-source; none reaches the Father but by my means. Had you recognized me, you would likewise have recognized my Father; and starting now you are acquainted with him, and you have looked upon him. Out of this discourse it stands plain that it is by way of the Son, that is, through the Word, that God comes to be known.