Gift to believe and suffer; Christ saves sinners; God manifested in flesh

“Striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by the opponents—which is for them a proof of destruction, but of your salvation, and this from God, because it has been granted to you for Christ’s sake not only to believe into him but also to suffer for him.” If we receive from God as a share of grace the believing into Christ, and through this we have not rather been led astray but have come to know the one who is by nature and truly God, how would anyone doubt that Christ is God?

From Timothy. “Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first; but for this reason I was shown mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might show the whole long-suffering, as a pattern for those about to believe upon him unto eternal life.” If Christ saves sinners, and is long-suffering toward their faults, receiving their repentance, and if all our faith is upon him, and through the faith toward him we have gained eternal life, how would he not be God? For it would reasonably befit God alone both to be able to save the world, and to be long-suffering toward those who sin, and to make alive through the faith toward him.

“And confessedly great is the mystery of piety: God was manifested in flesh, justified in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among nations, believed in the world, taken up in glory.” Who is the one manifested in flesh? Or is it clear that it is wholly and altogether the Word from God the Father? For thus the mystery of piety will be great.