A Protestant Look At Irenaeus

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:12]In this video, I want to talk about a key church father and one book in particular.

[00:00:17]This book was only rediscovered in the 20th century and that means it was left hidden for centuries. It was discovered in the church of the Holy Mother of God in Armenia and when it was found it caused a wave of excitement and let me tell you why.

[00:00:33]This book is a second century manual for Christian doctrine. You know the question that people sometimes have, what do I need to believe to be a Christian? Like what is most central?

[00:00:43]What are the key truths that we need to believe?

[00:00:46]Well, this book answers that question and so it gives us a window into the very early days of Christianity and it helps us to think through that same question today. Now, I've kept you waiting long enough. The book is on Apostolic Preaching by Saint Irenaeus.

[00:01:04]Irenaeus was a lion of the faith. He wrote against heresies, one of the great books of the early church and in this book, Irenaeus gives the lowdown of central Christian teaching and the entire book really is the storyline of the Bible. And so he begins in Genesis and then ends with the new covenant people of God and it's a beautiful pocket summary of the faith.

[00:01:29]And what you discover is for Irenaeus, the Old Testament is Christ. It's a book about Jesus. The Old Testament isn't some sort of old law for old people in a different way of doing things and the New Testament is sort of like, oh, now this is the the Christian book. No, the entire Bible, according to Irenaeus, is the story of Jesus, what he has done to save us, to bring us to God so we can enjoy that participation, that communion union with him. And Jesus comes to relive Adam's story. The technical term is recapitulation.

[00:02:01]And what I want to do in this video is for us to have a look at some of the salvific categories that Irenaeus uses in this book. And he has a kaleidoscope of images. He talks about salvation in a variety of ways and I want us to look at them together and see if we can harmonize his teaching because so often theology is put in a sort of a binary either/or. It's either Christus Victor or penal substitutionary atonement. It's either union with Christ or it's justification and the legal stuff. But Irenaeus brings it all together and so first, let's have a look at the incarnation.

[00:02:37]Irenaeus writes this. He says, "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, so he became visible so that we might in all ways obtain a participation in incorruptibility."

[00:02:57]This is typical of what will be the Athanasian, Gregory of Nazianzus, Cyril of Alexandria stream. Salvation is the incarnation, the hypostatic union, God and man together in the person of Christ and we share in that union. And what I want you to see is the Godward direction of salvation.

[00:03:17]See, for Arius, Pelagius, and Nestorius and almost every heretic, salvation is always us climbing the ladder to heaven.

[00:03:24]It's an us thing. We do it and it's always shaped by the kind of Christ that these heretics have. I don't have time to go into that now, but basically your doctrine of God and your doctrine of Christ always shapes the kind of salvation that you have. But for Irenaeus, salvation is God coming down to rescue us. And God does that in the incarnation, which is a wonderful corrective for my camp because when we think of salvation, it's usually the cross and that's kind of it.

[00:03:54]Sometimes it's the resurrection, but usually it's the cross.

[00:03:57]But what Irenaeus is pointing uh the finger on and the other fathers do the same is the incarnation is critical.

[00:04:04]Jesus needs to be who he is to do what he does. We need the God-man to save us and in the incarnation, God and man come together in Christ and so we share in his life and his incorruptibility.

[00:04:19]Just as a side point, a bit of a rabbit trail, briefly, Irenaeus has an interesting bit where he says that Abraham saw a type of the incarnation, which I don't know what comes to your mind when you hear that. Abraham saw a type of the incarnation in his own day. Um I never really considered that before and so basically what he's saying is in Genesis 18, you uh maybe know the story where where Abraham's there and three figures approach him and I've always believed that the you know, the middle one was the son of God and the other two were angels, but Irenaeus points out that this is a type of the incarnation and so Abraham's seeing a little bit of what the future will be like for um the salvation of the the human race. So, that's the incarnation. Next, we have the cross and I want to focus on a section that sounds eerily similar to PSA.

[00:05:07]Eerily similar. I mean, tell me what you think. He says this.

[00:05:11]"He, that is Jesus, bears our sins and for our sake suffers pain and we deemed him to be in pain and in blows and in evil treatment. He was wounded for our iniquities and tortured for our sins.

[00:05:22]The chastisement of our peace is in him.

[00:05:25]By his wounds, we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Man has gone astray in his way and the Lord has delivered him into our sins.

[00:05:36]So, it is clear that by the will of the Father, it came about that these things happened to him for our salvation."

[00:05:43]And so notice that last line is really critical, the will of the Father. This happened to him.

[00:05:50]So, it wasn't just the will of Pilate or the Jewish leaders or the crowds or anything like that. It was the will of the Father. And then he says this.

[00:05:59]Irenaeus says, "So, those took the judgments on themselves who crucified him and having treated him thus did not believe him so that by this judgment taken on them, they will be destroyed with torments while the judgment has been taken from the believers in him and they are no longer under it."

[00:06:19]And so Irenaeus says that the cross was the will of the Father and on the very next page says Jesus was taking our judgment. Judgment was taken in him.

[00:06:30]That seems at least to me that Irenaeus has some kind of a modest PSA. He's quite comfortable using the language that Jesus was judged for us and that it was the Father's will for this to happen. Uh and all of this is for our sake as Jesus bears away our sin and through his wounds, we are healed. And so I love that Irenaeus really emphasizes the cross in this book as well. Uh the cross is what takes away our sin, takes away our judgments by Christ's wounds.

[00:06:59]We are healed. And so that's the cross.

[00:07:02]Next, we have This is quite brilliant.

[00:07:05]We have the descent into hell. There's only sort of one small passage and and he writes this. And and in Jeremiah, he makes known his death and descent into hell saying, "And the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, remembered his dead who already slept in the dust of the earth and he descended to them to preach the good news of his salvation to them."

[00:07:25]Here he also delivers the reasons for his death, that his descent to hell was salvation for the deceased.

[00:07:31]Now, I've done an entire video on Christ descending into hell, but this was the patris- the patristic view. Uh some people today say that Jesus didn't go to he- hell, but instead he went straight to heaven and they sort of give a a few reasons for that, but I think that that is wrong. It's not what the Bible teaches and the patristic uh gospel is that Jesus went to hell. And now, by the way, by hell, they do not mean the lake of fire.

[00:07:56]They don't mean Jesus suffered damnation either on the cross or in hell. What they mean is the realm of the dead. And in the realm of the dead, there are two compartments, one for the righteous dead and one for the unrighteous dead. And Jesus went to hell or Hades to liberate captives and to proclaim his victory to the wicked. That's why it's a salvation because he liberates the righteous by bringing paradise up to heaven. And really, this is a part of what Christus Victor is all about.

[00:08:26]It's Christ's triumph over the dark powers that held sway over us. And so Irenaeus writes this in the same book.

[00:08:33]He says, "Rising from the dead, he was going to be taken up into heaven. David says in this way, the chariots of God are myriadfold, thousands of charioteers.

[00:08:43]The Lord among them in Zion in the holy place has ascended on high. He has led captivity captive. He has given gifts to men and captivity refers to the destruction of the dominion of the apostate angels." And so here we see Christ victorious over the dark powers.

[00:08:59]By setting free the captives, Jesus defeats the powers of sin and death.

[00:09:03]Death no longer has a hold on us and we are now free in him. So, Jesus liberates us. He defeats the dark powers and he brings paradise up into heaven.

[00:09:16]Well, next we have the resurrection and I love the emphasis here because we sometimes assume the resurrection is just for the apologetic value. It confirms that Jesus' death was finished and God says, you know, payment's accepted. And so the resurrection is a little bit of a footnote sometimes in my circles, but listen to this. "Raising in himself fallen man, raising him above to the highest heaven, to the right hand of the glory of the Father as God had promised by the prophet saying, I'll raise up the fallen tabernacle of David, that is, the flesh descended from David.

[00:09:50]And our Lord Jesus Christ truly accomplishes this.

[00:09:54]Gloriously achieving our salvation that he might truly raise us up saving us for the Father. He goes on to say that we have communion with him and receive participation. And so, it's a beautiful way to reflect on the resurrection.

[00:10:08]It's not just that God says, "Payment accepted." But when Jesus rises, I rise in him. He raises us from the dead and he brings us to the Father, which is why Paul is able to say that we're seated in Christ in the heavenly places. So, even though I'm sat here right now in my office where I am in England, I'm also simultaneously raised in heaven with Christ. It's a little bit like the third day of creation when the plants spring up on the third day, they spring up with seed in them. And where the plants go there the seed go as well. And so, as Jesus is raised from the dead on the third day, we are raised to new life with him. His destiny is our destiny.

[00:10:54]And so, this is the way that Irenaeus talks about salvation in his book and the kind of things we need to believe in order to be Christians. And if I was to ask you which one of these themes What Which one of those themes is true? Which one is the real gospel? I hope you answer, "All of them." Which one? Yes. It's all true. We needed the God-man to save us in the incarnation. We needed the cross to wipe away our sins. We need Jesus to descend into hell to defeat the powers and liberate humanity. And we need him raised up to new life so that we are raised up to new life in him. All of those things are true. And that's because Irenaeus puts Christology at the heart of soteriology.

[00:11:34]Jesus needs to be who he is to do what he does. Salvation is Christ.

[00:11:41]But here's another question.

[00:11:43]How do these benefits become ours?

[00:11:47]Well, they don't happen automatically.

[00:11:48]It's not universalism, salvation for everyone just by existing.

[00:11:53]And there are two things that Irenaeus says in this book. One that will make you think that Well, that sounds a little bit like the Reformers. And then another will make you think Well, that sounds Roman Catholic. And so, the the second one there is is on baptism. And it's pretty much on the first page, which is why I'll mention this first.

[00:12:12]Irenaeus says this. He says, "We have received a baptism for the remission of sins and that this baptism is the seal of eternal life and rebirth unto God."

[00:12:22]And you hear that and think, "That sounds pretty Catholic to me." That is not a typical evangelical way to talk about salvation. So, we'll come back to that in a minute. But then we also hear this.

[00:12:31]"Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

[00:12:35]And he was uncircumcised when he received this testimonial that the superiority of his faith might be made known by a mark he gave him circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of his faith." And so, Irenaeus makes mention of this critical moment in the book of Genesis with Abraham where God makes great promises of you know, "Look up at the sky, Abraham. Consider the numbers. Consider the stars. So shall your offspring be.

[00:13:00]Look at the sands or the you know, the dust in your Dyson. So so will your offspring be." And we're told that Abraham believes in God and God counts it as righteousness.

[00:13:11]Then Irenaeus says this. He says, "In the same way, we believing in God are made righteous for free faith shall the righteous live. So, the promise made to Abraham came not through the law, but through faith. Since Abraham was made righteous by faith, we are not made righteous by the law, but by faith, which receives the testimony from the law and the prophets and which the word of God offers us."

[00:13:35]And so, he's he's really drilling the importance of receiving Christ by faith.

[00:13:40]And notice here the emphasis is on faith that receives the testimony about Christ from the law and the prophets. Faith isn't a work. It's not something that we do. It's when we receive what the Bible says about what Christ has done. It's leaning on God's promises in his word.

[00:13:55]That sounds a whole lot like Martin Luther.

[00:14:01]Irenaeus gets even more explicit. He says this. "For Christ arrived for whom is laid up a kingdom in heaven and who washed his robe in wine and his cloak in the blood of the grape. And his robe, as also his cloak, are those who believe in him, whom he has cleansed saving us by his blood."

[00:14:18]And so, here again you have the word believe. So, salvation happens when we believe and believe in the blood of Christ. So, it's not just abstract belief in abstract promises, but faith in the crucifixion. Faith in the blood that washes away our sin.

[00:14:34]And when we believe in Christ, he righteousifies us. And so, Irenaeus says, "And who else is perfectly righteous but the Son of God who by making righteous perfects those believing in him who like him are persecuted and put to death."

[00:14:52]And so, Jesus is the one who makes us righteous. It isn't something we perform. Holiness isn't what we do. It's what Christ gives as a gift. We are not righteous according to Irenaeus here.

[00:15:03]Jesus is and he makes us righteous and perfects those who believe in him.

[00:15:07]And so, faith in Christ, the perfect Christ, makes us righteous.

[00:15:12]And this is all from God.

[00:15:15]Now, before you think, "Well, then that means you can live how you want."

[00:15:19]Irenaeus writes this.

[00:15:21]"Those who were formerly most vicious to the point of passing by no work of ungodliness, learning of Christ and believing in him were changed at the same time as they believed to the point of not passing by the overabundance of righteousness. So great is this change which faith in Christ, the Son of God, works in believers in him."

[00:15:40]And so, faith alone doesn't mean that you live how you want. When you trust in Christ alone, he transforms you. He makes you a new person and you don't want to sin anymore.

[00:15:53]So, what do we do with all of that? Uh no one can accuse me of cherry-picking cuz that is pretty much the entire book covered in in one 20-minute video. You can read it for yourself, right? Read it for yourself.

[00:16:07]So, the incarnation of Christ, the death of Christ, the descent of Christ, the resurrection, and then we have baptism and faith. How do we pull all of these threads together?

[00:16:18]Well, baptismal salvation doesn't negate faith alone. I've said this in a video before. The sacraments aren't works we perform. They're gifts that God gives to us. And so, baptism saves. 1 Peter 3, Acts 2 says that those who repent and are baptized will receive the forgiveness of sins. And so, the Bible says that, right?

[00:16:37]But it saves because Christ gives himself to us in baptism and we receive him by faith.

[00:16:43]And as we take Christ by faith, we participate in his incarnation, death, descent, and resurrection. All that is his becomes ours. He righteousifies us.

[00:16:53]And we're made new.

[00:16:55]And according to Irenaeus, this happens in baptism, but it also happens as we believe the word. Remember the testimony of the law and the prophets. By that he just means the Bible.

[00:17:05]As God's word is spoken to us, we believe in the promises of God where Christ is given to us. In other words, word and sacraments.

[00:17:14]And so, friends, that's what you need to believe.

[00:17:17]That's what you need to believe.

[00:17:19]That is the theology of the early church.

[00:17:22]And I believe a pretty good summary of the whole Bible. You know, I was pretty blown away with this. I recommend reading Irenaeus. Pick him up. Pick up this book. Against Heresies is massive is massive. If you don't have the time, you're not going to be able to read that. But this is this is tiny. I read this in one sitting. I think this is like the third or or fourth time I've gone through this book now. It is just gold dust. Pick it up. Give it a go.

[00:17:45]And thanks so much for watching. Let me know what you think below. Hit like and subscribe and submit to sola fide like Irenaeus.

[00:17:53]And I'll see you next time.