Riches from the Past
APRIL 2026
O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation! That the wickedness of many should be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors!
For the first time on Riches from the Past, we are going to examine a document, not a theologian: the Epistle to Diognetus. This particular document, although the author is unknown, is often dated to the mid to late 2nd century. We can therefore gain glimpses of how early Christians thought despite its anonymity.
The addressee, Diognetus, is described in the letter as a man who is curious, “carefully and earnestly ask[ing]” questions about the Christian faith from the outside looking in. So the author is here to give Diognetus an account of the faith Christians hold to be true, and an apologetic for why it is true. And what emerges from this account is a profound, visceral clarity about the Gospel and about how it is that Christ saves sinners.
All of the elements of the Gospel are here, laid out in simple language; sin and iniquity enter the world, man needs a Saviour, God reveals Himself in Christ, His only-begotten Son, who enters into creation to save sinners by exchanging our sin for His righteousness as a ransom for many. What is extraordinary about this epistle is not its foreignness to our minds as something written a little under two thousand years ago, but how familiar it is, despite that gap of time.
NOTE: This translation of the text is taken from New Advent. To read more, click here.
AN EXCERPT FROM EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS
For, who of men at all understood before His coming what God is? Do you accept of the vain and silly doctrines of those who are deemed trustworthy philosophers? Of whom some said that fire was God, calling that God to which they themselves were by and by to come; and some water; and others some other of the elements formed by God. But if any one of these theories be worthy of approbation, every one of the rest of created things might also be declared to be God. But such declarations are simply the startling and erroneous utterances of deceivers; and no man has either seen Him, or made Him known, but He has revealed Himself. And He has manifested Himself through faith, to which alone it is given to behold God. For God, the Lord and Fashioner of all things, who made all things, and assigned them their several positions, proved Himself not merely a friend of mankind, but also long-suffering in His dealings with them.
Yea, He was always of such a character, and still is, and will ever be, kind and good, and free from wrath, and true, and the only one who is absolutely good; and He formed in His mind a great and unspeakable conception, which He communicated to His Son alone. As long, then, as He held and preserved His own wise counsel in concealment, He appeared to neglect us, and to have no care over us. But after He revealed and laid open, through His beloved Son, the things which had been prepared from the beginning, He conferred every blessing all at once upon us, so that we should both share in His benefits, and see and be active in His service. Who of us would ever have expected these things? He was aware, then, of all things in His own mind, along with His Son, according to the relation subsisting between them.
As long then as the former time endured, He permitted us to be borne along by unruly impulses, being drawn away by the desire of pleasure and various lusts. This was not that He at all delighted in our sins, but that He simply endured them; nor that He approved the time of working iniquity which then was, but that He sought to form a mind conscious of righteousness, so that being convinced in that time of our unworthiness of attaining life through our own works, it should now, through the kindness of God, be vouchsafed to us; and having made it manifest that in ourselves we were unable to enter into the kingdom of God, we might through the power of God be made able.
But when our wickedness had reached its height, and it had been clearly shown that its reward, punishment and death, was impending over us; and when the time had come which God had before appointed for manifesting His own kindness and power, how the one love of God, through exceeding regard for men, did not regard us with hatred, nor thrust us away, nor remember our iniquity against us, but showed great long-suffering, and bore with us, He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for those who are mortal.
For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation! That the wickedness of many should be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors! Having therefore convinced us in the former time that our nature was unable to attain to life, and having now revealed the Saviour who is able to save even those things which it was formerly impossible to save, by both these facts He desired to lead us to trust in His kindness, to esteem Him our Nourisher, Father, Teacher, Counsellor, Healer, our Wisdom, Light, Honour, Glory, Power, and Life, so that we should not be anxious concerning clothing and food.
If you also desire to possess this faith, you likewise shall receive first of all the knowledge of the Father. For God has loved mankind, on whose account He made the world, to whom He rendered subject all the things that are in it, to whom He gave reason and understanding, to whom alone He imparted the privilege of looking upwards to Himself, whom He formed after His own image, to whom He sent His only-begotten Son, to whom He has promised a kingdom in heaven, and will give it to those who have loved Him. And when you have attained this knowledge, with what joy do you think you will be filled? Or, how will you love Him who has first so loved you? And if you love Him, you will be an imitator of His kindness. And do not wonder that a man may become an imitator of God. He can, if he is willing.
For it is not by ruling over his neighbours, or by seeking to hold the supremacy over those that are weaker, or by being rich, and showing violence towards those that are inferior, that happiness is found; nor can any one by these things become an imitator of God. But these things do not at all constitute His majesty. On the contrary he who takes upon himself the burden of his neighbour; he who, in whatsoever respect he may be superior, is ready to benefit another who is deficient; he who, whatsoever things he has received from God, by distributing these to the needy, becomes a god to those who receive his benefits: he is an imitator of God.
Then you shall see, while still on earth, that God in the heavens rules over the universe; then you shall begin to speak the mysteries of God; then shall you both love and admire those that suffer punishment because they will not deny God; then shall you condemn the deceit and error of the world when you shall know what it is to live truly in heaven, when you shall despise that which is here esteemed to be death, when you shall fear what is truly death, which is reserved for those who shall be condemned to the eternal fire, which shall afflict those even to the end that are committed to it. Then shall you admire those who for righteousness’ sake endure the fire that is but for a moment, and shall count them happy when you shall know the nature of that fire.
CONCLUSION
One thing that stands out in this letter is the author’s genuine amazement, almost to the point of giddiness, about the doctrine he describes. It just leaps off the page. The author is, in this way, very akin to St. Paul’s epistles; you look at how many metaphors and superlatives he uses when describing Christ’s sacrifice, and it is Pauline through and through. And I wonder, are we this excited about the Gospel of Christ? Are we this contemplative about the cosmic nature of the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection? Brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you to contemplate these things with a holy wonder and joy, because it is truly Good News, and it changes EVERYTHING.
Daniel Liegmann