Now in all the primary commandments his inclination [was] towards obedience, but not in the others, in order that it might not be supposed that he was able to conquer on account of their easiness; nor again in obedience made he use of those wherein there was attraction in honour and power and glory, but of those which in misery and poverty and contempt and weakness could offend the thoughts of obedience, those also wherein there was no attraction to obedience but rather to remissness and to negligence, / and in nothing was he helped; but for this only was he anxious, to obey God, and he loved that which God willed.
70. Wherefore in the moral life there was no occupation in human affairs on the part of the divinity.
And therefore, while he was poor in everything and was violently drawn away by the opposite, he in nothing deviated from the purpose of God, although indeed Satan made use of all these things to remove him far from the purpose of God. And Satan sought much after this because he saw that none was occupied with him. For also it did not appear |64 that from the beginning he wrought signs nor again that he had authority to teach, but only to obey and to keep all the commandments. As he moved among all men, where all the commandments surrounded him on all sides and showed him the strength of disobedience, he comported himself valiantly in the midst of them all, in that he used nothing special or extraordinary for his support, but he made use, as all men, of those very things which are common so that it should not be supposed that through observance of these things he was preserved from sin and that without them he could not be preserved. Consequently in eating and drinking he observed all the commandments and, in whatsoever there was pain and vexation, he was firm / in his thoughts, because his will was bound to the will of God and there was nothing to draw him away and make him distinct from him. For he was living not for himself but for him whose prosôpon he was, and he kept the prosôpon without blemish and without scar and thereby gave victory to the nature.
71. Wherefore he accepted the baptism of John after he had shown himself sinless.
Because he had fulfilled obedience in every thing, he accepted the baptism of John as [some thing] supreme, after the likeness of all men; and although indeed he had no need, since he was sinless, by reason of the greatness of his obedience he accepted it as one in need. For it belonged to supreme obedience that he should be not as befitted his honour and his glory but as owing obedience to a commander; and, more than this, not only that he should allow him to baptize [him] but also that he should be baptized by him as one who is guilty and requiring to be justified and in need of absolution. For this was universal obedience, to ask for and exact nothing in his own prosôpon but in that of him whose was the prosôpon, and to prepare his will; for the prosôpon was properly his own and he considered his prosôpon as his own prosôpon; and the prosôpon is one. |65 Therefore the Father has declared it from on high, saying: / Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well-pleased ; and the Holy Spirit came down in the likeness of a dove and remained upon him, and he says not that the Son came down, because it was the Son who possessed his prosôpon and made the things which were his his own prosôpon without becoming distinguished from him. Therefore he is one even in the birth of the flesh. The Holy Spirit shall come and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; therefore also the Holy One who shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God; and he said not at all that the Son should come, because he who has taken him in his prosôpon is no other, but the same as he who has given him the dispensation which is on behalf of all of us, for those reasons which we have said before.
72. Wherefore he made his manner of life with all men and afterwards was led to the wilderness.
Because it was thought that he was more than all an observer of the commandments, on account of his manner of life among all men, and because if in many things he was left alone, [it might have been] easy [to fight] against him, where there was nothing whereby he could be helped, he went forth alone into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, while poor in all the things of the world, even in that which is considered a burden and a distress. And [because of this] removal far from every thing / he attained to the utmost supremacy to which bodily power could be raised, and instead of vehement assaults from the concupiscence of the soul, he was bound by the things of God as though without bodily frame, since he was not busied with his body as though it were his own but [as if he were] apart from it. For this appertains only to the image of God and to him who preserves the image |66 of God, to will the same as God the Father; and because there was nothing else in all that the devil said, he put him to shame as one who stood apart from the will of God. He raised up his very soul unto God, conforming that which was according to his will to the will of God in order that he might be the image only of the Archetype, and not of his being; for the image according to its [own] being is without likeness and its own proper likeness is that of the Archetype, and they are indeed two, but it is one and the same appearance. Since in actions in bodily things he has preserved the likeness of God from all the sufferings of the body, it was preferable to him that the will of God should be done and not that of the flesh; and in actions he made himself a likeness to will that which he wills, that there might be one and the same will in both of them, and one prosôpon without division; the one is the other and the other is the one, while the other and the one remain. As he remained firm in all things, / in temptations of body and soul, in cities and in the wilderness, there was no distinction in his observance and in his obedience.
73. Concerning this: that, when he preached unto us the kingdom of heaven, he received [ this ] honour, victory without sin.
As then to him who has conquered and been victorious in all things there has been given in return for the honour of his victory authority to preach and to announce the hope of the kingdom of heaven, saying: Be of good cheer; I have conquered the world; now is the judgement of this world, now is the prince of this world condemned, and I, when I shall be raised up from the earth, shall draw all men toward me; and whatsoever the Son is, by fear and the suffering which he has borne he has learnt obedience and has been perfected and has become unto all those who obey him a cause of life in the world to come. And he was sent to teach all men and to work signs and wonders and healings with all other things. Not to delight himself in and be zealous for obedience, but |67 with a view to the faith of those who were being taught, he made use of all these things with a view to the obedience of the disciples; for until the time of his victory he was striving to make firm in God the image which had been given unto him. But because he stablished his own image in all temptations perfectly and without failing / and without falling short in anything, he comported himself on our behalf, being zealous to rescue us captives from the violence of the tyrant and to draw us towards him and to make all of us the sons of his own kingdom, the associates and the heirs and the sons of God. For the defeat of the tyrant was being [accomplished] without pity, when he threw him down openly from his primacy and, after he had thrown him down, he took from him also his might; and when he had taken it from him, his own victory sufficed him not, but it must henceforth be also ours for which sake he strove; and those who are obedient unto him he then brings unto him voluntarily and not by force, and those who come he persuades of their own will to part from him and not of their own will to become his . . . . disciples----and what shall I say? enemy? well then, of the enemy.
74. Concerning this: that, after the victory and after it was said of him: ' He is my Son', he began other hard battles on our behalf.
Therefore, after his victory in every thing and [after] it was said from heaven: This is my beloved Son, he again began other battles . . . . the supremacy and the teaching and the working of miracles with authority. Further he comported himself with sublime obedience / in our things, that is, in things human and weak, in such wise that he possessed not any authority or superiority; he was persecuted and beaten and fearful [with] the fear that terrifies all men; and he had not as the birds and as the beasts a place to lay his head. He went from place to place and was bruised and constrained in every way, for the sake of our obedience. He was not constrained by any one, but he fulfilled [everything] |68 and taught with all zeal, and he endured all temptations for the sake of instruction; and from wheresoever he was driven out, he was driven toward those to whom his gospel was not yet preached, so that that for which he was zealous was accomplished by the zeal of his enemies, who foresaw not the issue of their work but who looked to hinder him by opposition and works full of contempt and scorn and fear unto death. And after his victory and after the choice of God that this is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased, after he had received the authority of the Gospel, after it was revealed that by his authority he was working the divine works, after he had said I and my Father are one, he was with all this weakness and contempt in human things, whose burden he could not endure / by reason of their weight but which on the contrary were a grief unto him and a negation of grace. And so then there were many things also which hindered him from preaching the Gospel; and hence also there arose, [claiming to speak] on behalf of God, accusers of him as one who was a cause of disobedience, and they brought him into contempt and weakness.
75. Concerning this: that he made use of supreme obedience itself as of a supreme honour so that Christ became also truly man and rejected it not as contemptible.
For for all men contempt which comes after honour is accounted contemptible; but for Christ, who was in the flesh, it is the contrary. And he possessed as a supreme honour obedience unto death, even death upon the cross, and he showed unto Satan and unto every principality and unto every authority that the cause of honour is rather obedience abounding and not disobedience unto God, whereby Satan suffered, when he was equal in nature and in honour but endured not the obedience of men, in that he was judging honour and contempt by the distinction between his own nature and |69 [that] of men and thought that this obedience was not due unto God. On account of this love of glory he cast down Adam also into suffering in persuading him not / to obey God. And Adam chose not to show gratitude [unto God] nor to be obedient in any thing; but, because he was made like unto his own image, when he was forbidden to eat of one tree, he suffered in that which was not worthy to be called a suffering and acted against the commandment of God and regarded God as jealous. On account of all these things God made the second Adam worthy of all this honour for having practised all obedience; he granted him an honour above which there was nothing, even as there was nothing surpassing [his] obedience; he accounted himself as nothing, except to become conformed to the will of God, to become as God willed that he should become.
76. Wherefore he wrought the incarnation through his own prosôpon so that he also became incarnate.
Consequently also God became incarnate in the man through his own prosôpon and made his prosôpon his own prosôpon. And there is no condescension comparable unto this, that the prosôpon of the man should become his own and that he should give him his prosôpon. And therefore he made use of his prosôpon, in that he took it for him[self]; but he took it in order to make it not honourable but contemptible, that he might show to whoever wished to serve [God] that all / greatness grows great by condescension and not in exalting itself, [that] in that he took the likeness of a servant, he has been found in schema as a man. The likeness of this servant served him altogether as he wished; but he wished [it to be] according to what appertained to the nature, not only that he should obey his own prosôpon for himself,'so that there might be no doubt concerning him, that he is the Son of God, but also that he might comport himself on our behalf and die for our salvation: on our behalf, then, not as though we were just or good----for therein there would have been an attraction for anyone to die for those who are so----but for the unjust: for |70 hardly would anyone die for the impious, but for the good someone perhaps would dare to die. Because then he condescended in everything inscrutably with an incomparable condescension, there was further demonstrated one purpose, one will, one intelligence, indistinguishable and indivisible as in one. So also in manliness and in authority and in ordering of life and in judgement, as in all things, he was associated with God indivisibly as if each thing were in one by the distinguishing and by the choice of them both, so that he possessed nothing human of his own in human things, but the will of God became his own will, when he was made firm in the actions and sufferings of the nature. Thus also, in things divine, nothing is his own apart from the human humiliation; but, while remaining God in all things, [he is] that which the man was by his nature in sufferings, even in impassibility. In the same way as he made use of the likeness of a servant in the kenosis, so in exaltation he participated in the likeness of God, since he is in them both, in the likeness of the servant and in the likeness of God, and possesses the same prosôpon of humiliation and of exaltation.
77. Concerning this: that the incarnation has been for the education of the whole nature of rational beings.
For this reason it was necessary that the incarnationof God the Word should take place for the whole nature of rational beings, that we might learn to participate in his grace, in virtue of which, in that he was lacking in nothing, he wrought everything and abhorred not to do aught, even what is contemptible, and moreover that he might make man participate in his image, in such wise that every man who is beneath him might not make use of the likeness for pride but for participation in the likeness, and that he might do everything according to his might in the sight of God. |71
78. Concerning this: that Satan, in jealousy towards man, wrought everything with a view to misleading.
/ Because then Satan for opposition made use of that which was given unto him by God and because he had fallen away from the purpose of God, he made use of the image of God not as a model and an example befitting God but, through jealousy towards man, for misleading away from God, and he deceived man and made him fall from his image, since he observed not the will of God, and he raised him up as an enemy and an adversary against God that thereby he might reprimand God as unjust for showing toward man a good purpose such as this----reprimanding him in that he took vengeance on man for his shame and punished him with such punishment as was right for what he had done towards him. Satan, in fact, because he acted in anger and without reflection, forgot that God acts in contrary wise to that which he wishes.
79. Concerning this: that God has shown the height of his bounty and has laid bare the height of the wickedness of Satan.
For by death God wrought not the destruction of man but his consolation and his succour that he might not sin nor any more consent to the counsels of the evil one which lead to destruction; for also it was not [an occasion] to slander God but for the increase of his grace. He who accounted man worthy of such honour, when he was nothing, reprimanded the tyrant for his cunning in planning the overthrow of man, / and he shows that he in no wise plans his overthrow but to preserve him by his grace and to care for him, in order that he may be restored again to that which he was. For Satan hoped that after all this love of God towards man, if again he should make him transgress the commandment of God, God would be angered by all means to destroy him and that he would have no cause to turn and be healed. But against those who have sinned and have been accounted worthy of salvation and yet have continued in the same sins, |72 as though they had not hitherto been liberated from the former punishment, wrath without remission is stirred up without there being therefore any cause for salvation. Satan then first meditated of himself the things which he planned for the destruction of man and he persuaded himself and he condemned man to vengeance without leaving him any cause for pardon. And, since he was envenomed by his anger and his jealousy, he understood not by himself the grace of God, and as a result, being so [placed] ..., he destroyed not Satan himself, who was the deceiver, but endured his wickedness; and by reason of this also God is long-suffering as touching men who sin and act impiously against him, as though it were another who deceives them; and he is long-suffering as touching men's being void of understanding and as touching / the boundless wickedness of the devil against them, of him whose whole motive was to mislead all and set all against God, that all our race may be blotted out by him, without any one remaining unto it to become an intercessor for it. And because Satan showed all this supreme wickedness, though he had not any cause of wickedness, even amid all this wickedness the grace of God appeared, and he showed his ineffable grace in doing his good works universally unto all men. Because of the height of his condescension to him who has been altogether sinful, he came in contempt and in scorn and in lowliness and he was not ashamed of the scorn for the sake of the advantage. And by means of his own prosôpon he became the prosôpon of the other and that of God in fulfilling all that appertains unto God, that is, the instruction of an instructive condescension. For the supreme condescension consisting in a humanity, which seeks not its own but the things of God, has taken place for the teaching of humiliation. And he was united in one purpose, so that there was not the least room for Satan to introduce disobedience; and because there remained |73 only death to be [endured] for defeat and victory, he endured this also after every thing so as to have won the victory even over it, utterly annihilating it. And two things he wrought / thereby: he defeated Satan and he took away from him all hope of disobedience.
80. Concerning this: that when Christ conquered, his victory sufficed him not, but he was also pleased to be oppressed for us that he might obtain the exaction [ of ransom ] for the oppression which was for us.
And since many are brought low by the fear of death, he endured unto death and gave a just compensation for us in that he exchanged for our death the death which came unjustly upon him. Therefore, after he had observed all the commandments in such wise as to be exempt from death and to receive the choice of victory for us, he yet took upon himself this manner of life for the instruction of those who were deceived and he died on our behalf as on the behalf of the deceived. And he brought death into the arena, since it was necessary that it should be abolished; for he hesitated not that his own being should be cast down in death since he had the hope of its abolition. So also therefore he suffered in advance other trials, but not so as to die unjustly without exacting [the ransom]. In this very hope he obtained also obedience and immeasurable love, not that he might obtain victory for himself but that he might secure the exaction of our own [ransom] and conquer not only for himself but also for all men. In the same way as the defeat / of Adam caused the defeat of all men, so also the victory of the former made all victorious.
81. Concerning this: that God has shown to all by very deeds, that there is no acceptance of persons as touching humanity, in that it has suffered in all things. |74
And through these two all rational powers have learnt that there is no acceptance of persons with God, but the love of a just judge. For that reason humanity has conquered and Satan has been defeated. And God has magnified his victory and given unto him an honour which is more excellent than all names; and so all rational powers together have wondered even at his victory, kneeling and adoring the very name which has been given, which has been justly given unto him, and every tongue confesses the just dispensation which has taken place on behalf of all, whereby he has made peace and concord to reign over the earth, even he who in all his actions brings them nigh [unto himself] by persuasion and not by force.