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For as the Word is God by nature, He is, he says, completely free from obedience and disobedience, because by nature as Lord He is also the giver of every commandment, of which obedience is the keeping, and disobedience the transgression. For the law according to commandment, and its fulfillment and transgression, belong to those things moved by nature, not to Him whose being is by nature stasis.

But as in the form of a servant, that is, having become man by nature, He condescended to His fellow-servants and slaves, having been formed in what was alien, along with the nature also assuming the passibility of our nature. For the penalty of the one who sinned is alien to Him Who is sinless by nature, which is the passibility of the whole nature condemned on account of the transgression.

But if, having been emptied in the form of a servant, that is, as a man, and having condescended, He is formed in what is alien, that is, He becomes passible as a man by nature, then an emptying and a condescension are contemplated concerning Him as one who is at once good and a lover of mankind; the one showing that He has truly become man, the other that He has truly become a man passible by nature. Wherefore the teacher says: 1044 "Bearing the whole of me in Himself with all that is mine," that is, the whole human nature, in hypostatic union with its blameless passions. By these, having consumed what is worse in us—for which reason passibility was introduced into nature, I mean the law of sin from disobedience, whose power is the unnatural disposition of our (14∆_028> will, introducing passionateness into the passibility of nature through laxity and intensity—He has not only saved those held by sin, but has also imparted divine power, having dissolved our penalty in Himself, a power that works immutability of soul and incorruptibility of body through the identity of the will with what is by nature good, for those who strive to honor grace by deed. Which I think the saint teaches when he says: "That in Himself He might consume what is worse, as fire does wax, or the sun the mist of the earth, and that I might partake of what is His through the commingling”; that is, having become by grace pure of passion, just as He is.

But I know also another explanation of, "He is formed in what is alien," having learned it from a certain saint, wise in both word and life. For he, when asked, used to say that obedience is by nature alien to the Word, as is also subjection, which, having paid in full on behalf of us who transgressed the commandment, He wrought the salvation of the race, making what is ours His own. For this reason He honors obedience by deed, having become a new Adam by nature on behalf of the old, and He is tested in this by suffering, having willingly borne the same sufferings as us. If indeed, according to this great teacher, "He toiled, and He hungered, and He thirsted, and He was in agony, and He wept" by the law of the body, which is indeed a clear proof of an active disposition, and a token of His condescension towards His fellow-servants and slaves. For He remained Master by nature, and became a servant for me, who am by nature a servant, in order to make me master over the one who tyrannically ruled through deceit; for this reason, performing servile things in a masterly way, that is, fleshly things divinely, He displayed His impassible and by-nature ruling (14∆_030> power in fleshly things, through suffering destroying corruption, and through death creating indestructible life; and performing masterly things in a servile way, that is, divine things in a fleshly way, He showed forth His ineffable emptying, through passible flesh deifying the whole race that had been subject to corruption.

For by the interchange of these He clearly confirmed both the natures of which He Himself was the hypostasis, and their essential energies, that is, movements, of which He Himself was the unconfused union, admitting no division in both the natures of which He Himself was the hypostasis, since He acted suitably to Himself in a unitary manner, that is, singularly, and through each of the things done by Him He inseparably manifested, by the power of His own divinity, the energy of His own flesh. For since He is one, nothing is more one, 1045

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Ὡς μέν γάρ φύσει Θεός Λόγος, ὑπακοῆς, φησί, καί παρακοῆς πάντως ἐλεύθερος, ὅτι καί φύσει πάσης ἐντολῆς ὡς Κύριος ὑπάρχει δοτήρ, ἧς ἡ μέν ὑπακοή τήρησίς ἐστιν, ἡ δέ παρακοή παράβασις. Τῶν γάρ φύσει κινουμένων ὁ κατ᾿ ἐντολήν νόμος καί ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτόν πλήρωσίς ἐστι καί παράβασις, οὐχί οὗ φύσει τό εἶναι στάσις ἐστίν.

Ὡς δέ δούλου μορφῇ, τουτέστιν ἄνθρωπος φύσει γενόμενος, συγκατέβη τοῖς ὁμοδούλοις καί δούλοις, μορφωθείς τό ἀλλότριον, ἅμα τῇ φύσει καί τό καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς τῆς φύσεως ὑποδύς παθητόν. Ἀλλότριον γάρ τοῦ κατά φύσιν ἀναμαρτήτου τό τοῦ ἁμαρτήσαντος ἐπιτίμιον, ὅπερ ἐστί τό διά τήν παράβασιν κατακριθέν τῆς ὅλης φύσεως παθητόν.

Εἰ δέ κενωθείς μέν δούλου μορφῇ, τουτέστιν ἄνθρωπος συγκαταβάς δέ μορφοῦται τό ἀλλότριον, τουτέστιν ἄνθρωπος φύσει γίνεται παθητός, κένωσις ἅρα περί αὐτόν ὡς ἀγαθόν ὁμοῦ καί φιλάνθρωπον θεωρεῖται καί συγκατάβασις, ἡ μέν ἄνθρωπον ἀληθῶς, ἡ δέ φύσει παθητόν ἄνθρωπον ἀληθῶς ὄντα δεικνῦσα γεγενημένον. ∆ιό φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος· 1044 " Ὅλον ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἐμέ φέρων μετά τῶν ἐμῶν, " τουτέστι τήν ἀνθρωπείαν φύσιν ὁλόκληρον, ἑνώσει τῇ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν μετά τῶν αὐτῆς ἀδιαβλήτων παθῶν. Οἷς ἡμῶν δαπανήσας τό χεῖρον, διό τῇ φύσει τό παθητόν ἐπεισεκρίθη, λέγω δέ τόν ἐκ τῆς παρακοῆς νόμον τῆς ἁμαρτίας, οὗ κράτος ἐστίν ἡ παρά φύσιν τῆς ἡμετέρας (14∆_028> γνώμης διάθεσις, ἐμπάθειαν τῷ παθητῷ τῆς φύσεως ἐπεισάγουσα κατ᾿ ἄνεσιν καί ἐπίτασιν, οὐ μόνον σέσωκεν ὑπό τῆς ἁμαρτίας κατεχομένους, ἀλλά καί θείας δυνάμεως μεταδέδωκεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ λύσας ἡμῶν τό ἐπιτίμιον, ψυχῆς ἀτρεψίαν καί σώματος ἀφθαρσίαν ἐργαζομένης ἐν τῇ περί τό φύσει καλόν τῆς γνώμης ταυτότητι, τοῖς ἔργῳ τιμᾷν τήν χάριν σπουδάζουσιν. Ὅπερ οἶμαι διδάσκων ὁ ἅγιός φησιν· " Ἵνα ἐν ἑαυτῷ δαπανήσῃ τό χεῖρον, ὡς κηρόν πῦρ, ἤ ὡς ἀτμίδα γῆς ἥλιος, κἀγώ μεταλάβω τῶν ἐκείνου διά τήν σύγκρασιν»· καθαρός δηλαδή τῇ χάριτι πάθους ἴσως ἐκείνῳ γενόμενος.

Οἶδα δέ καί λόγον ἕτερον περί τοῦ, "Μορφοῦται τό ἀλλότριον», παρά τινος ἁγίου σοφοῦ καί λόγον καί βίον μαθών. Ἔλεγε γάρ ἐρωτηθείς ἐκεῖνος ἀλλότριον εἶναι τοῦ Λόγου φύσει τήν ὑπακοήν, ὥσπερ καί τήν ὑποταγήν, ἥν ὑπέρ ἡμῶν παραβάντων τήν ἐντολήν ἐκτίσας ὅλην εἰργάσατο τοῦ γένους τήν σωτηρίαν, ἑαυτοῦ ποιούμενος τό ἡμέτερον. ∆ιά τοῦτο ἔργῳ τιμᾷ τήν ὑπακοήν, νέος Ἀδάμ ὑπέρ τοῦ παλαιοῦ φύσει γενόμενος, καί πειρᾶται ταύτης ἐκ τοῦ παθεῖν, διά τῶν αὐτῶν ἑκουσίως ἡμῖν ἐνεχθείς παθημάτων. Εἴπερ κατά τοῦτον ἀληθῶς τόν μέγαν διδάσκαλον, " Ἐκοπίασε, καί ἐπείνασε, καί ἐδίψησε, καί ἠγωνίασε, καί ἐδάκρυσε " νόμῳ σώματος, ὅ δή σαφής ἐνεργοῦς ἐστιν ἀπόδειξις διαθέσεως, καί τῆς προς τούς ὁμοδούλους τε καί δούλους τεκμήριον συγκαταβάσεως. ∆εσπότης γάρ φύσει μεμένηκε, καί δοῦλος δ᾿ ἐμέ τόν φύσει δοῦλον γενόμενος, ἵνα ποιήσῃ δεσπότην τοῦ δι᾿ ἀπάτης τυραννικῶς κυριεύσαντος, διά τοῦτο τά μέν δουλικά δεσποτικῶς ἐνεργῶν, τουτέστι τά σαρκικά θεϊκῶς, τήν ἀπαθῆ καί φύσει δεσπόζουσαν ἐν τοῖς σαρκικοῖς (14∆_030> ἐπεδείκνυτο δύναμιν, διά πάθους, τήν φθοράν ἀφανίζουσαν, καί διά θανάτου ζωήν δημιουργοῦσαν ἀνώλεθρον, τά δεσποτικά δέ πράττων δουλικῶς, τουτέστι τά θεῖα σαρκικῶς, τήν ἄφατον ἐνεδείκνυτο κένωσιν, διά σαρκός παθητῆς τό γένος ἅπαν τῇ φθορᾷ γεωθέν θεουργοῦσαν.

Τῇ γάρ τούτων ἐπαλλαγῇ σαφῶς ἐπιστοῦτο τάς τε φύσεις ὧν αὐτός ὑπόστασις ἦν, καί τάς αὐτῶν οὐσιώδεις ἐνεργείας, ἤγουν κινήσεις, ὧν αὐτός ἕνωσις ἦν ἀσύγχυτος, μή δεχομένη διαίρεσιν κατ᾿ ἄμφω τάς φύσεις ὧν αὐτός ὑπόστασις ἦν, εἴπερ ἑαυτῷ προσφυῶς μοναδικῶς, τουτέστιν ἑνοειδῶς ἐνεργῶν, καί δι᾿ ἑκάστου τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γινομένων τῇ δυνάμει τῆς ἑαυτοῦ θεότητος ἀχωρίστως συνεκφαίνων τῆς οἰκείας σαρκός τήν ἐνέργειαν. Αὐτοῦ γάρ ἑνός ὄντος οὐδέν ἑνικώτερον, 1045