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4.40 (40) It was truly necessary, it was necessary, that the Lord, being by nature wise and just and powerful, 15∆_220 as wise, should not be ignorant of the way of healing; as just, should not effect the salvation of man, who was willingly held by sin, in a tyrannical manner; and as all-powerful, should not fail in the accomplishment of the healing.

4.41 (41) The wisdom of God is shown in His becoming truly a man by nature; the justice, in His having assumed the passibility of our nature, similarly to us, at His birth; the power, in His creating through sufferings and death eternal life and immutable impassibility for our nature.

1324 4.42 (42) The Lord made manifest the principle of wisdom in the manner of healing, by becoming man without change or any alteration whatsoever; and He showed the equity of justice in the magnitude of His condescension, by willingly submitting to the condemnation of our nature in its passibility, and making that very thing a weapon for the destruction of sin and of the death that comes through it—that is, of pleasure and the pain that comes through it—in which existed the power of sin and death, and the tyranny of sin according to pleasure, and the dominion of death through it according to pain. For in the passibility of our nature clearly exists the power of pleasure and of pain. And for somehow we are eager to console pain, a penalty naturally increased, through pleasure; for wishing to escape the laborious sensation associated with pain, we flee to pleasure, attempting to console our nature, which is oppressed by the torment of pain. But by hastening to blunt the movements of pain through pleasure, we rather ratify the bond against ourselves, being unable to have pleasure released from pain and labors.

4.43 (43) And He made clear the strength of His surpassing power, by establishing for our nature 15∆_222 the unchangeable generation of the opposites of what He Himself suffered; for by giving impassibility through suffering, and repose through labors, and eternal life through death to our nature, He restored it again; renewing the states of our nature by His own deprivations, and through His own Incarnation, bestowing upon our nature the grace that is beyond nature, deification.

4.44 (44) God has truly become man, and has given to our nature another beginning of a second generation, which through pain terminates in the pleasure of the life to come. For just as Adam the forefather, having transgressed the divine commandment, introduced to our nature, contrary to the first, another beginning of generation, composed of pleasure, but ending in death through pain, and, according to the counsel of the serpent, devised a pleasure that was not the successor to a preceding pain, but rather passed over into pain, he justly held all those born of him in the flesh according to him, on account of the unjust beginning from pleasure, to be subject with him to the end through pain in death; so also the Lord, having become man, and having created for our nature another beginning of a second generation from the Holy Spirit, and having accepted the most just death of Adam through pain, which in His case was, of course, most unjust, since His own generation did not have as its beginning the most unjust pleasure of the forefather resulting from disobedience, effected the abolition of both extremes, I mean the beginning and the end of human generation according to Adam, since these 1325 were not originally from God, and set free from its guilt all those who are mystically reborn from Him.

4.45 (45) The pleasure from the law of sin for the setting aside of the generation according to the flesh of those born in Him by grace through the Spirit, the Lord

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4.40 (μ΄) Ἔδει ὡς ἀληθῶς, ἔδει, σοφόν καί δίκαιον καί δυνατόν 15∆_220 ὄντα κατά φύσιν τόν Κύριον, ὡς μέν σοφόν, μή ἀγνοῆσαι τόν τρόπον τῆς ἰατρείας· ὡς δίκαιον δέ, μή τυραννικήν ποιήσασθαι τοῦ κατειλημμένου κατά γνώμην ὑπό τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀνθρώπου τήν σωτηρίαν· ὡς δέ πάντα δυνάμενος, μή ἀτονῆσαι πρός τήν τῆς ἰατρείας ἐκπλήρωσιν.

4.41 (μα΄) Τό μέν σοφόν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐν τῷ γενέσθαι φύσει κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν ἄνθρωπον δείκνυται· τό δέ δίκαιον, ἐν τῷ τό παθητόν κατά τήν γένεσιν ὁμοίως ἡμῖν ἀνειληφέναι τῆς φύσεως· τό δέ δυνατόν, ἐν τῷ διά παθημάτων καί θανάτου, ζωήν ἀΐδιον τῇ φύσει δημιουργῆσαι καί ἀπάθειαν ἄτρεπτον.

1324 4.42 (μβ΄) Τό μέν τῆς σοφίας λόγον, ἐν τῷ τρόπῳ τῆς ἰατρείας, φανερόν ὁ Κύριος ἐποίησε, χωρίς τροπῆς καί τῆς οἱασοῦν ἀλλοιώσεως, γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος· τήν ἰσότητα δέ τῆς δικαιοσύνης, ἐν τῷ μεγέθει τῆς συγκαταβάσεως ἔδειξε, τό ἐν τῷ παθητῷ κατάκριμα τῆς φύσεως, κατά θέλησιν ὑποδύς, κἀκεῖνο ποιήσας ὅπλον πρός τήν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀναίρεσιν και τοῦ δι᾿ αὐτήν θανάτου, τουτέστι τῆς ἡδονῆς καί τῆς δι᾿ αὐτήν ὀδύνης, ἐν ᾧ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὑπῆρχε καί τοῦ θανάτου τό κράτος, καί ἡ κατά τήν ἡδονήν τῆς ἁμαρτίας τυραννίς, καί ἡ δι᾿ αὐτήν κατά τήν ὀδύνην τοῦ θανάτου δυναστεία. Ἐν γάρ τῷ παθητῷ προδήλως ὑπάρχει τῆς φύσεως, τό τῆς ἡδονῆς κράτος καί τό τῆς ὀδύνης. Καί γάρ πως τῆς ὀδύνης πλέον τό κατά φύσιν ἐπιτεινόμενον πρόστιμον, διά τῆς ἡδονῆς αὐτήν παραμυθεῖσθαι σπουδάζομεν· θέλοντες γάρ ἐκφυγεῖν τήν κατά τήν ὀδύνην ἐπίπονον αἴσθησιν, πρός τήν ἡδονήν καταφεύγομεν, τῷ τῆς ὀδύνης αἰκισμῷ πιεζομένην τήν φύσιν, ἐπιχειροῦντες παραμυθεῖσθαι. Σπεύδοντες δέ διά τῆς ἡδονῆς τά τῆς ὀδύνης ἀμβλῦναι κινήματα, πλέον αὐτῆς τό καθ᾿ ἑαυτῶν ἐπικυροῦμεν χειρόγραφον, ὀδύνης καί πόνων ἔχειν τήν ἡδονήν ἀπολελυμένην οὐ δυνάμενοι.

4.43 (μγ΄) Τήν δέ τῆς ὑπερβαλλούσης δυνάμεως ἰσχύν δῆλον κατέστησε, τῶν οἷς αὐτός ἔπασχεν ἐναντίων, ὑποστήσας τῇ φύσει 15∆_222 τήν γένεσιν ἄτρεπτον· διά πάθους γάρ τήν ἀπάθειαν, καί διά πόνων τήν ἄνεσιν, καί διά θανάτου τήν ἀΐδιον ζωήν τῇ φύσει δούς, πάλιν ἀποκατέστησε· ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ καταστερήσεσι τάς ἕξεις ἀνακαινίσας τῆς φύσεως, καί διά τῆς ἰδίας σαρκώσεως, τήν ὑπέρ φύσιν χάριν δωρησάμενος τῇ φύσει, τήν θέωσιν.

4.44 (μδ΄) Γέγονεν ὁ Θεός κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν ἄνθρωπος, καί δέδωκεν ἄλλην ἀρχήν τῇ φύσει δευτέρας γενέσεως, διά πόνου πρός ἡδονήν μελλούσης ζωῆς καταλήγουσαν. Ὡς γάρ Ἀδάμ ὁ προπάτωρ τήν θείαν ἐντολήν παραβάς, ἄλλην ἀρχήν γενέσεως, ἐξ ἡδονῆς μέν συνισταμένην, εἰς δέ τόν διά πόνου θάνατον τελευτῶσαν τῇ φύσει παρά τήν πρώτην παρεισήγαγε, καί ἐπενόησε κατά τήν συμβουλήν τοῦ ὄφεως ἡδονήν οὐκ οὖσαν προλαβόντος πόνου διάδοχον, ἀλλά μᾶλλον εἰς τόν πόνον περαιουμένην, πάντας τούς ἐξ αὐτοῦ σαρκί γενομένους κατ᾿ αὐτόν, διά τήν ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἄδικον ἀρχήν, εἶχε συνυπαγομένους αὐτῷ δικαίως, πρός τό διά πόνου κατά τόν θάνατον τέλος· οὕτω καί ὁ Κύριος γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, καί ἄλλην ἀρχήν δευτέρας γενέσεως ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου τῇ φύσει δημιουργήσας, καί τόν διά πόνου τοῦ Ἀδάμ δικαιότατον καταδεξάμενος θάνατον, ἐν αὐτῷ δηλαδή γενόμενον ἀδικώτατον, ὡς οὐκ ἔχοντα τῆς ἰδίας γενέσεως ἀρχήν τήν ἐκ παρακοῆς ἀδικωτάτην τοῦ προπάτορος ἡδονήν, ἀμφοτέρων τῶν ἄκρων, ἀρχῆς τε λέγω καί τέλους τῆς κατά τόν Ἀδάμ ἀνθρωπίνης γενέσεως, οἷα δή 1325 προηγουμένως οὐκ ὄντων ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τήν ἀναίρεσιν ἐποιήσατο, καί πάντας τούς μυστικῶς ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἀναγεννωμένους, τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆς ἐνοχῆς ἐλευθέρους κατέστησε.

4.45 (με΄) Τήν ἐκ τοῦ νόμου τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἡδονήν εἰς ἀθέτησιν τῆς κατά σάρκα γεννήσεως τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ χάριτι διά Πνεύματος γεννωμένων ὁ Κύριος