Since the Creator saw that our nature had given itself over to a cruel tormentor, had fallen into the very abyss of sin, fearlessly trampled on the laws of nature, and that the visible creation, which proclaims and preaches the Creator, cannot convince those who have come to extreme insensibility, then wisely and justly arranges our salvation. He did not wish to grant us freedom by a single authority, to arm mercy alone against him who has enslaved the human race, so that he would not call this mercy unjust; but he paves the way, both full of love for mankind and adorned with righteousness. For, having united with Himself this conquered nature, it leads it into the struggle and arranges it in such a way that it compensates for the loss of victory, overcomes the conqueror, to the misfortune of old, destroys the torment of the cruel enslaver, and accepts the former freedom. And for this reason the Lord Christ is born of a woman, like us, although the birth had something more: namely, virginity, because both she who conceived and gave birth to the Lord Christ was a Virgin.

But when you hear this name: Christ, understand before the ages of the Father, the Only-begotten Son, the Word, clothed with human nature, and do not consider this preached economy humiliating to God, because nothing can defile the purest nature. For if the sun, being a body (because it is visible and subject to destruction), and passing where dead bodies, fetid slime, and many other substances that emit a stench, cannot be defiled, how much more can the Creator of the sun and the Creator of the universe, incorporeal, invisible, unchangeable, always equal to Himself, be defiled by any such thing? And that this is really so, let us understand from the following: we both say and believe that His nature is infinite. For I hear Him Who says: I do not fill the heavens and the earth with food, saith the Lord (Jeremiah 23:24); and again: "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool" (Isaiah 66:1) and: "Who shall measure the waters by a handful, and the heavens by a span, and the whole earth by a handful" (40:12)? I hear other passages that testify to this. Blessed David also cries: "In His hand are all the ends of the earth" (Psalm 94:4); and the divinely wise Paul: "For in Him we live, and move, and are" (Acts 17:28). Thus, if, according to the words of the Apostle, we live and move in Him, then not a single part of creation is devoid of God; though in creation, some are holy, some are abominable, some are full of fragrance, and some are full of stench; and of men, some adorn themselves with godliness, others wallow in wickedness. He who fills the world with Himself delights in them that fear Him, but hates all that doeth iniquity, destroyeth all that speaketh falsehood: the Lord despises a man of blood and a flatterer, and the wicked shall not dwell unto Him (Psalm 5:5-7). Therefore nothing harms the purest. If those who practice the art of medicine, healing ulcers, do not receive ulcers themselves, but bring health to the sick, and do not suffer any harm from them, then how much more the best artist, God, whose nature is passionless, above vicissitudes, and does not allow change, did not take upon Himself any defilement at all in our healing. Therefore, let us marvel that He did not entrust our healing to angels, but took upon Himself the healing of men.

Thus the Lord Christ, having been born, receives, like us, a mother's breasts, and lays Himself in a manger – at this table of the dumb ones, thereby rebuking the foolishness of men, and allowing them to see His own love for mankind, because, being the Nourisher, like God, and according to humanity, He becomes food for people who are afflicted with great foolishness. And now, when human nature has laid aside this foolishness and has received rational power, this mysterious table admits him to Itself, which itself has become the image of a manger and teaches people that man, when he was in honor without understanding, was joined to senseless beasts, and was likened to them (Psalm 48:13). At first, the manger received this divine and spiritual food, but when our nature came to itself and clearly recognized in itself the image of God, then this food passed on to the verbal meal. Christ also accepted circumcision, and offered sacrifices, because He was a man, and by keeping the law He had to restore freedom to nature. In a human way and by flight He escapes into Egypt, as God, Who exists everywhere and appears to all, as the Divine Scripture says. He also comes to John the Baptist and, not accepting the defilement of sin, accepts baptism in order to fulfill all righteousness, and is proclaimed from above by the Father and indicated by the Spirit, for the Father has called from heaven: "This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17); and the Most Holy Spirit, appearing in the form of a dove, continued this voice and taught those who were present, Who received the testimony of the Father.

After this, the Lord enters into a struggle with the torturer, and the field of struggle becomes a desert, the spectators are the hosts of Angels, the adversary is the adversary of the truth, who, having first heard the voice and brought to mind the prophetic prophecies, was frightened by the struggle and was unable to endure the lightning of His virtue; yet he hastened to enter into the struggle, although, remembering the voice, he was afraid of the struggle. But the Creator, the Champion, the Giver of crowns, and the Creator of our nature, does not fear the adversary, does not drive away the beast, but approves and challenges him to fight in order to steal from him his former victory, deigns that the body that has fasted for forty days should hunger, and does not allow it to exceed the measure of those who fasted before, in order to assure him of His humanity. The hostile one saw hunger, hoped for victory, boldly decided to fight, seeing the weakness of hunger, thought that he saw the first Adam. He approached Him as to Adam, but found the Creator of Adam, clothed in the nature of Adam, and said to Him: "If thou art the Son of God, O Lord, let this stone be bread" (Matt. 4:3), it is necessary to confirm the voice heard from heaven and demands confirmation by the miraculous production of loaves. From this it can be precisely learned that the enemy borrows from us the pretexts for deception, for when he sees hunger, he begins to attack. But our Saviour, although the body is hungry and in need of food, does not want to work miracles, but strikes the tormentor with the word of the Scriptures and says: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (4:4). He gives an answer according to humanity, hiding the Divinity for a time and giving people the opportunity to gain victory in the same way. It is not bread alone, He says, that contributes to human life, but every word proclaimed by God is sufficient to give life to hungry people. We believe that it is possible for human nature to live without bread, if it pleases God. Thus He nullified the stratagems of the adversary, invalidating his second and third accusations, using the proofs to restore to the people the victory they had lost, He puts the wicked to flight, puts an end to the torment of the common destroyer of men, and the victory is proclaimed by the angels who have seen, for it is said: "The angels have come and served Him" (4:11).

And this He foretold from old through the mouth of the Prophet, for He says: I do not resist, nor oppose the word. Lash My widows upon wounds, and my cheeks on my wounds, but turn not My face away from the spittle of spitting (Isaiah 50:5-6).

Having foretold and endured this, he is nailed to the cross, not as a punishment for sins, for thou shalt not commit sin, neither shall deceit be found in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22), but repaying the debt of our nature, because it has indebted, transgressing the laws of Him who created. And since, having indebted, he was unable to pay the debt, then the Lord Himself wisely contrives to pay the debt, and, taking upon himself the members of this nature, as if it were some property, in the all-wise and truthful economy, He pays the debt and frees the nature with them. And the witnesses of this are Isaiah and Paul: the one who foretold these things before the suffering, and the other who interpreted the prophecy after the fulfillment; but in both the same Spirit spoke.

And Isaiah cries out from afar, "A man is plagued, and knows how to endure sickness" (Isaiah 53:3). And He calls Him man by visible nature, because He also suffered in the visible nature. This one, declares Isaiah, bears our sins and grieves for us, and we are imputed to Him in labor, and in the plague of God, and in anger (53:4). For when they saw Him nailed to a tree, they thought that He was punished for a multitude of sins and was punished for His own sins; wherefore the Jews nailed Him in the midst of two evildoers, with the intention of producing evil opinion of Him among the people. But the Holy Spirit teaches through the Prophet that the same wound was for our sins and was tormented for our iniquities. And he explains this still more in the following words, for he says: "The chastisement of our peace is upon Him, by His wound we are healed" (53:5). Having become enemies of God as having offended Him, we had to bear punishment and punishment, but we did not experience this, but our Saviour Himself endured it and, having endured, granted us peace with God. The following words show this more clearly. All, it is said, are like sheep that have gone astray: a man has gone astray from his way. Why is it that a sheep is led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before his shearer is silent (53:6-7). For it behooved Him to heal the like, and to bring back the lost sheep with the same sheep's cubs. But He becomes a sheep cub, not having turned into a sheep, not having undergone a change, not departing from His own essence, but having clearly clothed Himself with a sheep's nature, and like the leader of the flock, a ram, having become the leader of the flock, and having caused all the sheep to follow Him. For this reason He became like a sheep and a sacrificial animal, and a sacrifice was offered for the whole generation. but since He was God and man, and at the slaughter of the body the nature of God remained impassible, the divinely wise Isaiah, of necessity, showed us both the slaughter of the sheep and the shearing of the lamb. Not only, says the Prophet, was He slain, but He was also shorn; for according to mankind He suffered death, but as God, being alive and passionless, He gave the fleece of the body to the shearers. Thus Blessed Isaiah depicted to us the salvific sufferings and showed us the causes of suffering.

And the divine Paul clearly cries: Christ redeemed us from the oath of the law, having sworn an oath for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Galatians 3:13). And having said, "For us," He showed that, being innocent and free from all sin, He repaid our debt and us, burdened with many debts and therefore forced into slavery, He vouchsafed freedom, redeeming us and offering His own Blood as a price for us. Wherefore in another place the same Apostle cries, saying: "Buy us with price" (1 Corinthians 6:20); and again he says, "A weak brother shall perish in thy mind, for whose sake Christ shall die" (8:11). And he died on the cross, because this kind of death was cursed according to the law, and cursed was our nature as having transgressed the law, for it is said: "Cursed is everyone who does not abide in all that is written in the book more lawfully, as I do" (Galatians 3:10).

Therefore He takes upon Himself a general oath, and absolves Himself from the oath, having accepted the unrighteous sacrifice. Not being subject to an oath (for thou shalt not commit sin, neither shall deceit be found in His mouth), He suffered the death of sinners, and, having become the defender and intercessor of our nature, He sues the destroyer, who is hostile to all nature, and justly says to our cruel tormentor: Thou art captive, O all-wicked one, and ensnared by thy own snares; Thy sword has entered into thy heart, and thy arrows are broken; having dug a pit, he himself fell into it; Thy hands are bound by the snares which thou hast spread. For tell me, Why hast thou nailed my body to the cross, and put it to death? What kind of sin have you noticed in Me? What transgression of the law did he see? Examine now with all precision, seeing My body naked on a tree. Behold, the tongue is clean from defilement, and the ear is free from all harm, and the eyes have received nothing pernicious from conscience, and the hands are far from iniquity, but are adorned with all righteousness, the feet, speaking the prophetic word, have not flowed into evil (Isaiah 59:7), but have completed the race of virtue. Examine all the members of the body in all their exactness, examine the movements of the soul. If even a small sin is found, then it is lawful and very just for you to keep Me, because death is a punishment for those who have sinned. And if you do not find anything forbidden by God's law, or rather, you find everything that is commanded by the law, then I do not allow you to withhold, which you have no right to hold.

Remember why the ancestor Adam was put to death. Having received all the plants of paradise in power, he was not satisfied with the data and it was not enough for him to enjoy the abundance of all plants, but encroached on the tree of knowledge, the fruit of which the Creator forbade to eat. And having been sick with insatiability, having coveted what did not belong, he was deprived of the whole paradise. I will subject you to these punishments, because it is unjust for the deceived to suffer this punishment, and for the deceiver not to suffer the same punishment. Therefore, since you, having taken authority over those who have sinned, have touched a body that has not committed a single sin, then be deprived of power, put an end to your torment. I will deliver all from death, but I will do this not by mercy alone, but by just mercy, not by the power of dominion, but by the power of justice, because I have paid a debt for the whole generation: I did not have to die, and I endured death, I was not subject to death, and I brought death, I was innocent, and included myself among the guilty, I was free from duty, and I was imputed with debtors. Therefore I have paid the debt of nature, and having suffered an unjust death, I put an end to a just death. Being imprisoned illegally, and lawfully imprisoned I release from prison to freedom. Behold, cruel punisher of sin, the handwriting of nature has been destroyed. Look, it is nailed to the cross and there are no inscriptions of sin on it. Look, it did not retain the signature of deceit. The eyes of My Body have paid their debt for the eyes that have looked upon themselves evil, its ears for the ears that have taken defilement into themselves, and also the tongue for the tongue that has moved unlawfully, and the hands for the hands that have committed iniquity, and the other members for the members that have committed any sin. And since the debt has been paid, then those imprisoned for it must also be released from imprisonment, receive their former freedom and return to their homeland. By saying this, the Lord resurrected His Body and sowed in human nature the hope of resurrection, giving to all the resurrection of His own Body as a pledge of it.

Let no one think that this is our wisdom: both by the Holy Gospel and the apostolic instructions we have been taught that this is really so. For we have heard what the Lord Himself says: "For the prince of this world is coming, and in Me he shall have nothing" (John 14:30), because in Me there is no sign of sin, My Body is free from all iniquity; yet, having found nothing in Me, he puts to death as having innumerable debts upon Himself. And I endure this, desiring in all justice to deprive him of the right to torment. That is why in another place the Lord says: "Now is the judgment of this world: now the prince of this world shall be cast out" (John 12:31). By trial and investigation, he will be condemned and deprived of the right to torture, as having pronounced an unjust sentence on Me. Then, teaching that He would free not only His own Body, but together with all human nature from the dominion of death, the Lord immediately added to this, saying: "And if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Myself" (12:32). I will not agree to resurrect the one Body that I have received, but I will arrange the resurrection for all men. For this I came, and took the form of a servant, for this I was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer was silent. This is also said by Blessed Paul, who writes to the Colossians, and through them to all men. For it is said: "And you, who are dead in sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive with Him, having given us all transgressions, having destroyed the handwriting of the teachings against us, which are contrary to us, and this He was taken from among us, nailing them to the cross: He put off principalities and powers, and brought them to shame by boldness, exposing them in Himself (Col. 2:13-15). And so, from this we have learned that the Lord has repaid the debt for us, blotted out the handwriting that was against us and nailed it to the cross, and brought to shame the principalities and powers, i.e. the opposing forces, boldly exposing them in Himself, i.e. showing them His sinless body and sinless soul, and rebuking them for the unrighteous sentence made against Him, and having done this, He made all human nature alive with Him. In the Divine Scriptures one can find thousands of other testimonies showing that this is really so. But if I wanted to collect all these testimonies and make a proper interpretation of each, then our reasoning would become excessively long. Therefore, leaving them to inquisitive people, I will proceed to the uninterrupted continuation of the word.

Thus the Lord Christ, having crushed death and arranged our salvation, ascended into heaven and left the hope of this ascent to the pets of piety. For He says, When I am lifted up, I will draw all things to Myself. Such is God's care for people. Such a providence was provided by the Creator of the ungrateful creature. Such is the care of the prototype for His own image. In the beginning, He created man, honored him with likeness, but he became ungrateful before Him who created, and, having corrupted the image of God, took into himself the features of beasts, and from being like God he became like beasts. But the Creator did not despise him and the one clothed in animal images, but renewed him, brought him to his former splendor, gave him primitive beauty, and made sons of those unworthy to be slaves.

But there are people, according to the words of Blessed Paul, who do nothing, but deceitfully avoid it (2 Thessalonians 3:11), who are curious about what is not allowed, who are strengthened by their own thoughts to measure the depth of God's wisdom, and who say: "Why did God, not in the beginning, but after the lapse of many thousands of years, dispense with the salvation of men? That to be curious about anything of the kind is extremely impudent, impudent, and beyond all madness, will be said by themselves, who have gone into such investigations. But to prove that God did not dispense with the newly adopted discretion, but so established from ancient times, at the very beginning, let us present the Divine Scriptures for Wednesday, and first of all let us listen to what the Lord Christ Himself says in the Gospel: "Come ye in the blessing of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25:34). If, before the foundation of the world, He prepared the Kingdom for the Apostles and for those who believed through them, then it is evident that this was pleasing to Him from ancient times, from the beginning, and He does not desire this, now one or the other. And he buildeth the economy at all times, which is fitting of the time, and measures doctrines by the ability of men.

That is why Adam, as a newborn child, is given the commandment about the tree, for for him every positive law was superfluous: about adultery, about murder, about perjury, about injustice. For with whom was it to commit adultery? His wife was alone at that time. Who was to be killed? No one irritated him. Against whom was perjury to be laid or who was to be offended? For this reason Adam accepts only the law of the tree, the law of children, and the law befitting newborn babes.