Глава 2. Божественная дилемма и ее решение в воплощении

6) When death took possession of people more and more through this and corruption remained in them; then the human race was corrupted, the verbal and image-created man disappeared, and the work perfected by God perished; because, as stated above, death prevailed over us by the force of the law, and it was impossible to escape the law, since it, due to the crime, was decreed by God. What came out was something, in the true sense, both incongruous and at the same time indecent. It was incongruous for God, having spoken the word, to lie, and for man, when it was legalized by God, that if he transgresses the commandment, he should die, not to die for the crime, but the word of God to remain broken. Then there would be no truth in God if, when God said that you would die, the person did not die. But it was also indecent for the once created rational beings and His participating Words to perish, and through corruption again turn into non-existence. It would not be worthy of the goodness of God for what God created to be corrupted by the deception of people by the devil. On the other hand, it was most unseemly for people, either through their own negligence or through demonic seduction, to be destroyed by God’s art. So, when the creatures of words were decaying and such works of God were perishing, what should God, Who is good, do? Should we allow corruption to overcome them and death to possess them? What was the need to create them in the beginning? It would be better not to create, than for the created to remain despised and perish. If God, having created, ignores the fact that His work decays; then from such negligence, powerlessness, and not the goodness of God, is recognized to a greater extent than if He had not created people in the beginning. If I had not created it; then no one would even think of imputing this to impotence. And when He created and brought into being, it would be completely incongruous for the works to perish, and especially in the sight of the Creator. So, it was necessary not to allow people to be consumed by corruption, because this would be indecent to God’s goodness and not worthy of it. 7) But as this should have been; So, on the other hand, this was opposed to a just reason in God - to remain faithful to His law regarding death. For for our own benefit and for our preservation, it was incongruous to be a liar to the Father of truth - God. So, what should have happened in this case, or what should God have done? Demand that people repent for their crime? This could be considered worthy of God, reasoning that just as people fell into corruption through crime, so through repentance they would again achieve incorruption. But repentance would not maintain justice in relation to God. Again, He would not have been true to Himself if death had ceased to possess people. Moreover, repentance does not lead one out of the natural state, but only stops sins. If only there had been a sin, and not followed by corruption; then repentance would be wonderful. If people, as a result of a previous crime, once became subject to natural decay, and lost the grace of God's image; then what else had to happen? Or was there a need for anyone else for the return of such grace and for the calling of people, except God - the Word, who created the universe from nothing in the beginning? It belonged to him to bring the corruptible again into incorruption, and to observe what was most just for the Father. Because He is the Father’s Word and above all; then naturally He alone could recreate everything; He alone was able to suffer for everyone and intercede for everyone before the Father. 8) Therefore, the disembodied, incorruptible, immaterial Word of God comes to our region, from which it was not far before; because not a single part of creation remained deprived of It, but, being with His Father, It fills the entire universe in all its parts. But He comes, condescending to us with His love for mankind and His appearance among us. And seeing that the verbal human race is perishing, that death reigns over people in decay; noting also that the threat of a crime maintains corruption in us, and it would be inappropriate to abolish the law before fulfilling it; noticing the indecency of what had happened, because that which It itself was the Creator was destroyed; noticing the evil nature of people that exceeds all measure, because people gradually increased it to the point of intolerance to their own detriment; Noticing also that all people are guilty of death, He took pity on our race, had mercy on our weakness, condescended to our corruption, did not suffer the possession of death, and so that what was created would not perish, and what His Father had done for people would not turn out to be in vain, He takes upon Himself a body, and a body that is not alien to ours. For he did not just want to be in the body and only wished not to appear. And if He only wanted to appear, He could have accomplished His Epiphany through another most perfect thing. But our body receives, and not simply, but from the most pure, uncorrupted, unskilled Virgin, a pure body, in no way inviolable for male communication. Being the Almighty and Creator of the universe, in the Virgin he prepares a body for himself as a church, and assimilates it to himself as an instrument, allowing himself to be known in it and dwelling in it. And thus, having borrowed from us a body similar to ours, because we were all guilty of the corruption of death, having put it to death for all, he brings it to the Father. And It does this out of love for mankind so that, on the one hand, since everyone was dying, the law of the corruption of people would be put to an end by the fact that its power was fulfilled on the Lord’s body, and no longer has a place in the reasoning of such people; and on the other hand, to return people who have turned into corruption back into incorruption, and to revive them from death, by appropriating the body to Himself and by the grace of the resurrection, destroying death in them like stubble with fire. 9) The Word knew that corruption could only be stopped in people by inevitable death; It was impossible for the Word, as the immortal and Son of the Father, to die. For this very reason, It takes upon itself a body that could die, so that, as a participant in the Existing Word over all, it would endure death for all, so that for the sake of the Word dwelling in it it would remain incorruptible, and so that, finally, corruption would cease in all by the grace of resurrection. Therefore, when He took the body upon Himself to death as a sacrifice and slaughter, free from all defilement, this offering of what was similar in all similar ones immediately destroyed death. For the Word of God, being above all, and His church, His bodily instrument, offering as a redemptive price for all, by His death completely fulfilled what was due, and thus, through such a body being with everyone, the incorruptible Son of God, as it should be, clothed everyone in incorruption with the promise of resurrection. And corruption itself in death no longer has power over people, for the sake of the Word, which has taken possession of them through a single body. If a great King enters any great city and takes up residence in one of its houses; then, without a doubt, such a city will be awarded high honor, and no enemy or robber will attack or destroy it; rather, they will put all their care into him, for the sake of the king, who has taken up residence in one of his houses. So it was with the King of the Universe; when He came to our region and inhabited one of the bodies similar to ours; Then, at last, the enemy’s malice against people ceased, and the corruption of death, which had prevailed over them since ancient times, was destroyed. For the human race would have perished if the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, had not come to put an end to death. 10) And this great deed, truly, was more befitting of God’s goodness. If a king, having built a house or a city, when, due to the negligence of those living in it, robbers attack it, does not leave it completely without charity, but protects and saves it as his own work, looking not at the negligence of the inhabitants, but at what is appropriate for himself: then all the more the all-good God, the Father's Word, when the human race He created descended into corruption, did not despise it, but erased the death that surpassed it. by offering His own body, He corrected the negligence of people with His teaching, filling everything human with His power. Anyone can find confirmation of this from the Theologians of the Savior Himself, reading in their writings when they say: “For the love of Christ will support us in this judgment: for if one died for all, then we all died, and we also died for all, so that we might not live for anyone else”, but for us “who died and rose again” from the dead to our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5, 14–15). And again: “And we see Jesus, made of a little thing by the angels, crowned with glory and honor for the acceptance of death, so that by the grace of God he may taste death for all” (Heb. 2:9). Then Scripture shows the reason why it was necessary for no one else to become man, but God himself - the Word, saying: “For it is fitting for Him, for His sake, and for His sake, that I will bring many sons to glory, to complete the author of their salvation through suffering” (Heb. 2:10). And these words mean that no one else should have raised people from the corruption that befell them, like God the Word, who created them in the beginning. And that the Word itself took upon Himself a body in order to make a sacrifice for similar bodies, the Scriptures make it clear, saying: “From now on, the children have partaken of flesh and blood, and He has most sincerely partaken of the same, so that by death he may abolish the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver these, who are born of the fear of death through all their lives, guilty of work” ( Hebrews 2:14–15). For the Word, by sacrificing His own body, put an end to the law that condemned us, and renewed in us the firstfruits of life, giving us the hope of resurrection. Since it depended on man himself that death took possession of people, therefore, by the very incarnation of God the Word, the destruction of death and the rebellion of life was again carried out, according to the word of the Christ-bearing man: since death was by man, and by man the resurrection of the dead: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall live” and so on (1 Cor. 15:21-22). For now, no longer as those condemned, we die, but as those who have to rise, we look forward to the general resurrection of all, which in due time will be revealed by God, who accomplished and bestowed it. This is the first reason for the Savior’s incarnation. But from the following, anyone can understand that His good coming to us had other important reasons.