But someone who follows the sequence of what has been said may naturally ask: where in these things is the power of divinity seen, and where the incorruptibility of divine power? So that these too may become clear, let us examine what follows in the mystery, where power is shown especially as blended with love for humanity. First, the fact that the all-powerful nature was able to descend even to the lowliness of humanity provides a greater demonstration of power than the great and supernatural miracles.
For something great and exalted to be accomplished by divine power is, in a way, natural and fitting. Nor would it sound strange to say that the whole creation in the world, together with everything understood to exist beyond visible things, subsists by the power of God, His very will giving substance to what seemed good to Him. But the descent to what is lowly is a certain superabundance of power, hindered by nothing even among things contrary to nature.
For it belongs to the nature of fire to move upward, and no one would regard as marvelous in a flame what operates according to nature. But if someone saw the flame flowing downward like heavy bodies, he would regard this as a wonder: how fire both remains fire and yet, in the manner of its movement, goes beyond its nature by being carried downward. In the same way, the divine and transcendent power is shown not so much by the vastness of the heavens, the brightness of the heavenly lights, the ordering of the whole, or the continuous governance of existing things, as by its condescension to the weakness of our nature: how the exalted, having come to be in the lowly, is seen in the lowly and yet does not descend from its height; how divinity, interwoven with human nature, becomes this while remaining that.
For, as was said earlier, the opposing power was not by nature able to come into contact with the unalloyed presence of God or to withstand His unveiled manifestation. Therefore, so that what was demanded in exchange for us might be easy for the one seeking it to take hold of, the divine was hidden beneath the covering of our nature. In this way, as with voracious fish, the hook of divinity would be swallowed down together with the bait of flesh; and thus, when life had taken up residence in death and light had appeared in darkness, what is understood as contrary to light and life would disappear. For darkness cannot by nature remain in the presence of light, nor can death exist when life is active.
Let us therefore take up the sequence again in its principal points and complete the defense of the mystery against those who accuse the divine dispensation, explaining why divinity itself accomplishes human salvation. For in every respect our conceptions of the divine must be fitting: we must not think one thing of God in an exalted way while excluding another from the dignity proper to God. Rather, every exalted and reverent conception must be believed concerning God, and each must be joined to the other in a coherent sequence.
Thus goodness, wisdom, justice, power, and incorruptibility have been shown, all manifested in the account of the dispensation concerning us. Goodness is seen in His choosing to save the one who was lost; wisdom and justice have been displayed in the manner of our salvation; power is shown in this: He came to be in the likeness of a human being and in a form corresponding to the lowliness of our nature, and could therefore be expected, like human beings, to be mastered by death, yet once He had come to be so, He accomplished what was proper to Himself and according to His nature.
What is proper to light is the disappearance of darkness, and what is proper to life is the destruction of death. Since, then, we were carried aside from the straight road, turned away from the life that was ours at the beginning, and brought down into death, what do we learn from the mystery that lies outside what is reasonable, if purity reaches those stained by sin, life reaches the dead, and guidance reaches those who have wandered, so that defilement may be cleansed, wandering may be healed, and what was dead may return to life?