God the Word offered his own body to save us

I am also amazed at this in particular: how they have dared even to conceive that he became man by sequence of nature. For if that were so, the remembrance of Mary would be needless. Nature knows no virgin giving birth without a man.

So by the good pleasure of the Father, he who is true God, and by nature the Word of God, and wisdom of the Father, became man in bodily manner for our salvation, so that, having something to offer for us, he might save all of us who through fear of death were held in slavery all our lives (Hebrews 2:15). For no mere man gave himself for us, since every man is liable to death, according to what Scripture said in Adam to all, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19), nor did any other created thing, since every creation is open to change. But the Word of God himself offered his own body for us, so that faith and hope may not be in a man, but we may have faith in God, the Word of God.

And even though he became man, we behold his glory, the glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). For the things he endured through the body he ennobled as God: he hungered in flesh, yet with God’s power he fed the hungry. And if anyone stumbles at the bodily things, let him trust what God does. For as man he asked where Lazarus lay, yet as God he raised him.

So let no one laugh and name childhood and age, and growth, and eating and drinking, and suffering, lest by denying the proper things of the body he wholly deny his dwelling among us for us. And as he did not become man by sequence of nature, so it was fitting that in taking a body he should show the proper things of it, lest the appearance taught by the Manichaean prevail. And it was fitting in turn that in living in bodily manner he should not hide what shows he is God, lest Paul of Samosata find an excuse to call him a man, as another apart from the Word of God.

Let the unbeliever, then, take note of this and learn that he was a babe on a manger, yet when worshiped by the magi he brought them into submission; and he was a child when he went down to Egypt, yet he abolished the handmade things of idol worship; and though crucified in flesh, he raised the long-rotted dead. And it has been shown to all that he endured everything not for himself but for us, so that we, clothed in freedom from suffering and decay through his sufferings, may remain to eternal life.

These things I have dictated briefly for you from your own writings, as I said before, elaborating nothing further but only recalling the cross of God, so that in the very things at which the careless stumbled they may be taught anew and worship the crucified. But you, in sincerity, persuade the unbelievers; perhaps somehow they may come from ignorance to knowledge and believe rightly. And though what was written by you is itself sufficient, still for the sake of reminder it is good to add these things also against the contentious, so that they may not be shamed as refuted for what they dared, but as reminded may not forget the truth. For let him hold fast the things confessed in Nicaea by the Fathers; for they are right and sufficient to overthrow every most impious heresy, and above all the Arian heresy, which speaks evil against the Word of God and of necessity is impious against his Holy Spirit. Greet all who think rightly. All with us greet you.