The Recapitulation of Humanity in Christ

He has declared concerning us at times, 'I will proclaim your name to my brothers,' and at other times, 'Behold, I and the children which God gave to me' (Ps 27:10; Ps 68:5). For all things are being handed over to him by God and the Father, and we have become his inheritance, even though we were formerly like portions of foxes, as David says.

For we the cowardly lie underneath the herds of the demons.

But Christ slew all of us with his own blood and has inherited.

And indeed he spoke toward the Father and God in the heavens, 'Those whom you gave to me out of the world were yours, and you gave them to me, and the glory which you gave to me, I have given to them' (John 17:6, 10). For even though he is Son by nature, he says that through the human he partook of such glory by grace with us, while having remained what he had given to us, his own glory.

For he sealed us with his own Spirit toward adoption, and in him we cry, 'Abba, Father' (Rom 8:15). Do we not, we who are numbered among children, partake of God in blood and flesh—that is, we are in blood and in flesh, and in corruptible and earthly bodies?

Because of this cause, the Only-begotten Word of God, being life by nature, partook of these same things, and not by any other way but similarly, in order that he might abolish the one having power over death.

Because it was not possible for that which is overcome by death, corruption, and sin to be brought back to its beginning except through Christ alone—the mystery of the incarnation to be fulfilled in its appointed time—the blessed David exhorted us, saying: 'Why, Lord, have you set me far off, and do you look on in times of trouble?' (Psalm 21:13). This is why he is called Emmanuel.

For he has not set us far off any longer, but the Word of God, having become man, has indeed become nearer to us.

In a similar way he partook of blood and flesh for our sake; for the human race upon the earth is ruled by death and corruption. It seemed good to God, the All, through great gentleness and philanthropy, to 'recapitulate' all things in Christ (1 Cor 15:22), so that death might be rendered powerless and, just as it was in the first Christ, those overcoming in their earthly bodies might find life.

Thus, the power of incorruption is being extended into our entire race. The divine Paul will be believed when he writes: 'For through man came death, and through man the resurrection of the dead' (1 Cor 15:22). It was necessary that the one who suffered be healed, and that death be abolished through the flesh which is tyrannized by death.

Just as in Adam, having stumbled through transgression, humanity fell under death, so too, because he became well-pleasing in Christ through obedience, the yokes of death are torn away and its terrors are scattered. As they spring upon us, he cries out: 'O Death, where is your victory? O Hades, where is your sting?' (1 Cor 15:55). For the Only-begotten Word of God, existing as life, essentially joined himself to the earth and died in the flesh, so that even to him, just as to one of the unhonored...