The Incarnation and Christ's High Priesthood

…The death resulting from the attacks of beasts is rendered weak in its aftermath.

For it was not possible to surrender life to death.

For he does not seize upon demons, but rather he takes hold of the seed of Abraham, from which it was necessary for him to be made like his brothers in every respect.

If the Only-begotten Word of God had not become man, and had instead assumed the human countenance unto himself—as those who discern the mystery seem to suggest, that it occurred through good-will alone or by a mere inclination of will—how could he have been made like his brothers in all things? Furthermore, how could anyone fully conceive of him as a brother, when he is the one who transcends all, surpassing those incomparable excellencies which I call natural, and surpassing even creation? How could he have shared in blood and flesh unless these things had become his own, just as they are ours? Thus, there is truly one Son and Lord, having been joined in unity of subsistence through the Word's participation in human flesh and blood and having been made like his brothers in every respect.

This was so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest.

Moses, the divinely inspired lawgiver, came to bring Israel into the knowledge of God through type and shadow, and showed the way of righteousness through the law; yet he was slow of voice and slow of tongue.

Because of this, the God of all was known even to those in Judah alone, from Dan even unto Beersheba, and by the river and the sea.

For these are the boundaries of the land of the Jews.

And his name was great and most widely known.

Seeing this, the prophet David sings a psalm and speaks concerning those from Israel, saying, 'A vine you brought up out of Egypt; you expelled the nations and uprooted her' (Psalm 80:9). He applies this to the borders reaching the Euphrates river, and indeed even to the sea toward the south and to India, limiting the territory of the Jews: 'He stretched out its camps even to the sea, and its branches even to the rivers' (Psalm 80:10). Thus, even though it was contracted to barely encompass the nations, the proclamation of the all-wise Moses is seen; he offers to those called by obedience the honors and the fleeting, imminent rewards of life under the law.

I say that he names the land of promise everywhere.

For the law has justified no one.

No one is justified in the law before God, for it is 'impossible for the blood of goats and of bulls to take away sin' (Hebrews 10:4). But our Lord Jesus Christ has become a merciful and faithful High Priest for the propitiation of the sins of the people, and in Him, having been tested, He was helped by those who are being tested.

For He has called the inhabited world to a holy and heavenly calling, and He has become High Priest; for He was not a minister of the law that condemns, but rather, through forgetfulness and by grace and love, He has justified through faith and has granted us the washing of the ancient sins.

For being both always and by nature merciful, His only-begotten Word has been set as our mediator and the mediator of God through the Incarnation, so that just as He was always kind and merciful, so indeed, having been shown as High Priest again, He dwells among those on the earth, acting as a friend to those who are beloved by Him and not departing from His own…