The Divine Power and the Humanity of Christ

He is contained: he does not suffer by enduring, he is not approached by calamities, he does not share in death, he is not hidden in the earth, he is not shut in a tomb, and he does not rise from monuments. No one takes the soul from me; I have authority to lay down my soul, and I have authority to take it again. And if he had the authority of both like God, he allowed them to act foolishly in the young man they were handling, but he worked more excellently in those rising. It has been shown by an irrefutable vote that he himself, working through himself, raised his own house. And the great works of the Son should also be attributed to the most divine Father. For neither does a Son create without the Father, according to the decisions of the torn sacred writings. For this very reason, it is written that the most divine Begetter raised Christ from the dead; and again, the Son promises to raise his own temple.

If, therefore, the divine Spirit of Christ has been shown to be indifferent to the things examined before, then those who enter into the apostolic boundaries are excessively concerned. For if Paul spoke of the Lord of glory being crucified, clearly looking toward the man, this will not cause him to apply passion to the Divine. What, then, are they weaving together, saying that Christ was crucified out of weakness?

If it were indeed fitting to surround him with the appearance of weakness, someone might say it was consistent for the man to attach these things to himself, but certainly not to the fullness of deity, or to the dignity of the highest Wisdom, or to God described by Paul as being over all. This is indeed the way of weakness, through which it is written according to Paul that one reaches death; for man lives by the power of God, clearly sharing with the divine Spirit; since the one believing in him has also been shown to be the power of the Most High according to the terms that have passed away.

If, having mounted the virgin womb, he did not diminish his authority, nor does the Spirit suffer harm when the wood of the cross fastens the body. For the body was indeed crucified as a mere shell, but the divine Spirit of Wisdom passed through the body, and mounted the heavens, and encompassed all the earth, and held the abysses, and discerning each soul, distinguished them, and did all things simultaneously as God did. For the highest Wisdom, having been brought down, is not contained within the physical masses, just as the elements of the moist and dry are within the vessels...