Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
For what cause the Word of God became flesh; and, Against those who say that he appeared only in seeming.
We have clearly demonstrated that the Word, who existed from the beginning alongside God, the one by whose agency all things came into being, and who likewise abode continually beside the human race throughout every age, was in the final era, at the season the Father had fixed beforehand, joined to his own handiwork and made a man capable of suffering. Thus every objection of those who say, "If then he was born at that time, he was not Christ before," falls away. For we have already demonstrated that the Son of God had no such beginning of his existence, seeing he abides eternally alongside the Father; rather, once he took flesh and became man, he gathered up in his own person the whole long course of mankind, securing salvation for us by a shortened path, so that whatever we had forfeited in Adam - that is, existing after the image and likeness of God - we might regain in Christ Jesus.
For since it was not possible for the man who had once been conquered and struck down through disobedience to be reformed and obtain the victory by himself, and since again it was impossible for one who had fallen under sin to receive salvation, the Son, being the Word of God, accomplished both: descending from the Father, being made incarnate, descending even to death, and completing the dispensation of our salvation. Urging us to trust in him unhesitatingly, he says once more: "Do not say in your heart, Who will go up into heaven?" - meaning, to fetch Christ down; "or, Who will go down into the abyss?" - meaning, to bring Christ up again from among the dead; then he continues: "For if with your mouth you acknowledge the Lord Jesus, and in your heart believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." And he stated the reason the Word of God did so, saying: "For Christ died and returned to life for this very purpose, that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living." And again, writing to the Corinthians, he says: "We preach Christ Jesus, and him crucified." And he goes on: "The cup of blessing that we bless - is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? Who then is it that has given us a share of these foods? Is it the one they falsely portray as the Christ from above, extended over Horos, who shaped their mother - or is it instead Emmanuel, born of the virgin, who ate curds and honey, of whom the prophet asks: "He is but a man, so who will recognize him?" This is the very one Paul proclaimed: "For I handed on to you as of first importance," he says, "what Christ suffered for our transgressions in fulfillment of what was written, and that he was entombed, and on the third day was raised in fulfillment of the writings."
It is plain, then, that Paul recognizes no Christ apart from this single one, who underwent suffering, was laid in the tomb, and rose to life again, and who was likewise born and is called man by him. For when he had said, "But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead," he went on to explain the ground of his incarnation: "For since death came by a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also by a man." And throughout, whenever he speaks of our Lord's passion, his humanity, and his being killed, he uses the name Christ, as in this passage: "Do not let your food destroy the one on whose behalf Christ gave up his life." And again: "But now, joined to Christ Jesus, you who were once distant have been drawn near through the blood of Christ." And again: "Christ bought us back from the law's curse by becoming accursed on our behalf; for it stands written, Cursed is everyone hung upon a tree." And again: "And through your knowledge the weak one perishes, the brother on whose behalf Christ gave up his life" - showing thereby that it was no impassible Christ who came down into Jesus, but Jesus Christ himself, in his own person, who suffered on our account: the one who was laid low and rose again, who came down and went up, the Son of God rendered Son of Man, exactly as his name signifies. For within the very title "Christ" is contained both the anointer and the one anointed, together with the anointing by which he was anointed. And the Father is indeed the anointer, while the Son is the one anointed, in the Spirit, who serves as the anointing; just as the word declares through Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord rests upon me, for he has anointed me" - pointing at once to the Father who anoints, the Son who is anointed, and the Spirit, who is the anointing itself.
And the Lord himself makes manifest the one who suffered. For when he had asked his disciples, "Whom do men say that the Son of Man is?" and Peter had answered, "You are the Christ," the Lord declared that this had not been revealed to him by flesh and blood, but by the Father, who dwells in the heavens - making it manifest that this Son of Man just spoken of is the Christ, the Son of God. "From that time," it says, "he began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and endure much at the hands of the priests, and be rejected, and undergo crucifixion, and rise again on the third day." It was this very one, whom Peter had acknowledged as the Christ - the one Peter had called blessed, because the Father had disclosed to him the Son of the living God - who declared that he himself must endure much and undergo crucifixion. And thereupon he reproved Peter, who, holding the view common among men, imagined him to be a Christ incapable of suffering and turned aside from his passion; and he said to the disciples: "If anyone wishes to walk behind me, let that one renounce self and shoulder his own cross, accompanying me. For whoever chooses to keep his life shall forfeit it, while whoever gives up his life on my account shall keep it." Christ stated this without disguise, being himself the Savior of those who, through confessing him, would be handed over to death and forfeit their lives. But if he himself were exempt from suffering, and only Jesus suffered, why then did he urge his own followers to shoulder the cross and accompany him - a cross which, on their account, he himself supposedly never bore, but had set aside as though it were merely the outward staging of the passion? That he is not speaking here of some acknowledgment of a "cross from above," as certain ones venture to construe it, but of the real suffering he himself was about to undergo, and which his followers would likewise undergo, is evident from what comes next: "For whoever wants to keep his life will forfeit it, and whoever forfeits it will find it." And because his followers were destined to suffer for his sake, he told the Jews: "See, I am sending you prophets, sages, and men learned in the law, and some among that number you will put to death and hang upon a cross"; and to his disciples he said: "Before rulers and kings you will be brought to stand for my sake, and some of you they will flog, and execute, and hound from town to town." He knew, then, both those destined for persecution and those who would be scourged and slain on his account; and he speaks not of some separate cross, but of the very suffering he himself would undergo first, and his followers afterward. His words, then, were also meant to encourage them: "Have no fear of those who can kill the body but not the soul; fear instead the one who has the power to destroy both soul and body in hell," and to hold fast to the confessions made in his name. For he himself vowed to acknowledge before the Father those who acknowledged his name before others, but to disown those who disowned him, and to shame those who were ashamed to confess him. Given this, some have gone so far in recklessness as to scorn the martyrs themselves and mock those slain for confessing the Lord, who bear all that the Lord foretold, and who, following this pattern, strive to walk the same road the Lord walked toward death, becoming martyrs in turn - whom indeed we ourselves acknowledge as genuine witnesses. For when their blood is required, and they obtain glory, then all those who dishonored them shall be put to shame by Christ.
And from the fact that the Lord said on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do," both the patience and the goodness of Christ are shown - that he himself both suffered, and himself made excuse for those who had treated him badly. For the Word of God, who instructed us, "Show love to your enemies, and offer prayer for those who hold you in hatred," himself carried this out upon the cross, loving the human race so greatly that he made intercession even for those who were putting him to death. But if anyone should judge these things as belonging to two distinct beings, he will find the one who, amid his very wounds and stripes and all the other things they did against him, was beneficent - who did not remember the malice done against him, who felt no injury nor reproach, though he was in fact the one who bore them all away - to be far better, more patient, and truly good. This same difficulty confronts also those who say that he suffered only in appearance. For if he did not truly suffer, there is no thanks due to him, since there was no real suffering at all; and when we ourselves come to suffer in reality, he will appear to be deceiving us, exhorting us to endure what he himself did not endure in truth - just as he deceived them, in seeming to be to them what he was not, so he deceives us also, exhorting us to bear what he himself did not bear. We would then even surpass our Master, in that we suffer and endure things which our Master neither suffered nor endured. But since our Lord alone is truly the Master, and truly good, and truly the Son of God who suffered, being the Word of God the Father made Son of Man - for he struggled and conquered; for he was man contending on behalf of the fathers, and through obedience did away with disobedience completely; for he tied up the mighty one and released the powerless, granting salvation to his own handiwork by putting sin to ruin. For the Lord is most compassionate and merciful, and loves the human race.
Thus he caused man to cleave to and be united with God, as we have said before. For had man not gotten the better of mankind's adversary, that adversary could not rightly be said to be beaten. And again, had God not bestowed salvation, we would hold it insecurely. And had man not been brought into union with God, he could never have shared in incorruptibility. For it befitted the Mediator between God and men, through his own relation to both, to bring the two together into concord and friendship, causing God to receive man to himself and man to yield himself to God. For by what other means could we share in sonship's adoption, had we not received, by way of the Son, communion with him who is himself the source of it - had not his Word, once made flesh, come into fellowship with us? For this cause he traveled through every phase of human life, giving back to each of them fellowship with God. Those, then, who claim he was shown only in outward appearance, and was neither truly born in flesh nor truly made man, still lie under the old sentence, lending support to sin - for according to their view, death, which held sway from Adam down to Moses even over those who had not sinned in a manner resembling Adam's transgression, remains unconquered. For when the law came, which was given through Moses, and testified concerning sin that it was a sinner, it took away indeed its kingdom, exposing it as a robber and not a rightful ruler, and showing it to be a murderer; but it laid a burden upon man, who had sin within him, showing him to be liable to death. For being spiritual, the law only made sin manifest, but did not destroy it - for sin held dominion not over the Spirit, but over man. It was necessary, therefore, that the one who was to begin the destruction of sin, and to redeem man who was liable to the debt of death, should himself become that very thing which man was - that is, a man, who had been dragged into servitude by sin, and was held fast by death, so that sin might be put to death by means of man, and man might go forth from death. For just as, through the disobedience of that single man first shaped from unworked soil, the many were rendered sinners and forfeited life, so it was fitting that, through the obedience of that single man first born of a virgin, the many would be set right and gain salvation. Thus the Word of God became man, as Moses also says: "God, his works are true." But if he who appeared as flesh had not truly become flesh, his work would not have been true. But what appeared, that also he truly was: God, recapitulating in himself the ancient formation of man, so that he might destroy sin, and empty death of its power, and give life to man - and for this reason his works are true.