Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Why God was magnanimous in the disobedience of man, and a demonstration that it was for the sake of the man who is to be saved that he was cast out of Paradise into this world. God, then, was magnanimous when man fell away, foreseeing that the victory which would be granted to him through the Word was to be given back to him. For when strength was made perfect in weakness, it displayed the exceedingly great kindness of God. For just as he patiently allowed Jonah to be swallowed by the sea monster—not so that he would be swallowed and altogether die, but so that, once cast up again, he would become all the more submissive toward God, and would all the more give glory to him who had granted this unlooked-for deliverance, and so that he might bring about lasting repentance among the Ninevites, that they would turn toward the Lord able to rescue them from death, struck with dread by the sign that had befallen Jonah—just as Scripture reports of them: every one turned back from his wicked path and from the wrongdoing that was in their hands, saying, Who can tell if God will change his mind and put away his wrath, so that we perish not?—so likewise from the start God patiently let man be swallowed by the vast sea monster who authored the transgression, not so that, having been swallowed, he would altogether die, but readying beforehand and preparing the plan of deliverance, which had been announced through that sign of Jonah: I am a bondservant belonging to the Lord, and it is the Lord God, maker of sea and dry ground, whom I worship; so that man, obtaining unlooked-for deliverance from God, would rise out of death and give glory to God, and would speak that word foretold through Jonah: In my distress I called upon the Lord my God, and out of the belly of Hades he listened to me; and that he might go on forever giving glory to God, offering thanks without pause for the deliverance he had received from him; so that no flesh should boast before the Lord, and man should never entertain a contrary opinion of God, esteeming the incorruption that surrounded him as his own by nature, and, not holding to the truth, should be puffed up with empty arrogance, as though he were by nature like God. For this would have made him more ungrateful toward him who had made him, and would have obscured the love which God had for man, and would have blinded his understanding from perceiving what befits God, comparing himself to God and judging himself equal to him.
This, then, was the magnanimity of God: that man, journeying through every experience and gaining knowledge of right conduct, might afterward arrive at rising from the dead, and, taught by what he had been rescued from, might stay forever grateful toward the Lord, having taken incorruption as a granted gift, so that he might cherish him all the more—since the one forgiven more loves more; and so that he might come to know himself as mortal and feeble; and so that he might likewise come to understand God as immortal and mighty to such a degree that he can bestow immortality on the mortal and endlessness on the transient thing; and so that he might grasp all the other powers of God displayed upon his own person, whereby, being taught, he might perceive God's greatness. For man's glory lies in God, while the deeds of God are worked out in man; man is the vessel holding all of God's wisdom and might. Just as a doctor's skill is shown through the sick, so too is God revealed among mankind. For this cause Paul likewise states: God has shut up everyone under unbelief, so as to show mercy toward everyone—meaning by this not the spiritual Aeons, but man, who had disobeyed God and had been thrust out of immortality, and only afterward found mercy, taking hold through the Son of God of the adoption that comes by way of him. This man, then, holding without arrogance or boasting the genuine glory belonging to created things and to their Maker, who stands as the mightiest God of all, and who has arranged for all things to exist, and remaining in love toward him, in submission, and in thanksgiving, will receive from him a still greater glory, moving forward until he grows like the one who died on his behalf; for that one too took on the likeness of sinful flesh, so that he might pass judgment on sin and, this judgment now as it were rendered, drive it out beyond the flesh; and so that he might summon man toward his own likeness, appointing him a follower of God, setting him beneath the fatherly rule ordained for the vision of God, and giving him strength to receive the Father—the Word of God, which took up residence in man and became Son of Man, so as to habituate man to receiving God, and to habituate God to dwelling within man, in keeping with the Father's good pleasure. For this cause, then, the Lord himself stands as the sign of our deliverance, he who is Emmanuel born of the Virgin, since it was the Lord in his own person who rescued them, because they had no power to rescue themselves; and for this cause Paul, declaring man's frailty, states: I know that within my flesh no good thing makes its home—showing this partly there, but even more in what comes after. And again: Miserable man that I am—who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? Then he names the rescuer: the favor of Jesus Christ our Lord. Isaiah likewise proclaims this: Take courage, he says, feeble hands and trembling knees; hearten the faint-hearted, take courage, have no fear; see, our God delivers judgment and will carry it out; he in person will come and rescue us. This makes plain that it was not through strength of our own but through God's aid that we came to be saved.