The Nature of Salvation and the Divine Origin of Christ

For to say, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'—that God, my God, is what he does in many places in the Scripture (Ps 21:2). He does not wish to say this specifically: that the general and true God, being my God, is encountering me while I am being fought against and experiencing many afflictions; for why have you forsaken me? The voice is inquiring about the cause of the abandonment. Since he possessed a great purity with himself (for sin was not necessary), he did not believe he was being forsaken because of sin, but because of something else that is beneficial to the whole. He does not wish this to become manifest through himself suffering, but through those seeing him; for having known what was forsaken for their sake, they will praise him as Savior.

Therefore, let us speak the words of the transgressions, not the pronunciations concerning the transgressions. For just as we say a word of heaven by which it has become, and a word of the sun by which it has risen, so also we shall say the words of transgressions, and not that the transgressions themselves drew the Savior into his own body. But his body brought these words of transgressions before the passion, and having risen from the dead—he who is also said to have saved—he held the words of the aforementioned sins far from his salvation, having stripped off the ruling principles and powers that work the transgressions, and he triumphed over them in himself, speaking boldly upon the cross.

It is allegorical that the cry 'O how I suffer something' to you, my God, is not only regarding those surrounding him in affliction and darkness at night (Ps 21:3), but also regarding those who are bright and shining, to whom I will again cry 'O how something harmful might come from the snare.' The Savior, confessing these things concerning us, says: 'O how will you hear when I cry to you?' For it is to be read with an undertone: 'And at night I will cry out,' not being considered by me as madness; the ones surrounding him are the dark ones, those darkened by many circumstances, just as he himself says 'Why must I cry out to God?'—is he ignorant? For I know what kind of night-state is around me.

The fathers from whom I am according to the flesh (they are not the patriarchs) have hoped in you, desiring my illumination (Ps 21:5). But having hoped, they did not fail; they were rescued.

For they were delivered and rescued from death and the devil by me. For they themselves, having cried out to you, abstained from the salvation which is through me and from me. For they did not become despondent toward you, hoping; for they abstained from the things of hope and expectation.

Those saying these things are law-learners, being promise-givers, falsely glorifying regarding providence. For the same things would be said by one being struck by Isaiah, and others have suffered for the sake of piety. For we do not say that to be rescued and saved from those standing around as oppressors means to become something outside of them, but to bravely and through toil endure them, so that the mind might not be harmed by the right intention being cast out by the pains. We say, indeed, that the witnesses of the truth, having suffered ten thousand things and having died by tortures, were rescued and were saved from the tribulations; for those having come to be outside of the tribulations through denial were not only not rescued and saved from the temptations, but were also exhausted by them.

For perhaps he who is conceived of seed, having been brought to completion in the womb, having been filled with the time of birth, is thrust forth from that womb to the outside. But the Father alone thrusts the Savior out from the womb of the Virgin, not having been cast into her from the outside by seed, but having been thrust out from her, from the divine offspring. To other men, hoping and expecting the things to come happens after the fulfillment of the word has come to pass with ages. But the child from Mary alone hopes for perfection; for God holds the hope; for he was never born in wickedness, unlike all men who grasp at the good through ignorance and malice. And Isaiah says this: Before he knows good or evil, he disobeys in wickedness to choose the good. Before the becoming-man, Jesus alone possessed intimacy toward the Father; for his Father was God, and he himself was the Son of God. But after becoming flesh, he came forth from the womb having a relationship like the relationship to God. Therefore he says: 'Even if you are always my Father, you are also my God, I will rescue you from the womb of the mother.' When the tribulation is present, God is with him who is...