He Came as a Man to Be Known as God

Since people’s minds had at last sunk down to the things of the senses, the Word disguised himself by appearing in a body. He did this so that, as a man, he might draw people over to himself and center their senses on himself; and so that, once they saw him as a man, he might persuade them by the works he did that he is not a man only, but also God, and the Word and Wisdom of the true God. This too is what Paul means to point out when he says: “That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong enough to grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that goes beyond knowledge, so that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.” For the Word has revealed himself everywhere, above and beneath, in the depth and in the breadth: above, in the creation; beneath, in becoming man; in the depth, in Hades; and in the breadth, in the world. And so all things have been filled with the knowledge of God. [a]

For this reason too, he did not offer his sacrifice for all immediately on his coming, by giving his body up to death and raising it again; for by this means he would have made himself invisible. Instead he made himself plain enough to see by what he did while he remained in the body, doing such works and showing such signs as made him known no longer as a man, but as God the Word. For by becoming man the Savior was to accomplish two works of love. First, he was to put away death from us and renew us again. Second, being unseen and invisible, he was to make himself plain and known by his works as the Word of the Father, the Ruler and King of the universe.