In the preceding work we dealt fully enough with a few points from among many about the Gentiles’ error concerning idols, and how their superstition first arose—how, out of wickedness, people devised the worship of idols for themselves. We also, by God's grace, briefly indicated that the Word of the Father is Himself divine and spoke of His providence and power over all things. We also indicated that the good Father orders all things through Him, that all things are moved by Him, and that in Him they are given life. Now, Macarius, true lover of Christ, we must take a step further in the faith of our holy religion, and consider also the Incarnation of the Word and His divine appearance among us. This appearance the Jews slander, the Greeks mock, but we worship, so that from the Word’s apparent lowliness your devotion to Him may become still greater and fuller.
For the more He is mocked among unbelievers, the greater the testimony He gives to His own divinity. What people do not understand and regard as impossible, He Himself shows to be possible. What people mock as unfitting, He makes fitting by His own goodness. And what those who consider themselves wise laugh at as merely human, He shows by His own power to be divine. By His apparent lowliness on the Cross He destroys the illusion of idols, while invisibly persuading those who mock and disbelieve to recognize His divinity and power.
To deal with these matters, we need to recall what has already been said, so that you may understand why the Word of the Father, so great and so high, has appeared in a body, and not think that the Savior assumed a body as a consequence of His own nature. For He is without a body by nature and is the Word; yet because of His own Father’s love for humanity and goodness, He has appeared to us in a human body for our salvation.
It is fitting, then, as we give this account, first to speak about the creation of the world and God its Maker, so that we may rightly see that its renewal was also accomplished by the same Word who created it in the beginning. There is therefore no inconsistency, for the Father brought about its salvation through the same Word through whom He created it.