Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Origen/Origen Against Celsus/Book IV/Chapter XV

Chapter XV.

And with respect to His having descended among men, He was &#8220;previously in the form of God;&#8221; and through benevolence, divested Himself (of His glory), that He might be capable of being received by men.&#160; But He did not, I imagine, undergo any change from &#8220;good to evil,&#8221; for &#8220;He did no sin;&#8221; nor from &#8220;virtue to vice,&#8221; for &#8220;He knew no sin.&#8221; &#160; Nor did He pass from &#8220;happiness to misery,&#8221; but He humbled Himself, and nevertheless was blessed, even when His humiliation was undergone in order to benefit our race.&#160; Nor was there any change in Him from &#8220;best to worst,&#8221; for how can goodness and benevolence be of &#8220;the worst?&#8221;&#160; Is it befitting to say of the physician, who looks on dreadful sights and handles unsightly objects in order to cure the sufferers, that he passes from &#8220;good to evil,&#8221; or from &#8220;virtue to vice,&#8221; or from &#8220;happiness to misery?&#8221;&#160; And yet the physician, in looking on dreadful sights and handling unsightly objects, does not wholly escape the possibility of being involved in the same fate.&#160; But He who heals the wounds of our souls, through the word of God that is in Him, is Himself incapable of admitting any wickedness.&#160; But if the immortal God&#8212;the Word &#8212;by assuming a mortal body and a human soul, appears to Celsus to undergo a change and transformation, let him learn that the Word, still remaining essentially the Word, suffers none of those things which are suffered by the body or the soul; but, condescending occasionally to (the weakness of) him who is unable to look upon the splendours and brilliancy of Deity, He becomes as it were flesh, speaking with a literal voice, until he who has received Him in such a form is able, through being elevated in some slight degree by the teaching of the Word, to gaze upon what is, so to speak, His real and pre-eminent appearance.