Fully God, Fully Man, Fully Savior

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.  (Heb 2:14-15)

The power of God was displayed in Him, from the works which He performed; the frailty of the man, from the passion which He endured: on what account He undertook it I will mention a little later.  In the meantime, we learn from the predictions of the prophets that He was both God and man—composed of both natures.  Isaiah testifies that He was God in these words: “Egypt is wearied, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabaeans, men of stature, shall come over unto you, and shall be your servants: and they shall walk behind you; in chains they shall fall down to you, and shall make supplication to you, Since God is in you, and there is no other God besides you.  For you are God, and we knew you not, the God of Israel, the Savior.  They shall all be confounded and ashamed who oppose you, and shall fall into confusion.”  In like manner the prophet Jeremiah thus speaks: “This is our God, and there shall none other be compared unto Him.  He has found out all the way of knowledge, and has given it unto Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved.  Afterward He was seen upon earth, and dwelt among men.”

David also, in the forty-fourth Psalm: “Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.  You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness.”  By which word he also shows His name, since (as I have shown above) He was called Christ from His anointing.  Then, that He was also man, Jeremiah teaches, saying: “And He is a man, and who has known Him?”  Also Isaiah: “And God shall send to them a man, who shall save them, shall save them by judging.”  But Moses also, in Numbers, thus speaks: “There shall arise a star out of Jacob, and a man shall spring forth from Israel.”

Lactantius, Divine Institutes 4.13.1-2

Heaven Was Gained for Man, Not by Might, but by Humility

When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”  (Matt 26:1-2)

[M]en ought to know that the arrangements of the Most High God have so advanced from the beginning, that it was necessary, as the end of the world approached, that the Son of God should descend to the earth, that He might build a temple for God, and teach righteousness.  But, however, not with the might of an angel or with heavenly power, but in the form of man and in the condition of a mortal, that when He had discharged the office of His ministry, He might be delivered into the hands of wicked men, and might undergo death, that, having subdued this also by His might, He might rise again, and bring to man, whose nature He had put on and represented, the hope of overcoming death, and might admit him to the rewards of immortality.

Lactantius, Divine Institutes IV.10