On the Incarnation

He has been manifested in a human body for this reason only, out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us men.

It was our sorry case that caused the Word to come down, our transgression that called out his love for us, so that He made haste to help us and to appear among us. It is we who were the cause of His taking human form, and for our salvation that in His great love He was both born and manifested in a human body.

The Word of God came in His own Person, because it was He alone, the Image of the Father, Who could recreate man after the Image. In order to effect this re-creation, however, He had first to do away with death and corruption. Therefore He assumed a human body, in order that in it death might once for all be destroyed, and that men might be renewed according to the Image.

St. Athanasius of Alexandria