1 So much in reply to outsiders who pile up arguments for themselves. But if any of our own people also ask, not from love of debate but from love of learning, why He suffered death in no other way than on the Cross, let him also be told that no other way than this was good for us, and that it was right for the Lord to suffer this for our sake. 2 For if He came Himself to bear the curse laid on us, how else could He have become a curse unless He received the death appointed for a curse? And that is the Cross. For this is exactly what is written: Cursed is he who hangs on a tree. 3 Again, if the Lord's death is the ransom of all, and by His death the dividing wall is broken down and the calling of the nations is brought about, how would He have called us to Himself had He not been crucified? For it is only on the cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. So it was fitting for the Lord to bear this also and to spread out His hands, so that with the one He might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in Himself.⁠a 4 For this is what He Himself has said, indicating by what kind of death He was to ransom all: I, when I am lifted up, He says, will draw all people to Myself. 5 And again, the devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from heaven, wanders about our lower air, and there, ruling over his fellow spirits as his peers in disobedience, not only works illusions through them in those who are deceived, but tries to hinder those who are going up (and about this the Apostle says: According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience). The Lord, on the other hand, came to cast down the devil, clear the air, and prepare the way up into heaven for us, as the Apostle said: Through the veil, that is to say, His flesh — and this had to be by death. Well then, by what other kind of death could this have come about than by one that took place in the air, I mean the cross? For only one who dies on the cross dies in the air. So it was entirely fitting that the Lord suffered this death. 6 For being lifted up in this way, He cleared the air of the malice both of the devil and of demons of every kind, as He says: I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven; and He made a new opening of the way up into heaven, as He says once more: Lift up your gates, you princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors. For it was not the Word Himself who needed the gates opened, being Lord of all; nor were any of His works closed to their Maker; it was we who needed it, whom He carried up by His own body. For as He offered it to death on behalf of all, so by it He once more prepared the way up into the heavens.