Against Celsus 2.23

After this he says: “If he had decided on these things and was punished in obedience to his Father, it is clear that, since he was a god and willed it, what was done to him according to his own purpose was neither painful nor grievous to him.” He did not see that he was contradicting himself at once. For if he granted that he was punished, since he had decided on these things and in obedience to his Father gave himself up, it is clear that he was punished, and it was not possible for what the punishers inflicted not to be painful; for pain does not depend on the will. But if what was inflicted was neither painful nor grievous to one who willed it, how did he grant that “he was punished”? He did not see that, having once taken the body that comes through birth, he took a body capable of suffering pain and the grievous things that befall those in bodies, if we understand “grievous” as something not chosen. So then, just as he willingly took a body not wholly of another nature than human flesh, so together with the body he also took its pains and griefs. He was not master of not suffering these, since it lay with those who handled him to inflict on him what was grievous and painful. We have already made our defense above, that if he had not wished to come into human hands he would not have come; but he came, since he wished to, because of the benefit to the universe, stated earlier, from his dying for human beings.