The Birth of Christ and the New Birth of Man
How shall man pass into God, unless God has first passed into man? And how shall men escape from the generation subject to death, if not by means of a new generation through faith in that generation given in a wonderful manner by God, as a sign of salvation (Isaiah 7:14), I mean that which was from the Virgin? Or how shall they receive adoption from God if they remain in this kind of generation, which is naturally possessed by man in this world?
It was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and he who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man, having been taken into the Word, and receiving the adoption, might become the son of God.
Irenaeus from Against Heresies
Irenaeus lived in the second century and died around 202 A.D. He was a bishop of what is now Lyons, France. Irenaeus was a follower of Polycarp, who had been in turn a disciple of John the Apostle. He was an early Church Father whose writings helped shape early Christian theology. His most important work was Against Heresies. It was written to combat the Gnosticism that was a serious threat to the church at the time. Irenaeus was one of the first theologians to formulate a full understanding of the incarnation of Christ.