Firstborn from the dead in his own body; dies humanly as immortal God

…of the church, who is beginning, firstborn from the dead, that he might become first in all things; because in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.” He calls the Son naturally begotten from him — that is, the God Word — the image of the invisible God, and also that through him all things were brought to birth, whether visible or invisible, in heaven and on earth, and that he himself is before all things: “for in the beginning was the Word,” and he is the maker of the ages, having existence older than all time. But he says that the one who is such by his own nature has been given by the Father as head of the church’s body, and that he himself is the firstborn from the dead. Then how is the God Word who always exists, in whom all things hold together, said to become firstborn from the dead and firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, unless the body taken by him is truly his own? When it has suffered death, he himself would be understood to suffer — the event having a not-implausible account in him, for what is his own has suffered. In this way he is understood as firstborn from the dead, though by nature immortal and life itself. So when, having lowered himself into emptying, he has been given as head of the church’s body, then the one who as God does not know how to suffer death is also said to die in a human way for us.