Advent with Athanasius – Part 1

Being by nature bodiless and existing as the Word, by the love for humankind and goodness of his own Father he appeared to us in a human body for our salvation (p. 46).

 

With these words, Athanasius describes the phenomenon of the incarnation. He Who eternally exists as the Son and by nature is bodiless, incorporeal, takes on flesh and appears to us in human form for our salvation. This act confounds the wisdom of the world, appears devoid of power, and yet conceals the wisdom and power of God. The first question Athanasius takes up in his discourse is why did He Who is “by nature bodiless” appear in a human body?

He graces the human race with rationality, which is able to be stewarded toward the Source of All such that they would know blessedness. Share on XTo answer this question, Athanasius starts with a simple proof for God. He shows that God is the Creator and has ordered all that is such that the Uncreated One creates all that is out of nothing. And He has not simply created all things, but by His act of creating, He Who is by nature Good is the Fount of all goodness fills creation. He graces the human race with rationality, which is able to be stewarded toward the Source of All such that they would know blessedness (p. 48-49).

It is this gift of rationality, which Athanasius sees as part of the image of God, that provides the opportunity for the fall. For human beings are by nature corruptible, yet, by stewarding their rationality towards He Who is by nature incorruptible, are able to “blunt” this aspect of their nature and so remain incorruptible by grace (p. 50). But Adam failed.

But human beings, turning away from things eternal and by the counsel of the devil turning us towards things of corruption, were themselves the cause of corruption in death, being, as we already said, corruptible by nature but escaping their natural state by the grace of participation in the Word, had they remained good (p. 50-51).

Matthew Barrett comments on this section accurately when he writes, “You can almost hear the sigh in Athanasius’s voice. If only. If only Adam had steadied his gaze on God, the image of God he bore would not have been corrupted. But Adam traded being for non-being, participation for exile, life with God for a tomb.”

Thus we arrive at the crux of the problem: Adam’s “turning towards things of corruption” has resulted in all creation becoming conquered by the power of corruption, unable to turn back towards the Incorruptible One in fullness (p. 53). This sets the stage for Athanasius’s presentation of the incarnation.

And thus, taking from ours that which is like, since all were liable to the corruption of death, delivering it over to death on behalf of all, he offered it to the Father, doing this in his love for human beings, so that, on the one hand, with all dying in him the law concerning corruption in human beings might be undone (its power being fully expended in the lordly body and no longer having any ground against similar human beings), and, on the other hand, that as human beings had turned towards corruption he might turn them again to incorruptibility and give them life from death, by making the body his own and by the grace of the resurrection banishing death from them as straw from the fire (p. 54). 

So why did God become man? Because of His great love for us, God unites our corruptible nature to His incorruptible nature, such that death and corruption is dissolved and the life resurrected (p. 54, 56). This is how Athanasius closes out his initial address concerning life and death.

The Incorruptible One clothes Himself in our corruptible nature in order that He might clothe us in incorruptibility. Share on XThe Christmas season ought to be one of the easiest times for our hearts to once again turn from the corruptible towards the Incorruptible and yet, it is often a time filled with distractions which lower our gaze once again. What a beautiful word for us to contemplate as we seek to refocus our vision to its proper object this season. The Incorruptible One clothes Himself in our corruptible nature in order that He might clothe us in incorruptibility. As the author of Hebrews writes, “¹⁴ Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb 2:14-15). He Who by nature cannot die, became a man who could die, in order to deliver mankind from death.

Echoing one of the concluding thoughts of Athanasius and the words of Ignatius, John Owen comments on Hebrews 2:14 writing, “He would be like unto us, that he might make us like unto himself; he would take our flesh, that he might give unto us his Spirit; he would join himself unto us, and become “one flesh” with us, that we might be joined unto him, and become “one spirit” with him.”[1] This is one of the wonders of the incarnation. Out of love for us, God became what we are by nature, that we may become like Him by grace.

Let us enter into this Advent season with awe and wonder that our God, “because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4-7).

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Notes:

[1]  John Owen. An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Edited by W. H. Goold. Vol. 20. Works of John Owen. (Edinburgh: Johnstone and Hunter 1854), 446.