Athanasius's Incarnation of the Word of God

Athanasius: THE SOLUTION TO THE FALL OF MAN 1

Athanasius:
The Solution to the Fall of Man
Kelsey Teel
Dr. Lee Blackburn
Milligan College
October 9, 2013

Athanasius 2 Man was created by God to forever love and worship Him. We were made perfect and intended to stay perfect. God gave us a choice whether to stay loyal to Him or to go our separate ways and live for ourselves. In Genesis 3 it reads, “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Man had a personal and daily relationship with God but after man decided to sin, our shame overtook us. Our focus on God was for the most part lost. No matter how good one of us were, the whole (meaning all humanity) would never truly know God. We were forever cursed to die. Athanasius, a fourth century theologian, wrote to his followers and enemies on why and how Christ was the solution to the fall that we had put on ourselves in his book The Incarnation of the Word of God. Athanasius begins with telling how in the beginning we were able to look up to God and speak with Him. Yet after Eve ate from the Tree of Good and Evil we lost focus of where God was therefore the knowledge of God was lost. The Incarnation of the Word of God says, “Men had turned from the contemplation of the God above, and were looking for Him in the opposite direction, down among created things of sense” (p. 43). We started out with our focus above. When we sinned we no longer looked up to God, but rather looked only to what we could see in front of us. According to Athanasius people at the time, and maybe today, would argue that God should have just wiped out all humanity and remade creation. Athanasius argues

Athanasius 3 that a new creation was not and will not ever be sufficient (p.42). Humankind needed a like source of their nature to wipe their slate clean. The only source that could help humanity needed a physical body like our own. Since all bodies are to die, something or someone had to take on the physical body while on earth, staying pure the entire time and dying for our sins. The only one capable was God. However, God Himself could not be in the presence of evil; therefore another part of him came to earth to die a physical death so human knowledge and a relationship could be restored with God. As Athanasius puts it, “We have seen that to change the corruptible to incorruption was proper to none other than the Saviour Himself,” (p. 48) There are four reasons why Christ as the Word in a physical body was the only solution to the human predicament after the Fall of Man. The first reason being Christ in His divinity was the only human being that could be mightier than death. “In the same act also He showed Himself mightier than death, displaying His own body incorruptible as the first-fruits of the resurrection” (p.49). This means that Christ, being a part of God in the trinity, was the only one holding the power to resurrect after suffering death. If a regular man tried to stay perfect and then die he would not hold the power of God to resurrect himself, leaving the rest of humankind to be left to mortality. Another reason Christ was the only solution to the fallen was though he had a body like us corruption could not touch him. Athanasius writes, “in spite of its [Christ’s body] having been uniquely formed from a virgin, was of itself mortal and,
Athanasius 4 like other bodies, liable to death. But the indwelling of the Word loosed it from this natural liability, so that corruption could not touch it” (p.49). Though Christ took on a physical body He still had His divinity or godliness woven throughout him. That part of Him (since He made us) loved us so much that He was willing to resist even the toughest temptations so His creation would be free from death. Another reason Christ was the only perfect sacrifice that could take away sin from the world was simply that He was the only one incapable of death. In His Godliness and since He was a part of God he was immortal. In other words He was not supposed to die. By being holy or like God He did not fall under the curse of death like humans. In the fourth chapter of The Incarnation of the Word of God Athanasius writes the Word, then, being Himself incapable of death, assumed a mortal body, that He might offer it as His own place of all, and suffering for the sake of all, and suffering for the sake of all through His union with it. (p. 49)
What would make a better sacrifice for the entire world other than the death of an immortal?
Only Christ could save the human race from the curse of death we put on ourselves, because Christ was wholly perfect. In His time on earth He never sinned. Though He took on a mortal body, He still had the spirit of God in Him. While on earth His spirit was infused with godliness and the demons were not able to tempt Him. “For where Christ is named, idolatry is destroyed and the fraud of evil spirits is exposed; indeed, no such spirit can endure that Name, but takes to flight on sound of
Athanasius 5 it” (p.61). Athanasius believes the literal meaning of James 2:19 where it says even the demons know there is a God and shutter at the thought of His name. Even though Christ came down into a physical body the demons hated the thought of God roaming the earth with the same influence as they would have. If Jesus had not taken on a body then the demons would have no one to be afraid of. It would have just been another good person, which does not exist; there was no divinity or enemy to flee from. Now that we have gone over why Christ was the only solution to the human fall of Adam now we will explore how Christ was the solution. In other words how Christ was able to accomplish being the solution to the curse of man. The curse after the fall was for man to die. To take that away there had to be death, which as we explored above Christ could do because he was wholly good and divine. But how did Christ have to die in order for the curse to be lifted off our shoulders? According to Athanasius the first key ingredient in His death had to be that He would die on a tree with His arms spread wide. The second part was that it had to be massively witnessed. And the third part was that He would rise back to life. Jesus had to die in such a way that He died for everyone’s sins. Not just males or just Jews, but he had to die so everyone’s sins were lifted. The only death at the time that could resemble Him dying for everyone was by dying on a cross. According to Athanasius this is because “only on the cross [is it] that a man dies with arms outstretched”(p.55). “Here, again, we see the fitness of His death and of those outstretched arms: it was that He might draw His ancient people with one and the
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Gentiles with the other, and join both together in Himself” (p.55). Jesus died by including everyone so everyone could be saved. The death of Christ was to be witnessed by a massive amount of people. Some skeptics may say since Christ was divine He should have died humbly and quietly. But the reason for such a public death was so there would be no question that He did indeed die. Without witnesses His death would more than likely fade away. For example, when someone dies today it is sad for maybe a few months or years, but eventually the emotion behind the death will be forgotten. If this happened to Christ then Christianity would die out along with the emotion behind Christ’s death. In chapter 4, section 23 Athanasius states that if Christ died quietly and then proclaimed to rise from the dead then he would just be known as “a teller of tales” (p.52). Thirdly, Christ had to rise from the dead. As said above, Christ had to take on a public execution so there was one no question that he did die, and additionally that his resurrection could also be know as truth. If there were no resurrection then death would not have been conquered. If death were not conquered then all humanity would still fall under the curse of death. Therefore going to hell. In conclusion, Jesus was the solution to the human fall because he was divine and lived a life of perfection on earth. He fulfilled the requirements of dying for all humanity by dying in such a way that everyone was included, his death was publically witnessed and he rose form the dead. By doing so He conquered death

Athanasius 7 and gave the human race the gift of grace so that to this day we can choose to accept or deny whether or not we want to go to heaven.