on the incarnation athanasius of alexandria

by dying for others, he immediately banished death for all mankind. In death the Word made a spotless sacrifice and oblation of the body he had taken. Because of the Word dwelling in that body, it would remain incorruptible, and all would be freed for ever from corruption by the grace of the resurrection. This is the reason why the Word assumed a body that could die, so that this body, sharing in the Word who is above all, might satisfy death’s requirement in place of all. He utterly destroyed the power death had against mankind – as fire consumes chaff – by means of the body he had taken and the grace of the resurrection. Moreover, this was the way in which the Word was to restore mankind to immortality, after it had fallen into corruption, and summon it back from death to life.

The law, which had spent its force on the body of the Lord, could no longer have any power over his fellowmen. He did so to destroy the law of corruption passed against all men, since all died in him. In this way he received from mankind a body like our own, and, since all were subject to the corruption of death, he delivered this body over to death for all, and with supreme love offered it to the Father. Within the Virgin he built himself a temple, that is, a body he made it his own instrument in which to dwell and to reveal himself. Instead, he took our body in its reality. If he had wanted simply to be seen, he could indeed have taken another, and nobler, body. He therefore took to himself a body, no different from our own, for he did not wish simply to be in a body or only to be seen. Taking pity on mankind’s weakness, and moved by our corruption, he could not stand aside and see death have the mastery over us he did not want creation to perish and his Father’s work in fashioning man to be in vain. Out of his loving-kindness for us he came to us, and we see this in the way he revealed himself openly to us. For there is no part of the world that was ever without his presence together with his Father, he continually filled all things and places. Yet it was not as if he had been remote from it up to that time. The Word of God, incorporeal, incorruptible and immaterial, entered our world. It is read by the Church on the feast of St. Athanasius says that the Word of God entered our world and assumed a body so that he could die for us, so great is his loving kindness.

In this excerpt from his work On the Incarnation, St.

On the incarnation athanasius of alexandria