The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. “The Incarnation” in Relation to Man’s Sin and Redemption

1. CLASSIC PORTRAYAL OF RESTORATION OF MAN’S LIFE

Let us now range through Athanasius’ The Incarnation, written while he was still in his twenties—an exploit similar to that of Calvin and his Institutes. Here in The Incarnation we find depicted the relation of the Infinite Son of God to the lost sons of man. Here is revealed Athanasius’ clear concept of the hopeless condition of man, lost through sin but paralleled by the wondrous provisions of redemption. And this is all portrayed in the setting of the sublime deity of Christ and His incarnation for the purpose of dying in our stead and rising for our restoration. Finally, Athanasius’ comprehension of the prophetic phase—the inspired predictions of Christ’s earthly life and the timing of His death, together with His second advent to consummate the redemption—is similarly presented with appealing clarity. CFF1 1063.3

Athanasius’ grasp of man’s need and of the provision of a Saviour is most impressive. The treatise is a classic portrayal of the restoration of man. It is really the most ancient work on Christian dogmatics available, and is actually a Christian philosophy of the Godhead. While he was not always an out-and-out Conditionalist, Athanasius nevertheless presents, in this setting, certain distinctive Conditionalist teachings and their underlying principles. That is why it is of concern to us in compassing this grave transition hour, when Conditionalism was steadily passing from the picture. CFF1 1064.1

2. DIRECT QUOTATIONS NOT EMPLOYED WITH ATHANASIUS

Athanasius is not cited here because he made any new or special contribution to Conditionalism, but to show that a scholar of his eminence still held at that critical time—despite the growing pressures and the strong swing away from Conditionalism—to certain general underlying principles. Athanasius was virtually the last man of prominence so to do before the portentous blackout that lasted for centuries. However, his learned writings, in the characteristic manner of the time, are so prolix and involved as to require large paragraphs of direct quotation, were such to be used. But that would prove tedious and boring to the modern reader, and might be laid aside. That would defeat the very purpose of such citations. CFF1 1064.2

We have therefore given accurate summarizations of Athanasius’ lengthy arguments and expressions of belief. In doing so, recourse has been had to the official analytical summations of each section appearing at the beginning of each section, prepared by Bishop Archibald Robertson, then of the University of Durham and later of Oxford. These faithfully set forth Athanasius’ presentation in condensed form. Hence no direct quotes are used. But the thought has been trustworthily preserved. That is all that is essential for our purpose here. CFF1 1064.3

Athanasius is not clear, forceful, or full on the nature of man, as were some that came before him. He is contradictory and confused in spots on this question. His principal burden is to preserve the great truth and reality of the complete deity of Christ, and related eternal verities. This he did most remarkably. And in so doing he upheld the fundamental principles of the redemption of lost man. CFF1 1065.1

The translation is from the standard Schaff and Wace rendering in the Post-Nicene Fathers, volume four. Now let us fill in the picture with rapid strokes. CFF1 1065.2

3. MAN NOT CREATED WITH PERVERSE TENDENCIES

Athanasius’ Introduction (in sections 1 to 3) begins with the doctrine of creation by the Word, and man’s allotted place, followed by the abuse of his high privileges and resultant loss. It portrays how the Father has saved the world by Him through whom He first made it. ³ The creation was out of nothing. And, be it particularly noted, with man created above the rest, but incapable of independent perseverance. ⁴ CFF1 1065.3

As it was by the Word that man was called from nonexistence into being, so by the one fault which forfeited that life he incurred corruption. ⁵ Having thus incurred ruin, man of himself must sink back into destruction. ⁶ Only the original Bestower of life, Athanasius held, could now rescue him and restore life. CFF1 1065.4

4. CREATOR MUST BOTH RENEW AND RESTORE

Athanasius presses the point that, having incurred corruption, none could renew but He who had created man. The Son alone could re-create, suffer for all, and represent all to the Father. ⁷ So the Word visited this earth and took a body of our nature, and that of a virgin. ⁸ He took a mortal body, capable of death, uniting it with His deity, that He might stay the corruption of the race. Becoming one with us He clothed us with immortality ⁹ as a result. Created in the “image” of God, man had fallen away from God. ¹⁰ So God restored in us the grace of His image. CFF1 1065.5

5. BECAME MAN TO RESTORE LIFE TO US

Athanasius tells how a portrait once effaced must be restored from the original. Thus the Son of the Father came to seek, save, and regenerate. And, Athanasius asserts, the Word alone could do so. ¹¹ So He condescends to take a “body.” ¹² And by His becoming Man, the Saviour put away death from us, renewing us again. ¹³ Bishop Robertson well summarizes section twenty thus concerning Christ: CFF1 1066.1

“None, then, could bestow incorruption, but He Who had made, none restore the likeness of God, save His Own Image, none quicken, but the Life, none teach, but the Word. And He, to pay our debt of death, must also die for us, and rise again as our first-fruits from the grave. Mortal therefore His [Christ’s] body must be; corruptible, His Body could not be.” ¹⁴ CFF1 1066.2

So death was brought to nought by the death of Christ. ¹⁵ CFF1 1066.3

6. PURPOSE OF PUBLIC DEATH AND THREE DAYS IN TOMB

Continuing, the Son came to receive the death due to others. He paid the debt, dying in our stead, so as to rise again as the first fruits. That is why Christian martyrs have contempt for death. Moreover, His death must be certain in order to guarantee the truth of His resurrection. ¹⁶ That necessitated a public death. ¹⁷ He died on the cross to bear the “curse” for us, quoting Deuteronomy 21:23. But He held out His hands to us, thus clearing the way to Heaven and opening for us the everlasting doors. ¹⁸ CFF1 1066.4

The cross, once the instrument of shame, now became the trophy of victory. He rose not till the “Third Day,” so the reality of His death could not be denied. And not later, so to guard the identity of His body, or not to keep His disciples too long in “suspense,” or to wait till the witnesses were dispersed. ¹⁹ The reality of the Resurrection is proved by the facts. ²⁰ Christ’s triumph over the grave changed the relevancy of death and life. It involved a momentous train of consequences. CFF1 1066.5

7. PROPHECIES ESTABLISH FACTS OF INCARNATION

Athanasius then turns to the prophecies, recorded in Holy Writ, showing how the Jews, in their inveterate obstinacy, were confounded by their own Scriptures—by the prophecies of Christ’s coming as God and Man. ²¹ Athanasius first notes the prophecies of His passion and death in all its circumstances. ²² Next were the prophecies of the “Cross,” and how they are all fulfilled in Christ alone. ²⁴ Then came prophecies of Christ’s sovereignty, flight into Egypt, et cetera. And in Psalm 22 appears the majesty of His birth and death. Therein is disclosed His unimpeachable power and Godhead. Moreover, they were not to “look for another,” for Daniel in the prophecy of the seventy weeks, foretells the exact time of His death. CFF1 1067.1

8. ANSWERS SCOFFING OF GREEKS REGARDING INCARNATION

Answering the frivolous cynicism and scoffing of the Greeks, Athanasius says that Christ’s union with the body is based upon His relation to Creation as a whole. Since man alone departed from the order of His creation, it was man’s nature that the Word united to Himself, thus repairing the breach between the creature and the Creator at the very point where the rupture had occurred. He used a “human body,” since it was to man that He wished to reveal Himself. ²⁷ He came to save, and man alone of all earthly creatures had sinned. ²⁸ CFF1 1067.2

He could not save man by a “mere fiat,” as when He produced man out of nothing. A bare command would not suffice. ²⁹ He came and lived and worked among them as man. ³⁰ Further, creation out of nothing is different from reparation of what already exists. Man had a definite need, calling for a definite remedy. Death was ingrained in man’s nature, and the Word must meet and conquer death in His usurped territory. ³¹ He met the specific disorder with a specific remedy, overcoming death with life. This point is so vital that we quote a paragraph from Athanasius’ own text: CFF1 1067.3

“For this cause the Saviour reasonably put on Him a body, in order that the body, becoming wound closely to the Life, should no longer, as mortal, abide in death, but, as having put on immortality, should thenceforth rise again and remain immortal. For, once it had put on corruption, it could not have risen again unless it had put on life. And death likewise could not, from its very nature, appear, save in the body. Therefore He put on a body, that He might find death in the body, and blot it out. For how could the Lord have been proved at all to be the Life, had He not quickened what was mortal?” ³² CFF1 1068.1

9. SO LIVE AS TO EAT OF TREE OF LIFE

Finally, Athanasius urges all to search the Scriptures and fill in this “outline.” He closes with a portrayal of the Second Advent, direct from Heaven, in power and glory. And he tells us that we will learn about His second glorious and truly divine appearing to us, in His own glory—no longer in humble guise, but in His own magnificence. ³³ He will then execute judgment on the wrongdoer. Athanasius closes, in section 57, with an admonition to so live that you may have the right to eat of this tree of knowledge and life, and so come to eternal joys. ³⁴ CFF1 1068.2

Quoting again from the text, Athanasius urges that the reader— CFF1 1068.3

“may escape the peril of the sinners and their fire at the day of judgment, and receive what is laid up for the saints in the kingdom of heaven.” ³⁵ CFF1 1068.4

That is Athanasius’ view of the vicarious, atoning death of Christ on the cross, in its relation to the redemption of man and his resurrection and future life. It reveals a magnificent grasp of the over-all issues and a continuity of treatment that was unsurpassed in his day. On the actual nature and destiny of man Athanasius was at times self-contradictory. ³⁶ It was a transition hour. He sometimes reproduces some of the very thoughts and phrases of Plato that were openly employed by Athanagoras and Tertullian. But he did not follow with them to their conclusions. He passed over the final destruction. And the semi-Conditionalism he voiced was, erelong, drowned out in the swirling tide of Platonism, which in time swept over Christendom. But his was a retarding voice that was heard, and was respected in his day. CFF1 1068.5