Athanasius On The Incarnation

Also, there would not be Christianity without the incarnation, atonement, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when God took human form through his Son, Jesus became fully human and God. He was the Messiah that Gods people longed for to save humanity from a sinful life (“Lecture 4”, 2017). Also, it is important to understand as a Christian that before Jesus Christ died humanity could not enter Gods Holy Kingdom after they passed because humanity was sinful. God sacrificing his son was a way to lay a path for humanity to follow if they choose to and if they follow Gods commandments can join God in his holy Kingdom after they pass away (“Lecture 4”, 2017). The truth of the Bible is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Even though the incarnation was torturous Jesus knew it would be and God new how much torcher was needed to make clear that reconciliation accrued. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but he is also our Godhead or divine Trinity. He is humanity’s

Fee completes his writings with his own conclusion: “The Spirit must be reinstated into the Trinity, where he has never been excluded in our creeds and liturgies, but has been practically excluded from the experienced life of the church.” Moreover, he argues that the very nature of the Triune God, as being three yet one, must become the character of the church both in its oneness and in its function, by the very application of the Spirit’s threefold work of the Trinity. Without this experience, the witness of the churches to the Resurrection today will remain generally ineffective in comparison with the witness of the early Christians, though they lived in a culture very similar to ours. As the title of Fee’s book emphasizes, we are meant to find God’s Spirit empowering for us in the present era while at the same time awaiting the consummation of Christ’s final return.

The incarnation and atonement of Jesus Christ are the enduring elements of the Christian theology. Many theologians have spent their time discussing and developing these Christian doctrines on how they came about, and how relevant they might be. According to Anselm, incarnation is a central doctrine of Christianity, followed by atonement. In order to ponder on the relationship between atonement and incarnation focusing on Anselm’s idea of satisfaction, we are supposed to look at the meanings of atonement, as well as incarnation. However, the doctrines of incarnation and atonement are interrelated as elucidated by many theologians.

He wanted to build creatures that are capable of recognizing him, serving and loving him and this is when the world was created. And he created this to show the unity of his essence through his unity in his works. God “wanted to choose a subject to be a work of his own, which was unique, singular and unlike any other; rare and surpassing all the other works of his hands.” (pg 111). This subject would have a perfect relationship with God and a perfect relationship with his own unity. This is all known as the mystery of the Incarnation. Out of all the different natures God choose human nature to receive his greatness. He chose only one and that is the “Son of God”. Jesus is stated as a world. We adore in Jesus the “unity of a divine person” who exists in two natures and who serves the supreme unity of the divine

The Patristic Era saw various controversies arising over the nature of Jesus Christ, which consequently lead to the establishment of the creed as an attempt to reject the heretical views held by proponents. An example of a heretical advocate is Arius, who suggested Christ was inferior to God, but still above other creatures (McGrath, 2001, p.358). However, early orthodox theologians disputed this idea due to the soteriological complications that accompanied it (Young, 2010, p.55). The central advocator of this dispute was Athanasius, who questioned how Arius’ belief allowed for salvation through Jesus Christ, which is a key orthodox belief identified

Against the docetic tendencies of Gnosticism Ignatius set forth the incarnation as the central tenet of the Christian faith and asserts the coming of Jesus in the flesh. In many of Ignatius’ writings he attempts to show the lineage of Christ beginning with David and ending with his conception and birth to Mary. He also stressed that Jesus’ physical nature as a real human being emphasized his actual and real physical suffering and bodily resurrection.

For being over eight hundred years, the Christ in Majesty with Symbols of the Four Evangelists remained in remarkable condition. However, pieces of the original piece, which originated in the Catalan chapel in Spain, have faded. Portions, especially along the bottom, have disappeared over time. Even though historians moved it to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, it has not been fully restored. The artist identified each of the apostles in the Christ in Majesty with Symbols of the Four Evangelists, but the writing has grown fainter and this creates a difficulty for art historians. Another key factor in the overall story represented has faded--one of the lamps or incense holders beneath Christ.

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, also referred to as Athanasius the Great, led Alexandria as the twentieth bishop for forty-five years during the fourth century. Although Athanasius is regarded as serving as bishop for almost fifty years, the saint spent over seventeen of those years in exile for various reasons. A renowned Christian theologian, Athanasius was known for his defense of the Trinity, and his deep-rooted hatred for Arius and his followers, the Arians. Around 356, after Athanasius was almost arrested during a vigil service, he decided to flee to Upper Egypt. During his time spent there, he completed his most notable work Four Orations Against the Arians. The text brings up a variety of claims that the Arians make, and Athanasius’s responses to their so-called heretical nature. Although Athanasius uses Scriptural evidence to argue against the Arians, his writing style is cruel and belittling: an inappropriate way for a leader to address the people of the Empire. After reading a great deal of Athanasius’s own works, as well as texts concerning the role of Athanasius throughout the fourth century, it has become evident that St. Athanasius of Alexandria impacted the Trinitarian Controversy most significantly through his noteworthy orations, his role at the Council of Nicaea, and most importantly, his commitment to the betterment of the Catholic Church.

The purpose of the paper is to differentiate between Christ of faith and Jesus of history. New Testament biblical scholars from the 19th Century have been preoccupied by the notion of Christ of faith versus Jesus of History. Jesus of history can be described as the quest for historical Jesus, while the Christ of Faith is the Christ of Christian belief either through the Church or historically. Some traditions even went ahead to argue that the Jesus of History could never be found and therefore the Christ of faith is the only way forward for Christians. On the other hand, those who have been promoting the Jesus of History have often assumed that the historical Jesus is much superior as compared to the Christ of Faith. Despite the key differences between Christ of faith and the historical Jesus, both these aspect have an implication for Western Christianity.

The third point Cyril argues against Nestorius is that Jesus has two subjects. He questions who is speaking man or deity. Cyril questions that there are two ruling principles with the Logos and the human soul. He argues about where Nestorius says there is one will but not one person who is divided. And where Nestorius says the two natures are united permanently but unique and separate like a husband and wife.

Some people say that “all things are self-originated,” which is Epicureans thought, but this cannot be, according to Athanasius. This sort of spontaneous generation of the universe without cause is nonsensical, “just as the carpenter makes things only out of wood that already exists.” The principle here is that “because God is infinite, not finite, [He] was not made from pre-existent matter, but out of nothing and out of non-existence absolute and utter God brought it into being through the Word.” God creates out of nothing, and while humans can understand the world from the moment of their existence into eternity with the Father, they cannot comprehend existence from beginning to infinity, as only the Father is the one who has and always will exist. The Father has and always will exist, and because of His great love He spoke the world into being, and with it created man in his own

It can be said that in God's eyes, Christians are only dirty glasses which are stained inside and out with their own sin. These glasses were once clean, not plagued with stains. Now the glasses bear with them these ugly stains, the stains of sin and wrongdoing. The dirty glasses had to accept their punishment for becoming dirty, and the punishment was being destroyed by a hammer. The hammer is God's instrument against sinners. As the hammer made its decent on the glass, a pan covered the glass and took the blow of the hammer to save the glass. This pan represents Jesus because Jesus sacrificed himself to God so that God would forgive us for our sins.

However, the concept incarnation is at work in the New Testament. The Greek equivalent of incarnate is found in scripture. The Greek equivalent of incarnate is in carne (en sarki) meaning that God came in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16; 1 John 4:2; 2 John 7). Jesus took on the form of man so that he might bridge the gap between human creation and His father. God sent Jesus as a child to a lost and dying world. Jesus came to us as human. He did not lay down his divinity and pick up humanity. He came to us as both divine and human. Through this act God was revealed in a personal way to humankind, and therefore in a way which is more adequate for a personal God to interact with his creation. God now was an advocate to his people. He no longer had to communicate his words through prophets, lawgivers, or even wise men. It allowed God to be united with humanity, so that he might be able to bear their sins, and make atonement for them in one act of sacrifice and reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:19 – 21). What humanity itself could not do was done in human beings by the Son of God (Romans 5:8) .

This paper will provide an understanding the theories of theology of the history of the church, the celebration of the atonement; Jesus Christ being the vicarious substitutionary lamb slain for the sins of mankind.

Humans are powerful, but there are tasks that can only be done by certain individuals. The individual needs to have infinite power, which only God has. Saint Anselm’s writes “If then, as is certain, that celestial city must be completed from among men, and this cannot happen unless the aforesaid satisfaction is made, while no one save God can make it and no one save man ought to make it, it is necessary for a God-Man to make it.” (2,6). The celestial city is a heavenly city. The only person capable of constructing a celestial city is God and for this, God needs to be Man. The city proves that incarnation happened since no human can construct such a city. God is the highest figure in the hierarchy of power and since nobody below him was able construct the city, it only leaves God. In Dante, Beatrice said “Man, in his limits, could not recompense: for no obedience, no humility, he offered later could have been so deep that it could match the heights he meant to reach through disobedience; man lacked the power to offer satisfaction by himself. Thus, there was a need for God, through His own ways, to bring man back to life intact-I mean by one way or another.” (7. 97-103). Like Anselm’s story, God was the only one who had the power to complete such a task. God needed the people to fight through the disobedience and for that to happen they needed a guide. God is the only person who has infinite power, so he needed to bring Christ into the world to help the helpless beings. God is the only one who had the power to create someone like Jesus to help the people who were