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Four Discourses against the Arians
48.
What advancement then was it to the Immortal to have assumed the mortal? or what promotion is it to the Everlasting to have put on the temporal? what reward can be great to the Everlasting God and King in the bosom of the Father? See ye not, that this too was done and written because of us and for us, that us who are mortal and temporal, the Lord, become man, might make immortal, and bring into the everlasting kingdom of heaven? Blush ye not, speaking lies against the divine oracles? For when our Lord Jesus Christ had been among us, we indeed were promoted, as rescued from sin; but He is the same 1; nor did He alter, when He became man (to repeat what I have said), but, as has been written, ‘The Word of God abideth for ever 2.’ Surely as, before His becoming man, He, the Word, dispensed to the saints the Spirit as His own 3, so also when made man, He sanctifies all by the Spirit and says to His Disciples, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost.’ And He gave to Moses and the other seventy; and through Him David prayed to the Father, saying, ‘Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me 4.’ On the other hand, when made man, He said, ‘I will send to you the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth 5;’ and He sent Him, He, the Word of God, as being faithful. Therefore ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever 6,’ remaining unalterable, and at once gives and receives, giving as God’s Word, receiving as man. It is not the Word then, viewed as the Word, that is promoted; for He had all things and has them always; but men, who have in Him and through Him their origin 7 of receiving them. P. 335 For, when He is now said to be anointed in a human respect, we it is who in Him are anointed; since also when He is baptized, we it is who in Him are baptized. But on all these things the Saviour throws much light, when He says to the Father, ‘And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one 8.’ Because of us then He asked for glory, and the words occur, ‘took’ and ‘gave’ and ‘highly exalted,’ that we might take, and to us might be given, and we might be exalted in Him; as also for us He sanctifies Himself, that we might be sanctified in Him 9.
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p. 159, note 8. ↩
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Isai. xl. 8 . λόγος but ῥῆμα . LXX. ↩
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§39, note 4. ↩
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Ps. li. 11 . ↩
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John xv. 26 . ↩
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Heb. xiii. 8 . ↩
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The word origin, ἀρχὴ , implies the doctrine, more fully brought out in other passages of the Fathers, that our Lord has deigned to become an instrumental cause, as it may be called, of the life of each individual Christian. For at first sight it may be objected to the whole course of Athan.’s argument thus;—What connection is there between the sanctification of Christ’s manhood and ours? how does it prove that human nature is sanctified because a particular specimen of it was sanctified in Him? S. Chrysostom explains,Hom. in Matt. lxxxii. 5. And just before, ‘It sufficed not for Him to be made man, to be scourged, to be sacrificed; but He assimilates us to Him ( ἀναφύρει ἑαυτὸν ἡμῖν ), nor merely by faith, but really, has He made us His body.’ Again, ‘That we are commingled ( ἀνακερασθῶμεν ) into that flesh, not merely through love, but really, is brought about by means of that food which He has bestowed upon us.’Hom. in Joann.46. 3. And so S. Cyril writes against Nestorius: ‘Since we have proved that Christ is the Vine, and we branches as adhering to a communion with Him, not spiritual merely but bodily, why clamours he against us thus bootlessly, saying that, since we adhere to Him, not in a bodily way, but rather by faith and the affection of love according to the Law, therefore He has called, not His own flesh the vine, but rather the Godhead?’ inJoann.lib. 10. Cap. 2. pp. 863, 4. And Nyssen,Orat. Catech.37. Decoctâ quasi per ollam carnis nostræ cruditate, sanctificavit in æternum nobis cibum carnem suam. Paulin.Ep.23. Of course in such statements nothingmaterialis implied; Hooker says, ‘The mixture of His bodily substance with ours is a thing which the ancient Fathers disclaim. Yet the mixture of His flesh with ours they speak of, to signify what our very bodies through mystical conjunction receive from that vital efficacy which we know to be in His, and from bodily mixtures they borrow divers similitudes rather to declare the truth than the manner of coherence between His sacred and the sanctified bodies of saints.’Eccl. Pol.v. 56. §10. But without some explanation of this nature, language such as S. Athanasius’s in the text seems a mere matter of words. vid. infr. §50 fin. ↩
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John xvii. 22 . ↩
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Cyril,Thesaur.20. p. 197. ↩
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Vier Reden gegen die Arianer (BKV)
48.
Welchen Zuwachs gewann nun wieder der Unsterbliche, wenn er das Sterbliche annahm, oder welche Verbesserung ward dem Ewigen zuteil, wenn er das Zeitliche anzog? Und wie könnte noch ein höherer Lohn dem ewigen Gott und König zuteil werden, der im Schoße des Vaters ist? Sehet ihr nicht, daß auch das unsertwegen und für uns geschehen und geschrieben ist, damit der Herr uns, die Sterblichen und Vergänglichen, unsterblich mache und in das ewige Reich der Himmel einführe? Errötet ihr nicht, die göttlichen Aussprüche lügenhaft zu entstellen? Denn indem unser Herr Jesus Christus auf Erden erschien, wurden wir verbessert und von der Sünde befreit; er selbst aber bleibt derselbe. Und nicht hat er sich geändert, da er Mensch geworden ist denn ich muß wiederum dasselbe sagen —, sondern, wie geschrieben steht, „das Wort Gottes bleibt in Ewigkeit“1. Denn so gewiß er vor der Menschwerdung als Wort den Heiligen den Geist als sein eigen mit teilte, so heiligt er auch, nachdem er Mensch geworden S. 88 ist, alle durch den Geist und spricht zu den Jüngern: „Empfanget den Heiligen Geist!“2. Und er gab ihn dem Moses und den übrigen Siebzig3. Durch ihn flehte David zum Vater mit den Worten: „Deinen Heiligen Geist nimm nicht von mir!“4. Und nachdem er Mensch geworden, sprach er: „Und ich werde euch den Tröster senden, den Geist der Wahrheit“5. Und so sandte ihn das untrügliche Wort Gottes. Also „Jesus Christus, gestern und heute derselbe in Ewigkeit“6, bleibt unveränderlich und ist derselbe, der gibt und empfängt, gibt als Gottes Wort, empfängt als Mensch. Nicht also das Wort, insofern es Wort ist, verbessert sich — es besaß ja alles und besitzt es immer —, sondern die Menschen sind es, die in ihm und durch ihn zu empfangen beginnen. Da es nun von ihm heißt, daß er in menschlicher Weise gesalbt werde, so sind wir es, die in ihm gesalbt werden. Und auch, wenn er getauft wird, sind wir es, die in ihm getauft werden. Über all dies gibt uns der Heiland näheren Aufschluß, wenn er zum Vater sagt: „Und ich habe ihnen die Herrlichkeit gegeben, die Du mir gegeben hast, damit sie Eins seien wie wir Eins sind“7. Unsertwegen bat er also um die Herrlichkeit und heißt es: „Er empfing“ und „er gab“ und „er erhöhte“, damit wir empfingen, damit er uns gebe und wir in ihm erhöht würden, wie er auch für uns sich heiligt, damit wir in ihm geheiligt würden.
