{"id":22068,"date":"2023-05-10T23:33:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T07:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/?p=22068"},"modified":"2023-05-15T18:54:02","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T02:54:02","slug":"athanasius-against-the-arians-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/athanasius-against-the-arians-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Athanasius: Against the Arians II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesus became Lord of All by Grace<\/h4>\n

For God is always, and one and the same; but men have come to be afterwards through the Word, when the Father Himself willed it; and God is invisible and inaccessible to originated things, and especially to men upon earth. When then men in infirmity invoke Him, when in persecution they ask help, when under injuries they pray, then the Invisible, being a lover of man, shines forth upon them with His beneficence, which He exercises through and in His proper Word. And forthwith the divine manifestation is made to every one according to his need, and is made to the weak health, and to the persecuted a \u2018refuge\u2019 and \u2018house of defence;\u2019 and to the injured He says, \u2018While thou speakest I will say, Here I am.\u2019 … When the saints say concerning God, \u201cHe became\u2019 and \u2018become Thou,\u2019 they do not denote any original becoming, for God is without beginning and unoriginate, but the salvation which is made to be unto men from Him.<\/p>\n

This being so understood, it is parallel also respecting the Son, … When we hear the words in question, \u2018become better than the Angels\u2019 and \u2018He became,\u2019 we should not conceive any original becoming of the Word.. but should understand Paul\u2019s words of His ministry and Economy when He became man. For when \u2018the Word became flesh and dwelt among us\u2019 and came to minister and to grant salvation to all, then He became to us salvation, and became life, and became propitiation; then His economy in our behalf became much better than the Angels, and He became the Way and became the Resurrection.[1]<\/a>
\n…
\nThis it is that Peter means by, \u2018He hath made Him Lord,\u2019 and \u2018hath sent Christ;\u2019 as much as to say, that the Father … did not simply make Him man, but has made Him in order to His being Lord of all men, and to His hallowing all through the Anointing [by the Spirit]…<\/p>\n

And as God, when \u2018becoming a God and defence,\u2019 and saying, \u2018I will be a God to them,\u2019 does not… [begin] to become God, but, what He ever is, that He then becomes to those who need Him, when it pleaseth Him, so Christ also being by nature Lord and King everlasting, does not .. [begin] to be Lord and King, but what He is ever, that He then is made according to the flesh; and, having redeemed all, He becomes thereby again Lord of quick and dead.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Firstborn of Creation and Resurrection<\/h4>\n

He is called \u2018First-born among many brethren\u2019 because of the relationship of the flesh, and \u2018First-born from the dead,\u2019 because the resurrection of the dead is from Him and after Him; and \u2018First-born of the whole creation,\u2019 because of the Father\u2019s love to man, which brought it to pass that in His Word not only \u2018all things consist,\u2019 but the creation itself, of which the Apostle speaks, \u2018waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, shall be delivered\u2019 one time \u2018from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.\u2019 Of this creation thus delivered, the Lord will be First-born, both of it and of all those who are made children, that by His being called first, those that come after Him may abide, as depending on the Word as a beginning.
\n…
\nBecause the Word, when at the beginning He framed the creatures, condescended to things originate, that it might be possible for them to come to be. For they could not have endured His nature, which was untempered splendour, even that of the Father, unless condescending by the Father\u2019s love for man He had supported them and taken hold of them and brought them into existence; and next, because, by this condescension of the Word, the creation too is made a son through Him, that He might be in all respects \u2018First-born\u2019 of it, as has been said, both in creating, and also in being brought for the sake of all into this very world. For so it is written, \u2018When He bringeth the First-born into the world, He saith, Let all the Angels of God worship Him.\u2019
\n…
\nThus the Son is the Father\u2019s \u2018Only-begotten,\u2019 because He alone is from Him, and He is the \u2018First-born of creation,\u2019 because of this adoption of all as sons. And as He is First-born among brethren and rose from the dead \u2018the first fruits of them that slept;\u2019 so, since it became Him \u2018in all things to have the preeminence,\u2019 therefore He is created \u2018a beginning of ways,\u2019 that we, walking along it and entering through Him who says, \u2018I am the Way\u2019 and \u2018the Door,\u2019 and partaking of the knowledge of the Father, may also hear the words, \u2018Blessed are the undefiled in the Way,\u2019 and \u2018Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n