{"id":22085,"date":"2023-05-22T22:19:31","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T06:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/?p=22085"},"modified":"2023-05-22T22:19:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T06:19:31","slug":"athanasius-against-the-arians-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/athanasius-against-the-arians-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Athanasius: Against the Arians III"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oneness of the Father and the Son<\/h4>\n

\u201cthat they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.\u201d (John 17:21)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If, for instance, it were possible for us to become as the Son in the Father, the words ought to run, \u2018that they may be one in Thee,\u2019 as the Son is in the Father; but, as it is, He has not said this; but by saying \u2018in Us\u2019 He has pointed out the distance and difference; that He indeed is alone in the Father alone, as Only Word and Wisdom; but we in the Son, and through Him in the Father. And thus speaking, He meant this only, \u2018By Our unity may they also be so one with each other, as We are one in nature and truth; for otherwise they could not be one, except by learning unity in Us.\u2019 And that \u2018in Us\u2019 has this signification, we may learn from Paul, who says, \u2018These things I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos, that ye may learn in us not to be puffed up above that is written.\u2019 The words \u2018in Us\u2019 then, are not \u2018in the Father,\u2019 as the Son is in Him; but imply an example and image, instead of saying, \u2018Let them learn of Us.\u2019 For as Paul to the Corinthians, so is the oneness of the Son and the Father a pattern and lesson to all, by which they may learn, looking to that natural unity of the Father and the Son, how they themselves ought to be one in spirit towards each other. Or if it needs to account for the phrase otherwise, the words \u2018in Us\u2019 may mean the same as saying, that in the power of the Father and the Son they may be one, speaking the same things; for without God this is impossible. And this mode of speech also we may find in the divine writings, as \u2018In God will we do great acts;\u2019 and \u2018In God I shall leap over the wall;\u2019 and \u2018In Thee will we tread down our enemies.\u2019 … For, dwelling still on the same thought, the Lord says, \u2018And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given to them, that they may be one as We are one.\u2019 Suitably has He here too said, not, \u2018that they may be in Thee as I am,\u2019 but \u2018as We are;\u2019 now he who says \u2018as\u2019, signifies not identity, but an image and example of the matter in hand.[1]<\/a>
\n…
\n\u2018I in them and Thou in Me; that they may be made perfect in one.\u2019 Here at length the Lord asks something greater and more perfect for us; for it is plain that the Word has come to be in us, for He has put on our body. \u2018And Thou Father in Me;\u2019 \u2018for I am Thy Word, and since Thou art in Me, because I am Thy Word, and I in them because of the body, and because of Thee the salvation of men is perfected in Me, therefore I ask that they also may become one, according to the body that is in Me and according to its perfection; that they too may become perfect, having oneness with It, and having become one in It; that, as if all were carried by Me, all may be one body and one spirit, and may grow up unto a perfect man.’
\n…
\nBlessed John will shew from his Epistle the sense of the words, concisely and much more perfectly than we can. And he will … teach how we become in God and God in us; and how again we become One in Him, and how far the Son differs in nature from us, … \u2018Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.\u2019 Therefore because of the grace of the Spirit which has been given to us, in Him we come to be, and He in us; … Not then as the Son in the Father, so also we become in the Father; for the Son does not merely partake the Spirit, that therefore He too may be in the Father; nor does He receive the Spirit, but rather He supplies It Himself to all; … And the Son is in the Father, as His own Word and Radiance; but we, apart from the Spirit, are strange and distant from God, and by the participation of the Spirit we are knit into the Godhead; so that our being in the Father is not ours, but is the Spirit\u2019s which is in us and abides in us, while by the true confession we preserve it in us, John again saying, \u2018Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God.\u2019<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n