Sts. Athanasius and Cyril archbishops of Alexandria
On the role of the incarnation of Christ the Savior in the cleansing of human nature and the
destruction of death and about regaining adoption in God
St. Athanasius the Great (c. 296-373) was one of the most important hierarchs of the 4th century He was present at the First Ecumenical Council as a deacon and secretary to Bishop Alexander. He later became archbishop of Alexandria. Due to the opposition to the Arian currents and the policy of the imperial court in this regard, he is exiled countless times.
Here is what St. Athanasius the Great says about the role of the Son and the Word of God in delivering man from death and corruption through the Incarnation:
“For knowing the Word that the corruption of men could be abolished only by death — but it was not possible for the Word to die, once He was the immortal Son of the Father Himself — He takes a body capable of dying, that it, by partaking into the Word of all, to be able to die for all, but by the Word that dwelt in him to remain incorruptible and, as a result, to put an end to all corruption by the grace of the resurrection.
So, bringing by death, as a holy gift and as a sacrifice free from any stain, the body He took, He immediately removed, from all those like Him, death, by bringing as a gift his body similar to theirs. For since the Son of God was above all, bringing His temple and the bodily organ as a price, He duly paid the debt for all. And being by the same body united with all, the incorruptible Son of God duly clothed all with incorruption by the promise of the resurrection. Thus, there is no more corruption in them, because of the Word that dwells in them through one body.”[1]
St. Athanasius the Great shows that bodily death was the way in which the Word of God could bring incorruptibility to the human nature. God in Christ uses death that had entered man's nature as the life-giving vehicle. The Son and the Word of God were eternal and immortal. Then how could He enter death? The solution was for the body of man into which death had entered to become the very body of the Son of God, and through this participation, through union in the Incarnation with the eternal Word, death and incorruption were overcome. St. Athanasius understands the extraordinary humble economy of God who, although He does not need to descend and do this, out of love for people, makes Himself the bearer of the corruptible nature on His shoulders like the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world (cf. John 1, 29). God is perfect humility and love. He becomes one of us in order to take over sin and make the sacrifice in place of the man who could not bring it by himself.
Through the Incarnation the human body becomes the body of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Through the sacrifice of his death, two things are fulfilled: 1. the immortal state of the divine nature of the Son of God is preserved; 2. through the mortal body assumed by Christ and through His very death will bring the resurrection of human nature. Through this man's nature is restored and becomes partaker of immortality. We as members of the Church are clothed in incorruptibility through the resurrection. We share in the risen humanity of Christ who becomes the leaven of our renewal and resurrection.
St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 378-444) is an important theologian who carried out most of his church activity in 5th century. He participates in the Third Ecumenical Council which proclaims the Virgin Mary - Mother of God.
“But how could that be the case unless He Himself became flesh, that is became man, appropriating a human body to Himself in such an indissoluble union that it has to be considered as very His very own body and no one else’s? This is how He transmits the grace of sonship even to us so that we too can become children of the Spirit, insofar as human nature had first achieved this possibility in Him. … He is from God, from on high, and naturally god, yet He came down to our condition in a strange and most unusual manner, and was born of the Spirit, according to the flesh, so that we too might abide in holiness and incorruptibility like Him. Clearly grace came upon us from Him, as from a new rootstock, a new beginning.”[2]
In Christ a new birth of human nature takes place. It is no longer born of the lust of the body but of the Holy Spirit and therefore it is no longer affected by passion and corruption. In this way the sonship is full preserved and unaltered by the sinful will. The body of Christ, his human nature taken from the Virgin Mary is a result of the direct will of God, which begets Christ after the flesh in her bosom. In this way the sonship in Christ is unaffected by sin, corruption, and death. In the divine person of Christ, human nature acquires holiness and incorruption. The human nature of Christ being restored becomes the root on which we will be grafted on the trunk of the Church each of us through Baptism.
+Ioan Casian
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[1] St. Athanasius the Great. Against the Greeks. Treatise on the Incarnation of the Word. Against the Arians (translation, introductory study and notes by Prof. Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae). Ed. EIBMO: Bucharest 2010, pp. 148-149
[2] St. Cyril of Alexandria. On the Unity of Christ (translation and introduction John Anthony McGuckin). St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York 1995, p 63-64
