How Jesus’ Incarnation Changes Everything
If you’ve lived in our fallen world for any amount of time, you know that things on earth are not as they should be. Something has gone wrong.
Here at Focus on the Family, we encounter this reality constantly – the presence of sin. We receive thousands of calls from constituents each month, often confronting sin’s sobering and dark manifestation – abortion, euthanasia, human trafficking, homosexuality, transgenderism, divorce, affairs, pornography, estranged adult children, suicide … the list goes on.
But we also know that the sinfulness of the world isn’t just “out there,” it’s present in every human heart. It was the great Soviet dissent Aleksander Solzhenitsyn who wrote in The Gulag Archipelago,
Poignantly, we read in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (ESV).”
Saint Athanasius
Saint Athanasius the Great was a bishop in the early Christian church who was a fierce advocate for an orthodox understanding of the Trinity. He attended the Council of Nicaea as a deacon and secretary for the bishop of Alexandria.
Athanasius defended the term “homoousios” in the Nicene Creed, recognizing that Jesus is “consubstantial” or “of one substance” with the Father. This term affirms Jesus’ divinity – that He is of the same divine nature as God the Father.
On the Incarnation
One of Athanasius’ most popular works, On the Incarnation, was most likely written after the conversion of Constantine and following the Council of Nicaea.
Contrary to what seems to be indicated in the title, On the Incarnation does not primarily relate to Christ’s entrance into the world through His conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Indeed, the moment of His incarnation is mentioned sparingly.
Instead, Saint Athanasius has something else in mind. As editor John Behr makes clear, On the Incarnation is “clearly, first and foremost, understood by their author to be an apology for the cross.”
Saint Athanasius makes this exceedingly clear in his opening paragraph. He writes to defend the coherence of why Christ, the Divine Word, became man and suffered upon the cross:
Athanasius hopes to encourage and exhort his readers to lead lives of holiness, so that they may receive eternal life after being transformed by the grace of Christ.
In his opening paragraphs, Athanasius lays out an important problem that he endeavors to address. Human beings, Athanasius affirms, were created in God’s image and likeness. However, exercising their free will, humanity turned away from God, and “turned to things which exist not – evil is non-being, the good is being.”
He then reflects upon the sinfulness of human beings – and the consequences that resulted from our free decision to choose sin. “Human beings,” he writes, “turning away from things eternal and by the counsel of the devil turning us towards things of corruption, were themselves the cause of corruption and death.”
But for Athanasius, this creates an important problem that God must solve. On the one hand, God promised Adam and Eve, and thereby all of humanity, that they would die if they chose to sin. However, according to Athanasius, it would be “improper that what had once been made rational and partakers of his Word should perish, and once again return to non-being through corruption.”
So, God cannot lie and allow human beings not to die, but He also cannot permit human beings to die and “return to non-being.” How does God solve this problem?
God’s answer is in the incarnation and cross of Jesus Christ. According to Athanasius, Christ takes on our humanity and offers Himself to death, so that God’s sentence upon humanity might be fulfilled. However, in His divinity and immortality, Christ cannot die. By His resurrection, Christ banishes death and restores human beings to life. Yes, “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23, ESV).
He writes,
The solution to humanity’s sin is Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection.
What This Means for Us
Athanasius’ reflection upon who Christ is, and why He came, is just as relevant for us today as it was for his original audience. Athanasius prompted his readers to answer Christ’s question: “But who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). We must do so as well.
By his arguments defending Christ’s divinity, resurrection and power over life and death, Athanasius teaches us to confess that Jesus is not “simply a human being, nor a magician, nor a demon” but “is the true Son of God, being the Word and Wisdom and Power of the Father.”
Though the world is indeed dark, and though each of us struggle with sin, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone” (Isaiah 9:2, ESV).
As Christians, we have hope. Those of us who place our faith in Jesus Christ, repent of our sins, are baptized and try to live as Christ commanded have hope in new life – both now, and in the life to come.
In John 1:12, we read,
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (ESV).
This Lent, consider ways you can reflect upon Jesus’ life and death. That way, come Easter, you can celebrate more fully in the power of the resurrection:
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26, ESV).
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If you want to better understand the Bible and be part of God’s redemptive mission, check out RVL Discipleship: The Study.
Related articles and resources:
Celebrate Lent with Your Kids this Easter
Happy Incarnation Day – The Christmas Story
The Cultural Paradox of Following Jesus Christ
Why Believe in Christianity? Because it is True.
How Big is Your View of the Gospel?
Appreciating the Full Scope of the Lordship of Christ – and the Gospel Itself
Christianity is Both a Religion and a Relationship
The Church’s Lane is the Whole Cosmos
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