Athanasius of Alexandria

But though he is Word, he is not, as we said, comparable to human words, composed of syllables; but he is the unchanging image of his own Father. For men, composed of parts and made out of nothing, speak in a composite and divisible fashion. But God possesses true existence and is not composite; hence his Word also has true existence and is not made of different parts or syllables. He is the one and onlybegotten God, who proceeds in his goodness from the Father as from a good Fountain, and orders all things and holds them together.

Not then because he was from the Father was he called “Firstborn,” but because in him the creation came to be; and as before the creation he was the Son, through whom was the creation, so also before he was called the Firstborn of the whole creation, the Word himself was with God and the Word was God. … If then the Word also were one of the creatures, Scripture would have said of him also that he was Firstborn of other creatures; but in fact, the saints’ saying that he is “Firstborn of the whole creation” demonstrates that the Son of God is other than the whole creation and not a creature…. He is called “Firstborn among many brothers” because of the relationship of the flesh, and “Firstborn from the dead” because the resurrection of the dead is from him and after him.

For the Word of God was not made for us but rather we for him, and “in him all things were created.” For even if it had seemed good to God not to make things of determinate origin, still the Word would have been no less with God, and the Father in him. At the same time, things of determinate origin could not without the Word be brought to be; hence they were made through him—and with meaning and purpose. For since the Word is the Son of God by nature proper to his essence and is from him, as he said himself, the creatures could not have come to be, except through him. .

For after making mention of the creation, he naturally speaks of the Framer’s power as seen in it, which power, I say, is the Word of God, by whom all things have been made. If indeed the creation is sufficient of itself alone, without the Son, to make God known, see that you don’t err in thinking that without the Son it has come to be. For if through the Son it has come to be, and “in him all things consist,” it must follow that he who contemplates the creation rightly is contemplating also the Word who framed it, and through him begins to apprehend the Father. .

In the past Christ the Word was accustomed to come to the saints individually and to sanctify those who rightly received him. But neither, when these individuals were first born did people assert that he had become man in any of them, nor when they suffered, did anyone say that God himself suffered in them. But then he came among us from Mary once at the end of the ages for the abolition of sin (for so it was pleasing to the Father to send his own Son “made of a woman, made under the law”). And then it was said, that he took flesh and became man. It was in that flesh he suffered for us. His intention was to show, so that all might believe, that whereas he was ever God, and sanctified those to whom he came, and ordered all things according to the Father’s will, afterwards for our sakes he became man, and “bodily,” as the apostle says, the Godhead dwelt in the flesh. This was as much as to say, “Being God, he had his own body, and using this as an instrument, he became man for our sakes.” .

But if a man is gone down even to Hades and stands in awe of the heroes who have descended there, regarding them as gods, yet he may see the fact of Christ’s resurrection and victory over death. He may infer that among them also Christ alone is true God and Lord. For the Lord touched all parts of creation and freed and undeceived all of them from every illusion. As Paul says, “Having put off from himself the principalities and the powers, he triumphed on the cross”; that no one might by any possibility be any longer deceived but everywhere might find the true Word of God.

But the saints, and they who truly practice virtue, “mortify their members” and as the result of this, are pure and without spot, confiding in the promise of our Savior, who said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” These, having become dead to the world, who have renounced the merchandise of the world, gain an honorable death.