Athanasius of Alexandria

[The Arians] whisper, “How can the Son be Word or the Word be God’s image? For a human word is composed of syllables, and only signifies the speaker’s will and then is over and done with.” … But the word of truth confutes them as follows: If they were disputing concerning any human being, then let them exercise reason in this human way, both concerning his Word and his Son. But if their dispute concerns God, who created humanity, let them no longer entertain human thoughts but others that are above human nature. For such as he that begets, such of necessity is the offspring. Whatever the Word’s Father is, the Word also must be. Now a man, begotten in time, also himself begets children in time. And since he came to be out of nothing, his word also is over and done with.But God is not like humans as Scripture has said. God is, exists and has always existed. Therefore also his Word exists and is forever with the Father, as radiance accompanies light. The human word is composed of syllables and neither lives nor operates anything but only signifies the speaker’s intention. It goes out and then goes away, no more to appear, since it did not exist at all before it was spoken. The word of human beings neither lives nor operates anything. Nor, in short, is it human. And this happens to it, as I said before, because the human being who begets it has his nature out of nothing. But God’s Word is not merely pronounced, as one may say, nor is it a sound of accents, nor should we think of his Son as his command. Rather he is the radiance of light and so is perfect offspring from perfect being. And so he is also God, since he is God’s image. For “the Word was God,” says Scripture. Since human words have no power or energy on their own, they work not by means of words but with their hands which they do have. But the human word does not subsist on its own. The “Word of God,” however, as the apostle says, “is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened before his eyes.” He is then Framer of all, “and without him was not one thing made,” nor can anything be made without him. Nor must we ask why the Word of God is not such as our word, considering God is not such as we are.

But this is God's kindness to man, that of whom He is Maker, of them according to grace He afterwards becomes Father also; becomes, that is, when men, His creatures, receive into their hearts, as the Apostle says, "the Spirit of His Son, crying, Abba, Father." And these are they who, having received the Word, gained power from Him to become sons of God; for they could not become sons, being by nature creatures, otherwise than by receiving the Spirit of the natural and true Son. Wherefore, that this might be, "The Word became flesh," that He might make man capable of Godhead. This same meaning may be gained also from the Prophet Malachi, who says, "Hath not One God created us? Have we not all one Father?" for first he puts "created," next "Father," to shew, as the other writers, that from the beginning we were creatures by nature, and God is our Creator through the Word; but afterwards we were made sons, and thenceforward God the Creator becomes our Father also. Therefore "Father" is proper to the Son; and not "creature," but "Son" is proper to the Father. Accordingly this passage also proves, that we are not sons by nature, but the Son who is in us; and again, that God is not our Father by nature, but of that Word in us, in whom and because of whom we "cry, Abba, Father." And so in like manner, the Father calls them sons in whomsoever He sees His own Son, and says, "I begat;" since begetting is significant of a Son, and making is indicative of the works. And thus it is that we are not begotten first, but made; for it is written, "Let Us make man;" but afterwards, on receiving the grace of the Spirit, we are said thenceforth to be begotten also.

For the Word perceived that death was the only way that the corruption of people could be undone. However, it was impossible for the Word to suffer death, being immortal and Son of the Father. Therefore, he takes to himself a body capable of death, so that such a body, by partaking of the Word who is above all, might be worthy to die in the stead of all, and might, because of the Word that had come to dwell in it, remain incorruptible. In this way, the corruption of all might be checked by the grace of the resurrection. By offering to death the body he himself had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from any stain, he got rid of death for all his peers by offering an equivalent. For the Word of God, which by his very nature is over everything, by offering his own temple and bodily vessel for the life of all, satisfied the debt by his death. And thus he, the incorruptible Son of God, joined with all by a similar nature, naturally clothed all with incorruption by the promise of the resurrection. For the actual corruption in death no longer has a hold on humanity because of the Word which, by his one body, has come to dwell among them. It is similar to when a great king has entered into some large city and taken up residence in one of the houses there. That city is thus deemed worthy of high honor. No enemy or bandit any longer descends on it and subdues it. On the contrary, it finds itself entitled to total protection because the king has taken up his residence in a single house there: so, too, has it been with the Monarch of all. For now that he has come to our realm and taken up residence in one body among his peers, from this time forward the whole conspiracy of the enemy against humankind is checked, and the corruption of death, which before had prevailed against them, is done away with. For the human race would have gone to ruin if the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, had not come among us to meet the end of death.

God by his living Word enlivens everyone and gives his Word as food and life to the saints, as the Lord declares, “I am the bread of life.” … But sin, too, has its own special bread—of death, calling to those who are lovers of pleasure and lack understanding. [Sin] says, “Touch with delight secret bread and sweet waters that are stolen.” For one who merely touches them has no idea that what is born from the earth perishes with [sin]. For even when the sinner thinks he is going to find pleasure, the end result of that food is anything but pleasant, as the Wisdom of God again reminds us: “Bread of deceit is pleasant to a person; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.” … The end result is, he eats and rejoices for a little while, but afterwards he spurns it the further his soul has moved away [from God]. For the fool does not know that those who depart far from God shall perish. … “Leave foolishness behind so that you may live, seek understanding so that you may remain.” For the bread of Wisdom is living fruit, as the Lord said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven: if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever.” For when Israel ate of the manna, which was indeed pleasant and wonderful, they still died, and whoever ate it did not live forever as a consequence of eating it; rather, the whole multitude died in the wilderness.…Now wicked people hunger for bread like this, for weak souls will hunger. But the righteous alone, being prepared, shall be satisfied, saying, “I shall behold your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when your glory is seen by me.” For he who partakes of divine bread always hungers with desire. And he who hungers in this way has a never-failing gift, as Wisdom promises, saying, “The Lord will not slay the righteous soul with famine.” He promises too in the Psalms, “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread.” We may also hear our Savior saying, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” It is much more satisfying then for the saints and those who love the life that is in Christ when they elevate themselves to a longing after this food.

Christ was not man [first], and then became God. Rather, he was [first] God, and then he became man, and that to deify us. When he became man, he was called Son and God, but before he became man, God had called the ancient people sons. In fact, he made Moses a god to Pharaoh, and Scripture says of many, “God stands in the congregation of gods.” Since this is so, it is plain that he is called Son and God later than they are. How then are all things through him, and how is he before everything? Or, how is he “firstborn of the whole creation” if he has others before him who are called sons and gods? And how is it that those first partakers do not partake of the Word?This opinion is not true; it is a device of our present Judaizers. For how in that case can any at all know God as their Father? For there can be no adoption apart from the real Son, who says, “No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” And how can there be deifying apart from the Word and before him? And yet, he says to their brothers the Jews, “If he called them gods, to whom the Word of God came.” And if all who are called sons and gods, whether in earth or in heaven, were adopted and deified through the Word, and the Son himself is the Word, it is plain that they all exist through him, and he himself is before all. Or rather, he himself is the only true Son, and he alone is very God from the very God, not receiving these prerogatives as a reward for his virtue or being another beside them, but being all these by nature and according to essence. For he is offspring of the Father’s essence, so that one cannot doubt that after the resemblance of the unalterable Father, the Word also is unalterable.