Athanasius' On the Incarnation and its implications on the immaculate conception

[Future_Prodigy]

I have copy and pasted a exert from a old essay I did which summarizes the first 3 chapters of Athanasius’ piece. If we take this early patristic view on ‘original sin’ (as it is used in the western tradition) and our inherited spiritual corruption, does this not have very real implications on the immaculate conception of mary and Jesus’ incarnation? If Jesus inherited his human flesh from Mary but if she did not have any of the effects of the fall then how could Jesus have saved us all?

(exert from essay) “If the theme of Athanasius’ writing in the first 3 chapters had to be summarized in one sentence it would sound something along the lines that Jesus being fully God, assumed a human body in order that in His death He may atone for the deaths of all others, the penalty for which owed its sentence to Adam’s initial transgression. This theme resonates throughout the entire piece, not just the first 3 chapters. Athanasius argues from what seems like a Pauline standpoint on this issue of death, for Paul says that by “one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men” and by the death of His Son we are reconciled to God. It is from this standpoint that Athanasius seems to approach the issue. He says that the commandment given in Genesis 3:19, which warns Adam that if he eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil he will surely die, and its following breach is what caused mans’ nature to fall into a state of death and corruption. God, being a God of Love, could not allow his creation to continue in this downward spiral of death and corruption, yet he could not go back on his word, this being that death was the penalty for transgression. It would be unthinkable for God to go back on his decree, for He is Truth itself and there is no falsity in God, but at the same time He is all Goodness so he could not let his creation suffer; this would be a limitation on His goodness and totally unfitting of Himself. God laid down the principle that sin leads to death, and He doesn’t lie. The mercy of God is seen not by making Himself a liar, in breaking his decree by providing an alternative but rather through the acceptance of the penalty of death being and then fulfilling the decree Himself. When taking this all into consideration we can then see that the crucifixion reconciles us to God, resetting the balance, in an action that shows His justice and mercy in a single event.
Athanasius is quite clear that this state of death and corruption inherited from Adam is a spiritual condition that changed our very nature. He points out that if it was only a trespass then repentance might cover the blot and bring us back to our initial state, but because the actions of Adam changed our inner nature, bereaving us of His grace that sheaved us with incorruptibility, then repentance will not change anything. Only through death could this ontological crisis be eternally satisfied.
For this soteriological event to occur God Himself had to appear among us in the flesh, for only His death could satisfy the decree. Jesus by nature was immortal and above all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all. By his death, which would then also be above all other deaths, would be a sufficient exchange for the death of all sinners. The taking on of corruptible flesh was needed preciously because when the Word of God attached Himself to our flesh and sacrificed it to the Father he could restore mans nature back to incorruptibility:
He assumed a body capable of death, in order that it, through belonging to the Word, Who is above all, might become in dying a sufficient exchange for all
As we can see from this statement because the Word (Christ) is “above all” and thus coincidently also implicitly implying His death is also “above all,” His death therefore is sufficient exchange for the deaths of all other sinners. Thus, Christ’s Incarnation and Crucifixion satisfied the decree of Gods Justice on death (brought about by Adam’s sin). It is by the Divine union with the human nature of Christ that His death is able to accomplish this, to take on death for us all:
Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death instead of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished because, having fulfilled in His body that for which it was appointed, it was thereafter voided of its power for men
So, by the Gods indwelling in the flesh death lost its sting, for men were now clothed in incorruption via the hope and promise of the resurrection to come. ’

 

[Ghosty]

It’s actually quite simple, IMO. St. Athanasius makes it quite clear that humans are mortal by nature, but were destined to be preserved by Grace. By the very fact that we are “animal”, according to St. Athanasius, we are capable of death. Adam’s sin didn’t change our nature, but rather removed God’s Grace which preserved us from the effects of our nature.

Christ, then, in taking human flesh was automatically capable of death should God allow, and clearly God allowed for it. Christ no more needs to be born of a sinner than Christ Himself needed to be a sinner; all that was needed was that He have human flesh and be given over to death as an infinitely righteous sacrifice.

Here’s the relevant passage from St. Athanasius concerning the mortality of man:

For the transgression of the commandment was making them turn back again according to their nature; and as they had at the beginning come into being out of non-existence, so were they now on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again. The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists, evil is non-being, the negation and antithesis of good.*** By nature, of course, man is mortal, since he was made from nothing***; but he bears also the Likeness of Him Who is, and if he preserves that Likeness through constant contemplation, then his nature is deprived of its power and he remains incorrupt. So is it affirmed in Wisdom: “The keeping of His laws is the assurance of incorruption.” And being incorrupt, he would be henceforth as God, as Holy Scripture says, “I have said, Ye are gods and sons of the Highest all of you: but ye die as men and fall as one of the princes.”
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/images/indent.gif(5) This, then, was the plight of men. God had not only made them out of nothing, but had also graciously bestowed on them His own life by the grace of the Word. Then, turning from eternal things to things corruptible, by counsel of the devil, they had become the cause of their own corruption in death; for, as I said before, though they were by nature subject to corruption, the grace of their union with the Word made them capable of escaping from the natural law, provided that they retained the beauty of innocence with which they were created.

So it is more accurate to say that Grace changes our nature into being capable of eternal life, whereas sin reverts us back to our “default” mortality. Of course God can permit death even to those in Grace, more specifically to Christ who is God Himself, just as Christ could lift a rock with His human abilities rather than simply willing it to rise with Divine power; in dying Christ simply “operated” according to human nature, giving Himself over to death inspite of Grace.

Make sense?

Peace and God bless!

 

[marlo]

hi ghosty

with your explanation, it means that Original sin only means that the corruption in the nature of adam was just the removal of the sanctifying grace that protects us from dying.

with this we can also explain that immaculate conception means that Mary Our Lady, did not loose her sanctifying grace at the moment of her conception

How then can Our Lady die and ascend to heaven?

thanks
marlo

It’s actually quite simple, IMO. St. Athanasius makes it quite clear that humans are mortal by nature, but were destined to be preserved by Grace. By the very fact that we are “animal”, according to St. Athanasius, we are capable of death. Adam’s sin didn’t change our nature, but rather removed God’s Grace which preserved us from the effects of our nature.

Christ, then, in taking human flesh was automatically capable of death should God allow, and clearly God allowed for it. Christ no more needs to be born of a sinner than Christ Himself needed to be a sinner; all that was needed was that He have human flesh and be given over to death as an infinitely righteous sacrifice.

Here’s the relevant passage from St. Athanasius concerning the mortality of man:

So it is more accurate to say that Grace changes our nature into being capable of eternal life, whereas sin reverts us back to our “default” mortality. Of course God can permit death even to those in Grace, more specifically to Christ who is God Himself, just as Christ could lift a rock with His human abilities rather than simply willing it to rise with Divine power; in dying Christ simply “operated” according to human nature, giving Himself over to death inspite of Grace.

Make sense?

Peace and God bless!

 

[Ghosty]

How then can Our Lady die and ascend to heaven?

The same way we are able to say that Christ died: by her human nature. Human nature is mortal, and can die; not WILL die, but CAN die. Both Christ and Mary died by virtue of human nature.

Remember, if you say that a fully-Graced Mary can’t die, then you are saying that Christ couldn’t die.

Peace and God bless!

 

[marlo]

hi Ghosty, correct me if i’m wrong

so if i compare the understanding of East and West on Original Sin, when the Latins says, “the corruption of the nature of Adam”, the nature there means the sanctifying grace with the human flesh.

when EO says, Our Lady has the same Nature of Adam and the same nature that we have, they are referring to the human flesh only

my questions is, what does the EO calls that sanctifying grace Adam had before the fall

thanks
marlo

The same way we are able to say that Christ died: by her human nature. Human nature is mortal, and can die; not WILL die, but CAN die. Both Christ and Mary died by virtue of human nature.

Remember, if you say that a fully-Graced Mary can’t die, then you are saying that Christ couldn’t die.

Peace and God bless!

 

[Ghosty]

hi Ghosty, correct me if i’m wrong

so if i compare the understanding of East and West on Original Sin, when the Latins says, “the corruption of the nature of Adam”, the nature there means the sanctifying grace with the human flesh.

when EO says, Our Lady has the same Nature of Adam and the same nature that we have, they are referring to the human flesh only

my questions is, what does the EO calls that sanctifying grace Adam had before the fall

thanks
marlo

The phrase “corruption of the nature of Adam” can actually have a few different meanings depending on the context and intent. It can mean its corruption in death, since falling apart is literally corruption. In that case it wouldn’t mean that the nature corrupted into something different, but that it corrupted according to its own properties, much like a mountain eroding.

It can also mean the corruption of our natural faculties, since without Sanctifying Grace we actually become “less than natural”, unable to fully do the good that is natural to us.

Finally it can also refer to the loss of Sanctifying Grace itself, when it is considered as part of the package deal of being human.

As for the Eastern view, there’s not been quite as much formulation of the meaning as there has been in the West and you can find all the different meanings used interchangeably. In modern discussions, however, there does tend to be a focus on the idea of some kind of fundamental change in the nature, as if the nature of Adam was somehow a different nature after the Fall than before, but I’m not sure such an approach is supported by the Fathers (it certainly isn’t supported by St. Athanasius, who clearly says that Adam “fell back” to his base nature, and that this was the corruption).

Peace and God bless!