Church Fathers
For me, the “Church Fathers,” as for many of you, were a mystery and of little importance. I would be in my forties before Baxter Kruger would introduce me to my first one, St. Athanasius (296-373). After my first decades among “the frozen chosen” and the next ones among the “cruisamatics,” I had had little interest in our ancient brothers and sisters of the early church. Our brother Athanasius showed up with the discussion of the “Nicene Creed” and its importance in understanding the character and nature of God as Trinity. Not with the concepts of water, steam, and ice like I grew up with in my youth. We can speak of the Trinity and yet, in the practical theology of our lives, be Monotheistic. Not live in a relationship with and from Divine Beings filled with life, fellowship, and the communion of other-centered and self-giving love!
St. Athanasius, the Bishop of Alexandria
As a young deacon in Alexandria, Athanasius wrote a brilliant work, On the Incarnation, that helped pave the way to the first Council of Nicaea. He was a champion of Nicene orthodoxy and one of two authors of the “Creed.” His ground “was God, being Good.” His grammar, “The Word of God came in His own person . . . because it was He alone, Who could recreate man made after the image.”
“As, then, the creatures whom He had created reasonable, like the Word, were in fact perishing, and such noble works were on the road to ruin, what then was God, being Good, to do?”
“What, then, was God to do? What else could He possibly do, being God, but renew His Image in mankind, so that through it men might once more come to know Him? And how could this be done save by the coming of the very Image Himself, our Savior Jesus Christ? Men could not have done it, for they are only made after the Image; nor could angels have done it, for they are not the images of God. The Word of God came in His own Person, because it was He alone, the Image of the Father Who could recreate man made after the Image.”
Athanasius’ position was a simple one that it was only God who could save! God and God alone who can break the power of sin and give Life. And that no creature can save another, that is to say, that only the Creator can save His creation. Thus Jesus is God!
In The Christian Theology Reader, edited by Alister McGrath, Athanasius’ position on the two natures of Christ is presented. “Being God, he became a human being: and then as God he raised the dead, healed all by a word, and also changed water into wine. These were not acts of a human being. But as a human being, he felt thirst and tiredness, and suffered pain. These experiences are not appropriate to deity. As God he said, “I am in the Father, the Father is in me”; as a human being he criticized the Jews, thus: “Why do you seek to kill me, when I am a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from my Father.” And yet these are not event occurring without connection, distinguished according to their quality, so that one class may ascribed to the body, apart from the divinity, and the other to the divinity, apart from the body. They all occurred in such a way that they were joined together; and the Lord, who marvelously performed those acts by grace, was one. When he willed to make himself known as God, he used his human tongue to signify this, when he said. “I and the Father are one.”
Arian Heresy
This Trinitarian position opposed what was known as the Arian heresy named after another Alexandrian bishop named Arius (250-336). Arius, drawing on Monotheistic concepts, would see Jesus as a lesser creature given as a sacrifice to resolve kingdom problems, much like Constantine, as a Sovereign ruler, called for the Council of Nicaea to settle his political issues.
Arian’s position stated that Jesus Christ was “first among the creatures,” first in rank, but created, a creature rather than Divine. That God had always existed and was before the Son; therefore, “There was a time when he (Jesus) was not.” Therefore, Jesus was not Divine. This conflict led to Constantine calling the first Council of Nicaea to resolve the matter and bring peace to his realm in the year 325. Even though only seven of the three hundred and eighteen voted with Arius. Constantine and his household continued to prefer Arius’ position. Athanasius would spend his life at odds with the different emperors in power and be removed and have to flee only to be restored once again to his Bishopric, no fewer than five times. It would not be until 381, after Athanasius’ death, when a Nicene emperor would rule, and Athanasius’ views would be accepted and recognized in the final version of the “Creed.”
C.S. Lewis, who wrote the introduction to an early translation of On the Incarnation, will later summarize this creedal position with his famous “Liar, Lunatic, or Lord” statement in Mere Christianity.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
For Athanasius and the other Bishops at the Council of Nicaea, the Incarnation was their good God’s answer, that is the Trinity’s, to Their children’s sin and darkness. They would give Themselves to redeem us through the Son’s incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension!
The Truth of Relationship
For me, this battle over the Divinity of Christ, the character of God, and Jesus’ union with the Father and the Spirit is one of eternal consequence. Athanasius was not fighting for mere doctrine but the central Truth of the universe. The Father and Son’s Life together in union before the beginning is not just “A” relationship, or “THE” relationship, but RELATIONSHIP itself! This relationship is the foundational Truth of the perichoretic Life, defined as the “mutual indwelling of persons without the loss of individuality.” Therefore, this union with distinction of the Trinity ends with all of us included in Their circle of Life! This relationship is intimate relations at their deepest level, described by Gregory of Nazianzus as ” interpenetration.” Without this Truth of a Loving Relationship, there is no Life to share, and life without it would be meaningless both now and later!!!