Athanasius on Christmas - Part 1

On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius
Chapter 1 - Creation and the Fall
1. In our earlier book dealing with the attacks from non-Christian people, we dealt fully enough with a few of the chief points about the heathen worship of idols, and how those false fears originally arose.

With God’s help, we also showed that the Word of the Father is Himself divine, that everything that exists owes existence to His will and power, and that it is through Him that the Father gives order to creation, by Him that all things are moved, and through Him that they receive their being.

Now, Macarius, true lover of Christ, we must take a step further in the faith of our holy religion, and consider also how the Word became human and His divine appearing among us.

This divine mystery is bad-mouthed by Judaism and Greek thinkers mock it, but we adore this wonder!
Your own love and devotion to the Word also will be greater, because in His humanity He seems worth so little worth.

For it is a fact that the more unbelievers pour scorn on Him, so much more does He show off His true divinity.

The things which humans think are impossible, He plainly shows to be possible.
The very things that they mock as unsuitable for God, are made most suitable by His goodness.
Things which so-called smart people think are all too human, He declares to be divine, by His almighty power.

So, by what seems His utter poverty and weakness on the cross He overturns the posing and pretence of idols, and quietly and hiddenly wins over the mockers and unbelievers to recognize Him as God.

Now in dealing with these matters it is necessary first to recall what has already been said. You must understand why it is that the Word of the Father, so great and so high, has been made manifest in bodily form.

It is not that He has a human body because that is natural to Him - as if He had always had a human body. No, for as the Eternal Word He doesn’t have a human body like us.

He has been manifested in a human body for this reason only, out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us human beings.

We will begin, then, with the creation of the world and with God its Maker, for the first fact that you must grasp is this: the renewal of creation has been achieved by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning.

So, there is no conflict between creation and salvation - because the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works. He has achieved the salvation of the world through the same Word Who made it in the beginning.