Athanasius on Christmas - Part 4

You may be wondering why we are discussing the origin of humanity when we are supposed to be talking about the Word becoming human.
The origin of humanity is relevant to the Word becoming flesh because… it was our messed up situation that caused the Word to come down.
Our sinful mess called to His love for us - and so He made haste to help us and to appear among us.

WE are the reason that He took on a human form.
It was for our salvation that in His great love He was both born and manifested in a human body.

God had created humanity as an embodied spirit - and it was His will that we would remain in our original undying life. BUT, when we human beings turned from the focussing on God to our own invented evil, we feel into the unavoidable law of death.

Instead of remaining in the state in which God had created humanity, they were in the process of becoming corrupted entirely, and death had them completely under its dominion.

Breaking God’s commandment was making humanity turn back to their temporary 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.

It is God alone Who has eternal life - true existence.
Evil is non-being, the opposite and denial of good.

By nature, of course, humanity is temporary & mortal - because we were made from nothing.
However, we were ALSO made with the Likeness of Him Who IS - the One who has eternal existence.

So, if humanity carries on being like God by keeping focussed on Him - then that natural origin from nothing is powerless and we could remain uncorrupted, existing forever.

In the ancient book of Wisdom it says; "The keeping of His laws is the assurance of incorruption."
If humanity remains free from corruption, then we would be like God, as Holy Scripture says, “I have said, You are gods and sons of the Highest, all of oy: but you die as mere humans and fall like one of the sinful angels.”