The God Who is Like Us
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“death was made the penalty of transgression; and not death simply, but death and the continuance in the corruption of death.”
“All things were becoming corrupt: what was God’s goodness to do? Suffer corruption to reign over them? Why, then, was man created? For weakness would be attributed to God if His work failed under His very eyes. This would be most monstrous.
Therefore man could not be left in corruption."
Isaiah 7:14 (ESV)
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
“The Word, perceiving that death could not be abolished except by the death of all; and since He Himself, the Immortal Word, could not die, took a body capable of death, and in it made a sufficient death for all: He by the resurrection abolished corruption, and by the self-sacrifice obliterated death. For He by His death satisfied all that was required, since all are united with Him; and by our solidarity with Him and one another we all are clothed with His immortality, and death no longer has any power over us. The presence of an emperor in a city preserves it from attack, and similarly the presence of the Word in human nature has put an end to the plots of our enemies and the corruption of death.”
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
“The whole argument thus turns upon the solidarity of mankind—the oneness of the human race, and its incorporation in Christ by virtue of the Incarnation. It is refreshing, amid the many unsatisfactory theories of the Atonement which are proposed, to find how thoroughly scriptural is the line of thought adopted by Athanasius. All mankind sinned in their first parents; all mankind in mystic union with Christ fulfilled in His death the law of death. ‘If one died for all, then all died.’ ‘As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.’ Christ is the Representative, Proxy, and Head of the whole race which is recapitulated1 in Him.”
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
“It was man, as already made, that was in a state of corruption and needing salvation, and therefore the Word very fitly used a human instrument. The corruption had become a context of the body; death was woven in with man’s nature; and it was necessary for life to be woven in to counteract the corruption of death. Therefore the Word became Incarnate that He might win back mortal man to immortality.
Stubble enwrapt with asbestos does not fear fire; so the body endued with Christ does not fear death.”
Unattributed quotes by ~ Athanasius of Alexandria, Athanasius: On the Incarnation of the Word of God. Written before AD 319
Do you fear death?
Does God seem near or far from you? Does “God with us” ring true to you in your experiences?
Do you believe God is with us through the person of Jesus Christ and His indwelling Holy Spirit?
If you don’t feel like God is with you, do you see anything in your thinking or acting that should change?