On the Incarnation
In the fall I read a short biography on Athanasius (c. 298 – 383) and some of his writings. What an interesting and significant figure! I have continued to slowly and devotionally read On the Incarnation. Some sections focus on points that seem obvious on the surface (but even in those places, contemplation is rewarded). Other sections quickly strike me as directly relevant and compelling for our own day. Here’s such an excerpt from #43, in chapter VII:
“Some may ask, then, why did He not manifest Himself by some means of other and nobler parts of creation, and use such as sun or moon or stars or fire or air, instead of mere man? The answer is this. The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach suffering men. For one who wanted to make a display the thing would have been just to appear and dazzle the beholders. But for Him Who came to heal and to teach the way was not merely to dwell here, but to put Himself at the disposal of those who needed Him, and to be manifested according as they could bear it, not vitiating the value of the Divine appearing by exceeding their capacity to receive it.”
Consider Elijah’s encounter not in the whirlwind or the fire but in the still, small whisper. Consider Jesus’ humility – Philippians 2, John 13, etc. Consider, also, the dignity conferred on man made in God’s imagine – and amplified by the incarnation: that God the Son Himself took on human nature makes human nature necessarily a profoundly noble nature (cf. John Owen’s The Glory of Christ). See Psalm 8.
Humility and glory are held here together – in God’s own self-humbling love for His people, and in the pattern into which we are called. Our own glory lies in Christ, exclusively, of course. More specifically, it lies in following Christ in accommodating ourselves, our message, our hope to the capacities and appreciations of those we love and serve, disregarding opportunities to aggrandize ourselves. Psalm 115:1 and John the Baptist’s model – “I must decrease that he may increase” (John 1:30ish).
