The Universal Atonement According to Athanasius

some thoughts on "On the Incarnation" part 1

Earlier this week, I read On the Incarnation by Athanasius. Specifically, I read the translation published in 2011 and translated by John Behr. There is also a preface by C. S. Lewis (from an earlier translation) and an introduction by Behr, neither of which should be skipped.

The title of this book may be a little misleading, as Behr observes. It isn’t a discussion of the birth of Jesus, a fact that is only alluded to in passing; instead, Athanasius interprets “the Word became flesh” as being ultimately fulfilled with Jesus’s identification with humanity’s plight through his death on the cross.

Athanasius’s entire theology, including his monumental contribution to the doctrine of the Trinity, is not just Christocentric; it is cross-centric. And this cruciform lens of Athanasius challenges all the ways we talk about God, ourselves, and each other. It challenges how we view how God sees us and how we might think of creation and new creation, life and death, and the reconciliation of all things.

I think this book is well worth the read, and while you are more than welcome to read the collection of excerpts I’ll be sharing over several articles, I encourage you to purchase a copy for yourself. It’s relatively inexpensive. Click the button below for more information on the book to help guide your purchase.

In this article, I’ll be sharing quotations in which Athanasius affirms the universal scope of the atonement.

One thing to note before we start: this does not mean that Athanasius believed that Jesus’s death precludes the punishment or discipline of the unbelieving. Like theologians such as Origen, Thomas Erskine, and the writers of the New Testament, Athanasius believed in real consequences to rejecting the gospel.

On pages 109-110, Athanasius writes that some will receive good things within the kingdom of heaven, but others will receive “eternal fire and outer darkness.” This outer darkness, as I’ll discuss in a later article, is a symptom of their inner darkness and delusion which leads to unbelief. Concerning this, we may join with Athanasius (and with later writers such as George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis, and William Barclay) in asking, “What is God, being good, to do?”

But for now, we’ll be looking at the universal scope of the atonement.

Here’s a short article by Dr. Bradley Jersak on the realization and recognition of the reconciliation.

Realizing Our Union with God

Page Numbers

If you purchase this book for yourself, here are the page numbers where I could find references to the eternal scope of the atonement:

56-59, 63, 66-67, 69-71, 73, 76, 80, 82-83, 85, 87-89, 91, 93, 98, 103, 105, 107, and 109.

In his section on the Gentiles, you will find more than are listed here, but there seemed to me to be a difference in those comments than what can be found on the pages listed above, so I left them out intentionally. Besides that, there may be more throughout the other sections, so happy hunting!

Quotations

Being the Word of the Father and above all, he alone consequently was both able to recreate the universe and was worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to intercede for all before the Father. (56)

And thus, taking from ours that which is like, since all were liable to the corruption of death, delivering it over to death on behalf of all, he offered it to the Father, doing this in his love for human beings, so that, on the one hand, with all dying in him the law concerning corruption in human beings might be undone (its power being fully expended in the lordly body and no longer having any ground against similar human beings), and, on the other hand, that as human beings had turned towards corruption he might turn them again to incorruptibility and give them life from death, by making the body his own and by the grace of the resurrection banishing death from them as straw from the fire. (57)

For the Word, realizing that in no other way would the corruption of human beings be undone except, simply, by dying, yet being immortal and the Son of the Father the Word was not able to die, for this reason he takes to himself a body capable of death, in order that it, participating in the Word who is above all, might be sufficient for death on behalf of all, and through the indwelling Word would remain incorruptible, and so corruption might henceforth cease from all by the grace of the resurrection. Whence, by offering to death the body he had taken to himself, as an offering holy and free of all spot, he immediately abolished death from all like him, by the offering of a like. For being above all, the Word of God consequently, by offering his own temple and his bodily instrument as a substitute for all, fulfilled in death that which was required; and, being with all through the like [body], the incorruptible Son of God consequently clothed all with incorruptibility in the promise concerning the resurrection. And now the very corruption of death no longer holds ground against human beings because of the indwelling Word, in them through the one body. (58)

…restoring every aspect of human beings by his own power. (59)

For neither did he make creation itself be silent, but what is most wonderful, even at his death, or rather at the very trophy over death, I mean the cross, all creation confessed that he who was made known and suffered in the body was not simply a human being but Son of God and Savior of all. (69)

But since what was required from all still had to be rendered (for, as I said earlier, it was absolutely necessary to die and for this, in particular, he sojourned amongst us), for this reason, after the demonstrations of his divinity from his works, he now offered the sacrifice on behalf of all, delivering his own temple to death in the stead of all, in order to make all not liable to and free from the ancient transgression, and to show himself superior to death, displaying his own body as incorruptible, the first-fruits of the universal resurrection. (70)

And thus it happened that both things occurred together in a paradoxical manner: the death of all was completed in the lordly body, and also death and corruption were destroyed by the Word in it. For there was need of death, and death on behalf of all had to take place, so that what was required by all might occur. (71)

Such action did not show weakness on the part of the Word, but rather made him known to be Savior and Life, in that he both waited for death to destroy it and hastened to complete the death given to him for the salvation of all. (73)

…but we were those who needed it, whom he himself carried up through his own body. For as he offered to death on behalf of all. so through it he opened up again the way to heaven. (76)

Therefore death upon the cross for our sakes was fitting and suitable, and its cause appeared to be consistent in every way, and there are solid arguments that the salvation of all had to take place in no other way than by the cross. (76)

For the Son of God "is living and active" (Heb 4.12), works daily, and effects the salvation of all. (82)

Which of the holy prophets or patriarchs of old died on the cross for the salvation of all? Or who was wounded and destroyed for the healing of all? (87)

He it is that was crucified, with the sun and creation as witnesses together with those who inflicted death upon him; and by his death salvation has come to all, and all creation been ransomed He it is who is the Life of all and who like a sheep delivered his own body to death as a substitute for the salvation of all, even if the Jews do not believe. (89)

For this reason they prophesied until there should come justice itself and the one who redeems the sins of all. (91)

…let him rather marvel that through such a paltry thing things divine have been manifested to us, and that through death incorruptibility has come to all, and through the incarnation of the Word the universal providence, and its giver and creator, the very Word of God, have been made known. For he was incarnate that we might be made god; and he manifested himself through a body that we might receive an idea of the invisible Father; and he endured the insults of human beings, that we might inherit incorruptibility. (107)

Some Light Commentary

The numbers below are related to the page numbers at the end of each quotation. I’m not going to comment on every quotation because they are all self-sufficient, but I do want to point out a few things that stood out to me.

56

The idea that Jesus recreated the universe through the atonement is actually mind-blowing, but I think Athanasius is in line with both Paul and John here. Paul saw the same thing in 2 Corinthians 5:17, and I think John had this in mind as well in speaking of the garden and Gardener in John 19-20.

One might call what Athanasius is doing here realized or inaugural eschatology. That is, Jesus’s parousia (advent, e.g. p. 53; this word is translated “coming” in the NT to refer to the second coming as well) was realized in the “first” coming of Jesus. All of the eschatological themes—judgment, resurrection, recreation, and even what some call the rapture or joint ascension with Christ (p. 76)—were realized in the incarnation. The second manifestation (p. 109) of Jesus doesn’t undo what was accomplished in the first.

57

His imagery of banishing death as straw from the fire is reminiscent of 1 Corinthians 3 where Paul said,

Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 1 Corinthians 3:12–13

Athanasius was able to say that all died along with Jesus because of his view of the singleness of the nature of humanity. All humans share in the same nature, so for the Word to take on the body (soma?) and die meant that all died. This agrees with what Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 15, 2 Corinthians 5, and Romans 5. Notice especially 2 Corinthians 5:

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died… 2 Corinthians 5:14

See also quote 71.

82

Several years ago, I made this observation concerning Hebrews 4:12. It’s been nice to discover that many others have read Hebrews 4:12 in the same way.

91

Here we have an idea that is what Thomas Erskine would later teach: God has pardoned everyone’s sins. What distinguishes believers from unbelievers is the recognition of this reality and, from this, their outlook on life, experience of death, and view of the Creator and created.

Categorical Versus Numerical

When the authors of the New Testament would use the word all, I would typically dismiss this as a categorical statement. That is, Jesus died for all categorically: Jew and Greek, bond and free, male and female. This was to escape the apparent universal implications of passages such as Romans 5 or 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul certainly used the word all to speak of categories in many passages. I don’t deny that.

However, I made this concept bear far more weight than it could handle, and it has now collapsed under the unimaginable height, breadth, length, and depth of the love of Christ. Now, instead of lazily assuming the categorical (or numerical) use of the word all, I’m trying to examine each text on its own merits.

It is undeniable to me that Paul, along with Athanasius, had in mind far more than categories when he talked about the reconciliation of all things, but, again, there is a difference between pardon, justice, and salvation as we’ll examine in a later article. After all, “What is God to do?” In the next post, I’ll be looking at the four times Athanasius uttered this famous line along with an implied version of this question that shows up later in his work.