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The Divinity of Christ - Athanasius · Classic Speeches

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  Section twenty seven of the World's Best Orations, Volume one. This is a
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  LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
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  or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The World's Best Orations from
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  the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Volume one by David J. Brewer
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  and Edward A. Allen, Section twenty seven. Athanasius, The Divinity of
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  Christ Athanasius to ninety eight three seventy three. Athenasius, Patriarch of Alexandria,
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  owes his great celebrity chiefly to the controversy with the Arians, in which for
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  half a century he was at the head of the Orthodox party of the Church.
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  He was born at Alexandria in the year two ninety eight and was ordained
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  a priest at the age of twenty one. He accompanied his bishop Alexander to
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  the Council of Nicea in three twenty five, and when under thirty years old,
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  succeeded to the bishopric on the death of Alexander. His success in the
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  Aryan controversy was not achieved without cost, since, as an incident of it,
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  he spent twenty years in banishment. His admirers credit him with a deep
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  mind, invincible courage, and living faith. But as his orations and discourses
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  were largely controversial, the interest which now attaches to them is chiefly historical.
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  Was preached from the seventh and eighth verses of the forty fifth Psalm, the
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  Divinity of Christ behold, o ye Arians and acknowledge. Hence the truth Sma
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  speaks of us all as fellows or partakers of the Lord. But were he
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  one of things which come out of nothing and of things generated, he himself
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  had been one of those who partake. But since he hymned him as the
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  eternal God, saying thy throne, O, God is forever endeavor, and
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  has declared that all other things partake of him, what conclusion must we draw
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  but that he is distinct from generated things, and he only the Father's veritable
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  word, radiance and wisdom, which all things generate partake, sectified by him
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  in the spirit. And therefore he is here anointed, not that he may
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  become God, or he was so even before, nor that he may become
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  king, for he had the kingdom eternally, existing as God's image, as
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  the Sacred Oracle shows. But in our behalf is this written as before,
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  for the Israelite kings, upon their being anointed, then became kings, not
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  being so before as David, as Ezekieus as Josiahs and the rest. But
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  the Savior, on the contrary, being God and ever ruling in the Father's
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  kingdom, and being himself the dispenser of the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless, is
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  here said to be anointed, that as before, being said as man,
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  to be anointed with the Spirit, he might provide for us more not only
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  exaltation and resurrection, but the indwelling and intimacy of the Spirit. And signifying
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  this the Lord himself hath said by his own mouth in the Gospel, according
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  to John, I have sent them into the world, and for their sakes,
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  do I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified in the truth.
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  In saying this, he has shown that he is not the sanctified, but
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  the sanctifier. For he is not sanctified by another, but himself sanctifies himself
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  that we may be sanctified in the truth. He who sanctifies himself is Lord
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  of sanctification. How then does this take place? What does he mean?
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  But this, I, being the Father's word, I give to myself when
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  become man, the Spirit and myself become man, do I sanctify in him?
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  And henceforth in me, who am truth, or thy word is truth,
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  all may be sanctified, if then for our sake he sanctifies himself and
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  does this when he becomes man. It is very plain that the spirit's descent
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  on him in Jordan was a descent upon us because of his bearing our body.
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  And it did not take place for promotion to the Word, but again
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  for our sanctification, that we might share his anointing. And of us it
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  might be said, know ye not that ye our God's temple, and the
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  Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Or when the Lord as man was washed
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  he in Jordan, it was we who were washed in him and by him.
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  And when he received the spirit, we it was who by him or
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  made recipients of it. And moreover, for this reason, not as Aaron
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  or David or the rest was he anointed with oil, but in another way,
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  above all his fellows, with the oil of gladness, which he himself
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  interprets to be the Spirit, saying by the prophet, the Spirit of the
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  Lord is upon me. Because the Lord hath anointed me. As also the
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  Apostle has said, how God anointed him with the Holy Ghost. When then
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  were these things spoken of him? But when he came in the flesh and
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  was baptized in Jordan, and the Spirit descended on him, And indeed the
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  Lord himself said, the Spirit shall take of mine, and I will send
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  him and to his disciples, receive ye the Holy Ghost. And notwithstanding,
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  he who as the word and radiance of the Father gives to others, now
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  is said to be sanctified, because now he has become man, and the
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  body that is sanctified is his. From him, then we have begun to
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  receive the unction and the seal, John saying, and ye have an unction
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  from the Holy One, and the apostle, ye were sealed with the Holy
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  Spirit of promise. Therefore, because of us and for us are these words.
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  What advance then of promotion and reward of virtue, or generally of conduct
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  is proved from this in our Lord's instance. For if he was not God
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  and then had become God, if not being king, he was preferred to
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  the kingdom, your reasoning would have had some faint plausibility. But if he
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  is God and the throne of his kingdom, he is everlasting. In what
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  way could God advance or what was there wanting to him who was sitting on
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  his father's throne. And if, as the Lord himself has said, the
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  spirit is his and takes of his, and he sends it, it is
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  not the word considered as the word and wisdom who is anointed with the spirit,
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  which he himself gives, but the flesh assumed by him, which is
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  anointed in him, and by him, that the sanctification coming to the Lord
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  as man may come to all men from him. For not of itself saith
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  he doth the spirit speak, But the word is he who gives it to
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  the worthy. For this is like the passage considered above. For as the
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  Apostle hath written, who existing in form of God, thought it not robbery
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  to be equal with God, but humboldt himself and took a servant's form.
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  So David celebrates the lords, the everlasting God and King, but sent to
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  us and assuming our body, which is mortal. For this is his meaning.
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  In the Psalm, all the garments smell of mirror, aloes and Cassiah,
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  and it is represented by Nicodemus's and by Mary's company when he came,
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  bringing a mixture of mirror and aloes, about one hundred pounds weight, and
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  they took the spices which they had prepared for the burial of the Lord's body.
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  What advancement, then, was it to the immortal to have assumed the
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  mortal? Or what promotion is it to the everlasting to have put on the
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  temporal? What reward can be great to the everlasting God and King in the
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  bosom of the Father. See ye, not that this too was done and
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  written because of us and for us, that us, who are mortal and
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  temporal, the Lord become man, might make immortal and bring into the everlasting
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  Kingdom of heaven. Blush ye, not speaking lies against the divine oracles.
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  Or when our Lord Jesus Christ had been among us, we indeed were promoted
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  as rescued from sin. But he is the same. Nor did he alter
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  when he became man to repeat what I have said. But as has been
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  written, the Word of God abideth forever. Surely, as before his becoming
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  man, he the word dispends to the saints the spirit as his own.
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  So also when made man, he sanctifies all by the spirit, and says
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  to his disciples, receive ye the Holy Ghost. And he gave to Moses
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  and the other seventy And through him David prayed to the Father's saying, take
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  not thy Holy Spirit from me. On the other hand, when made man,
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  he said, I will send to you the Paraclete, the Spirit of
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  Truth. And he sent him he the Word of God as being faithful.
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  Therefore, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, remaining unalterable,
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  and at once gives and receives, giving as God's word, receiving as
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  man. It is not the word then viewed as the word that is promoted.
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  For he had all things, and has had them always. But men
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  who have in him and through him their origin of receiving them. For when
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  he is now said to be anointed in a human respect, we it is
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  who in him are anointed. Since also when he is baptized, we it
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  is who in him are baptized. But on all these things the Savior throws
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  much light when he says to the Father, and the glory which thou gavest
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  me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even
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  as we are one because of us. Then he asked for glory and the
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  words occur, took and gave and highly exalted, that we might take,
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  and to us might be given, and we might be exalted in Him,
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  as also for us he sanctifies himself, that we might be sanctified in Him.
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  But if they take advantage of the Word, wherefore, as connected with
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  the passage in the Psalm, wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed
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  Thee for their own purposes, Let these novices in scripture and masters in irreligion
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  know that as before the Word wherefore does not imply reward of virtue or god
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  conduct in the Word, but the reason why he came down to us,
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  and of of the Spirit's anointing which took place in him for our sakes.
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  For he says not wherefore he anointed thee in order to Thy being God or
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  King, or son or Word, for so he was before and is forever,
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  as has been shown. But rather since thou art God and King.
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  Therefore thou wast anointed, since none but thou couldst unite man to the Holy
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  Ghost. Thou the image of the Father in which we were made in the
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  beginning. For thine is even the Spirit. For the nature of things generate
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  could give no warranty for this, angels having transgressed and men disobeyed. Wherefore
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  there was need of God. And the Word is God, that those who
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  had become under a curse he himself might set free. If then he was
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  of nothing, he would not have been a Christ or anointed, being one
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  among others and having fellowship as the rest. But whereas he is God,
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  as being the Son of God, and is everlasting King, and exists as
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  radiance and expression of the Father, wherefore fitly is he the expected Christ,
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  whom the Father announces to mankind by revelation to his holy prophets, that as
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  through him we have come to be, so also in him all men might
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  be redeemed from their sins, and by him all things might be ruled.
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  And this is the cause of the anointing which took place in him, and
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  of the incarnate presence of the Word, which the Psalmist foreseeing celebrates. First
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  is Godhead and Kingdom, which is the fathers. In these tones, thy
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  throne o God is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness, is the scepter
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  of Thy Kingdom. Then announces his descent to us. Thus, wherefore God,
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  even thy God, hath anointed THEE with the oil of gladness above thy
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  fellows. Hindo, Section twenty seven, read by Bill Mostly, Lano County,
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  Texas, USA, May twenty fourth, twenty twenty three.