De Incarnatione (6)
Examen of Chapters 27-30
“Death having been put to death by Him”
The cross bears witness to the fact that death no longer has its power over us, but that as Christians, we even stand over it and mock it. Athanasius uses an example of a dethroned tyrant king who now sits in the streets. Where the people of the kingdom once feared him, they now pass by him and spit on him and mock him. Mirroring the mocking language that Paul quotes to the Corinthians the book of Hosea chapter 13 verse 14.
“O death, where is your victory? O hell, where is your sting?”
Where once it was scandalous to imagine your own death, it is now something that Christians are eager to face for the sake of Christ our Lord.
It is human nature to despise death, just like any other animal, but when imbued with the Spirit of God given to us by Christ through faith in Him, we defy our physical nature, now living in the Spirit, we now look forward only to the spiritual things, which are now recognized as higher goods. As such, the thought of a merely physical death no longer scandalizes us. In the flesh, we fear the things of the flesh. In the Spirit we fear only the things of the Spirit as Jesus says in Matthew 10:38:
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
We also see as noted in previous chapters of this book, Christ once again appeals to our human senses, giving us a means by which we can have faith. In this section we see that Christ shows visibly the victory that has been had over death. In His visible resurrection, and in the faith of the martyrs as they oppose death, showing its weakness. Athanasius uses the parallel of fire and asbestos. Where one may fear fire until they are shown its weakness in being unable to destroy asbestos. Likewise, when we fear death, once simply must look towards Christ, which death could not conquer, and in seeing and believing this fact, we no longer are afraid of death.
On a side note, we previously have seen arguments that whatever it is that Christ assumed, he perfects and brings back to Himself. Likewise, when Christ entered a human death, He perfects it, wherein He entered sheol, and saved all the righteous, preaching to them the good news of His coming and victory, leading those righteous to heaven. So after the harrowing, those in Christ now have a perfect death, entering heaven to reign with Christ forever, rather than imperfectly entering sheol.
And so, to conclude, we see now the final evidence for this conquering of death, that if Christ were still dead, we would not see the martyrs spilling their blood, defying their human desire to flee from death. We would not see that idolatry in the hearts of men is being destroyed, leaving no more power for idols to take men captive. Also, if Christ were dead, we would not see that men would give up their fathers’ laws for that of Christs law. A man given himself over to Christ no longer lives by the teachings of Epicurus, or Aristotle, or Plato, but by the teachings of Christ. Where these men are dead, Christ lives forevermore and his teachings hold a much greater value and power, being a living testimony forever and ever, amen.