Who God Says He Is

Colossians 2:1-15

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (ESV)

St. Athanasius (A.D. 293-373), Bishop of Alexandria, so eloquently defended the full divinity of Christ against the Arians in the fourth century, that his teaching is the starting point for anyone who would want to fully and completely study the truth of the divinity of Christ our King. During those hectic Advent days leading up to the festival of the Nativity of our Lord, I try to take in something he has written, many times reading his On the Incarnation. This year, I am tackling (or being tackled by) Four Discourses Against the Arians. The Arians, as you may recall, were attempting to defend the unity of God by denying the full divinity of Christ. Athanasius defended the divinity of Christ against the Arians by being a student of the Word of God. He continually returned to the limpid wells of the divine speech for the truth of the incarnation. He who was born of Mary was none other than the eternal Son of the Father. The Arians had argued that there was a time "once" when Christ did not exist, that is, that he had a beginning. A being who has a beginning is not eternal, and therefore cannot be God. A Savior who is not God is an inadequate Savior. He has not the resources to save fallen humanity. He might not ever have the resources to save himself.

We know who the Baby in the manger is only because the divine Word tells us who He is. Thus Athanasius went back to the Bible's own language that calls Christ 'always' and 'eternal' and 'coexistent always with the Father.' To look upon Him we would never know. He is a baby like any other, who suckles at His mother's breast, needs His diaper changed, and cries when hungry or wet. The conditions of His birth would lead us to doubt His importance, not to mention His divinity. If He had a beginning at conception His birth gives us no hint of who He is. Therefore we are cast back upon the divine Word. And what could be better than that? Who better than God Himself to tell us about Himself? The Word tells us of the incarnation of the Word. We needn't speculate or consider the person of that baby on the basis of worldly philosophy (Col 2:8). That way we will avoid telling God what He ought to be. Instead, let's say who God says the Baby is: His eternal Son.

St. Athanasius

"You Arians have maintained and think, that 'there was once when the Son was not.' This is the first cloak of your doctrine which has to be stripped off. Tell us then what was once when the Son was not, O slanderous and irreligious men. If you say the Father, your blasphemy is but greater; for it is impious to say that He was 'once,' or to signify Him by the word 'once.' For He is ever, and is now, and just as the Son is, so is He, and is Himself He that is, and Father of the Son. But if you say that the Son was once, when He Himself was not, the answer is foolish and meaningless. For how could He both be and not be? In this difficulty, you can but answer, that there was a time when the Word was not; for your very adverb 'once' naturally signifies this.

"Your other statement, 'The Son was not before His generation,' is equivalent to saying, 'There was once when He was not,' for both the one and the other signify that there is a time before the Word. Where then does your discovery come from? Why do you, as the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain against the Lord and against His Christ? (Ps 2:1-2), for no Holy Scripture has used such language of the Savior, but rather it uses the words 'always' and 'eternal' and 'coexistent always with the Father.' For, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1).

In Revelation he thus speaks: 'Who is and who was and who is to come' (Rev 1:4). Now who can rob 'who is' and 'who was' of eternity? This too in refutation of the Jews Paul wrote in Romans, 'According to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen' (Rm 9:5)while silencing the Greeks, he has said, 'For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made' (Rm 1:20).

What the power of God is, he teaches us elsewhere himself, 'Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God' (1Co 1:24). Surely in these words he does not designate the Father, as you Arians often whisper to one another, affirming that the Father is 'His eternal power.' This is not so; for he says not, 'God Himself is the power,' but 'His is the power.' Very plain is it to all that 'His' is not 'He;' yet not something alien but rather proper to Him."

Athanasius of Alexandria, Four Discourses Against the Arians, 1.11