Quote from Athanasius

[Hornet]

Here is an excerpt from On the Incarnation by Athanasius

As, then, he who desires to see God Who by nature is invisible and not to be beheld,
may yet perceive and know Him through His works, so too let him who does not see Christ
with his understanding at least consider Him in His bodily works and test whether they be
of man or God. If they be of man, then let him scoff; but if they be of God, let him not mock
at things which are no fit subject for scorn, but rather let him recognize the fact and marvel
that things divine have been revealed to us by such humble means, that through death
deathlessness has been made known to us, and through the Incarnation of the Word the
Mind whence all things proceed has been declared, and its Agent and Ordainer, the Word
of God Himself. He, indeed, assumed humanity that we might become God. He manifested
Himself by means of a body in order that we might perceive the Mind of the unseen Father.
He endured shame from men that we might inherit immortality. He Himself was unhurt
by this, for He is impassable and incorruptible; but by His own impassability He kept and
healed the suffering men on whose account He thus endured. In short, such and so many
are the Savior's achievements that follow from His Incarnation, that to try to number them
is like gazing at the open sea and trying to count the waves. One cannot see all the waves
with one's eyes, for when one tries to do so those that are following on baffle one's senses.
Even so, when one wants to take in all the achievements of Christ in the body, one cannot
do so, even by reckoning them up, for the things that transcend one's thought are always
more than those one thinks that one has grasped.

What is meant by this statement? "He, indeed, assumed humanity that we might become God."

[Just Passing Through]

Athanasius wrote this in Greek, and he didn't actually say "become God." He used a Greek verb, theopoieo, which essentially means to deify, to make (us) gods/god-like, a word that would have been commonly used of kings and emperors being elevated to a god-ish status. "God-like" is probably closer to what he had in mind. We neither become God nor receive all the attributes of God, but Christ, by becoming man, elevates us to receive a level of glory and immortality and in the image of God, that is so far in contrast from our mere mortal nature, that Athanasius uses this word, that maybe goes a farther than it should, to impress on us the honor we receive from Christ's humiliation.

[mikewhitney]

I also just heard that the earlier writers were not using strict language; they just had to get the words close enough for the audience to understand their message. Only when controversy occurred was there a need to be super accurate in one's language.

[hedrick]

Divinization is actually a major theme in Eastern Christianity. I'm not the best to defend it, but it's an implication of the "double exchange." Christ became like us to make us like him. As noted above, it's not exactly that we're divine in the literal sense, but that we take on supernatural life, a type of life not possible without communion with God.

[One Bad Pig]

God became man that man might become god (by grace). Athanasius elsewhere is insistent on the Creator/created distinction, so he's certainly not saying that we'll become just like God. Eventually, the East made an explicit distinction between the essence of God (which is entirely unattainable by man) and the energies of God (made visible in the Transfiguration), which can be acquired by grace.

[Hornet]

Athanasius wrote this in Greek, and he didn't actually say "become God." He used a Greek verb, theopoieo, which essentially means to deify, to make (us) gods/god-like, a word that would have been commonly used of kings and emperors being elevated to a god-ish status. "God-like" is probably closer to what he had in mind. We neither become God nor receive all the attributes of God, but Christ, by becoming man, elevates us to receive a level of glory and immortality and in the image of God, that is so far in contrast from our mere mortal nature, that Athanasius uses this word, that maybe goes a farther than it should, to impress on us the honor we receive from Christ's humiliation.

1 John 3:2 teaches that when Jesus appears, we shall be like Him. Romans 8:29 teaches that God predestined us to become conformed to the image of His Son. I suppose Athanasius had the same idea as John and Paul. We are to emulate Christ's character.

[Hornet]

Divinization is actually a major theme in Eastern Christianity. I'm not the best to defend it, but it's an implication of the "double exchange." Christ became like us to make us like him. As noted above, it's not exactly that we're divine in the literal sense, but that we take on supernatural life, a type of life not possible without communion with God.

It sounds like receiving new life and becoming more sanctified.

[Rushing Jaws]

This seems relevant: http://biblehub.com/2_peter/1-4.htm

[KingsGambit]

This seems like the type of thing that the Mormons would take out of context and run with.

[One Bad Pig]

This seems like the type of thing that the Mormons would take out of context and run with.

Yes, the Mormons like that little snippet. When challenged to read the whole treatise for context.... crickets.