St. Athanasius work On the Incarnation provides to us a theological proclamation of the effective work of Christ in life, death, and resurrection for the salvation of the world. Here we see concepts such as the incarnation act as atonement, recapitulation, divination, and the universally salvific will of God. Here perhaps the most important of the concepts that St. Athanasius lays forth for his readers is that of the objective act of Christ in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection He underwent in the human nature. For as St. Athanasius states, the incarnation (nor the rest of what Christ did) was done in mere appearance but it was done in reality. Nor was it done in mere Word but it was actually done in reality. That is to say that the work of Christ is not merely to show us something, to depict something, that we might then go and do it to save ourselves. Rather this act of Christ is something that He Himself did, and that, not primarily to teach us that we might do, but in order for Him Himself to do. Said in another way, this means that something truly was accomplished through the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of the incarnate Christ. This thing which was done, St. Athanasius proclaims, is our salvation. And this is ultimately his answer to the question that the book poses to its readers. Why did God become man? He became man to save us. What did Christ’s incarnation accomplish? Our salvation. It is through the objective reconciliation of humanity and divinity in the person of Jesus Christ that works salvation out for us, through sanctifying the humanity, through putting death and sin to death, and through raising the human nature from the grave cleansed, sanctified, and glorified. This takes place for us and for our salvation in Jesus Christ.
