Sanctification

 ATHANASIUS insists earnestly on the merciful dispensation of God, who has not barely given us through Christ justification, but has made our sanctification to be included in the gift, and santification through the personal presence in us of the Son. After saying, Incarn. § 7, that to accept mere repentance from sinners would not have been fitting, [ eulogon ], he continues, "Nor does repentance recover us from our state of nature, it does but arrest the course of sin. Had there been but a fault committed, and not a subsequent corruption, repentance had been well, but if," etc. vid. Incarnation and Freedom .

 "While it is mere man who receives the gift, he is liable to lose it again (as was shown in the case of Adam, for he received and he lost), but that the grace may be irrevocable, and may be kept sure by men, therefore it is the Son who Himself appropriates the gift." Orat. iii. § 38.

 He received gifts in order "that for His sake ([ di  ' auton ]) men might henceforward upon earth have power against devils, as 'having become partakers of a divine nature,' and in heaven might, as 'being delivered from corruption,' reign everlastingly; ... and, whereas the flesh received the gift in Him, henceforth by It for us also that gift might abide secure." Orat. iii. § 40.

 "The Word of God, who loves man, put on Himself created flesh, at the Father's will, that, whereas the first man had made the flesh dead through the transgression, He Himself might quicken it in the Blood of His own body." Orat. ii. § 65. Vid. also Orat. i. § 48, 51, ii. § 56.

 "How could we be partakers of the adoption of sons, unless through the Son we had received from Him that communion with Him, unless His Word had been made flesh, and had communicated that Flesh to us?" Iren. Hær. iii. 19. "He took part of flesh and blood, that is, He became man, whereas He was Life by nature, ... that, uniting Himself to the corruptible flesh according to the measure of its own nature, ineffably and inexpressibly, and as He alone knows, He might bring it to His own life, and render it partaker through Himself of God and the Father ... For He bore our nature, re-fashioning it into His own life ... He is in us through the Spirit, turning our natural corruption into incorruption, and changing death to its contrary." Cyril. in Joan. ix. cir. fin .

 "The Word having appropriated the affections of the flesh, no longer do those affections touch the body, because of the Word who has come in it, but they are destroyed by Him, and henceforth men ... abide ever immortal and incorruptible." Orat. iii. § 33. vid. also Incarn. c. Ar. § 12. contr. Apoll. i. § 17. ii. § 6. "Since God the Word willed to annul the passions, whose end is death, and His deathless nature was not capable of them, ... He is made flesh of the Virgin in the way He knoweth," etc. Procl. ad. Armen. p. 616. Also Leon. Serm. 22, pp. 69, 71. Serm. 26, p. 88. Nyssen. contr. Apoll. t. 2, p. 696. Cyril. Epp. p. 138, 9. in Joan. p. 95. Chrysol. Serm. 148.

 "His body is none other than His, and is a natural recipient of grace; for He received grace as far as man's nature was exalted, which exaltation was its being deified." Orat. i. § 45. vid. arts. Indwelling and Deification .