St. Athanasius commences with a common misconception held by a wide body of
non-Christians today. That is, to many non-Christian individuals, the incarnation of God is often
interpreted as a weakness or flaw in God’s nature; the rationale being, how can a being so
mighty and omnipotent degrade himself to the nature of a mere man and allow Himself to be
humiliated in such a manner? Even more, St Athanasius mentions that the incarnation of Christ
is often a target for mockery utilized by other worldviews to portray the weakness and futility of
the Christian Savior. It is this very sentiment that St. Athanasius quickly disproves. In his
refutation, St. Athanasius puts forth that God’s incarnation gives us Christians more of a reason
to be increasingly devout to Him as he willfully and lovingly took form in the flesh to atone for the
sins of mankind. In other words, Jesus Christ stepped down from his heavenly throne to right
the wrongs of mankind. This willful action of God in no way resembles a fault in the nature of
God, but rather highlights the mercy, justice, and love of God. In essence, it is because God is
ultimately just that someone had to be punished for the sins of man (for if no one was punished,
God would not be just), and out of His ultimate love He offered himself as a sacrifice to be
punished for the sins committed by man; and out of this willful sacrifice God’s ultimate mercy for
mankind was depicted. Just like a criminal who has committed many atrocities, mankind too
can be thought of in a similar manner as mankind has committed a myriad of unspeakable sins.
God being the just judge He is and mankind being the guilty defendant, God in his ultimate
mercy, justness, and love chose to become incarnate and pay the ultimate price for mankind:
releasing the sentence of death from mankind. In modern society, if a kind person (Jesus) were
to voluntarily swap out places with a criminal on death row (mankind), not a single individual
would view that kind person as weak or futile, but rather would view them as a person with great
courage, compassion, and strength. This too, is the manner in which we and all of mankind
should view Jesus since His willingness to take form in the flesh and die on the Cross was in no
way a display of weakness, but rather of great power and love for his children.