Credo 14: … true God from true God …

Athanasius in his discussion on the incarnation said out of nothing God created man, on them he bestowed his own life by the grace of the Word. However, unfortunately, man turned away from this eternal life to things corruptible under the advice of the devil – that ancient serpent. He, Athanasius, makes clear, though by nature man was subject to death, that is before ever he sinned, by virtue of their union with the Word they were capable of escaping the grip of nature’s law, provided they remained innocent. The presence of the Word shielded them from natural corruption. This was how God meant it to be, as Wisdom 2:23 says, ‘God created man for incorruption and as an image of His own eternity; but by envy of the devil death entered into the world’.

From the time man followed the words of the devil he began to waste away. The very reflection of the Word Himself was disappearing. God’s work was being undone. God needed to do something. It was not in the nature of God to leave man to perish. To leave man to perish would have been unfitting of God, who is all good. So he had to do something. In the word of a brother of mine it must have been all very exciting, at least, I think so. Any way, God had to do something, and in his infinite wisdom he did. To recreate the now corruptable man, he sent the incorruptable, incorporal, immaterial Word to redeem man. God solved the problem. Oh how great God is. This Word which entered history in flesh and blood was and is God. Hence the reason we say true God from true God.

This Word is Jesus.