Grace of God

 IT is a doctrine much insisted on by S. Athanasius, that, together with the act of creation, there was, on the part of the Creator, a further act conservative of the universe which He was creating. This was the communication to it of a blessing or grace, analogous to the grace and sonship purchased for us by our Lord's incarnation, though distinct in kind from it and far inferior to it; and in consequence the universe is not only [ geneton ] but [ genneton ], not only made, but in a certain sense begotten or generated, and, being moulded on the Pattern supplied by the Divine Nature, is in a true sense an Image or at least a Semblance of the Creator. (Vid. art. [ genneton ].)

 In controversy with the Arians, he explains with great care the nature of this gift, because it was their device to reduce our Lord's Sonship, in which lay the proof of His Divinity, to the level of the supernatural adoption which has been accorded by the Creator to the whole world, first on its creation, and again through the redemption upon the cross of the fallen race of man.

 This grace of adoption was imparted in both cases by the ministration of the Eternal Son, in capacity of Primogenitus or First-born, (as through His Incarnation in the Gospel Economy, so through His [ sunkatabasis ], or the coming of His Personal Presence into the world in the beginning,) and was His type and likeness stamped upon the world, physical and moral, and a fulness of excellence enriching it from the source of all excellence. (Vid. [ prototokos ].)

 "Since God is self-existing and not composed of parts," says Athan., "such too is His Word also, being One Only-begotten God, who from a Father, as a Fount of Good, has gone forth ([ proelthon ]) Himself Good, and put into order and into consistency all things. The reason for this is truly admirable, and evidently befitting. For the nature of creatures, as coming into subsistence out of nothing, is dissoluble, and feeble, and, taken by itself, is mortal, but the God of the universe is good and of surpassing beauty in His nature. (vid. [ rheustos ]) ... Beholding then that all created nature was in respect of its own laws dissoluble and dissolving, lest this should happen to it, and the whole world fall back again into nothing, having made all things by His own Eternal Word, and having given substance to the creation, he refused to let it be carried away and wrecked ([ cheimazesthai ]) by stress of its own nature, and, as a Good God, He governs and sustains it all by His own Word, who is Himself God, ... through whom and in whom all things consist, visible and invisible," etc. contr. Gent. § 41.

 Again, "In order that what came into being might not only be, but be good, it pleased God that His own Wisdom should condescend ([ sunkatabenai ]) to the creatures, so as to introduce an impress and semblance of Its Image on all in common and on each, that what was made might be manifestly wise works and worthy of God. For as of the Son of God, considered as the Word, our word is an image, so of the same Son considered as Wisdom is the wisdom which is implanted in us an image; in which wisdom we, having the power of knowledge and thought, become recipients of the All-framing Wisdom, and through It we are able to know Its Father." Orat. ii. 78. ( Disc . n. 215.)

 S. Cyril, using another figure, says that the universe is grafted on the Word: "He is Only-begotten according to nature, as being alone from the Father, God from God, Light kindled from Light; and He is First-born for our sakes, that, as if on some immortal root, the whole creation might be ingrafted and might bud forth from the Everlasting. For all things were made by Him, and consist for ever and are preserved  in Him ." Thesaur. 25, p. 238.

 Moreover, Athan. goes so far as to suggest that the universe does not evidence the Creator, except as being inhabited by the Son, and that what we see divine in it is His Presence. "He has said, 'The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, His eternal Power and Divinity.' ... Study the context, and ye will see that it is the Son who is signified. For after making mention of the creation, he naturally speaks of the Framer's Power as seen in it, which Power, I say, is the Word of God, by whom all things were made. If indeed the creation be sufficient of itself alone, without the Son, to make God known, see that you fall not into the further opinion that without the Son it came to be. But if through the Son it came to be, and in Him all things consist, it must follow that he who contemplates the creation rightly, is contemplating also the Word who framed it, and through Him begins to apprehend the Father. And on Philip's asking, Show us the Father, He said not, 'Behold the creation,' but, He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father ." Orat. i. § 11, 12. ( Disc . n. 17.)

 2. It is then the original [ sunkatabasis ] of the Son, making Himself the First-begotten of the creation in the beginning, which breathes, and which stamps a sort of divinity upon the natural universe, and prepares us for that far higher grace and glory which is given to human nature by means of the Incarnation; this evangelical grace being not merely a gift from above, as resulting from the [ sunkatabasis ], but an inhabitation of the Giver in man, a communication of His Person, and a participation, as it may be called, of the Virtue of that Person, similar to that which, when He came upon earth, He bestowed on individuals by contact with His hands or His garments for their deliverance from bodily ailments or injuries.

 Our Lord, then, came on earth, not merely as the physician of our souls, but as the First-born and the Parent of a new Family, who should be the principle of propagation of a new birth in a fallen world. "The flesh being first sanctified in Him, we have the sequel of the Spirit's grace, receiving out of His fulness." Orat. i. § 50 fin. ( Disc . n. 83 fin.) "Therefore did He assume the body created and human, that, having renewed it as its Framer, He might make it God in Himself, and thus might introduce us all into the kingdom of heaven after His likeness." Orat. ii. § 70. "How could we be partakers of that 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 it to us?" Iren. Hær. iii. 18, 7.

 Hence it is that the adoption of Sons which is the gift which we gain by the Incarnation, is far more than an adoption in the ordinary sense of that word, and far stronger terms are used of it. Athan. says that we are made sons "truly," [ huiopoioumetha alethos ]. Decr. § 31 . (Nic. n. 45.) Again S. Basil says, that we are sons, [ kurios ], "properly," and [ protos ], "primarily," in opposition to [ ek metaphoras ] and [ tropikos ], "figuratively," contr. Eunom. ii. 23, 24. S. Cyril too says that we are sons "naturally," [ physikos ], as well as [ kata charin ], vid. Suicer. Thesaur. v. [ huios ], i. 3. Of these words, [ alethos ], [ physikos ], [ kurios ], and [ protos ], the first two are commonly reserved for our Lord; e.g. [ ton alethos huion ], Orat. ii. § 37. (Disc. n. 150 fin.) [ hemeis huioi, ouk hos ekeinos physei kai aletheiai ], Orat. iii. § 19. (Disc. n. 251.) Hilary indeed seems to deny us the title of "proper" sons, de Trin. xii. 15; but his "proprium" is a translation of [ idion ], not [ kurios ].

 The true statement is, that, whereas there is a primary and secondary sense in which the word Son is used, the primary, when it has its formal meaning of continuation of nature, and the secondary, when it is used nominally, or for an external resemblance to the first meaning, it is applied to the regenerate, not in the secondary sense, but in the primary. S. Basil and S. Gregory Nyssen consider Son to be a "a term of relationship according to nature " (vid. art. Son ), also Basil, in Psalm. 28, 1. The actual presence of the Holy Spirit in the regenerate in substance (vid. Cyril. Dial. 7, p. 638) constitutes this relationship of nature; and hence after the words quoted from S. Cyril above, in which he says, that we are sons [ physikos ], he proceeds "naturally, because we are in Him, and in Him alone," vid. Athan.'s words which follow in the text at the end of Decr. § 31. And hence Nyssen lays down as a received truth, that "to none does the term 'proper,' [ kuriotaton ], apply, but to one in whom the name responds with truth to the nature." contr. Eunom. iii. p. 123. And he also implies, p. 117, the intimate association of our sonship with Christ's, when he connects together regeneration with our Lord's eternal generation, neither being [ dia pathous ], or, of the will of the flesh. If it be asked what the distinctive words are which are incommunicably the Son's, since so much is man's, it is obvious to answer, first, [ idios huios ] and [ monogenes ], which are in Scripture; and, next, the symbols "Of the substance," and "One in substance," of the Council; and this is the value of the Council's phrases, that, while they guard the Son's divinity, they allow full scope, without risk of trenching on that divinity, to the Catholic doctrine as to the fulness of the Christian privileges.