Friday, April 26, 2013

A Voice from the Past - Athanasius

So, since the common Saviour of all has died for us, no longer do we the faithful in Christ now die as before according to the threat of the law, for such condemnation has ceased. But as corruption has ceased and been destroyed by the grace of the resurrection, now in the mortality of the body we are dissolved only for the time which God has set for each man, in order that we may be able to 'obtain a better resurrection'. For like seeds which are sown in the ground we do not perish when we are dissolved, but we rise again as plants, since death has been destroyed by the grace of the Saviour.

Athanasius, 293-373 AD, De Incarnatione, 21:1-9 (Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione, translated by Robert W. Thomson, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1971, p. 185)

How should a Christian view the resurrection? How should it affect how we live our lives?

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