The Logos of the Father.
The Word of the Father, the Son of God, is primarily the
Creator organizer of the world and the source of Divine Revelation in world. "He
is the life which pours forth from the Father as if fpm a spring, giving life to
everything." All creation comes into being through the Word, and nothing exists
outside of the Word or is not created by the Word. The Father creates nothing
without Him. At the same time, the being and generation of the Son is not
connected with God's will to create the world. The Son is not generated so that
the world can be created through Him and in Him. "The Word of God did not
receive being for our sakes . . . He, the all-powerful, did not receive being
because of our weakness, or to be the Father's instrument in creating us. If God
had chosen not to create the world, nevertheless the Word was with God the
Father."
There is no cause for the being of the Son: "Just as the Father
has no cause for His being, it is also not necessary to try to find the reason
for His radiance. It is written: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and God was the Word. The reason for this has not been stated." There
is no cause by which ale Lord is the Word except that He is generated by the
Father and is the Father's Wisdom. This "causelessness" entails eternal using.
Causes exist only for things which have an origin or source. But Divine Being
has no beginning. One can only say that It is. It is impossible to
consider Its causes, for there is nothing which existed before that
is.
Athanasius decisively rejects and demonstrates the futility of
the teaching of the Arians on the Word as the mediator in creation. God does not
need an assistant or helper because He can accomplish everything by a single
movement of His will. God is not so conceited or fastidious that He would
consider creation beneath His dignity and entrust it to another. God needs no
instrument to create in the way that a carpenter needs a saw and axe.
Furthermore, if it is not unsuitable for God to create, why should He create
even one creature as an instrument for Himself? The creation of one Mediator
would entail the creation of another, and so on for eternity, and creation would
thus be impossible. Since God can create, why should He need a mediator?
The Son is not generated for the sake of Revelation but God is
revealed in Him and through Him. The being of the Son precedes the will to
create the world. "Creation for God is secondary. Generation, being the Father
of His own Son, comes before it." If there did not first exist in God that which
is from His nature, how could there exist that which is from His will, that
which is secondary?" That which is created by God's will "comes into being and
is composed from outside, and is built by that which God has generated from His
own essence. The Word builds and creates; He is the "living will of the Father,
His own energy." At the same time creation is the common work and common
revelation of the whole Trinity, which creates and builds as one. "The Father
creates everything by the Word in the Spirit, for where the Word is, there is
also the Spirit. That which is created by the Word has its being from the Spirit
through the Son." Everything which is given, including being, is given "in the
Trinity."
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