the soteriology of saint athanasius of alexandria the conformation of ...

252 JOHN R. MEYER
Lord in kind although not in degree; in his «mystical body» ours
are consecrated and sanctified by the Son 182 .
a) The Judeo-Christian notion of XP^R*
The Old Testament kings were anointed with oil to symbolize
the penetration of the Spirit of God into their souls ;
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they came to be «possessed» by the Spirit . A king was consecrated
so that he could serve Yahweh, and the oil marked him
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with an external sign representing the divine power given him.
The oil was a sign of richness and abundance, an expression of
the sanctity communicated to the anointed one . For the
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Israelites, the fertility of the Promised Land was a special grace
from God, and the shiny oil represented the land's productivity
. It had a dynamic effect upon the anointed person, making
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him a participant of a sacred realm. The oil in and of itself was
just a vehicle of potentiality * , an instrument employed by God
1 7
to insert spiritual graces. The king was consecrated for a mission
that required the communication of divine powers to fulfill it.
Since the Lord was actually present in him, he was referred to as
God's ambassador. He pronounced the words of the Lord (Es. 61,
1) and God spoke in his mouth (// Sam. 23, 1-2). However, he
always remained a man with all of the physical and moral
weaknesses characteristic of men (// Sam. 3, 39; Ps. 51, 7-13).
The Arians viewed the anointing of Christ as the santification
and exaltation of the Son, therefore, Christ was not really
God. His anointing was some sort of royal unction that conferred
the gift of divine filiation and was not a visible confirmation of
it. This Arian doctrine is radically antikenotic. The self-abasement
of the Son is eliminated if the Logos was not truly made present
among men by the Incarnation. Athanasius replies that Christ is
anointed 8i' ritxa?, for us, in order to die for us and introduce us
into heaven. Both the grace of anointing and the exaltation refer
to the temple of the Word's human body which received the
power to sanctify himself and others in the Holy Spirit.
b) Impression of the [i,op