Skip to main content

Broken Heroes: Brokenness and Grace in the Life of Athanasius by Pastor Charlie Handren

By Anonymous
Athanasius (ca. 295-373) was a fourth century pastor, theologian, and leader who loved God with all of his heart and stood strong against the onslaught of Arian heresy, even when no one else would stand with him. As I mentioned last week, if Athanasius did not stand, the church could well have fallen, and therefore we ought to give thanks to God for him and consider him a hero.

However, I suspect that if we were to meet Athanasius, many of us would not like him. He was rough around the edges, to say the least. Christopher Hall calls him a “theological cage fighter” who was simultaneously “courageous, cagy, and cunning” (Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers, 57). Robert Payne concurs, adding that he was implacable, intense, and derisive of his enemies. “There was something in him of the temper of the modern dogmatic revolutionary: nothing stopped him. The Emperor Julian called him, ‘hardly a man, only a little manikin’” (quoted in Hall, 57).

Indeed, even his good friend Gregory said that he was simultaneously “a pillar of the church” and one who possessed “all the attributes of the heathen” (Hall, 57). Please take a moment to let this sink in. Athanasius was a hero of the church, to be sure, but he was a broken hero. In his zeal for truth, he hurt many people and fell short of accurately displaying the heart of Christ, who is the truth.

And yet, despite his serious, and sometimes inexcusable brokenness, the grace of God poured over and through the life of this man. On the one hand, the love of God in Christ has covered a multitude of his sins. The debt for his sinful thoughts, harsh words, and hurtful actions was paid in full on the cross, and thus Athanasius will enjoy unhindered fellowship with our God and Savior forever. God allowed him to live with this thorn in his flesh, but God did not permit the thorn to ultimately destroy him.

On the other hand, the very qualities that hurt so many people also allowed Athanasius to stand against exceedingly strong forces. It is impossible to describe in so short a space how much power was arrayed against this man, but in his grace, God used Athanasius’ stubbornness to protect and prosper biblical truth. Because of this very quality, the Arian heresy is considered heresy instead of orthodoxy, and thus Athanasius presents us with a stark, and perhaps stunning, example of God’s grace working through weakness.

It would be a mistake to minimize or overlook the hurt Athanasius caused in his lifetime. But it would be an even greater mistake to minimize or overlook the grace of God that worked through his weakness. Athanasius was a broken hero, a vessel of grace, for whom we should give thanks and praise to God.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

By Anonymous
To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Worship Songs, October 15, 2017

By
We post these worship songs leading up to the worship service so that parents may listen to them in the house or in the car within the days leading up to the worship service. Our hope is that children will hear the songs prior to and it will prepare them to participate in worship on Sunday mornings. My Redeemers Love Hope Has Come I Will Glory In My Redeemer Blessed Be Your Name Here In Your Presence Your Glory Be Still My Soul (In You I Rest) -- Sermon Text: John 11:1-16 That the next generation will set their hope in God and not forget the works of God (Psalm 78:7).
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations on the Glory of Christ: He Sits at the Right Hand of God

By
In Hebrews 1:2-4, the author makes seven claims about Jesus that when taken together greatly exalt his glory. The seventh claim the author makes about the Son is that, having made purification for sins, he now sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The words “he sat down” set the stage for chapter 7 where we’re taught that Jesus is both Priest and King. Prior to Jesus, no king offered his own sacrifices and no priest sat on the throne of David, for that wouldn’t be right. God had decreed that there should be a separation of powers between the priest and the king, but Jesus, unlike all before him, is worthy and able to fulfill both roles. So, on the one hand, Jesus sat down at the right hand of God after making purification for sins because the sacrifice he offered, namely himself, is sufficient. Other priests were always standing, as we see in chapter 10:11-14, because their work was never done. The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins, so the priests could...
Post a Comment
Read more