St. Athanasius composed one of the most important books in Christian literature, On the Incarnation, which provides a discourse on the divinity of Christ and the redemptive purpose of the Incarnation. In explaining the reason behind the Word of God becoming man, St. Athanasius provides five main arguments; in this article, we will cover the second of these.

The incarnation is the means of transformation to our holy nature before the fall. ‎

The second main argument by St. Athanasius on why the Word of God became man is that we couldn’t be restored to our incorruptible nature before the fall except through Christ taking a human body. Simply repenting doesn’t solve the problem that our nature is still corruptible:‎

Nor does repentance recall men from what is according to their nature; all that it does is make them cease from sinning. Had it been a case of trespass only and not of subsequent corruption, repentance would have been well enough, but when once transgression had begun, men came under the power of the corruption proper to their nature and were bereft of the grace which belonged to them as creatures in the ‎Image of God. No, repentance could not meet the case.‎

Therefore, the Word of God became incarnate, died for our sins, and resurrected, so that He might turn again to righteousness, men who had turned back to corruption, and make them alive through death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of His resurrection… Naturally, through this union of the immortal Son of God with our human nature, all men were clothed with righteousness in the promise of the resurrection. For the solidarity of mankind is such that, by the Word’s indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all.‎