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 fourth one.

The Incarnation helps us live a virtuous life.

One of the spiritual arguments that St. Athanasius mentioned is that humans were knee-deep in sin and wickedness. God:

“saw how the surpassing wickedness of men was mounting up against them”, and therefore “corrected their neglect by His own teaching”. ‎Before Christ, “impiety and lawlessness were everywhere, and neither God nor His Word ‎was known.”

Therefore, three ways thus lay open to them, by which they might obtain the knowledge of God:

• They could look up into the immensity of heaven and, by pondering the harmony of creation, come to know its Ruler, the Word of the Father, Whose all-ruling providence makes known the Father to all. ‎
• Or, if this was beyond them, they could converse with holy men and, through them, learn to know God, the Artificer of all things, the Father of Christ, and to recognise the worship of idols as the negation of the truth and full of all impiety.
• Or else, in the third place, they could cease from lukewarmness and lead a good life merely by knowing the law…Yet men, bowed down by the pleasures of the moment and by the frauds and illusions of the evil spirits, did not lift up their heads towards the truth.‎