Athanasius on Christ's achievements

And, in a word, the achievements of the Saviour, resulting from his becoming man, are of such kind and number that if one should wish to enumerate them he may be compared to men who gaze at the expanse of the sea and wish to count its waves. For as one cannot take in the whole of the waves with his eyes, for those which are coming on baffle the sense of him that attempts it, so for him that would take in all the achievements of Christ in the body, it is impossible to take in the whole, even by reckoning them up, as those which go beyond his thought are more than those he thinks he has taken in. [Athanasius, On the Incarnation, no. 54]

Living in sunny SoCal, I can definitely relate to his illustration of trying to count and comprehend the waves, which are endless.

While reading this great work, I've been struck by the way he viewed Christ's work in three offices, i.e., prophet, priest, and king. He doesn't use those words, but he organizes Christ's work into those three categories. Only the incarnate God can truly reveal the Father (prophet), powerfully recreate His image in man (king), and substitute for us in a sacrificial death (priest).