The Lord rises from the dead, as a Bridegroom comes forth from the chamber. This was accomplished by the power of God, as the general resurrection will, in the last day, be accomplished by the power of God. And in the Resurrection the Incarnation is completed, a victorious manifestation of Life within human nature, a grafting of immortality into the human composition.
The Resurrection of Christ was a victory, not over his death only, but over death in general. “We celebrate the death of Death, the downfall of Hell, and the beginning of a life new and everlasting.” In His Resurrection the whole of humanity, all human nature, is co-resurrected with, “the human race is clothed in incorruption.” Co-resurrected not indeed in the sense that all are raised from the grave. Men do still die; but the hopelessness of dying is abolished. Death is rendered powerless, and to all human nature is given the power or “potentia” of resurrection.
St. Paul made this quite clear: “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen . . .. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised” [I Cor. 15:13, 16]. St. Paul meant to say that the Resurrection of Christ would become meaningless if it were not a universal accomplishment, if the whole Body were not implicitly “pre-resurrected” with the Head. And faith in Christ itself would lose any sense and become empty and vain; there would be nothing to believe in. “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain” [v. 17]. Apart from the hope of the General Resurrection, belief in Christ would be in vain and to no purpose; it would only be vainglory. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept” [7 Cor. 15:20]. And in this lies the victory of life.”
It is true, we still die as before,” says St. John Chrysostom, “but we do not remain in death; and this is not to die . . .. The power and very reality of death is just this, that a dead man has no possibility of returning to life . . .. But if after death he is to be quickened and moreover to be given a better life, then this is no longer death, but a falling asleep.” The same conception is found in St. Athanasius. The “condemnation of death” is abolished. “Corruption ceasing and being put away by the grace of Resurrection, we are henceforth dissolved for a time only, according to our bodies’ mortal nature; like seeds cast into the earth, we do not perish, but sown in the earth we shall rise again, death being brought to nought by the grace of the Saviour.”
This was a healing and a renewing of nature, and therefore there is here a certain compulsion; all will rise, and all will be restored to the fullness of their natural being, yet transformed. From henceforth every disembodiment is but temporary. The dark vale of Hades is abolished by the power of the life-giving Cross.
Nature is healed and restored with a certain compulsion, by the mighty power of God’s omnipotent and invincible grace. One may even say, by some “violence of grace.” The wholeness is in a way forced upon human nature. For in Christ all human nature (the “seed of Adam”) is fully and completely cured from unwholeness and mortality. This restoration will be actualized and revealed to its full extent in the General Resurrection, the resurrection of all, both of the righteous and of the wicked. No one, so far as nature is concerned, can escape Christ’s kingly rule, can alienate himself from the invincible power of His Resurrection.
~Georges Florovsky, Creation and Redemption
