“He who penetrates beyond the Cross and the Tomb and finds himself initiated into the mystery of the Resurrection, learns the end for which God has created all things.” –Saint Maximus the Confessor
Christ assumed our nature; He voluntarily submitted to all the consequences of sin; He took on Himself the responsibility for our error, while remaining a stranger to sin, in order to resolve the tragedy of human liberty, and in order to bridge the gulf between God and man by leading him into the heart of His Person where there is no room for any division or interior conflict.
According to St. Maximus, Christ healed all that belonged to man, but particularly the will which was the source of his sin. By His ineffable [self-emptying (kenwsiV)] the God-Man was integrated into corruptible reality, draining and emptying it from within by means of His incorruptible will. This voluntary integration into the condition of fallen humanity had to end in the death on the cross, and the descent into hell.
Thus, the whole of our fallen nature—death included—and all the existential consequences of sin, such as had the character of penalty, chastisement and curse, have been transformed by the Cross of Christ into the means of our salvation. The cross which should stand for final decay, became the unshakable foundation of the universe: ‘The life-giving Cross, the power of Kings, the constancy of the righteous, the magnificence of priests’ (St. Maximus: Hymn for the Exaltation of the Cross).
According to St. Maximus, the work of salvation consists of three stages which Christ successively re-establishes in nature: being, well-being (eu einai), and eternal being (aei einai).
The first [being] is attained by the Incarnation, the second [well-being (eu einai)] by the incorruptibility of the will in this earthly life ending in the Cross, the third [eternal being (aei einai)] by the incorruptibility of nature as it is revealed in the Resurrection (‘De ambiguis).
~Adapted from Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church
Redemption is not just the forgiveness of sins, it is not just man’s reconciliation with God. Redemption is the abolition of sin altogether, the deliverance from sin and death. And redemption was accomplished on the Cross [Col. 1:20; cf. Acts 20:28; Rom. 5:9; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:22; I John 1:7; Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9]. Not by the suffering of the Cross only, but precisely by the death on the Cross.
And the ultimate victory is wrought, not by sufferings or endurance, but by death and resurrection. We enter here into the ontological depth of human existence. The death of Our Lord was the victory over death and mortality, not just the remission of sins, nor merely a justification of man, nor again a satisfaction of an abstract justice. And the very key to the Mystery can be given only by a coherent doctrine of human death.
~Adapted from Georges Florovsky, Creation and Redemption
