Appearing on earth as a loving sufferer for sins, Christ attracted to Himself the hearts of many, attracted them by His infinite love by virtue of an unchanging psychological law. And those who were attracted by Him were saved from sin, i.e. they ceased to live according to the sinful laws of the world and died to the passions. For conscious life an image is necessary, in other words, an object of reverence and imitation is necessary. For the followers of Christ, Christ Himself became such an ideal, a humble and humiliated sufferer, attracting with His infinite love. Looking at Him with a mental eye and seeing an endless example of humility unparalleled before, Christians drew from this contemplation new beginnings of life, already real and obvious freeing from sin. The basis of sin is self-love and the desire for pleasure; in the life of Christians, the predominant principle was the dogma established by Christ - self-denial and readiness to suffer. Death, as the ultimate expression of suffering, has lost all fear for Christians, because the meaning of life has been transferred to the age to come.

The life of the followers of the Crucified One was the exact opposite of the life of the rest of the people, who submitted to sin while Christians were freed from it. Christianity is the emergence of a new life. St. The Martyr Justin the Philosopher writes: "Christians do not differ from other people either in country, or in language, or in everyday customs. They do not inhabit any special cities, do not use any unusual dialect, and lead a life no different from others. Only their teaching is not the fruit of the thoughts or inventions of people who seek novelty; they are not attached to any human doctrine like others. But living among the Hellenic and barbarian peoples, wherever they could, and following the customs of those inhabitants in clothing, food, and everything else, they represent a wonderful and truly incredible way of life. They live in their own country, but as strangers; they have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as strangers. For them, every foreign country is a fatherland, and every fatherland is a foreign country. They get married, like everyone else, give birth to children, but do not abandon them. They have a common meal, and not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. They are on earth, but they are heavenly citizens. They obey the established laws, but by their lives they surpass the laws themselves. They love everyone and are persecuted by everyone. They are not known, but they are condemned, they are killed, but they give life; they are poor, but they enrich many. They are lacking in all things, and abound in all things (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). They are dishonored, but they are glorified; they slander them, and they are found righteous; they slander, and they bless; they are insulted, and they pay homage; they do good, but they are punished as evildoers; being punished, they rejoice, as if they were given to live" (to Diognetus 5). Looking deeper into this picture of the Christian life, we see complete liberation from sin through a constant willingness to suffer for one's disobedience to sin. Suffering, previously hated by man, became an object of reverence. A similar description of the new, Christian life is found in the "Great Catechetical Discourse" of St. Gregory of Nyssa: "Who does not know how in every region of the universe the demonic deception has abounded, which has prevailed over the lives of people through idolatry? How was it lawful for all the pagan nations in the world to honor demons through idols by sacrificing animals and defilements committed at the altars? But when, as the Apostle says, the grace of God appeared, saving all men (Titus 2:11)

This, of course, they would not have undergone, without having a clear and indubitable proof of the divine coming" (v. 92). The same understanding of deliverance from sin through the establishment of a new life on the principles opposite to sin is found in St. St. John of Damascus: "The Son of God became incarnate in order to give him again that for which He created man, for He created him in His own image - rational and free and in likeness, i.e. perfect in every kind of virtue, to the extent that it is accessible to the nature of man. For these are, as it were, signs of the Divine nature: freedom from cares and restlessness and purity, goodness, wisdom, righteousness, freedom from all vice. And so, having placed man in communion with Himself, for He created it in incorruptibility, through communion with Himself, He raised him up to incorruption. And since, through the transgression of the commandment, we have darkened the features of the divine image, and destroyed and, finding ourselves in sin, have lost divine communion, what communion between light and darkness!

Thus, the worship of the demons ceased, the creation was sanctified by divine blood, the altars and temples of idols were overthrown, and the knowledge of God was planted.

Death, once very terrible, has been vanquished and anciently hated and disgusting is now preferred to life. These are the excellent works of Christ's coming; these are signs of His power.

For although those who had once sinned were disgraced, yet they continued to hold fast to sin, and sin was honored with them for God. Now, for the sake of piety and virtue, people prefer reproach, and torment, and death. Wonderful, in Christ is the Word of God, and wisdom, and power, and God Almighty. How can we, the poor, repay Thee for all this! For all things are Yours without exception, and Thou dost require nothing of us except that we should be saved, reigning Thyself, and this also, in Thy ineffable goodness, having good will toward those who receive salvation."

It is now evident that liberation from sin consists in the foundation of a new life according to the way of life of the suffering Christ who draws to Himself the suffering Christ, since the humiliation and suffering, by the power of which sin frightened people, were voluntarily accepted as the guiding principles of life, and the pleasures that attract the actions of sin were recognized as the main enemy of eternal truth.

But the other deeds of Christ are also glorified in our liturgical books, as the trampling of the devil and the destruction of Adam's sin.

The resurrection of Christ, in addition to proving His Divinity, confirmed to the faithful the general resurrection, and the descent into hell of eternal truth freed the prisoners languishing there. These bright beliefs utterly destroyed the fear of death among the true followers of Jesus. A detailed mystical explanation of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is hardly possible, both because of the very inaccessibility of the question and because of the insufficiency of the data in the monuments of patristic thinking: it is true that the Fathers did not unconditionally evade the solution of this question, but always limited themselves to asserting the indubitable salvific nature of resurrection and death. How this salvation can be understood we have seen above.

VI. Redemption from the power of the devil

Having solved to the best of our ability and within the limits indicated in the works of the Holy Fathers, the question of the liberating power of Christ's coming into the world in relation to man himself, we have by no means exhausted the entire content of the question. The work of man's liberation can be considered both in relation to the one who liberates, i.e. to God, and in relation to the ruler of the world, i.e. the devil, who is defeated in the matter of liberation. It seems to us personally that such a formulation of the question is highly undesirable, both because of its inaccessibility to human thinking and because of its comparative uselessness for piety; Is it not enough for the confessors of Christ's humility that is revealed in the Gospels, and which is not only a dogma of the faith, but also an indubitable fact of history? And how can we reason about the relationship of the Creator to the fallen spirit, when human relations are often completely incomprehensible? Of course, our personal thoughts are of no importance, but there is no doubt about the condition of such reasoning, that they can only be carried on comparatively, i.e., on some conditional ground. It is impossible to present the matter of man's salvation in relation to God and the devil as simply and clearly as it can be done in relation to man.

Yielding to the human weakness of Christians, the authors of patristic theological systems solved this question, but always in a highly conditional way. In the "Great Catechetical Discourse" of St. Gregory of Nyssa, the human race is presented as a captive of the devil, while God is the liberator of this captive. Consequently, the image of comparison is taken from the military sphere of that time. But God's means of liberation are bound up by His attributes, which must also be manifested in this act of His will: "And since it is universally recognized as certain that the Godhead is not only powerful, but also just, and all-wise, and is all that the intellect considers best. From this it follows that in the present economy not one of the attributes proper to God could be revealed in practice, and the other could not" (XX). Therefore, the release of the prisoner must be a combination of power, justice, and wisdom. Justice consisted in the fact that "He did not use any coercive power against our owner, and left no cause for righteous pity for the fact that He had stolen an excess of power. For even those who have taken money for their freedom become the slaves of those who have bought, as those who have sold themselves," etc. (XXII). God did not set man free by force, but ransomed him. In order to ransom a man, it is necessary "to give the owner of the captive such price as he desires to take" (XXIII). St. The father believes that the devil could sell a person "for a very high and great price, in order to feed his passion of pride all the more, exchanging more for less." It is quite understandable that none of the people or created beings in general satisfied the requirements of the evil spirit, while Christ, as the Son of God, seemed to the devil to be a sufficient ransom. Having described in detail all the miracles of the Saviour, the Holy Father continues: "Thus, the enemy, seeing in Him such power, noticed that what was offered for exchange was more important than the prisoner, therefore he wanted Him to become the redemptive price for those kept in custody. But since it was impossible for him to behold the true image of God without seeing on Him a certain part of that flesh which he had already taken captive through sin, so that the Divinity covered itself with the flesh, so that he, looking at the nature familiar and akin to him (according to creation), would not be frightened by the approach of the power of the Highest." In the matter of salvation, the Divine qualities are fully manifested: "What He willed to save is a sign of goodness; that he paid a conditional price for a prisoner shows justice; and that he skillfully made what was inaccessible to the enemy accessible, this contains in himself a proof of the greatest wisdom." In the next chapter (XX), the Holy Father examines the act of liberation he depicted from the point of view of divine power and comes to the conclusion that it is filled with the greatest power, manifested primarily in the supernaturalness of the event. But, having agreed to such a ransom, the devil was deceived in his expectations: "Together with the bait of the flesh was seized by him, like greedy fishes, the rod of the Divinity, and thus, after the indwelling of life in the bosom of death and after the shining of light in the darkness, the opposite state was destroyed by light and life." Though it was possible to suppose that Christ would be held in the captivity of death, yet, having undergone this state, He produced that which is proper to Himself by nature. St. The Father foresees an objection to his interpretation, and declares beforehand that the resemblance to deception does not speak in the least against the interpretation. "For the worthy recompense, that the deceiver is mutually deceived, shows justice, and the end of this action testifies to goodness" (117). But already in deciding the question of the time of redemption, St. Gregory introduces another comparison: humanity is already presented as sick, and the Lord is the Physician. A new comparison, of course, leaves a new imprint on the reasoning itself. In general, with regard to comparative interpretations, it should be noted that their advantage is clarity and ease of representation, but they also have an important drawback, namely, they lead the greatest conventionality and pettiness into a realm that is unconditional and inaccessible to the human mind.

Turning to a brief exposition of the Divine dogmas, Bl. Theodoret, we find in it little reasoning about the method of our salvation. Denouncing the numerous intricacies of heretics, the glorious teacher of the Church says little about what he does not find direct and definite indications in the word of God. Incidentally, he also takes the point of view of the struggle with the devil, beloved by the Fathers, but his fighter is human nature itself: "The Lord willed that the conquered nature itself should enter into battle with its enemy, and gain the victory." Regarding the details of the description of the struggle of Bl. Theodoret is far inferior to St. Gregory of Nyssa. Quickly switching to the Bible, he interprets the words of Ap. Paul to the Romans. "Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed into all men, because in him all sinned. For even before the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses and over those who did not sin, like the transgression of Adam, who is the image of the future. But the gift of grace is not like a crime. For if many were put to death by the transgression of one, how much more is the grace of God and the gift by grace of one man, Jesus Christ, abounding for many. And the gift is not as a judgment for one sinner, for judgment for one transgression leads to condemnation, but a gift of grace for justification from many transgressions. For if by the transgression of one death reigned through one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through Jesus Christ alone. Therefore, as by the transgression of one man is condemnation to all men, so by the righteousness of one man is justification unto life. For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (5:12-19). Presenting an analysis of the apostolic teaching, Bl. Theodoret abandons the likening of deliverance from sin to struggle, which he began, and positively declares: when one sinned, all were condemned, but now, when all have sinned, salvation is offered to all who wish. At the end of his interpretation, Bl. The teacher affirms the truth of salvation in relation to man himself: "After the coming of the Saviour, not everyone receives salvation, but only those who believe in Him and act according to His Divine laws." Thus, in the exposition of the dogma of salvation, Bl. Theodoret, there are almost no conventional comparisons, and there is no attempt to resolve the question of man's deliverance in relation to the one who freed and captivated.

St. John of Damascus repeats the thought of Bl. Theodoret about the need for human nature itself to defeat its enemy: "The incarnation of God the Word took place for the reason that the sinful and fallen and corrupt nature itself would defeat the tyrant who deceived it, and so that it would be freed from corruption, just as the Divine Apostle says: "For by man is death and by man the resurrection of mortals." Just like Bl. Theodorite, St. John does not continue the comparison. But on the other hand, we find in him a wonderful idea of assimilation. There is nothing new in the idea itself, but its unusually strong and penetrating expression vividly clarifies the connection between the Deliverer Christ and the liberated. The words, "O God, my God, hast thou forsaken me?" he said, because he had our face as his own. For neither God the Father would have been placed with us, had it not been by the subtle conceptions of the intellect that the visible had not been separated from that which is perceived by the intellect, nor has He, on the other hand, ever been forsaken by His divinity, but we have been forsaken and neglected, so that He prayed for it, assimilating our face to Himself. You should know that there are two assimilations: one natural and essential, the other personal and relative. The natural and essential, of course, is that according to which the Lord, out of love for mankind, took on both our nature and all that is natural, having become man by nature and in truth, and having experienced that which pertains to our nature; but personal and relative occurs when someone takes upon himself the person of another on account of some relation, i.e. compassion or love, and instead of him utters speeches directed in his defense, which do not concern himself in the least. Accordingly, the Lord appropriated to Himself both our curse and our forsakenness, and the like, which is not a natural assimilation, not being this Himself or not having become this, but taking on our person and placing Himself along with us. This is the meaning of the saying: "Having taken an oath for us." Although in the above words of St. John he is not speaking in relation to man, but rather to Christ Himself, it is not difficult to understand that in these words is set forth the teaching of deliverance from sin through the attraction of Christ's love to mysterious union with Him. However, St. John is trying, as if in passing, to resolve the question of Christ's death, both in relation to the heavenly Father and the enemy of the human race. His expressions are very conditional and are taken from the usual in the works of the Holy Fathers area of the liberation of prisoners of war by ransom. Only the ransom is given not to the devil, but to God the Father, in which St. John seems to contradict St. Gregory, while for the devil Christ was a bait, in which both of these lamps of faith fully agree. Obviously, St. John compared the liberation of a person with the ransom of captives in a somewhat different way, and the picture he presents probably differs significantly from the one that St. Gregory of Nyssa depicted in such detail. But St. John sets forth only the conclusions of his comparison, omitting the images themselves: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, being sinless, because He did not commit iniquity, deceit was found in His mouth, was not subject to death, for death entered through sin. Therefore He dies, suffering death for us, and that we may be freed from condemnation; for the blood of the Lord was not offered to a tyrant. Thus, death comes, and, having swallowed up the bait of the body, it is pierced by the milk of the Divinity, and, having tasted the sinless and life-giving body, it perishes and gives back all those whom it once devoured. For just as darkness is destroyed through the bringing of light, so corruption is driven away through the touch of life, and life arises for all, and death for the destroyer" (3:27). In addition to the idea of ransom, there is a simile in these words taken from the sacrificial cult. But all that can be said about all the comparisons we have analyzed boils down to the fact that by showing by His sufferings the true path of life and attracting with His compassionate love to walk along this path, Christ fulfilled the desires of the eternal truth of God the Father and humiliated the devil.