The salvation of Christ, conditioned by His redemptive feat on earth, does not cease and will not cease until the end of the present world. But only those people who enter into living communion with Him and are so closely united as members with the body (1 Cor. 6:15) or as branches with the vine (John 15:5) are truly vouchsafed the blessings contained for us in Christ and revealed in Him to fallen mankind. Only people who are saved by faith and grace mysteriously and actively enter into a living union with Christ, and through Him with God.

Through the Lord Jesus Christ, the communion of souls with God, interrupted by the Fall, is restored. Communion with the Lord Jesus Christ is commanded as the only and supreme good. Thus, the Lord Himself says to the Apostles: "Be ye in Me, and I in you" (John 15:4). God the Father, through the Apostles, calls us precisely "into the fellowship of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:9). Only those who have communion with the Lord enter into a true newness of life. The Apostles call believers "partakers of Christ" (Heb. 3:14), and beseech God "to dwell in Christ in their hearts" (Ephesians 3:17).

The work of God in Christ Jesus is not limited to the reconciliation of God with man, but extends to the establishment of the harmony of the whole world through the destruction of the separation of the earthly and the heavenly caused by sin.

By His ascension, the Lord headed in Himself all that exists in heaven and on earth. "A new era of the spiritual life of mankind has begun, which the holy Apostle Paul characterized as the leadership of all in Christ" [85, p. 76].

The completion of the history of salvation, that is, the complete realization of the redemption of individuals, of the whole world, and of the entire human race, belongs to the depths of the ages to come (I Corinthians 15:22-28), when the second, glorious coming of Christ to earth and the opening of the eternal kingdom of glory, the true and perfect Kingdom of God in the universe, will take place. "Generation after generation will change in the course of time," teaches St. Theophan "century after century will pass, but that great work of God, which in Christ Jesus is accomplished and is presented and maintained by the Church, will remain unchanged, enriching our race with greater and greater heavenly gifts, and will always move the lips to praise [85: p. 252].

In Orthodox humanity, in the person of the God-Man, all created forces are the reins of government and at the same time channels for the passage of the Savior's restorative forces into all areas of the world, in order to build "above the crude appearance an invisibly better world, which will appear in all its majesty on the last day" [130: pp. 33-34].

It is impossible to understand the full depth of the mystery of our salvation, to reveal the essence of Christ's redemptive feat to the limited human mind; even the Angels only desire, try to penetrate it. Therefore, the human mind can only partially lift the veil over this mystery. According to the definition of St. Theophanes, "heaven and earth – all that exists – are harmoniously united in Christ Jesus. Then, everything that flows in time in Him has its focus. And therefore He is the key to understanding the mysteries of world existence and world government" [85, p. 80]. The economy of the salvation of people embraces and penetrates the entire history of mankind, from beginning to end. Even more: "its beginning is hidden in an unknown beginninglessness; its end is lost and escapes sight in the depths of the ages to come" (1 Cor. 15:22-28).

Chapter 5. The Participation of the Holy Trinity in the Salvation of Man

The dogma of the Holy Trinity, which reflects primarily the mystery of the inner life of God, is rightly considered the basic and main of all Christian dogmas and is the most incomprehensible not only for people, but also for angels. Being equal and independent Divine Persons, the Son and the Holy Spirit have one Divine nature, one power, authority and majesty. "God, one in essence," teaches St. Theophanes, "is Triune in Persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – and these Three are not names of one and the same Person, nor are they the names of different actions of the same Person, but three Hypostases of the one Godhead" [93: p. 14].

Each of the Divine Hypostases possesses all the Divine perfections, but they possess these perfections inseparably. The personal properties of the Holy Trinity are those by which the Persons of the Holy Trinity differ from each other. "Only the personal property of each belongs exclusively to each of Her Persons – unbegottenness, birth and origin" [144: pp. 202-203]. All the Persons of the Holy Trinity possess the same Divine dignity and the same Divine perfections. "Common are the names of God," Bishop Theophan reminds us, "common are the attributes of Divine and Divine actions: creation, providence, the arrangement of the incarnate economy, the accomplishment of the salvation of everyone, the organization and preservation of the Church, and all the rest that can only come from God" [Ibid.].

In the matter of the salvation of people, everything is connected by an indissoluble union and is accomplished by the action of the One God in the Trinity worshipped, "although in the explanations of these actions they refer now to one or another Person of the Most Holy Trinity" [65: p. 41].

The Holy Fathers presented the period of time before the redemption of man as the kingdom of the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit, by Whom creation and providence were accomplished. The time of redemption is primarily the reign of the Son with the Father and the Spirit; the period after redemption is the kingdom primarily of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.

In the pre-eternal Council of the Most Holy Trinity, it was ordained from eternity for the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity – God the Son – to be incarnated from the Ever-Virgin. "The Only-begotten Son of God, Who became incarnate for our sake, having satisfied God's righteousness by His death on the Cross, reconciled us to God; and having ascended into heaven and sitting at the right hand of the Father, He intercedes for us with His conciliatory intercession" [82: p. 80]. God the Father draws all to the Son, and the Son brings them to the Father. "God the Father, through the incarnate Son, stretches out to us the embrace of His fatherly favor, and those who fall into these embraces, He receives through the Son" [89: p. 224].

God breathed into the primordial man the breath of Divine life, but sin killed him. Then the Spirit of God departed from man for transgressing the commandment, and "the breath of Divine life died in him after receiving the pernicious breath of the spirit of the tempter" [105: p. 179]. In order to restore the human spirit and reunite it with God, it was necessary that the Spirit of God descend upon man and revive him.