Christ is Risen! So, Why Did He Have to Die?

“This is the will of God, even your sanctification!”- I Thessalonians 4:3

“Christ is risen from the dead, by death He has trampled upon death, and to those in the tombs, he has granted life!” – Resurrectional Apolytikion (The oldest continually used hymn in Christendom)

By Bp. Joseph Boyd (Ancient Church of the West)

“Christus Victor” theology was absolutely central to the view the Ancient Church had on salvation, which they pictured, not as a legal process, but as a relational, transformative, creative process of recapitulation - of connecting our created lives with the Uncreated Life of the Holy Trinity. Therefore, the early view did not exclude Substitutionary Atonement, but does not feature it as the "only" reason for Christ's death on the Cross. Much more is made of His Incarnation and His Resurrection, which are believed to present patterns of Christian victory, rather than a focus on individual shortcomings and the hopelessness of the human condition.

The Ancient Church understood salvation to be a relationship with the Incarnate Christ, and for this relationship to manifest as an eternal process, a process that spirals into the world to come, the kingdom in which we shall eternally become closer and more intimate with our Savior. We understand all the biblical references about salvation to be definitive, and as such, salvation to be a process in which we are saved by crying to Christ for mercy (Luke 23:42), confession of faith (Rom 10:9), in reception of water baptism in the name of the Trinity (Matt 28:19, Acts 2:38), taking up our cross and following Christ (Luke 9:23), and upon our faithful death (Matthew 24:13).  This prompts the classic response, so often shared by Bp. Timothy Ware in his talks, that the Ancient Church believed we are “saved, being saved, and will be saved!” Salvation here being defined here in three different ways, 1) as baptism and induction into Christ’s Body, the Church, 2) the process of repentance and communion in our lifetime, preparing for death, and 3) the ultimate salvation that will come at the Last Judgment, when Christ will separate the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, and finally say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21)

The Apostolic Theories of Salvation, a Survey of 3rd Century:

There were two different textual and cultural traditions at work, determining the attributes and nature of salvation in Christ, not only revealing basic differences in assumption, but also showing the complementarity between the views taken as a whole – an assertion of Christ’s BEING as salvific to mankind! These theories show a great “unity in diversity”, expressing a generally held conviction that the whole life of Christ was saving, and that both the work of birth into the world, the incarnation through the Holy Virgin, the Virgin Mary, and the work of the cross and resurrection, were all equally necessary for mankind’s salvation.

1. Incarnation – Christ Took on Humanity, Adam, Whom We All Share, thus Making God’s Life Available to Mankind. This View is Stated in St. Justin Martyr, St. Ireneaus, Tertullian, Origen, St. Athanasius, and used, in its particular, historical sense, by the Antiochian Fathers. The Antiochian School denies that Adam was a “form”, tracing our derived, ancestral being to Adam, but Origen developed a whole cosmology of the Book of Genesis to prove that Adam was the platonic form of man, using the double account of creation in Genesis 1 & 2 as justification for this allegorical reading. (Early Christian Doctrines, p. 182-185)

1. Expiation – Erasing sin through the greater power of the Godhead, therefore, Christ’s blood wiped out all evil, debt, or lawlessness, and by entering into his death through baptism, we may raise in the power of the Holy Spirit.

2. Recapitulation – “In Adam all Die, in Christ all are Resurrected” - Joining life by life through the power of the blood, restoring the repentant and baptized believer to the original condition of Adam in the garden after the resurrection, based on St. Paul, used by Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Methodius of Olympus (IBID, p. 170-174, 187)

3. Ransom – Paying a price to Satan or Hell for debts of sin owed (always a dissatisfactory theory, but mentioned by St. Paul, thus included by the Fathers), also used by Origin as reinforcement for his Sanctification model of return to original glory (IBID, p. 185).

4. Propitiation – Substitution – Exchange of Life for Life for the satiation of wrath due to violated divine law, used by St. Augustine in his Roman legal model of salvation, hinted at by Tertullian (IBID, p. 177).

5. Tricking Hell – Death and Hell, anthropomorphized, thinks it is destroying a man, but then is destroyed from the inside out by the power of God, making death into a pathway to Christ’s Life!

6. Victory – Christ’s resurrection breaking death by death, causing eternal life to return to Adam and all his descendants, making death a new pathway into life!

All of these views combined give us a vision of Christ’s entire Life as the origin of man’s salvation and restored relationship with God. This is why entrance into Christ’s life, into the Church itself, is expressed through the rite of baptism, through “putting on Christ”, and why the highest apex of the Christian experience before Death or Christ’s physical return is to be joined with His Body and Blood, which makes us a “part of the vine”, allowing us to “abide in Him,” fully united to His Life and Person. 

The Old Testament on Sanctification:

Adam and Eve lost their glory and exposed their nakedness through their disobedience in Paradise–This is shown in a unique Hebrew wordplay in the first few chapters of Genesis by the slight distinction between “Kotnot Or” - “Tunics of Light” (בגדיםשלאור - “shine” is א֖וֹרִי) and the “Tunics of Skins” (בגדיםשלעור - “skin” is ע֖וֹר)in the Midrash Rabbah commentary on Genesis 3, and also in the Zohar and Midrash of the Minhat Yehukh (Stanley Schneider and Morton Seelenfreund, Jewish Bible Review, “Kotnot Or: Skin, Leather, Light, or Blind?”). Adam and his descendants had taken off the princely robes their Father had given them, and exchanged them for unclean rags and skins of dead beasts. The slaughter of animals for the creation of the first clothes was the first death in the world God had made, a world designed for Life and Communion. It was also the first sacrifice, foretelling the clothing of man in Glory by the Death of the Last Sacrifice. Christ most certainly was referring to this “Tunic of Light” when he talked about the “Wedding Garments” which those at the Feast of the Kingdom must wear in order to avoid being cast into “outer darkness” (Matthew 22:1-14). It may also have been the garment given to the Prodigal Son, when he returned to his father, the garment that the fallen young man did not deserve. Only through returning to his father and falling before him, repenting and acknowledging his sin, was the robe of an heir returned to the one who had already squandered his inheritance. (Luke 15:11-32)

When God led His People Israel out of land of Egypt, He began the journey by revealing His Glory in the Burning Bush, which “burned but was not consumed”(Exodus 3:3-17). Then, when Pharaoh was defeated and the gods of Egypt were proven to be nothing, He led them with a cloud by day and a Pillar of Fire by night (Exodus 13:21). The night shone like the day by the Glory of God! When the children of Israel came to Sinai, God showed His Glory like a volcano that did not destroy the mountain. He called Moses to Himself upon the mountain and gave Him his Law and a vision of himself as He passed by, holding Moses in the cleft of the rock and shielding him with His Hand! Then, when Moses came down from the mountain, his face shone with such glory with the Light of God that no one could stand to look at his face! (Exodus 33-34) When the Tabernacle was prepared and the Ark of the Covenant was installed, the Glory of the Lord filled the Temple and the pillar of Glory rested on it and upon all the people. Later, when Isaiah and Ezekiel beheld the Lord, high and lifted up within the Temple, they were purified from evil by the coals from the altar before God, “glowing with heat”. (Isaiah 6:6-8 and Ezekiel 10:2) David declared, “…Ye are gods, the children of the Highest” (Psalm 82:6), echoing Moses’ song of deliverance in Exodus 15 that inquired, “Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?” This led to a question among the Jews under the old Covenant – “who are the gods David and Moses were referring to?” Through Moses and David, God has shown His complete and total victory over the pagan gods of darkness and the mystical superstitions of the Old Testament Gentiles, and now Christ Himself came and gave us the answer!

The New Testament on Sanctification:

“Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, ‘For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makes thyself God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your law, I said, ‘Ye are gods?’ If he called them ‘gods’, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, ‘Thou blasphemes’; because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.’” (John 10:35-38) Here, Christ addresses this mystery clearly, defeating both the pride and the scholasticism of the Pharisees. “Gods” are those to whom the Word of God came! These “gods” are those whom the Father has sanctified and made like Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

St. John the Theologian, in the opening of his Gospel, said “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) To those who followed Him and knew Him face to face, Christ was full of Glory, and this Glory was the Fullness of Grace and the Perfection of Truth. St. John continues to chronicle the unfolding of the Gospel of Christ in His sayings about the relationship of those His Father has given him, referring to this life through Him as “Abiding in the Vine” (John 15). The purpose of abiding becomes clear in just a few chapters as Christ asks His Father “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one…” (John 17:21-22) Later on, exhorting believers of the First Century Church to live in love and remain faithful to the Gospel of Christ, St. John tells us that we are to "Walk in the light, even as He is in the light..." (I John 1:7)

St. Paul’s understanding of this Glory and its relationship with God in Christ was no less clear. “For it is God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (II Corinthians 4:6) As the Gentile Church grew, St. Paul’s Gospel of Christ was preached in two simple paradigms, all vitally linked to the Church’s continual understanding of Sanctification. First, St. Paul talks continuously about “Life in Christ” (2 Timothy 1:1), which can only be achieved if one can actually be joined to Christ in a real and meaningful way. Second, St. Paul reminds us that “being in Christ” is not found through some abstract practice of reading the Bible and extrapolating principles of understanding, but by entering into the New Covenant (Καινή Διαθήκη) which is the term that St. Paul calls the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper. (I Corinthians 11:25) The reality of being in Christ, and thus, being in the Church, is found through the “New Covenant of Christ’s Blood” in Communion with Him and with one another. (Matthew 26:28 & Luke 22:20)

But of all the Apostles, none talks of sanctification more succinctly and convincingly than St. Peter himself, the first bishop, when he says… “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (I Peter 1:2-4) This passage of Scripture is sufficient on its own to say everything that is needful, and provides all authority that otherwise may be lacking in the philosophical debates and historical development of the doctrine of sanctification within the later Church. In the Transfiguration on the Mount of Tabor, Peter said, "It is good for us to be here!" (Matthew 17:4), showing us that this should be where we desire to be, shining in the Light reflected from the Glorified Christ! 

The Historical Metaphors for Redemption:

The ancient Hebraic understanding of God’s Glory as a “Robe of Righteousness” is clear throughout the New Testament, referred to by Christ Himself and by His Apostles. Spanning from Christ’s robe on Mount Tabor turning as “bright as light,” to St. John’s vision on Patmos of the Saints in Heaven, “arrayed in bright robes, white and clean”, the robe has been both a metaphor of salvation and a lived reality in the Life of the Church. It is both the restored nature of Mankind and a description of our relationship with God. (Revelations 7:14 &19:8) We are instructed to “put on Christ”! (Romans 13:14, Galatians 3:27) The Early Church maintained this consciousness in the practice of giving white robes to all those who had been newly baptized and confirmed, and also by insisting that those who served at the Holy Table wear these same white robes as a picture of the imparted and actual righteousness of Christ upon His servants (Alexander Schmemann, “Of Water & the Spirit”, p. 71). This is the origin of the tradition of vestments within the Church. This theme also developed within iconography, at first as the common depiction of Christ and His Saints wearing white robes, but later as the “Red Robe of Divinity” seen in the Icon of the Virgin Mary. In Byzantine times, Christ is depicted in the “Pantocrator Icon” (meaning the “All-Ruler” in Greek) wearing a red robe with a golden stripe on the shoulder, representing the Divine Nature and the Uncreated Glory of God. He wears a blue cloak that covers His shoulder and partially covers his Glory and His Nature as God – the blue representing the human nature and His common humanity, blue being the legal color of peasantry in the Roman period. The Virgin Mary, having born God into the world, is depicted fully clothed in a blue robe, covered with a red and gold cloak of imparted divinity over her head and shoulders. As a depiction of the first to ever “bear God inside,” and as the first-fruits of redemption and the icon of the Church, the Icon of the Virgin Mary helps us to understand the theology of sanctification in its clearest form, as we all “put on Christ.”

Not only to the robes of Christ and His Saints in the icons show His Glory. The halos that surround the heads of all those with Christ, the “Crown of Glory”, is a reference to the reflected Glory of the Trinity within the hearts and lives of those who have put their trust in God. This is why there is always a difference between the plain gold halos of the saints and the halo that surrounds the head of Christ. Within Christ’s halo, to show that He is the origin of the glory of the saints, and to clarify that He is illumined with the Glory of God AS GOD, the two words formed of three letters, “Ο ΩΝ” (“I AM THAT I AM” – אֶהְיֶהאֲשֶׁראֶהְיֶה), are written within the form of a cross in which only three arms are visible, representing the Trinity and calling to mind our salvation by Their Work.  As “God’s glory shines brightest in the face of His saints”, we see His Glory represented in halos, or “crowns of light,” on those who are recognized by the Church as having been “image bearers”.

The Cycle of Christian Life - Repentance, Confession, and Communion in the Life of the Spirit:

A)   Life “in the World but not of it” (I John 2:15-17), as Members of Christ’s Body, the Church (Romans 12:5, I Corinthians 12:12-20), having “put off the old man and its lusts and put on Christ” through Baptism and the Gift of the Spirit through Chrismation and the Laying on of Hands (Acts 8:17, 19:5-6, II Timothy 1:6, Romans 13:14, Colossians 3:9, Ephesians 4:22)

B)   Seeking After God in Prayer, Fasting, Bible Study, and Good Works (Keeping God’s Commandments, Living Life of the Holy Spirit’s Virtues, Ministering to Fatherless, Widows, Poor, Aged, Sick, Suffering, and Serving in the Church) (Matthew 3:8, 5:32, 6:16-18, 25:40, Acts 4:32-35, 26:20, II Corinthians 8:1-24, Titus 2:14, James 1:27, I John 3:17)

C)   Repentance of “Falling Short” in This Process, Confession of the Sinful Acts that Alienate from God to Christ, to One Another, to Our Presbyters and to a Spiritual Father or Mother (Matthew 18:18, James 5:14-16, I John 1:9)

D)   Drawing Together with the Body of Christ in Public Confession of Sin (Psalm 106:6, Daniel 9:5), Worship, and Mutual Love and Submission for the Liturgy – the “Common Work” of the Church (the literal meaning of “λειτουργία”) (Psalm 122:1-9, 150:1-6, Matthew 5:23-24, Romans 12:5, Colossians 3:16, I Timothy 3:14-15, Hebrews 10:25)

E)    Communion with Christ and Each Other through the Holy Communion (Mathew 18:20, John 6:50-59, I Corinthians 10:16-17, 11:1-34)

The Process or Praxis, Synergia and Theoria, Growing Towards Maturity in Christ:

1)    Accountability to a “Spiritual Father”, a Counselor Who Can Guide Us Past Himself and Our Lusts and Passions to Follow After Christ, Who Can Ask Hard Questions, Who Will Not Condone Our Weaknesses, and Who Will Not Allow Excuses for Our Sins (1 Corinthians 4:15, I Thessalonians 12:12, Hebrews 12:7-11, 2 Timothy 4:1-2, James 3:13)

2)    Constant Prayer (“Pray without ceasing…” 1 Thessalonians 5:17)

3)    Stilling Thoughts (“Bringing every thought into captivity” 2 Corinthians 10:5)

4)    Centering the Heart on the Name of Jesus Christ (“Day and night”, “upon my bed” and “in the night watches”, David “meditated upon God’s precepts”, and “cried out unto His Name” Psalms 119-150), which is experienced as “Inner Stillness” (“Be still and know I am God” Psalms 46:10) in which the “Still, Small Voice” can be heard (1 Kings 19:11-13)

5)    Experiencing a Real Relationship with Christ through the Spirit and the Life of the Church (John 14:26, Matthew 18:20) and Becoming a Partaker in Christ’s Suffering – Spiritual Warfare (Matthew 5:11, I Peter 4:13)

6)    Visions of Uncreated Glory Illuminating the Heart and Mind, Being Felt and Experienced as Joy of Body and Soul (“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” Matthew 5:8, Joel 11:28), and Manifesting the Gifts of the Spirit Manifested in Teaching, Preaching, Healing, Prophecy, and Counsel (Romans 12:3-8, I Corinthians 12:1-14, Ephesians 4:11-13)

7)    This Walk with God is Evidenced in Increased Humility, Intentionally Putting Down of the Self, Hiding from Acclaim and Attention, and Living a Life of Love, Mercy, Service, and Contentment. (Philippians 1:21, Ephesians 4:1-3) The works done by those who are thus illumined by the Spirit do not glorify the individual, who only act as vessels and agents for God’s power. (John 3:30, 2 Corinthians 10:17, 2 Timothy 2:21) Remembering that, at any point in this process, before our death and ultimate salvation by Christ (Matthew 24:13), we can fall from Christ through lusts and pride, “becoming shipwrecked” (I Timothy 1:19), and “having preached to other, we ourselves become castaways” (I Corinthians 9:27). The “later state of such a one is worse than before they believed”. (2 Peter 2:20) The rewards of humility and fear of the Lord is spiritual riches, honor for Christ, and life. (Proverbs 22:4)

8)    Final Resurrection and Glorification when Christ comes to take us to the “Place that He Has Prepared for Us.” (John 6:40, 11:25, 14:3, Romans 8:38-39, 2 Corinthians 4:14, I Thessalonians 4:16, Titus 2:13) This is the goal of Sanctification. This is the Eighth Day, the Ages of Ages, where we will live with Christ forever in His Kingdom. This is the great hope of the Christian life, the purpose of the Creation, the glory that we taste in Communion, and that which gives meaning to all the suffering and pain of this life. (2 Timothy 4:5-8, 2 Corinthians 14:54-55) This hope erases the fear of death, inspires us to live as martyrs (“witnesses”), and fills our hearts with joy at the possibility of seeing Christ Face to Face, to “Know Him as He Is”. (Philippians 3:10-11)

Just as our experience of the Holy Spirit, our Communion with Christ in Holy Communion, and our salvation, must be shared and cannot be personal, so our process of repentance and Sanctification is a corporate process. Our “Synergia” is cooperation with God, but it is also reflected in cooperation with others. Thus, there are corporate fruits for personal struggle. We all share in the spiritual work of the Church. City-bound laymen share in the fruits of desert ascetics, each being a member of the Body, which feeds itself with the Blood of the Glorified Christ.  There is no such thing as personal virtue or personal salvation. All are saved by our sharing in Christ’s life, and our individual partaking with Christ and our experience with Him in the Spirit is shared by those around us. His Light is brought into all our relationships in the humility and sweetness of Church fellowship - κοινονια –the communion we share in our shared life and by putting others first. This is fruit worthy of repentance and shows our houses of prayer to truly be the family of God. The Church, which is the body of Christ struggling for the salvation of all, is worked out corporately in the personal quest to deification. As Seraphim of Sarov said, "Acquire a spirit of peace and thousands around you will be saved!" This is the evangelical aspect of our sanctification.

Why Did Christ Have to Die? To Establish His Church and Recreate the Universe!

Christ chose physical means to save us, both in His own body, but also in his Life, Death, and Resurrection, He used physical means. He has promised the physical rebirth of our bodies after death, and the physical recreation of the world. Therefore, we have physical recourse to Salvation on Earth - through the Grace of God that is present in the Church, a physical place with physical people, through a physical act of renouncing sin through confession to our brothers and sisters, and with priests acting as witnesses to our confessions, and through a physical act of taking communion. Thus, in the flesh, we have our sins forgiven and we are brought back into the physical and spiritual communion of the Saints, who are cleansed by Christ's Forgiveness and who have turned their backs on sin. This is the Eternal Church that is both here on earth and in heaven, which is not just a spiritual kingdom, but is a physical presence on earth, and as such, is the “firstfruits” of all creation glorified at the End of Time.

 “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise you.”

Titus 2:11-15