How does the Lord Christ save us?

Out of His love for us, He was incarnate and became man that He might dwell among us as one of us, and that He might forge a precious friendship with us. St. Cyril the Great says, “Our nature became acceptable in Christ, for we had been expelled because of the

rebelliousness of Adam; but now, Christ restores us to the Father.”⁶⁸⁸ He also says, “He is the Lamb who offered Himself as a sacrifice for the salvation of humanity from sin and purifies it to be without sin; He guides us to the Father.”⁶⁸⁹

When we broke the commandment of God, He gave us commandments and granted us incomparable capabilities to enable us to keep His commandments. Therefore, He called Himself “the way” (John 14:6). He gave us His life as a model that we long to follow (John 12:26) and granted us His Holy Spirit who guides us in Christ who is the way (John 14:6). St. Cyril the Great says, “It was necessary therefore that the Word of the Father, when He humbled Himself unto emptiness, and deigned to assume our likeness, should become for our sakes the pattern and way of every good work.”⁶⁹⁰ He also says, “Why therefore did He make His abode in the wilderness, and fast, and endure, being tempted? The type has regard to us, my beloved: He sets before us His acts as our example, and establishes a model of the better and more admirable mode of life practised among us.”⁶⁹¹

He suffered, was crucified, and died so that we might consider our suffering as being in fellowship with Him, and so that we might say, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

Because He rose from the dead and ascended to the heavens, we can say with the apostle Paul : “[He] raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). By His resurrection, He proclaimed His victory over the devil, sin, and death. St. Cyril the Great says, “by the Only-begotten Word of God having become man, without ceasing to be that which He was, He glorified the nature of man, in that He did not disdain to take upon Him its meanness, in order that He might bestow upon it His own riches.[”692]