Atonement and Salvation

[kirk yacoub]

At the risk of ignoring my previous post (!) I put forward the following
quotations:
"Taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to
corruption and death, He surrendered His body to death in place
of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love
for us so that in His death all might die, and the law of death
thereby be abolished." (St Athanasius, Incarnation of the Divine Word)

"...the bond which God held for Adam, saying 'In the day thou
eatest of the tree, thou shalt die' (Gen2v17). This bond then the
devil held in his possession. And Christ did not give it to us, but
Himself tore it in two, the action of one who remits joyfully."
(St John Chrysostom, VI Homily on Colossians)

So, do they contradict each other? At first glance, perhaps, but I believe they complement each other. By tearing the bond in two Christ was offering His body to the Father. The complexity of Salvation if looked at in human intellectual terms is great, but if we keep in mind aspects of what Christ did for us as reflected in Scripture and the writings of the Fathers
we will be able to understand in a place much more important than the
intellect - in our hearts!

Kirk Yacoub