the atonement - how christ saves us:

CHRIST IS RISEN from the dead! By death he trampled dead and to those in the tombs he granted life! - Paschal Troparion

Inheriting mortality from our first parents, and the concomitant corruption of our will, we were slaves under the regime of death. By voluntarily accepting death on the Cross, Christ “surrendered himself as a ransom to Death by which we were held captive, sold into slavery under sin” (Anaphora of St. Basil the Great). By death, he united himself to our death, that we may be united to his resurrection. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

“Since Corruption could not keep the Author of Life in its clutches” (Anaphora of St. Basil the Great), it was impossible for the immortal Son of God to remain in the grave. When Christ descended into Hades, he destroyed it, took it captive, and freed those held in its bonds, crushing the head of our ancient enemy the Devil. “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18). Death swallowed the author of life, but Christ swallowed up death forever (Isaiah 25:8) by rising from the dead of his own power. Only Jesus Christ, out of all who have died, fought with death and won.

“Descending by the cross into Hades to fulfill all things in himself, he freed us from Death’s despair, and rose on the third day, preparing the way for the resurrection of all flesh from the dead” (Anaphora of St. Basil the Great). By rising from the dead, Christ raises us with him to new life, bestowing on us every gift and heavenly blessing (Ephesians 1:3). The Resurrection of Christ is a fundamental belief of the Church on which the entire Gospel stands or falls. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall be made alive” (I Corinthians 15:17-18, 20-22).

By his saving passion, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ has bough back all of human nature from death and the Devil. All human beings are mystically united to this great redemption, as St. Paul says, “There will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust” (Acts 24:15). Jesus Christ is the victor over sin and death, calling to all who have died in Adam, “Come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29). Our redemption is not only forensic or legal, but a true transformation made possible by the cross and resurrection and accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit.