By St. Nicholas Cabasilas
Men were triply separated from God; by nature, by sin and by death - yet the Savior made them to attain to Him perfectly and to be immediately united to Him by successively removing all obstacles.
The first barrier He removed by partaking of manhood, the second by being put to death on the cross. As for the final barrier, the tyranny of death, He eliminated it completely from our nature by rising again.
For this reason Paul says, ‘the last enemy to be destroyed is death’ (1 Cor. 15:26). He would not have called it an enemy unless it were an obstacle to our true joy. It is necessary that the heirs of the immortal God should be set free from corruption, for Paul says, ‘corruption does not inherit incorruption’ (1 Cor. 15:50).
After the common resurrection of mankind of which the Savior’s resurrection is the cause, the ‘mirror’ and the ‘dimness’ (1 Cor. 13:12) recede and those who have been purified in heart shall see God face to face (Mt. 5:8).
From The Life in Christ, 3:3
