⚔️ The Victory of the Cross 🌍 The Lord came, and by His death He abolished death. Sin lost its throne, which no human arm or power could shatter. "He descended into hell by means of the Cross," and there "He scattered the powers of hell." Christ conquered the power of death by the Cross; because He accepted it, took it, and transformed it from a punishment into a great mystery—the mystery of baptism. Only through the Cross were we able to be united with the Lord "in the likeness of His death" (Rom 6:5). This truth must never be absent from our minds; for the death of the first Adam is not like the death of the last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ. Rather, it is "the life-giving death." Death was transformed into a power of salvation because the Lord accepted it on the Cross to destroy sin by it: "He who has died has been freed from sin" (Rom 6:7). How? The apostle answers: "our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin" (Rom 6:6). The Cross became the sign that separates death from life. Our life became the life coming through the resurrection, which appeared in Jesus Christ. He came and gathered in His divine-human essence power, limitations, and the new grace that renews creation. Therefore, Christ proclaimed reconciliation on five important levels: 1. Reconciliation of male and female. 2. Reconciliation of Paradise with the world. 3. Reconciliation of heaven with earth. 4. Reconciliation of God with all creation. 5. Reconciliation of matter with spirit. Thus, the Head "in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col 2:9) is the one who makes us "complete in Him," that is, filled with power, grace, and the manifestation of the new creation, its transformation in Christ from death to life. #Cross #Victory #Reconciliation #Atonement #NewCreation