Conclusion: The Chiastic Man

 

If we recognize that Christ has brought about the reversal of damages done through man's sin in thematic, particular and cosmic order, we must consider the last and most significant transformation He has accomplished, that is the human heart.

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St Maximus views human nature in Adam's legacy as being naturally predisposed to the passions. On this he writes that the evil powers (malevolent divine beings) "have hidden their activities clandestinely under the law of human nature in its current circumstance". The devils have sway over the actions of man through his nature, that was bent toward the passions in Adam. However, Christ's conquest for man's redemption begins in His own life, uniting man's nature in Himself and entering into man's inclination toward the passions- yet Himself remaining unmoved toward them. With each encounter with temptation or human suffering, He claims not only a victory for Himself, but for the whole Christian race- for by conquering the devils Himself, He has also conquered them in the very nature belonging to each individual person. We are told of many such instances: in the desert, He conquered the bodily need for food; at Lazarus's tomb, human sorrow and despair; at Gethsemane, the fear of death; and at the cross, cowardice that tends away from suffering.

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In the wake of the events of the scriptures, all the waves of mankind's legacy of sin are found broken one by one upon the Rock of Ages and somehow turned the other way- to be used for the good and beauty rather than for destruction. This final shape of chiasmus is really the first of redemption, for man's sin and death was the deepest mar upon creation and everything else came only after. The shattered cosmos, the many stories of man's failings, the division of brother from brother, the judgement upon the world and man's own disconnection from God- all stem from the blackened heart of man. But Jesus bends the broken man back into form and by doing so, restores each order accordingly. His conquest is total and nothing is left unturned. He is truly then the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End- the Chiastic Man.