Gregory's Doctrine of the Limits of Evil.
The restoration, healing, and transformation of man cannot be
accomplished through natural forces. The effects of evil cannot be simply
reversed and movement in the wrong direction is resistant to change. Man's
salvation requires a new creative action on the part of God. It is true that
Gregory believes that evil will eventually exhaust itself and that it cannot be
boundless and infinite because finiteness is a property of all being. It is only
in striving for good that limitless motion is possible because this is a goal
which can never be reached. Movement in the opposite direction cannot continue
forever: "Since evil does not extend into infinity but is encompassed by certain
necessary limits, it appears that good once more follows in succession after the
limits of evil."
This reasoning stems from Gregory's belief in the absolute
nature of the future restoration and in the impossibility of the ultimate
stability and endurance of evil. Gregory foresees the second coming of Christ,
our Savior, and when our final salvation is thus accomplished it will have no
limits. Gregory does not mention the ultimate exhaustion of evil without
referring to the manifestation of God in the figure of Christ. On the contrary,
he sees the Word Incarnate as man's only hope for salvation from the "black and
stormy sea of human life." Gregory, like Athanasius, considers the redeeming
work of Christ as a return to life and a victory over death and mortality. This
is possible only through the union of Divine life with human nature. The power
to destroy death is a property of life. "He Who lives eternally accepts
corporeal birth not because He needs life but in order to return us to life from
death . . . With His own body He gives to our nature the source of its future
resurrection and through His power the whole of human nature will rise up."
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