Atanasije Jevtić

The following paper seeks to demonstrate the way in which St Maximus the Confessor identifies the holy Gospel, as the eternal Word of God, with Christ himself, specifically with the great mystery of the incarnate Christ. By living a life according to the Gospel, every man recapitulates in himself this great incarnational mystery, and is thereby renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit to participation in the life of the Holy Trinity, a life of eternal deification. It is Maximus’ practical experience of the Gospel as personal participation in the Incarnation which underpins his entire theological outlook, in particular his defence of Chalcedonian Christology, and which made his own life a true continuation and ‘completion’ of the Gospel of Christ.

The Gospel is the eternal word of life (John 6:68; 1 John 1:1–2). This means that the Gospel is word, eternal, and life. It is word, because, as Saint Maximus demonstrates in his corpus, it is identified with the eternal Word of God, Christ the Word, the Son of God who made all things in the beginning and who is himself God’s Gospel to creation, to the world, and to humankind. That it is eternal is apparent in Revelation, where Saint John the Apostle saw an angel bearing the eternal Gospel (Rev 14:6).¹ That the Gospel is life is self-evident because it is the eternally alive Word of God, who is eternally begotten by the Father. According to John, life was in him, and this life was manifested (1 John 1:2) in the world as the Word and Son of God, who is eternally with the Father and is the one through whom the Father created all things. And, of course, with the Father and the Son there is also the Holy Spirit, who is the eternal giver of Life. The Father is the Intellect, the Son is Word, and the Holy Spirit is Life, says Saint Maximus in his Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer, in the Chapters on Love, and in other works.²

Maximus often mentions the Gospel, refers to the Gospel, quotes the Gospel, begins with the Gospel, breathes and lives the Gospel, and thinks and theologizes through