The most terrible and empty day is Holy Saturday, when the Savior of the world rests in the tomb and our house is left to us empty. But here is what our worship says on this day: "Moses the great mystically prefigured this present day, saying, 'And God blessed the seventh day'; for this is the blessed Sabbath, this is the day of rest, when the Only-begotten Son of God rested from all His works, keeping Sabbath in the flesh through His own plan in death; and, returning again to being through the Resurrection, He granted us eternal life, the only Good One and Lover of mankind."

"Let all human flesh keep silence, and let it stand with fear and trembling, thinking of nothing earthly; for the King of kings and Lord of lords comes to be slain and to give Himself as food to the faithful. Before Him go the choirs of angels with all principalities and powers, the many-eyed cherubim and six-winged seraphim, covering their faces and singing the hymn: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia."

Paul tells us: the action of God's grace is especially noticeable against the background of human sin. So then, should one expose one's sinfulness in oneself as much as possible, let sin manifest itself in all fullness so that the action of grace may also increase? Of course not. The apostle understands perfectly that this is not the way. The Christian way is different, and it is connected with the dynamic of a person's spiritual life that arises when God's power and God's love meet human sin.

Sin and God's grace are incompatible. But until complete transformation, the complete qualitative change of human nature, they will inevitably coexist in one and the same person. Yet they cannot unite, just as they cannot coexist in one and the same spiritual space. Where the Kingdom is, where grace is, where God's power and God's love are, there is no place for sin; and where sin is, there is no place for God.

Even in pre-Christian times the path of righteousness was life in God's presence despite one's own sinfulness. But then God's presence had not yet been manifested to the world in such fullness, leaving no room for sin, as is proper to the Kingdom. Now the righteousness of the Kingdom and sin are altogether incompatible. Either one or the other. Jesus inevitably had to die because the world in its present state cannot contain the Kingdom He brought in all its fullness. And the existence of sin in the world became death for Him precisely because His life and sin are incompatible. But the same can be said of every Christian, if only he is truly a Christian, and therefore an inhabitant of the Kingdom. Everyone who receives baptism agrees to such a path and to such a life.

It is no accident that the apostle says that, having been baptized, the Christian in this world is united with Christ "in the likeness of death": for the life of the Kingdom, until the complete transformation of the world, will still remain alien to this world, and therefore the Christian can live in this world only by dying, dying to the world that lies in evil, renouncing its life more and more. And, correspondingly, sharing more and more in another life, the life of that Kingdom which the Savior brought into the world. The life of the Kingdom must drive out the life of the fallen world for the Christian. One must, in the process of his own existence, replace the other. For this world such replacement means death: the world ceases to see transformed people; they disappear from it and cease to exist for it. This is not surprising: for the fallen world, Christ too ceased to exist immediately after His death on the Cross. The fallen world does not believe in His resurrection; for it, the resurrection does not exist. Such too is the life of every Christian, disappearing more and more for this world and manifesting himself more fully and clearly in the Kingdom.

A dead person is one who does not respond when addressed. But every response of ours is an action backed by the human will. The apostle Paul relies on this idea when he offers us this way of living. "It is impossible that temptations should not come," the Lord once said. We live in conditions where sinful thoughts, temptations, and desires will inevitably touch our hearts. But it is possible not to answer them, as a dead person answers nothing.

At the same time, it is remarkably important not to forget the second half of the apostle's phrase: "consider yourselves... alive to God." For if, while not responding to sin, you are nevertheless open to communion with God, then sinful impulses will not break through to your consciousness, because you will have no time to think about them. In fact, all Christian ascetic practice, that is, the tactics and strategy of resisting sin, is built on this simple contrast.