In Eastern Christian theology the death of Christ was not to satisfy a legal requirement but to vanquish the frightful cosmic reality of death, which held humanity under its usurped control and pushed it into the vicious circle of sin and corruption. As Athanasius of Alexandria has shown in his polemics against Arianism, God alone is able to vanquish death because He alone has immortality. Just as original sin in Eastern Christian theology does not consist in some sort of inherited guilt, so too redemption is not primarily justification or atonement for sin but, rather, a true victory over death.
Summarizing this patristic concept of death and resurrection, in the light of the Christological statement of the fifth and sixth centuries, John of Damascus writes:
Although Christ died as man, and His holy soul was separated from His most pure body, His divinity remained with both the soul and the body, and continued inseparable from either. Thus the one hypostasis was not divided into two hypostases, for from the beginning both body and soul existed in the hypostasis of the Word. Although at the hour of death body and soul were separated from each other, yet each of them was preserved, having the one hypostasis of the Word. Therefore, the one hypostasis of the Word was a hypostasis as of the Word; so also of the body and of the soul. For neither the body nor the soul ever had any proper hypostasis other than that of the Word. The hypostasis, then, of the Word is ever one, and there were never two hypostases of the Word. Accordingly, the hypostasis of Christ is ever one. And though the soul is separated from the body in space, yet they remain hypostatically united through the Word.
Although I realize that these words of St. John might be rather difficult to understand, I hope that my readers will come to a real and true appreciation of the deep struggle the Fathers went through in order to come to an adequate understanding of Who Jesus Christ IS. It was important to them that they find adequate words to express their belief that God Himself became incarnate as a human being in order to reveal to us the best way of living in order to accomplish the purpose and meaning of human, earthly life. We are here on earth as humans for a reason! There is a meaning and purpose to earthly existence.
The Fathers wanted to preserve the idea of One God and, at the same time, state of Jesus IS God Himself without lessening His Divinity or humanity. The struggle, I believe, is a true contribution to our faith. None of this is expressed in the Gospels. Tradition is, I believe, a very essential part of our understanding.
Do you believe that Jesus is truly God and man?