IMAGO DEI
God came down to man in order to save him. Coming not in the form of God but in the form of man, He lowered Himself down to man's nature, showing him that He's a personal God — one who desires His creatures to manifest Himself. Man, being made in God's image and likeness, is called to allow that image and likeness to shine forth in the world for God's greater manifest glory. Man is, therefore, a manifestation of God in the world. That is, of course, only when he let's the image of God in him direct his thoughts, words and deeds. God's image and likeness radiating from man is the very definition of what it means to be human. But His image and likeness is besmirched and hidden due to sin, which is what God came to save us from.
God came down to man in order to save him from sin; that is, death. When God created man, he created him good. But man chose to do his own will over God's and so he fell. That fall was a fall from original justice, and so sin and death came into the world, which is what all of humanity inherited. Because God created man for His greater manifest glory, sin doesn't just harm the relationship between God and the individual soul, but it takes away from the entire purpose of creation. In this case, God's loving act of creation, which affords man the opportunity to share and participate in everything the Creator has, is rendered — in a way — null and void (Matthew 26:24).
God came down to man in the person of Christ, who is a perfect reflection of the Father. The Son's mission was to save; that is, to free and to liberate man from the bonds of sin and death. In short, Christ's mission was to do the will of the One who sent him. But, again, man denied God, for, "the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not" (John 1:10-11).
Death is the scariest reality of life, for it opposes every natural inclination we have as human beings. When God offers life as the antidote for sin (death), our acceptance of that gift is the highest human action we can perform. In the Person of Christ, God offers eternal life to man. And for those who say yes to this offer, they are loving children of God, sharing in the Father's glory with a right to everything He has. In this acceptance, man allows himself to be a "soul that magnifies the Lord" (Luke 1:46), a soul that radiates God's image and likeness.
God saves man on the Cross, for it is only through the Cross of Christ where man can find his remedy for death. Once the remedy is found at Calvary, man enters into Christ's Kingdom; that is, eternal life. This Kingdom, therefore, is the end of all existence — it is the first principle and teleology of human existence and religion itself.
So, the Gospel is the good news. And the good news is that man can have life and life eternal through the Cross of Christ Crucified. But life is the Kingdom, for it is only in the Kingdom where man is not lost and steeped in sin. It is only in the Kingdom where man is not dead and a slave to the world. Thus, in order for man to "overcome" death, he must know that the Kingdom is the end and the Cross is the means.
The Cross of Christ is inseparable from His Church, for at the peak of His crucifixion (so to speak), that's when His Church officially began. When blood and water flowed from Christ's side, His Church was made manifest: "As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam's side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross" (CCC, 766).
