Salvation

Jesus confounded the Jewish religious leaders of His day by surrounding Himself with those they regarded as deplorables - tax collectors and sinners. When Jesus perceived their criticism, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mark 2:17). Jesus correlated sin to sickness, and healing to repentance. As the Physician of our souls, He said the purpose of His coming was to bring sinners to repentance. In John’s gospel we read: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17). God’s love for mankind is evident throughout Scripture, where we read that “He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

Repentance is the first step in the process of salvation. The Apostle Peter told the crowd on Pentecost when asked what they must do to be saved: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:38) To repent means to acknowledge one’s spiritual failure, and to purpose to be transformed by God into His likeness so as to become a partaker in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:2-4). Repentance is a heartfelt, conscious determination to distance ourselves from satisfying our own will and lusts to doing God’s will and having communion with Him. Sin infected humanity when Adam and Eve purposed to eat the enticing forbidden fruit, believing the lie that they could become as God, but apart from God. Today, not much has changed. Humans still want to do their own will, acting as their own god, bringing upon themselves and other horrible suffering from their corrupt, self-centered decisions. By disobeying God, Adam and Eve, like all of us, detached themselves from the Source of life, thereby exposing themselves to new knowledge through the experience of guilt, shame, sadness, suffering, decay, and ultimately, death. The Word of God pronounced to Adam and Eve that in the day they ate of the forbidden tree they would surely die (Genesis 2:17). The death is both, physical and spiritual, body and soul. The body returns to ashes while the soul suffers eternal sorrow. God’s uncreated grace is the power that preserves the created order from decay and death - this is the essence or principle of existence. Apart from God’s grace, nothing exists or survives. God’s Word is sure, and cannot be broken, otherwise, as St. Athanasius points out, His Word would be proven false, rendering God a liar. Thus, Adam and Eve’s disobedience had cosmic disastrous implications - disease, devastation and death befell the cosmos with its living rational and irrational inhabitants. There are obvious signs everywhere that the earth is ill. The Apostle Paul personifies the earth as a woman suffering during labor: “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now” (Romans 8:22). However, “it were not worthy of God's goodness that the things He had made should waste away, because of the deceit practiced on men by the devil.” (St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation). After all, man was especially made in God’s image and likeness to experience eternal communion with God. Following the Fall God blocked re-entry to the Garden, placing a cherub with a flaming sword, lest Adam and Eve returned to take from the Tree of Life and be condemned eternally. Prior to the beginning of time, space and matter, God had already predetermined to save mankind, foreknowing that man’s misuse of his God-given free-will would trigger the law of death. St. Athanasius explained that, since it was the Word of God who created man in His image and likeness (Hebrews 11:3, Genesis 1:26) and fills all creation with His power to sustain it, it was the Word of God Himself (The Second Person of the Godhead) Who became flesh (John 1:1-4, 12) to rescue us from the wages of sin - the violation of God’s will or command. As the Creator and Sustainer of the created order, The Logos of God assumed the nature of the creation in order for His perfect life to count as a perfect ransom for all humans, thereby rendering the eternal law of death powerless over mankind. The Son of God willingly came to earth to demonstrate the love of God, destroying death by death, freeing those who repent and turn to Him from experiencing eternal darkness and everlasting estrangement from God. As St. Athanasius summarized, God became man, so that man can become divine- that is, to partake of the divine nature.

The Holy Orthodox Church does not teach penal substitution - the Western doctrine that Christ’s suffering was in order or to take on our punishment to appease the wrath of His Father whose honor was offended by our sins. First of all, God is not wrathful (the Bible condemns anger), as that attributes to God human flaws and emotions, and therefore rendering Him imperfect, and not being God at all. Next, it would violate God’s divine nature of being immutable - never changing, since He is perfection. Rather, the suffering and death of Christ, in combination with His resurrection and ascension, were the instruments by which God determined to spiritually heal us. The Apostle Peter explained: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24). Christ’s stripes were for our spiritual healing, as the Apostle said, so that we should “live unto righteousness.” Christ’s saving passion was part of His loving condescension, enduring suffering at the hands of corrupt creatures, whose mortal existence was being sustained by His power. So immense, is the love of God, beyond all human comprehension!

Sin is not something that exists as part of the created order; rather, sin is any opposition to God’s will. One can sin knowingly and willingly, or out of ignorance. The outcomes of sin are suffering and eternal death (Romans 6:23). Since God is the sole Source of Life, being disconnected from Him automatically terminates life, just like unplugging a refrigerator causes the food inside to rot. Through Holy Baptism, we are regenerated and brought to new form of life (filled with the light of God’s Holy Spirit), as all past sins are forgiven, and we’re rebirthed. Our minds are renewed to conform to the mind of Christ, and empowered to become Christ-centered and godly. Then, upon receiving Holy Chrismation, we receive the seal of the Holy Spirit, which keeps us “plugged-in” to the Source of Life. This is why the Apostle Peter referred to being baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit in order to be saved. As Christ explained to St. Nicodemus: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5). The 2nd chapter of Hebrews discusses how great is the gift of salvation, as Christ did not take the form of angels to rescue their fallen order, but rather, the form of a man to rescue the race of men. This prompted the Psalmist to write: “What is man, that Thou are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4). Given the magnitude of God’s salvation plan for sinful men rather than for the fallen angels, we’re admonished to treat this gift of salvation without callousness or complacency: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;” (Hebrews 2:3).

Salvation requires faith in Christ. The Lord oftentimes told those He healed: “Your faith has made you well.” Also, we read: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6). Believing that God exists and that He is merciful is fundamental to our turning towards Him in repentance. Christ honors our faith, no matter how small. Even faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains, meaning it is well received by God. Jesus told the father of a possessed child: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The man replied: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Matthew 9:17-27) Jesus honored his heartfelt confession and healed his son. However, belief alone is insufficient for salvation, as even the demons believe in God and tremble (James 2:19). Salvific faith must also produce good fruits that testify to one’s salvation and the presence of the Spirit of God producing the good works in the servant of God. The Apostle James wrote: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26) He goes on to explain that he will demonstrate his faith by his works. In Titus 2:14, the Apostle Paul declares that Christ redeemed us “from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” The Apostle Peter instructs the Church: “having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.” (1 Peter 2:12). While our human works cannot substitute for Christ’s work of salvation, once we are saved, we must live a life worthy of good works. As the Apostle attests to the Ephesian Church: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10). Our Lord said that a tree that doesn’t produce fruit is cast into the fire. He commands His disciples: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) Jesus warns about separating the sheep from the goats based on works such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the prisoner. This is a pure and living faith. To those not producing good works but simply calling on the name of Christ, Jesus foretells their fate at the Last Judgment: “Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46). Similarly, in Matthew 7:21: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Salvific faith is a living, transformational, fruit-bearing faith, from which God acts, through our conscience, to guide us towards lifelong repentance and a faith at work, based on love for God and mankind.

Salvation is a growth process, not a single event. This is evident when the Apostle Paul confronts the Christians in Corinth who were doubting the resurrection of the dead. He reminds them of the gospel of salvation: “By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:2). The verb phrase translated “are saved” is the Greek verb σῴζεσθε in the present imperfect tense, which denotes an action this is continuing to this day, especially in this context. In other words, the correct textual translation is “By which you are being saved…” Paul is saying their salvation will continue “if” they keep what was preached to them, or else, their salvific belief was in vain, as it did not end in salvation. Salvation is a three stage process: You are saved at baptism, you are being saved now as you grow in your walk of faith, and you will be saved forever at the Last Judgment upon glorification. At baptism, we become new babes in Christ and are fed the milk of the word by the Mother Church (1 Corinthians 3:1-3). We will stumble and fall as we embark on our Christian walk. Ultimately we should aim for spiritually meat. “But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrew 5:14). The Apostle Peter warns us to be diligent to be found spotless lest we fall from our own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. He urges to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:17-18) Salvation, therefore is growing to spiritual maturity, fighting sin to the end, and racing with endurance for the prize. The Apostle Paul urges us: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…” (Hebrews 12:1) To the Corinthian Church he warns: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12) The New Testament records the name of those in the Church who left the faith and placed their salvation in jeopardy. The Apostle Timothy is urged by The Apostle Paul to: “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12). The Apostle Peter warns the Church regarding false teachers putting at risk their salvation: “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’” (2 Peter 2:22) Thanks to God’s goodness and mercy, there is forgiveness whenever we fall and pick ourselves up, returning to the Father like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). Because our flesh is weak, sin is inevitable while we’re in this life, but salvation remains available to us as long as we remain in the Truth and persevere to the end. If we say we have no sin, we lie (1 John 1:8). The Apostle John assures us: “if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1) and “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). In the Church, we’re able to confess before God, in the witness of Christ’s ordained priest, and receive God’s healing for our soul, so we can continue running the race towards the prize of Christ in God’s Kingdom.

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