Orthodox Reflections

Part X of the Western Series

How Western Beliefs Changed the Original Gospel Message

… Sacrifice and Redemption …

Irene Polidoulis MD

with the blessing of her Spiritual Father

Western theology has strayed so far away from the authenticity of the Ancient Orthodox Church that was established by Christ and His Apostles, that today, Orthodoxy Christianity has, in some ways, more in common with Judaism than with her Western counterparts. To illustrate this, I will quote an excerpt from the book Surprised by Christ, My Journey from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity, written by the late Rev. A. James Bernstein of blessed memory. In this quote Father Bernstein relates an interaction he had with a Chasidic Jew, while Bernstein was a Protestant:

While living in Berkeley, California, during the seventies, I sometimes manned the campus Christian book table in Sproul Plaza … One day, an Orthodox Jew from the Chabad Center stopped to discuss theology with me … As we talked, he asked me, “Why can’t God simply forgive sins? Why does He need a sacrifice? In fact, why does He need anything?” This was a subject I thought I knew well, and so I explained … “God cannot forgive sins because He is just, and from the beginning has provided sacrifices to atone for our sins.” I then spoke about how the Old Testament animal sacrifices were a type of Jesus, the Lamb of God, our true Sacrifice. Then I drew on the clincher: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11) I followed this verse with the challenge, “You have no sacrifice – how will God be able to forgive your sins?”  

 My interrogator explained that atonement can mean many things and that the Leviticus passage did not necessarily mean God could not forgive sins without blood. He referred to scriptures such as Jeremiah 7:22-23: “for I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’” He suggested I read Isaiah 1:11-20. His point was that living a holy life and praying was more important than having a sacrifice. The Chasidic Jew concluded by stating two things that would stay with me for years to come. First, because God is Love, he didn’t understand why God’s love could not be unconditional. Second, he thought I had a very legalistic view of God and of His Love, because I believed that God was incapable of forgiving us or loving us without a sacrifice.¹  

Fr. Bernstein would later discover that the Chasidic Jew had a much more Orthodox Christian understanding of God’s Love than his own Western Protestant experience. So, what are some of the problems with Western theology or the Western mindset that even Jews who seek Christ have issues with them?

Orthodox Sacrifices – Jewish and Christian

The Chasidic Jew was struggling with what is known in Roman Catholic and Protestant theology as the propitiation of sins, a term that implies displacing one’s sins onto a sacrifice. This is meant to change the deity for whom the sacrifice is made by appeasing its anger. In other words, in the Christian West, a sacrifice is a “victim” or a “scapegoat.”  This Western mindset is like that of the ancient pagans whose sacrifices were made in the hopes of changing their (often angry and vindictive) gods by gaining their attention and favour. Pagan sacrifices, which included animals and sometimes humans (the latter was strictly forbidden in Judaism and Christianity) were offered to appease, to influence, to fulfill a request, to change the course of nature, basically to gain something, but not to change the heart or the life of the person offering the sacrifice.

Contrast this Western and pagan mindset with the Judaic and Orthodox Christian views of sacrifice as a gift to God for the expiation of sins. Expiation means reparation or making amends. This requires an internal change of heart of the offeror who is seeking personal reconciliation with God. In expiation, one makes amends with God to repair one’s relationship with Him. This is much like how one would “make up” after fighting with an old friend. One first has a change of heart, then pays a personal visit to the estranged friend with a gift to reconcile, and then the friendship progressively deepens through positive mutual interaction.

The Old Testament (OT) sin offering (sacrifice) was a gift to God that was accompanied by a verbal confession of sins to a priest. The offering was not acceptable unless it was accompanied by a sorrowful, face-to-face admission of specific sins that were spoken to the priest. “…he shall confess his sin in that thing; and he shall bring for his trespass against the Lord…a sin offering. So, the priest shall make atonement for him…” (Leviticus 5:5-6) Many passages in the Old Testament teach that sacrifices alone do not take away sins (Micah 6:6-8; Psalm 50:12-15; Psalm 51: 16-17; Psalm 40:6-8); a repentant heart is an essential prerequisite, just as it is in the Orthodox Christian sacrament of Holy Confession.

In both OT Judaism and Orthodox Christianity, the only gift one could make to God was to return to Him what was already His. This is because all we are and all we have, have been created by Him and are His from the beginning. The ancient Hebrews sacrificed animals, and offered fruits, grain, wine and incense. The portion of the animal sacrifice that was burned was thought to have been received by God, as a “pleasing aroma to the Lord” (Exodus 29:25; Leviticus 1:17; Leviticus 3:5) while the remains were often eaten by the offeror and the priest as a sacrificial meal. The “eating” of the same sacrifice by both God and the offeror indicated a type of covenant or communion between the two. In fact, the killing, sacrificing and eating of an animal was to share in the life of God, who had given life to the animal that was sacrificed.¹

The Orthodox Christian mindset and liturgical practice is almost identical to that of the ancient Hebrews. Orthodox Christians view the temple sacrifices as pedagogical types of the ultimate sacrifice of the true Lamb of God, Christ, who did not destroy, but fulfilled the Old Testament by bringing everything in it to the next level. Christ willingly died once and for all to take away the sins of the world, and just before doing so, He showed us how to replace the temple sacrifices with His own. Therefore, instead of animals, Orthodox Christians offer bread and wine to God, by bringing them to church, to be consecrated during the Divine Liturgy, into the Body and Blood of Jesus.

The word Liturgy is from the Greek word λειτουργία (leetoorgiah), which means “the work of the people.” The people, or laity, must participate or “work” for the Divine Liturgy to take place. This work is their offering to God, and it can take many forms. The most important work is one’s prayerful participation in the Divine Liturgy. In contrast to the Roman Catholic church where a priest can serve Mass by and for himself, an Orthodox priest cannot conduct a Liturgy without the presence of laity, who also “work” by joining their prayers to his, and by bringing the gifts of the bread and the wine. The basic ingredients of these gifts are the wheat and the grapes. These were created by God and are His to begin with, which the faithful offer back to Him, after putting in “the work” of processing the wheat into bread and the grapes into wine. These become the “bloodless Sacrifice” of Christ, the once-and-for-all forever sacrifice when the priest says,” Your Gifts, of what is Yours, we offer to You, on behalf of all and for all [Greek: Τα Σα εκ των Σων Σοι προσφέρομεν κατά πάντα και δια πάντα].” The laity may also “work” by providing oil for the lamps and incense for the service, as well as other types of offerings. If the laity are unable to grow or make these gifts themselves, they put in “the work” to earn money for their purchase. One way or another, there are many ways the laity participates in the Divine Liturgy by “working.”

Like the ancient Hebrews, the Orthodox faithful prepare to receive Holy Communion ahead of time, through Repentance and Holy Confession, which also requires a sorrowful admission of specific sins communicated verbally and face-to-face to a priest. The goal is for Man to consume (eat) the sacrifice of Christ (his Body and Blood) with a repentant heart and the desire to live a holy life. This is the first step towards Theosis or Deification, which is to share in the life of God. As it was in Judaism, the emphasis in Orthodox Christianity is not solely on the sacrificial act, but on each person’s participation in that sacrifice through repentance and a changed life.

In both the ancient Hebrew tradition and in the Orthodox Church, a sacrifice or offering serves three purposes:  it is a gift to God which He first gave us because it initially belonged to Him, it reconciles us to God, and it is communion with God.  In addition, both the OT  Jews and Orthodox Christians view sacrifices and offerings as expiatory rather than propitiatory. In the Orthodox Church, a verse like “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3) is understood to mean that Christ died for us – to heal us and transform us, by communing with us to progress us from His image to His likeness, which is Theosis. He did not die instead of us to avert the wrath of God the Father.¹

Western Redemption is Mere Salvation

God’s real plan that moves Athonite monks to tears of repentance in the East, became very distorted in the West, particularly in the medieval period. As already mentioned, the West followed the early ideas of Augustine, which the Eastern Orthodox Church had rejected as false. One of these ideas was the “ransom” or “bargain” theory of redemption. According to this theory, a debt was owed to the devil. When Adam fell into sin, he sold Humanity to the devil bringing us all under Satan’s ownership. Therefore, “justice” demanded that the devil be paid a ransom for our freedom. The expression “There will be the devil to pay,” originated from this idea. According to this theology, to solve this problem, God “tricked” the devil into accepting Jesus’ death as a ransom. Because Jesus is sinless, death and Hades could not hold Jesus as prisoner, but His sacrifice and death satisfied the devil’s claim for justice. In this way, Jesus freed Humanity from the devil’s claim by providing Himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God which took Humanity’s place. This is a type of propitiation, which was thought to “appease” God’s “justice.”¹

St. Gregory the Theologian of Nazianzus had already refuted this propitiatory theory from the Orthodox perspective in the 4^th century, before it was again proposed by 5^th century Augustine. St. Gregory called this theory,

“…[an] outrage if the robber [the devil who robbed God of Humanity] receives ransom, not only from God, but a ransom which consists of God Himself [Jesus], and has such an illustrious payment for his tyranny, a payment for whose sake it would have been right for him to have left us alone altogether.” (Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 45, 2^nd Oration on Pascha)

St. Gregory’s point was that this theory made no sense any way you looked at it. God owes nothing to the deceitful devil, who gained nothing, but rather lost everything when the sinless and all-powerful God died as a human, descended into Hades, destroyed it, and freed all the souls the devil held captive from the beginning of human history.  By instigating Christ’s crucifixion, the powers of darkness disarmed themselves, but not in a propitiatory manner. Nothing could be more out of character for the God of Love, Mercy, Humility and Truth, than to feign partnership with the devil, or to “trick” him. The very idea is irreverent to the holiness of God.

Although the East rejected the “ransom” or “bargain” theory early on, it was the dominant Western view during the first thousand years of Christianity. Then, in the 11^th century Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote a critique, Why Did God Become Man. He argued that because the devil was an outlaw, he had no claim on Humanity, and God does not have to pay him anything to free us. As a result, this theory was virtually abandoned in the West; but instead of accepting the Eastern Orthodox teaching on Redemption, which existed from Apostolic times, Anselm developed a different theory altogether, the “debt” or “satisfaction” theory, also known as Anselm’s view of atonement. This, too, is a very legalistic view that claims that Humanity owes a debt to God. God’s “honour” and “justice” demand that to avoid punishment in Hell, the debt owed to Him must be paid or satisfied. Since Man cannot pay this debt because he is fallen and sinful, only Jesus Christ, who is perfect and sinless, can pay it on our behalf by dying on the cross and making propitiation for us. If we believe in Jesus’ substitutionary atonement, then we are forgiven, and God is “free” to bestow His grace and mercy on us. Before Christ’s sacrifice, God was unable to simply forgive us our sins because His divine justice first demanded a payment, a sacrifice or a punishment. In other words, before God could forgive us, someone first had to “pay the price.” ¹

Just like the “ransom” or “bargain” theory was not new to the Orthodox Church, Anselm’s theory of atonement was not new either, because the Orthodox Church had again responded to this theory in the 4^th century with the words of St. Gregory the Theologian:

…on what principle did the Blood of His Only begotten Son delight the Father, Who would not receive even Isaac, when he was being offered by his father [Abraham], but changed the sacrifice, putting a ram in the place of the human victim? Is it not evident that the Father accepts Him [Jesus], but neither asked for Him nor demanded Him; but on account of the Incarnation, and because Humanity must be sanctified by the Humanity of God, that He might deliver us Himself, and overcome the tyrant [devil], and draw us to Himself by the mediation of His Son, Who also arranged this to the honour of the Father, Whom it is manifest that he obeys in all things? So much we have said of Christ; the greater part of what we might say shall be reverenced with silence [emphasis mine]. (Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 45, 2^nd Oration on Pascha)

The “debt” or “satisfaction” theory became the dominant theory of atonement in almost all Western churches, despite its many problems:

 First, if a juridical justice is necessary, it makes God a prisoner of His own justice, whereas God, by the very definition of the word, should have no limitations if He is all powerful. A “necessity” for God creates a God above God. This type of “necessity” parallels the impersonal Fate that governed pagan gods.¹

Second, if God cannot forgive sins because His divine justice needs satisfaction, God’s Love cannot be unconditional. This is like not being able to forgive someone who offends us because we first need “satisfaction,” which is akin to revenge.¹

 Third, this theory creates a legalistic view of sin and salvation that requires the Father to punish the Son in our stead in a propitiatory manner. This is a type of human court-room style justice, which is legalistic, punitive and juridical. It cannot be divine, loving, healing or salvific if it must reward evil with evil. In other words, how can God be Love if he must punish his own innocent Son? This isn’t fair, even by fallen human standards.¹

Fourth, our failure to believe in Jesus, then compels God to punish us as a legal necessity. In other words, the crucified God the Son, saves us from the punitive wrath of God the Father, as if God must overcome Himself for our salvation.¹

The fifth and biggest problem is that viewing God as vindictive can cause great spiritual damage, especially if one believes that the physical and spiritual harm that we inflict upon ourselves through our own sinful choices comes from God as a sort of punishment. Confusing the consequences of our own faulty thinking or actions with God’s anger can cause us to fear God and flee from Him, instead of running to Him as a loving Father, for help and healing.¹

There is also a third theory of atonement, called the “penal substitutionary” theory. The “bargain” or “ransom” theory and the “debt” or “satisfaction” theory both claim that Christ paid the debt we owe, whereas the “penal substitutionary” theory claims Christ received the punishment we deserve (see Part VIII / Action and Over-Reaction / Forensic Justification) so that we no longer need to be punished. This view is probably the best known of the three Western theories of atonement. All three of these Western theories are propitiatory, juridical and portray God as an angry, vindictive and fierce judge who pours out His divine “wrath” on His Son because of His “love” for sinful Man. This is so out of character for a God who teaches us to forgive our enemies “seventy times seven [an infinite number of times]” (Matthew 18:21-22), that it explains, at least in part, why many are repelled by institutional churches and admire or worship Jesus on a strictly private level, if, after so much Western distortion, they admire Him at all.¹

In Part II of this Series, we discussed how the West mistranslated the original Greek words εφ ω (ef o), which mean “because” or “because of,” to the Latin in quo, which mean “in whom.” This Latin mistranslation justifies the Western doctrine of inherited guilt by supporting the teaching that Original Sin is inherited from Adam, spreading to all his descendants. Something simitar happened with the words expiation and propitiation. In the original Greek the word is ιλασμός (hilasmos), which in Latin translates to “expiatio” (“expiation,” “mercy”, “grace”, “cleansing”). Both expiation and propitiation were used in Latin theology, depending on the context, but because of evolving theological assumptions, there was a semantic shift in the Western understanding of the original Greek word, ιλασμός. Because Latin theology often emphasized legalistic or juridical interpretations of divine justice, the same word, ιλασμός (hilasmos), became associated with “propitiatio” (“propitiation” or “punishment”). This word supports the Western mindset of an “angry” God who must “punish” everyone, even the innocents, for Mankind’s ever-present guilt, unless He can be “appeased” or “avenged.” Since most English language Bibles were translated from Latin instead of the original Greek, it is common, therefore, to find English Bibles with the word “propitiation” instead of the word “expiation.” One exception is the English language Orthodox Study Bible. The mistranslated word “propitiation” (which should read “expiation”) appears in the New King James Version in Romans 3:25 and in 1 John 2:2.¹

Orthodoxy believes that God is dispassionate. His will, which is that everyone be saved, is never governed by passions or emotions such as resentment, anger or revenge. Nor does his “honour” change because of us or need defending. In fact, the Chasidic Jew was right. God does not “need” anything and nothing we can do can change Him in any way. Whatever we do only affects us. When our choices sometimes hurt us, it is not because an angry God punishes us; it is because we hurt ourselves through the consequences of the choices we make.

Eastern Redemption is Recapitulation – Transformation and Deification

In the West, salvation means nothing more than the avoidance of the wrath of God and Hell. In Orthodoxy, we are not just saved from “going to” Hell by “going to” Heaven, as though Heaven and Hell are places where “we go.” For the Orthodox, Salvation means spiritual transformation. This process begins in this life and culminates after the Resurrection of the Dead. We are saved from something (sin, death, and the devil) for something else (our union with God, which is Theosis or Deification).  

Because God is infinite and eternal, this journey towards God’s likeness begins in the Liturgical and Sacramental life of the Orthodox Church, where we receive the immaculate Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. This begins the progressive spiritual transformation of our humanity, where the Eucharist progressively unites us with God starting here and now. At the Resurrection, our bodies will be physically transformed and glorified in the same manner as the glorified, resurrected body of Christ, who is the first born of the dead, and who awaits all those who love Him, at the right hand of the Father (Ephes. 1:20; Heb 1:3; Mark 16:19; Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62; 1 Peter 3:22, Psalm 110:1). There, the redeemed will join Him as co-heirs of His Heavenly Kingdom (Romans 8:16-17; Galatians 3:29; Colossians 1:12; Ephesians 1:3-14). Their union with Him will continue to progress eternally, advancing redeemed Humanity from Grace to Grace and from Glory to Glory.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord [emphasis mine].”  (2 Corinthians 3:18)

This tremendous blessing – our ultimate deification – was begun by Christ for Man at His Incarnation and was completed at His Ascension. Our potential for Theosis, which was lost because of the Fall, begins anew with Jesus Christ. It is a transformation process that begins in this life and reaches its fullness in the next. It promises to elevate Man to a state of perfect harmony and fellowship with God in His Heavenly Kingdom, enjoying eternal life in a personal union with God. This is not a static union, but an eternally and infinitely progressive union with the infinite God, rising from grace to grace and from glory to glory for all of eternity.

“I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High [God]’” (Psalm 82 (81):6).

“We are reborn into a perfect inheritance that can never perish, never be defiled, and never diminish.” (2 Peter 1:4)

“…and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…” (Rom. 8:17)

“[where] eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of Man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”  (1 Corinthians 2:9)

How did the Incarnated Son of God accomplish all this for fallen Man without succumbing to the shortcomings of Western propitiatory theology?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word took on human flesh and dwelt among us…”  (John 1:1-14)

According to the Orthodox Church, God, Himself, took on human form and came to earth as a “second” Adam, to give Mankind a second chance. He succeeded, not by His great power and glory, but by His extreme love and humility. He emptied Himself of His glory to become one of us. This was not to pay a debt or to suffer in our stead but to rescue us by taking on our fallen human condition and uniting it with His divinity to heal it, purify it and transform it for union with God.

For that which is not taken up (or assumed) is not healed. (St. Gregory the Theologian)

According to the Orthodox, this second chance for Humanity, was not accomplished by propitiatory means, but by expiation. The method of our expiation (“mercy,” “grace,” “cleansing,” “healing”), was first described in the 2^nd century as Recapitulation (Greek: ανακεφαλαίωσης, anakephalaiosis) by St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon.

 St. Irenaeus is an early Father of the Church, who is highly regarded for his role in developing Christian theology and defending the faith against heretical beliefs. He was a student of St. Polycarp, who in turn was a disciple of the Apostle John, thus placing St. Irenaeus in direct spiritual lineage with Apostolic tradition. To demonstrate the importance of Apostolic succession within Holy Tradition, St. Irenaeus writes,

Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. (St. Irenaeus of Lyons, III.3.4)

In his work, Against Heresies, St. Irenaeus laid out the foundational doctrine of Recapitulation, where Christ’s life on earth “recapped” or summarized, healed, sanctified and essentially reversed the spiritual consequences of all human history and experience, leading Humanity back to God. He did this by perfectly living out every stage of human life from birth to adulthood and death, retracing and undoing the disobedience of the first Adam by becoming the first human to fully restore Humanity’s intended relationship with the Father.  This view underlines the importance of Christ’s dual nature – both the human and the divine. It supports the concept of Theosis, the process of Humanity’s restoration to communion with God; and it views atonement, not merely as a legal transaction, but as Christ’s singular victory over sin, death, and the devil, in which His perfect love and obedience towards the Father (in sharp contrast to Satan’s and Adam’s prideful disobedience) is crucial.

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In Against Heresies, St. Irenaeus frequently uses the word recapitulate, but also the expressions, sum up, unite into divinity, or save in Himself to get this idea across. For example,

For it was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and He who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man, having been taken into the Word, and receiving the adoption, might become the son of God. For by no other means could we have attained to incorruptibility and immortality [divinity], unless we had been united to incorruptibility and immortality [the divine]. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and immortality [the divine] unless, first, incorruptibility and immortality [the divine] had become that which we also are [human], so that the corruptible might be swallowed up [transformed] by incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that we might receive the adoption of sons? [emphasis mine]. (St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies)

But if the Lord became incarnate for any other order of things, and took flesh of any other substance, He has not then summed up human nature in His own person, nor in that case can He be termed flesh…. He had Himself, therefore, flesh and blood, recapitulating in Himself not a certain other, but that original handiwork [Adam] of the Father, seeking but that thing which had perished [humanity]…. Through the flesh of our Lord, and through His blood, we have been saved [emphasis mine]. (St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies)

In Orthodoxy, Christ did not pay any debt for us, and He did not accept any punishment on our behalf. Well before the development of the West’s, propitiatory theories, which stipulated that Christ paid our debt or suffered in our place, Orthodoxy understood the redemption of fallen Humanity as our healing, our sanctification and transformation towards divinity. This recapitulation of Humanity was accomplished when Christ became one of us and in His humanity, overcame three main obstacles that prevented sinful Man from reaching God. These obstacles were insoluble for fallen Man but not for the fully divine and fully human Godman, Jesus Christ.¹

1. 1. The first obstacle – corruption and decay – stood between the uncreated and incorruptible divine God and the created and corruptible mortal Man. This obstacle was overcome by God’s unconditional love and grace through His incarnation of the Word. When “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14), He united His divine nature with our human nature without confusing the two natures. When He resurrected, Christ’s human body was transformed into a new and glorified incorruptible and immortal body – but still a body – that was no longer subject to sickness, decay or death, and which would live eternally in God’s Heavenly Kingdom. Christ was able to do this, because besides being fully Human, He was also fully God. Christ did this to ensure that on the last day of human history, at the Resurrection of the dead, our bodies, too, will be transformed into new, glorified, incorruptible and immortal bodies, like His. Both the wicked and the righteous will resurrect in this manner, because of His unconditional Love for all.¹ What happens after that, however, depends on us, as we shall see in Part XI.
   2. The second obstacle – sin – was overcome by Christ on the Cross (Romans 8:2-4) with His extreme humility. Whereas our first parents (Adam and Eve) boasted before God by trying to resemble Him in knowledge through disobedience, the Godman, Christ, practiced the extreme of humility and complete obedience to God the Father. First, He humbled Himself to personally form man from the dust of the earth, in His own image and according to His likeness, sharing His own divine attributes with the dust of the ground. He made us from the dust to share His Divinity with Man and to glorify him higher than His angels. Then, when we fell, He emptied Himself of his own Divine glory to take on corruptible human flesh from the Virgin Mary at His Incarnation. He lived like the poorest of human beings “with nowhere to lay his head” (Luk. 9:58). After teaching us and healing our infirmities, the Lord of all submitted to betrayal, slander, injustice and terrible tortures, until His execution by death on a Roman cross, a treatment reserved for the worst of criminals.  Form His birth in a manger to His death on the Cross, our God underwent the most extreme humiliation to heal Humanity’s sin of pride and transform it within Himself into the virtue of humility. In his book, Christ the Eternal Tao, Hieromonk Damascene explains the teachings of Lao Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher who drives home the idea of God’s extreme humility by comparing it to water in a vessel. When the vessel is emptied out, the water runs straight down to occupy the lowest places. It does not stop flowing downwards until it occupies the deepest depths, the nadir of existence.³ Such was the extreme humility of the crucified Christ who healed and transformed Adam’s sin of pride. The Godman Jesus also transformed Adam’s disobedience into perfect obedience because of His unconditional Love for the Father. His transformation of Humanity through His unconditional Love are what makes forgiveness of sins easily possible when we repent from the heart.
   3. The third obstacle – death – was overcome by Jesus with His glorious Resurrection (John 14, 19) which cancels out death for Man.  This is why at Easter we sing, “Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling on death by His death, and to those in the graves, bestowing life!”  When the resurrected Christ ascended into heaven and “sat at the right hand of God the Father” (Hebrews 10:12-13) to co-reign with Him, He completed the transformation process of fallen Man by taking Humanity to the throne of God. He waits for us there, to reign with Him in His Heavenly Kingdom as “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).  Through “Jesus Christ, the firstborn of the dead” (Rev 1:5), God raises human nature to divine fullness (John 1:12, 13), thereby inaugurating a new path for all Mankind, a new journey from physical and spiritual death to resurrection on the Last Day followed by our own ascension to the Heavenly Kingdom, for deified eternal life, reigning as co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).¹

Let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities [sins], for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished…It took a body, and met God face-to-face. It took earth and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen and fell upon the unseen.

O Death [corruption], where is your sting? O Hell [Satan], where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen [emphasis mine] (St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, The Paschal Sermon)

The conquering of sin, death (corruption) and the devil, form the threefold victory of Christ! This is how and this is why,

“God became Man so that Man might become God.”  (St. Athanasius in his work On the Incarnation)

This is the REAL Good News of the Gospel. It is the real reason behind the immense joy of the early Christians who did not hesitate to witness for Christ. They even gladly died for Him to become His brethren and share in His awesome inheritance.

The Eucharist is the Beginning of Man’s Deification

In Orthodoxy, Redemption is about our healing and transformation towards deification, not about paying a debt or a price. We do not have to wait for death to begin our journey to the Heavenly Kingdom. As was mentioned earlier (see Part IV) our journey from Death to Deification, begins when the priest calls the faithful to commune with the words, “With the fear of God, with faith and love, draw near.” Our journey often takes us through the three stages of spiritual maturation. The first stage is to obey God out of fear, for “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10), like that of a child who obeys to avoid punishment. This is a good first step as fear is a deterrent to sin. The second stage is that of faith, where we obey God, believing that He will reward us with blessings. This is a transactional stage. The highest stage of spiritual maturity is to obey God out of love – not to avoid punishment, nor even to gain a reward. We obey God to please Him because we yearn for union with Him as a bride yearns for her Bridegroom. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).

 In the Orthodox Church, our loving God accepts all stages of spiritual maturity at the Holy Chalice. The Church is viewed as a spiritual hospital, where the Body and Blood of Christ are the Medicine of Immortality. Through a sacramental and liturgical life in the Church, the Eucharist progressively heals us and unites us with God. The more regularly we participate in this holy Mystery with proper preparation – repentance and Holy Confession – the more progress we make in our spiritual life towards Theosis. We progress from fearing God, to faith in God, to loving God and union with Him. As we have said many times, this process begins in this life and continues into the next, into the embrace of our loving Father.

The Western theories of atonement teach “salvation” through propitiatory means, alongside the “guilt” of Original Sin. This promotes a harsh view of God as angry and punitive, imparting only the “fear of God,” which keeps people stuck in the first stage of spiritual maturity. This can seriously hinder one’s spiritual growth or quash it altogether. The more educated and sophisticated modern Man in the West tends to reject this type of God, which is why Western churches often talk about “modernizing” and making Christianity “more relevant.” What they really mean is making God “kinder,” and more “like us.”

Rather than returning to the timeless truths of the Orthodox Church – truths which were taught by Christ and handed down to His Apostles – the West, in its quest to make God more approachable by making Him more “human,” has in fact demoted Him by embracing all kinds of sinful immorality that God rejects. The real issue is not to make the already perfect and truly Human, Jesus Christ, more “human” (i.e. sinful) so that modern sinful Man can approach Him; the issue is for Humanity to become truly Human, first by recognizing who Christ really is, and then becoming more like Him. We are the ones that need to change, not God; and we can do it by repenting, by shedding the mistakes of our Western predecessors and by returning to the roots of Ancient Apostolic Christianity, the God-Inspired Wisdom of the Holy Church Fathers, and the Orthodox Church.

As Saint Paisios used to say, “Love and humility is the frequency in which God works,” and it is certainly that frequency in which Jesus Christ worked to bring us back to Himself.

To be concluded with Part XI – Heaven and Hell – The Divine Fire of God’s Love

References

1. A. James Bernstein, Surprised by Christ, My Journey from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity, Ancient Faith Publishing, Chesterton Indiana, pp 233-234, 246-252, 232-238, 240-241, 252-253, 257-258
2. Theology Pathfinder, Irenaeus’ Against Heresies, https://derekdemars.com/2022/01/28/irenaeus-against-heresies-best-parts/
3. Hieromonk Damascene, Christ the Eternal Tao, pp 86, 136, 13 etc.
4. Orthodox Church of America, John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, The Paschal Sermon https://www.oca.org/fs/sermons/the-paschal-sermon