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Man’s salvation is first and foremost Trinitarian in nature. “With
man's failure to fulfill himself in his created uniqueness, God
undertakes the special action of salvation. The Father sends forth His
Son (Word) and His Spirit in yet another mission. The Word and the
Spirit come to the Old Testament saints to make known the Father. The
Word, as it were, incarnates himself in the Law (in Hebrew called the
"words") which is inspired by the Spirit. The Spirit inspires the
prophets to proclaim the Word of God. Thus, the Law and the Prophets are
revelations of God in His Word and His Spirit. They are partial
revelations, "shadows" (as the New Testament calls them), prefiguring
the total revelation of the "fullness of time" and preparing its coming.
When the time is fulfilled and the world is made ready, the Word and the
Spirit come once more — no longer by their mere action and power, but
now in their own persons, dwelling personally in the world and in the
hearts of believers. The Word becomes flesh. The only-begotten Son is
born as a man, Jesus of Nazareth. Thus after Jesus’ Incarnation,
Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, the Spirit who is in Him was
given to all men to make them also sons of the Father in an eternal
development of attaining His perfection by growing forever "to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13) –
i.e.; Theosis. Thus, in the New Testament we have the full Trinitarian
epiphany of God, the full manifestation of the Holy Trinity: the Father
through the Son in the Spirit to us; and we in the Spirit through the
Son to the Father.”
We are to be “partakers of the divine nature” [2 Peter 1:4] by God’s
grace. We are made to be “filled with the fullness of ... God”
(Ephesians 3:19). “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My
Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with
him” (John 14:23). It is this participation in divinity, called theosis
(which literally means deification or divinization) that the ascension
of Christ has made available for humanity.
But the possibility of a fall from grace is ever present. It is
extremely important that one must be always on one’s guard so that
he/she does not fall from grace [2 Peter 3:17, Luke 8:13, John
15:5-6, Rom.11:17-22, 1 Cor. 10:12, Heb. 6:4-8, 10:26-39, and 2
Peter 2:20-22]. And St. Paul wrote of himself: “I discipline my body
and bring it into subjection, lest… I myself should become
disqualified”. [1 Cor. 9:27]. This way no one is made so
presumptuous as to think of himself saved no matter what.
The Holy Spirit's power leads the human person to achieve the final
aim of the Christian life, the theosis, or deification, of human nature.
Theosis means life in God, the transformation of a human being into a
little god within God. This notion is in perfect agreement with the
Scriptures. Once, people picked up stones to cast at Christ. When Jesus
asked why they were doing this, the people answered that it was because
He was insulting God by calling himself God. And Jesus answered: "It is
not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods?" (Jn. 10.34; Ps. 82.6).
Thus Jesus himself calls man a god with a small “g”. And how does one
attain to this godliness? By theosis. Theosis describes the spiritual
pilgrimage in which each person becomes ever more perfect, ever more
holy, ever more united with God. It is not a static relationship, nor
does it take place only after death. On the contrary, theosis is a
movement of love toward God which begins for each Christian with the
rites of Baptism and which continues
throughout this life, as well as the life which is to come. Salvation
means liberation from sin, death, and evil. Redemption means our
repossession by God. In Orthodoxy, both salvation and redemption are
within the context of theosis.
Historically, “the fall withdrew from man the divine spirit which was
infused in him and consequently his likeness to God. It ended his
participation in the glory of the life of God but the image of God
remained untouched. The fact that it appears now somewhat dim is due to
that loss of likeness, which once rendered it completely clear and gave
to it its full meaning. This is the [current] non-natural state of
man…Man can serve himself in respect to his worldly needs, but cannot
serve himself spiritually. He has the will to perform the commandments
of God and can know Him partially through the observation of creation
through his intellectual reflection. But, he is unable to know God
completely and to meet Him, which is the final object of his life.”
Theosis, which is the ever-deepening partaking, infilling, & union of
each Christian of and with God, “is not a magical or automatic process.
While Christ has destroyed the powers of sin, death, and evil once and
for all, this victory must be appropriated by each person in cooperation
with the Holy Spirit. Each person is called to join with the lifegiving
and liberating Holy Spirit in realizing the fullness of human life in
communion with the Father. The Holy Spirit is the agent of deification
whose task it is to incorporate us into the life of the Holy Trinity.
However, the Spirit always recognizes our human freedom and invites our
active cooperation in perfecting the "image and likeness of God" with
which each of us was created."
“These are certainly bold affirmations which must be properly
understood. The Orthodox Church understands theosis ultimately as a
union with the energies of God and not with the essence of God which
always remains hidden and unknown. And these energies are the divine
uncreated energies of the Holy Spirit that give us eternal life. Man can
only be saved through union with that which is uncreated. There is no
other way; that which is created cannot save. Witness the words of
Christ: He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me,
and I in him" (John 6:56) which are recited within the Orthodox Holy
Eucharist. This is a true union with God. It is also one which is not
pantheistic, because in this union the divine and the human retain their
unique characteristics. In this sense, Orthodoxy believes that human
life reaches its fulfillment only when it becomes divine.”
In this life, the culmination of Theosis is a transfiguration of man.
Read about St. Columba of Iona in the
Western-Rite Orthodox Church article. And witness Moses in Ex.
34:29-33 how his face was transfigured when he came down from Mount
Sinai and he had to wear a veil because of that.
Furthermore, every Christian, being a live temple of the grace of the
Holy Spirit, must preserve himself from any foulness and sin. Saint Paul
admonished some Corinthian Christians who forgot about this: "Do you
know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? ...
If any one destroys God's temple, God shall destroy him. For God's
temple is holy, which temple is you" (1 Cor. 3: 16-17).
“Although the [life-giving] beneficial power of the Holy Spirit is
given to a believer not according to his merits but by God's mercy, it
increases in him in proportion to his diligence in the Christian life.
Thus Saint Peter directs Christians: "His Divine power has granted to us
all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of
Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has
granted to us His precious and very great promises, that through these
you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of
passion, and become partakers of the Divine nature. For this very reason
make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with
knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with
steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with
brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love" (2 Pet. 1: 3-7).
The Apostle Paul urges Christians to invite God's grace by righteous
living and prayers, saying: "Walk as children of light, for the fruit of
light is found in all that is good and right and true ... be filled with
the Spirit, addressing yourselves with psalms and words of glory,
singing praises to the Lord with all your hearts" (Eph. 5: 8-19).”
“Our participation in the life of the Holy Trinity takes place within
the Orthodox Church. For the Orthodox, the Church is the meeting place
between God and His people. The Holy Spirit and the Church are
organically linked. The Holy Spirit moves through the life of the Church
to reveal our common humanity in Christ and to unite us with the Father.
We acquire the Holy Spirit through our celebration of the Eucharist and
the reception of Holy Communion, through our participation in the
Sacraments, through our discipline of daily prayer, and through the
practice of fasting, all of which result in a Christ-like life.”
It is believed that the oil of the 5 wise maidens (in Mat. 25: 1-13)
represents the Grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore salvation rests on
the acquisition of the Grace of the Holy Spirit. This is the essence of
salvation: Only if the Holy Spirit, the Life Giver, dwells within you
will you have salvation. It’s the only sure fire way! Salvation based on
one confession with a lifestyle irreverent of the Holy Spirit will not
cut it. Jesus calls this the unpardonable sin.
“Following the Scriptures, Orthodox Christians believe in the
goodness of the human body and of all material and physical creation –
the future salvation of the material world also. Thus, in its faith in
resurrection and eternal life, the Orthodox Church looks not to some
"other world" for salvation, but to this very world so loved by God,
resurrected and glorified by Him, filled with His own divine presence.
At the end of the ages God will reveal His presence and will fill all
creation with Himself. All physical creation, together with the
righteous, will rejoice and be glad in His coming. “The wilderness and
the solitary places will be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom
in abundance.” (Isaiah 35:1). “For behold I create new heavens and a new
earth says the Lord, and the former things shall not be remembered or
come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create,
for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy (Isaiah
65:17-18).” 5
(1)
http://www.oca.org/ “The Holy Trinity
in Salvation” by the V. Rev. Thomas Hopko
(2)
http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7114.asp
“Spirituality” by Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald
(3)
http://www.pravmir.com/article_128.html “Pentecost. The day of
descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles.” by Bishop Alexander (Mileant)
(4)
http://www.oca.org/ “Eternal Life” by
the V. Rev. Thomas Hopko
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