Introduction
"A Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense"
Faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ is the foundation of our religious convictions. This faith gives us spiritual strength, in-spires us to do good, and gives direction to our efforts and to our expectations. Without it Christianity loses its inspirational power and is reduced to a collection of ancient myths and unfulfilled promises.
Though of great importance, Christ’s divinity is not self-evident. There are even some passages in the Gospels which seem to contradict it. Therefore, those who dispute the divinity of Christ have no difficulty in finding biblical texts which supposedly support their opinion that Jesus Christ was either a man or some incarnate spiritual creature and therefore cannot be called God in the true sense of the word. At the same time opponents of the faith of the divinity of Christ point to the absence of biblical texts in which Jesus called Himself God, and from this they draw the incorrect conclusion that this title was given to Him later.
Contradictory opinions concerning the nature of Christ began to spring up from the very first days of Christianity. Quite serious disputes and disturbances were caused in the fourth century A.D. by the Arian heresy, which taught that Jesus Christ was only a creature, although the most perfect and powerful one ever created. This heresy was thoroughly discussed by the First Ecumenical Council which was held in the city of Nicaea in 325. The Fathers of this Council rejected arianism and composed a Symbol of Faith, or Creed, in which, using very precise statements, they expressed the true teaching concerning Jesus Christ. This Creed has been used by the Eastern Orthodox Church to this very day.
In our time the sect of Jehovah’s Witnesses has resurrected the defeated Arian heresy from the dust of history. Their variation of it teaches that Jesus Christ is the incarnation of a spirit-son or an angel-like creature (perhaps of the Archangel Michael). The danger posed by the sect of Jehovah’s Witnesses comes from the fact that they possess seemingly unlimited financial reserves and thus flood the world with their literature and their preachers. A particularly aggressive missionary work is being carried on in Russia, where they have caught thousands of trusting people in the nets of their cult.
Orthodox people in Russia are in particular danger from these sectarian preachers because, not being use to the vagaries of living in a pluralistic society, they do not know how to defend their faith, and the majority of them are not very familiar with the Sacred Scriptures. On the other hand, the sectarian preachers are well versed in the texts that are useful to them, so that they can glibly overwhelm with quotations that suit their purpose.
The Scriptures on Jesus
Although the Holy Spirit scriptures repeatedly call Jesus Christ the Son of God, those who would discredit His divinity cite the fact that the Scriptures use the term "sons of God" not only to refer to Jesus Christ, but also to angels and people. In order to clarify this question, we should remember that when referring to people or angels as sons of God, the Holy Scriptures always use the plural form, and never the singular. This makes it evident that they are "sons" not by nature but by the grace of adoption. (Otherwise, for example, the designation of the ungodly as "sons of the Devil" would lead to the absurd conclusion that they have a different origin than the faithful). The Holy Scriptures use the singular form of the Son of God only when speaking of Jesus Christ. It is only to Him that the Holy Scriptures adds clarifying terms such as the Only Begotten, Beloved Son, Son of the Living God, True Son — all of which unambiguously indicate that, unlike us , He is the Son in the true sense of the word and by His divine nature. That is why the Mormons grossly err by claiming that Jesus Christ had other god-brothers like Lucifer (Satan!) and others. The Holy Scriptures clearly distinguish between the Son and the sons: the first is begotten; all the others were created.
At the very onset of Jesus Christ’s preaching, God the Father testified about Him saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17) Later, on Mount Tabor, the Father repeated these words adding: "Hear ye Him" (Matt. 17:5). This commands us to accept every word of Christ as complete and infallible truth.
But how can we respond to those who deny Christ’s divinity, when He Himself said: "My Father is greater than I … Of that day and of that hour (the end of the world) knoweth no man — no, not the angels who are in Heaven, neither the Son, but only the Father… The Son can do nothing of Himself , but what He seeth the Father do… My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, unto to death … not My will, but Thine be done" (John 14:28; Mark 13:32; John 5:19; Mark 14:34; Luke 22:42). Besides, if Jesus Christ truly regarded Himself as God, then why did He not announce this clearly and unambiguously? By doing so, He would have dispelled all doubts about Himself.
The purpose of this article is to help the reader deal with these questions and to give him the necessary information to defend his faith in the divinity of Christ. In order to understand why Our Lord Jesus Christ did not announce publicly His divinity, let us mentally transport ourselves to the time of Jesus.
Imagine how people in the time of Jesus would have reacted to the words of a man who walked around declaring, "I am God!" Undoubtedly the crowd would have ridiculed Him as being out of His mind, while the zealots of the Jewish religion would have jumped at the chance to declare Him a blasphemer and demanded his execution. Only the pagans, who acknowledged many gods, might have accepted such a claim more seriously than the Jews, understanding it of course in terms of their superstitions. (Recall the reaction of the pagans to the miracles of the Apostle Paul as they were ready to declare him one of their gods and offer sacrifices to him, Acts 14:11). In our time people would turn away with scorn from any preacher who declared himself to be God. In any case, a direct declaration by the Savior regarding His divinity would not have had the desired result.
In fact, the Son of God did not come into our world to amaze His contemporaries with His omnipotence or to subject them to His divine power, but rather to incite them to righteousness. People had become so alienated from spiritual things and so morally corrupt that they were unfit to understand the truth of the divinity of Christ correctly. Let us recall from the Gospels how difficult it was for Christ to preach among the Jews and how much mockery He had to endure from the evil-minded scribes who strived to distort the meaning of His words and to prevent simple people from believing in Him. Therefore, the first thing that our Lord Jesus Christ had to do was to convince people to turn to God in repentance, reject their own religious prejudices, and sow in themselves the seeds of the true faith. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary to inspire them toward a righteous way of life, teach them to forgive, have compassion and love one another.
Such a deep spiritual shift in society could not have been accomplished by either threats or miracles. In fact, the manifestations of Christ’s divine nature, brought about by His performing miracles, stirred up in the Jewish people unhealthy ideas about the coming of a glorious and mighty messianic kingdom on earth, in which they would rule over other nations. For this reason they were forbidden by our Lord to talk about the miracles He performed.
In order to accomplish the spiritual renewal of men and to make them receptive to the true faith, Christ chose to use gentle and inspiring words and His personal example. Out of compassion for a perishing human race, He undertook to share their poverty, burdens and sorrows. In order to heal their moral ulcers, He took upon Himself their sins and washed them away with His precious Blood on the Cross. The saving of the sinful human race, from the moment of Christ’s incarnation to His suffering on the Cross, was a work of extreme voluntary self-abasement. In the words of the Apostle Paul, "(Christ) being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant"(Philippians 2:6-7).
This voluntary self-abasement of the Messiah is thus described by the prophet Isaiah: "He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief … and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth … He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare His generation?" (Isaiah 53:2-8). With these concluding words the prophet was addressing the consciences of those who were to reject their Saviour, as if saying to them: You turn away in contempt from Jesus as He is mocked and beaten, but understand this, it is because of you sinners that He suffers so grievously. Contemplate His spiritual beauty, and maybe then you will be able to comprehend that He came to you from heaven.
While voluntarily abasing Himself for the sake of our salvation, Christ nevertheless gradually revealed the mystery of His oneness with God the Father to those who were capable of rising above the crude ideas of their contemporaries. Thus, for instance, He said to the Jews: "I and My Father are one … He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father … I am in the Father and the Father in Me … all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine … We will come unto him and make our abode with him" (John 10:30, 14:9, 14:10, 17:10 and 14:23). These and other similar expressions all indicate His divine nature. In addition, Christ gradually revealed those characteristics of His which no one but God can possess. For instance He referred to Himself as the Creator when He said: "My Father worketh hither to, and I work " (John 5:17). It is significant that the Jews hearing these words wanted to stone Christ as a blasphemer, "because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God" (John 5:18). By not correcting their interpretation of His words, the Lord confirmed that they understood Him properly.
At other times, the Lord Jesus Christ referred to Himself as being eternal. For instance when the Jews asked Him "who art Thou?", Jesus replied "Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning" (John 8:25). Shortly after this He added: "Verily, verily I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58). Here it must be noted that Jesus had not said "I was," as would have been grammatically correct in the context, but rather used the present tense "I am," or more exactly, "I am He who is." The deep meaning of these words becomes clear when one considers the Hebrew original meaning. When Moses asked God’s name at the burning bush, the Lord answered: "I am He who is" (YHWH). The very name "He who is" (YHWH) indicates the distinguishing characteristic of God. He is the One who always exists; He is the Eternal One. In referring to Himself as "He who is" (YHWH), Jesus Christ used the Hebrew name for God. It should be remembered that the name YHWH was held in such esteem by the Jews that they used it only on the most important and solemn occasions, while in ordinary speech they used the names Lord, Creator, Most High, the Blessed One, and so forth.
After His resurrection from the dead, Christ again referred to Himself as eternal: "‘I Am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,’ saith the Lord who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8). On other occasions He called Himself omniscient (all-knowing), saying "As the Father knoweth Me, even so I know the Father" (John 10:15). Truly the essence of God is beyond the comprehension of finite beings. Only God can know His own nature perfectly. The Lord Jesus Christ also called Himself omnipresent when He said: "No man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man who is in heaven … For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (John 3:13, Matt. 18:20). Here again Christ used the word is, meaning that not only was He or will He be in heaven, but He also abides there constantly.
Thus, since He shares with the Father all the divine attributes (creation, eternity, omniscience, omnipresence, etc.), Jesus Christ must be acknowledged by all as being equal to the Father as well. "All men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father who sent Him" (John 5:23). All that has been said here should convince an unprejudiced person of the unquestionable truth, that Jesus Christ is true God of true God, equal to the Father by nature.
Although Jesus Christ avoided calling Himself God directly so as not to incite the people unnecessarily, He did commend those who were able to lift themselves up to the acceptance of this truth. Thus, for example, when the Apostle Peter said in the presence of other Apostles: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," the Lord approved his confession of faith and added that Peter had come to such a conviction not simply by his own observations but by a special enlightenment from on high."Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but My Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 16:16-17). Similarly, when the Apostle Thomas, seeing the risen Savior, exclaimed: "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28), Christ did not reject his addressing Him in this way but mildly reproached Thomas for being slow to believe. "Thomas, because thou hast seen Me (risen), thou hast believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29).
Finally let us remember that Christ was condemned to be crucified precisely because He formally admitted His divinity. Indeed, when the high priest Caiaphas asked Christ under oath: "Art Thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?", Christ responded: "It is as you said" (Mark 14:61, Matt. 26:64, Luke 22:70, John 19:7). Here Christ had responded using the prescribed form of an affirmative answer.
Now where did Caiaphas, many of the Jews, and even demons (!) get the idea that the Messiah was to be the Son of God? There is just one answer: from the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament. Its intent was to prepare the Jews and the whole world for this belief. Indeed, King David, who lived a thousand years before the birth of Christ, referred to the Messiah as God in three of his psalms; Psalms 2, 54 (55), and 108 (109). The prophet Isaiah, who lived seven-hundred years before the birth of Christ, revealed this truth even more clearly. Foretelling the miracle of the Incarnation of the Son of God, Isaiah wrote: "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (which means "God with us," Isaiah 7:14). A little later the prophet reveals more precisely the character of the Son who would be born: "and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). These titles cannot apply to anyone other than God. The prophet Micah also wrote of the eternal character of the Child who was to be born: "But thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto Me He that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2).
The prophet Jeremiah, who lived about two hundred years after Isaiah’s time, calls the Messiah Lord: "The Lord is our righteousness" (Jer. 23:6, 33:16). Surmising Him to be the same Lord who called him to preach, Jeremiah’s disciple, the prophetBaruch, wrote these remarkable words about the Messiah: "This is our God, and no other can be found to compare to Him. He has found the complete way of knowledge and has given it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved. Afterward He was seen upon earth, and spoke with men" (Bar. 3:35-37). In other words God Himself would come to earth and live among men!
Given these definite indications in the Holy Scriptures, the more perceptive of the Jews could without hesitation recognize in Christ the true Son of God. (For further details on this subject see our booklet "The Old Testament on the Messiah"). It is noteworthy that even before the birth of Christ the righteous Elizabeth greeted the Virgin Mary who was expecting the Infant with these exultant words: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:42-43). Clearly, St. Elizabeth could have had no other Lord than Him whom she had served from her childhood. As St. Luke the Evangelist explains in these words, Elizabeth spoke them not on her own but through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Having acquired a firm belief in the divinity of Christ, the Apostles planted this belief in Him throughout all nations. St. John the Theologian begins his Gospel with the revelation of the divine nature of Jesus Christ:
"In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made…
And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt amongst us;
and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth…
No man hath seen God at any time;
the only begotten Son,
who is in the bosom of the Father,
He hath declared Him"
(John 1:1-18).
The name Word bestowed upon the Son of God reveals better than any other name the mystery of the inner relationship between the First and Second Persons of the Holy Trinity, God the Father and God the Son. A thought and a word are distinct from each other in that the thought dwells in the mind, whereas the word is the expression of the thought; yet the two are inseparable. The thought does not exist without the word, nor does the word without the thought. A thought is like a word which is concealed within, and a word is that which gives expression to the thought. The thought takes the form of a word to convey the content of the thought to its hearers. Looked at in this way, the thought, being an independent principle, is the father of the word, and the word is the son of the thought. The word cannot exist prior to the thought, yet it does not originate from without; it comes from the thought and remains inseparable from the thought. Similarly, the Father, the supreme and all-encompassing Thought, produced from His bosom the Son, the Word, His first Interpreter and Herald (from St. Dionysius of Alexandria).
The Apostles spoke of the divinity of Christ with complete clarity: "And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding, that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 5:20)… "of whom are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever" (Romans 9:5) … "Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13) … "Had they (the Jews) known (the wisdom of God), they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2:8)… "For in Him (Christ) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9) … "And beyond controversy, great is the mystery of godliness" (1 Timothy 3:16). And in the first and second chapters of his epistle to the Hebrews, St. Paul the Apostle proves conclusively that the Son of God is not a creature but the Creator and that He is immeasurably superior to all beings created by Him. Angels are simply ministering spirits.
One Person, Two Natures
It must also be kept in mind that calling the Lord Jesus Christ God (Theos) in itself speaks of the fullness of divinity. From a logical, philosophical point of view, there cannot be a "second class" God, a God "lower in rank," a "limited" God. The attributes of the divine nature are not subject to conditionality or lessening. If He is God, then He is so completely, not partially.
Only if we assume a unity of Persons in God is it possible to join in one sentence the names of the Son and the Holy Spirit on an equal basis with the name of the Father: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19). "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Cor. 13:14). "For there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one" (1 John 5:7). Here the Apostle John emphasizes that the three are one — i.e., one in essence.
One must clearly differentiate between the understanding of person (hypostasis) and the understanding of nature or essence (ousia). The word person refers to personality, to the "I," and self-consciousness. The old cells of our organism die and are replaced constantly, but the self-consciousness remains throughout our whole life. The word "essence" speaks of nature and constitution. In God there is one nature but three Persons. Because of this, God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit communicate with each other and decide together. Each Person of the Trinity retains His individual properties which distinguish Him from the other Persons. But all the Persons of the Trinity share the same divine nature. The Son has the same essence as His Father and the Holy Spirit. The teaching about the Holy Trinity reveals to us the inner and hidden life in God, which actually is inaccessible to our understanding, but at the same time is absolutely indispensable for the correct faith in Christ.
Jesus Christ has one Person — that of the Son of God, but two natures — divine and human. In His divine nature He is equal to the Father — eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, etc.; in His assumed human nature He resembles us in every way: He grew, developed, suffered, rejoiced, vacillated in decisions, and so on. Christ’s human nature includes both the body and the soul. The difference is, that His human nature is totally free of sinful pollution. Since one and the same Christ is simultaneously God and man, the Holy Scriptures refer to Him sometimes as God and other times as a man. Even more so, sometimes human attributes are assigned to His divinity (1 Cor. 2:8), and divine attributes to His humanity. And there is no contradiction here, since all these attributes belong to the same Person. .
Taking into account the clear teaching of the Holy Scriptures regarding the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council decided to put a stop to all the misapplications of the term "Son of God" that lessened His divine dignity, and they therefore decreed that Christians believe: "In one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with God the Father, by Whom all things were made."
The Arians heatedly objected to the Greek word meaning "one essence" (homousios) because it could not be explained in any other sense than the Orthodox one, meaning that Jesus Christ is recognized as true God, equal in everything to God the Father. For this reason the Fathers of the Council insisted that this particular word be used in the text of the Creed.
Conclusion
In summing up what has been said, we must remember that be-lief in the divinity of Christ cannot be planted in men’s hearts simply by scriptural citations or philosophical reasoning. What is needed is a willful acceptance of this God-revealed truth. It pleased God to uncover the hidden inclination of each person’s heart by their attitude toward Christ; "Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes" (Matt. 11:25). So in this regard, till the end of the world, things will be the same as they were two thousand years ago: for many people Christ will remain "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense … that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed" (1 Peter 2:8; Luke 2:35).
There are many, even among the Jews and Moslems, who would recognize Jesus Christ as a great person and even a prophet, but could never accept Him as true God. Precisely because of the personal effort required to accept the divinity of Jesus, faith in Him is rewarded with eternal life: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned " (Mark 16:16).
This article does not attempt to "prove" that Christ is God because this truth requires faith. The purpose here is to help the Christian clarify his belief in our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ; namely, that He is the Creator, and we are His creatures.
Two Ancient Prayers to Jesus
O Gentle Light
O Gentle Light of the holy glory of the immortal, heavenly, holy, blessed Father: Jesus Christ. Now that we have come to the setting of the sun, and behold the light of evening, we praise the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: God! For meet it is at all times to worship Thee with voices of praise, O Son of God and Giver of life; therefore, all the world doth glorify Thee.
Only Begotten
Only Begotten Son and immortal Word of God, Who for our salvation didst will to be incarnate of the holy Theotokos and ever-Virgin Mary. Who without change didst become man and wast crucified. Who art one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit: O Christ, our God, trampling down death by death, save us!
Bishop Alexander (Mileant)
http://tokandylaki.blogspot.ca/2014/11/creature-or-creator.html#more
We grow spiritually both from our temptations for pleasure and the trials we face from pain. We are either drawn to something based on our appetite for it or reject it by our refusal to accept it. The spiritual tests we receive are either attractive or repulsive. These tests are not merely for our self-knowing, but hey are aimed to correct ourselves; to help our soul regain control over the biological demands of our body. It is the way we master our passions.
Let's consider temptations. We may have a simple temptation for a second helping of ice cream which only brings to us later the feeling of being stuffed and then problems with being overweight. But our desire for more pleasure temps us to take more of what we know not to be in our best interests. By rejecting a temptation we strengthen our will, increasing our capacity to do God's will. This resistance demonstrates and fortifies our self-control. But resisting temptations may be easier to master than our capacity to reject dejection, anger and disgust. While pleasure is something we can anticipate, pain is something we must wait to address. It's easier to not be controlled by temptation for pleasure than to avoid pain because we never seek pain. It often appears due to our life experience and not necessarily something we can avoid, although much pain is the aftermath of pleasure. Dealing with our temptations is our first priority.
Fr. Dimitru says,
The primordial and direct cause of man's decadence isn't an avoidance of pain but a seeking of pleasure. The avoidance of pain comes later, because it is caused by pleasure. So first we must do battle with pleasure, principally and directly. Pleasure is often sought by our previous initiative, while pain is almost always avoided, by a reaction which is produced when it arises; likewise if we wish to escape the preliminary initiative which looks for pleasure, we must also do it with a previous, contrary initiative, and if we want to escape the reaction contrary to pain which is produced the moment of the appearance of pain, we must wait for that moment to stop the reaction.... I run for pleasure as a reaction to something I am waiting for. But I must wait for the moment of pain to stop the repulsive reaction to it.We can see this in the life of Jesus. First He was tested by pleasure in the wilderness and then faced the trial of suffering in His Passion and Crucifixion.
We seek pleasure for its own sake, but also because of our fear of pain.
Fr. Dimitru says,
The restraint from pleasure and the patient endurance of suffering, far from being something negative-passive and of a weak nature, instead strengthens it and this means a spiritualization, a putting the spirit in control... . By refraining from pleasure we have taken a big step toward the spiritual force of dispassion.... . Dispassion isn't a passivity, but a concentration of the spirit in the realm of the good and of the spiritual world.
The true joy we seek does not come from pleasure. When we are no longer automatically moved by an attraction to pleasure nor fear pain, we find a peace and stability in our life. We can see the divine providence of God at work. We understand how God uses our life's situation in the world as both grace and judgment. We appreciate how we grow through our self-control to avoid pleasure and exercise patience in our times of difficulty.
In suffering we are attracted to God and tested so we will be stronger to resist future sins. Our difficulties may not be due to our own sinfulness but due to that of others. In this fallen world stuff happens and we need to be prepared to respond to all kinds of difficulty with love and patience. Our ability to endure with patience is a sign of our recognition of God's power and wisdom. We thank God for all he sends to us along our path of life. It is through our avoidance of temptations and endurance of pain that we grow our faith in Him and find true joy.
As we say in the Lord's Pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
Reference: Orthodox Spirituality, pp 170-176
Since the devil has as nourishment the passions and pleasures of the senses, he too will die as he is deprived of this nourishment. “The strong lion perishes for lack of prey” (Job 4:11). St. Neilos has noted that the devil is often referred to as an “ant-lion,” just as the passions are. This means that at first these passions appear as something very small, but later become great and strong like lions. Do you see, dear brother, what great enemies you have to defeat? Do you see that by cutting off the passions of the senses, you are also going to put Satan to death? But alas this cutting off and this victory cannot be won without a war. It is like the external wars, no one can win a victory without first waging a war against the enemy. It is certain that you have to experience a great struggle in each of your senses both from the point of view of habit and of the enemy.
For the bad habit desires to draw each sense toward its pleasurable object when it is present. On the other hand, the enemy desires to wage a great battle in the memory and imagination of the mind in order to achieve its consent to enjoy that pleasure, so that, in doing so, the devil can also enjoy the same pleasure. But you must stand courageously and never consent to the will of the enemy. Say to yourself that iambic proverb of St. Gregory the Theologian: “No one can excel by beginning from cowardice; it is the victories that bring praise.”
An ancient people recognized their children to be their genuine offspring only after placing before them a viper and observing them catch it courageously. You too, dear brother, must make the enemy realize that you are a true child of Christ Who is your heavenly Father, and who has overcome the passions and the devil-through the courage you demonstrate in fighting against the evil passions of your senses. And if the enemy stands to fight you, be not afraid to tell him what that brave Spartan said to Xerxes: “Oh king, you managed to sail the sea and to cut a channel across the peninsula of Athos, but you will not pass the side of one armed Spartan.” For this reason then show the enemy that you are not a slave of your senses, but lord and king. Show that you are not only flesh and blood, but a rational mind, appointed by God to be leader and sole ruler over the irrational passions of the body. Say to yourself that wise proverb about evil habits: “The best learning for man is to unlearn evil.” Now, if I have learned, wrongly, to give to my senses their sensual objects, and this wrong learning has brought about a bad habit, and this bad habit a still further bad condition, why can I not now learn to do the opposite? Let, therefore, the good learning become a good habit and the good habit a good and permanent condition. If, in doing this, I am to experience difficulties and bitterness at first, let me experience them. Afterward I will be able to experience both ease and joy. The first efforts to learn and practice the virtues and establish the habit of virtuous living are often very bitter and most difficult for the senses. The activity that follows after these initial efforts to acquire the habit of virtuous living is very easy, ineffably sweet, and enjoyable. Briefly we can say that angels are invisibly present, holding crowns in their hands. Christ himself is the one Who will crown you every time you are victorious in the battle against the evil passions of the senses and you do not succumb to them. St. Basil said: “Suffering brings glory, and tribulation brings crowns.” But you have been beaten once or twice (I hope not!). Be not completely overcome. Stand firm and courageous, calling upon God for help. If you do so, the grace of God will come directly to your help and will not leave you to be completely overcome by the enemy. Do you want to be sure of this? Follow me and let us travel to Sodom. Have you come? Behold the five kings of Sodom mentioned in Holy Scripture (Gen 14), who were then under the hegemony of the Assyrian king Chedorlaomer and who were paying tribute to him and to the other kings with him for ten years. In the thirteenth year they rebelled and did not want to pay the tribute to the Assyrian king, who then declared war on them. It appeared soon afterward that the five kings were subdued and captured by the Assyrians. What happened next? When Abram heard about this, he ran to their aid; he fought, he won, and he liberated them for the sake of his nephew Lot.
St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain - A Handbook of Spiritual Council – Chapter 8; Guarding All the Senses in General pp. 136-145 (“The Classics of Western Spirituality” series.)
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"
(John 14:6).
Christ Is the Way
At a moment in mankind's history which had been determined by God and foretold by prophets, about 2000 years ago, in the ancient nation of Israel, the Saviour of the world was born - Jesus Christ, the Messiah Who had been foretold by the ancient prophets.
At His Incarnation a great and unfathomable mystery came to pass. In the one Person of the Son of God there were united two natures: His Divinity, Which was before all time, and the humanity Which He assumed, so as to become like us in every way.
Living among men, Jesus Christ taught them by His Words and His own example to believe correctly and to live righteously. His public ministry did not last long, only three and half years, but it was extraordinarily full. His every word and act reflected His infinite wisdom, love and moral perfection. He shone like a brilliant light that had come to us from the ideal world above, a Light Which enlightens, and will continue to enlighten, every person who seeks goodness.
The teachings of Jesus Christ contained everything that people needed to know in order to live rightly; however, man had become morally weakened, so much so that he was unable to attain spiritual renewal by his own efforts alone. Sin had grown its roots too deep in human nature; evil had acquired such immense strength in all aspects of human life that men could not throw off its yoke by their own unaided efforts.
Therefore, out of unfathomable compassion for us sinners, and moved by His immeasurable love, the Righteous One took upon Himself the sins of all men - the sins of each one of us - and on their account offered a redemptive sacrifice on the Cross. With His most pure Blood He washed away our guilt before God; by His Death He conquered our death. Then, descending into the depths of hell, He, as Almighty God, freed and led out the souls of all those who wished to return to God and to live rightly. He took away Satan's power over men and set the day of his final condemnation in fiery Gehenna.
Why was it necessary to have such a terrible sacrifice as the shameful and excruciatingly painful death on the Cross of Christ, the God-Man? Was there not any other way for God to bring about man's salvation? These are mysteries which we cannot comprehend. We only know that Christ's redemptive sufferings, together with His glorious Resurrection from the dead, contain a power by which we can be born again. Through this great power, which overcomes all obstacles, any sinner, no matter how deeply he has sunk in the mire of vice, can undergo a complete spiritual renewal; he can become a righteous person, and even a great saint.
Forty days after His Resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, where He now abides as the God-Man. He is the Head of the Church, and together with the Father and the Holy Spirit He governs the world. On the fiftieth day after His Resurrection, Jesus Christ sent down the Holy Spirit on His Apostles and disciples and founded the Church, to which He entrusted everything needed for the salvation of believers.
If the Son of God Himself undertook to perform such extraordinary acts, coming down to the earth, taking on Himself human nature, suffering and dying the shameful and exceedingly painful death of the Cross, it is clear that there cannot be any way to salvation other than that which is offered to us by Jesus Christ.
Thanks to all that our Lord Jesus Christ did, everyone is now able to be freed from sins, to throw off the burden of passions, to be spiritually renewed and to start to live rightly, with the help of His grace. Anyone who wishes can now attain eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. The devil cannot stop us, unless we fall away from Christ through our own carelessness or lack of seriousness.
Thus, thanks to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, immortality and the bliss of paradise are not the dream of poets or the fantasy of philosophers, but a reality accessible to all. Everyone who wishes can reach the kingdom of heaven by following the path indicated by the Saviour, and by imitating Him as much as possible. He is the ideal of moral perfection, the supreme criterion of truth, the infallible spiritual authority and the inexhaustible source of inspiration.
Truly, He is our Way, Truth and Life! All other "great teachers" of mankind (such as Confucius, Zoroaster, Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, and including the founders of today's totalitarian cults) turn out to be poor parodies if they are set up in opposition to Christ, or if they are used in an effort to "correct" or "improve" what He said and did.
Christ Is the Truth
God the Father foreordained that men should find salvation through His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. All that Jesus Christ did and said is contained in the New Testament portion of the Bible, in what are called the Gospels, of which there are four. The Old Testament portion of the Bible contains the writings of the prophets who lived before the time of Christ. Their purpose was to prepare the human race to receive Christ as the Messiah, that is, the Saviour anointed by God. The books of the New Testament were written by the disciples of Christ, the Apostles, and set forth the teachings of Jesus Christ more fully and in greater detail.
The first book of the Bible, Genesis, teaches that everything visible and invisible was created by God from nothing. First God made the invisible world of the angels (heaven), and then our visible or material world (earth). To crown His creation of the material world, God made man, adorning him with His own image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). The physical world was made by God not all at once, but in stages, which are called in the Bible "days." God did not make the world out of any necessity or need for it, but because of His all-good desire that other beings, created by Him, should enjoy the gift of life.
Being infinitely good, God made everything good, beautiful and pure. Just as the angels were, man was also predestined for eternal life and everlasting blessedness in a union of grace with His Creator. The Creator was pleased to honour man with His most precious gift, free will, in order that man might grow towards perfection in the moral life. By this gift God gave rational beings a dignity incomparably greater than the rest of irrational nature, but at the same time it was a test. Being a boundless ocean of love (1 John 4:8-12), God wanted us all to love Him with the purest and most selfless kind of love, as tender children love their caring father. It was His desire that we should run to Him because we ourselves wanted to do so, and that we should grow steadily towards perfection by imitating Him to the best of our ability.
In order for us to get to know Him more fully, God revealed to us that He is not simply Oneness (a monad), but Three-in-Oneness, or Trinity. This means that in God there is one divine nature or essence, but three free and rational Persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - Who dwell in perfect harmony and love with one another. In the Deity, God the Father is the source of the divine nature which is common to all three; this is His hypostatic characteristic (what characterizes Him as a distinct Person). The Son was "begotten" from the Father before all time; the Holy Spirit "proceeds" from the Father before all time; these are their hypostatic characteristics. The words "begotten" and "proceeds," however, do not carry any connotation of time. God was always the Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Since God is three in Persons, but One in essence, He desired that the human race which He created should also reflect His three-in-oneness to a certain degree. In other words, He desired men to live, not as isolated individuals, solitary "I's," but as "we," as an integral and cohesive society, held together by love, in which each one takes the joys or sorrows of his neighbour as his very own. This, of course, was the ideal intended by the Creator. This all-encompassing unity was not meant, however, to suppress the personalities of rational beings. On the contrary, just as in the Creator Himself each Person possesses His own personal qualities, which are beyond our comprehension, so too in human society each distinct person was meant to preserve his own individual and unique characteristics, his particular talents. This unity in multiplicity was the type of existence that man was called to live, first of all in family life, then in society and finally on the level of the whole human race.
As we have already said, sin did great damage to human nature. As a result, mankind was not only torn away from its Maker, but it was also broken into a multitude of individuals, who were mutually jealous and at odds. Jesus Christ intended to bring men back to the path of unity with their Maker and closeness with one another; therefore, He began His preaching with the good news, or glad tidings (which is the meaning of the Greek word Evangelion, or "Gospel"), that "the Kingdom of God is at hand." God is ready to forgive each one of us and to accept him as His son, on condition that a man believe in the Saviour Whom God has sent, accept His divine teachings and begin to live rightly. Everything that Jesus Christ did and said had the purpose of teaching people and inspiring them to start to live for God, for the good, for inner renewal. The kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus Christ had to begin within believers, in hearts made new by love.
After His glorious Resurrection from the dead, and shortly before His Ascension into heaven, Jesus Christ revealed that He will come to the earth again before the end of the world. This Second Coming of Christ will not be like the first, when He came in the form of an ordinary man, as the merciful and compassionate Saviour. He lived in poverty and meekly endured all the reproaches of sinners. Before the end of the world He will come in His heavenly glory, as the terrible and just Judge, surrounded by a multitude of angels and saints, and He will give each one the reward of his deeds. Immediately preceding the Second Coming of Christ the worldwide miracle of the resurrection of the dead will take place at His almighty command. The bodies of all the people who have ever lived on the earth will rise up out of the dust in the twinkling of an eye and will be reunited with their souls. At that time every man will be restored in his bipartite nature, in which soul and body form a single human being.
Let us recall that man was created for eternal life. Death, in the sense of complete annihilation or reduction to non-being, simply does not exist. What we call death is only the temporary separation of the soul and the body. When the body loses its life-giving principle, which is the soul, the body decomposes into the elements of which it was made up. The soul, the very personality of man, in a fully conscious and aware state, crosses over into some sphere of existence which is unknown to us, where it remains until the day of Christ's Last Judgement. At His Second Coming Christ will resurrect us in our twofold nature.
With the Second Coming of Christ the history of the human race will come to an end. The earth and everything on it, matter and the whole cosmos, will be subjected to fiery flame. Yet this fiery furnace will not be the destruction of the material world, but rather its transfiguration, as if in a smelter that removes all impurities. The physical world will be transformed into "a new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-2).
Christ will pass judgement not only on men, but also on the devil and his demons. This judgement will decide the eternal fate of every rational creature. All who did not wish to respond to God's love with love, all who did evil and spread falsehood, will be condemned to fiery Gehenna. This will be a "second death," which will not be annihilation, but rather complete separation from God in unending and fruitless sufferings.
On the "new earth," under the "new heaven," in the "new Jerusalem," a new life will begin, the happy and endless life which God foreordained from all eternity for those who love Him. There will be that true salvation, for which each man thirsts, thought not always knowingly. The purpose for which God in His boundless love created us will finally be realized.
Christ is the Life
The goal, then, of our earthly life is to inherit eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. To reach it our loving Creator requires of us only that we respond to Him with the kind of sincere, pure and selfless love with which He loves us.
Such love is a spring which flows from this temporal life into the beauty of eternal life. The reason for man's life is to become more and more like God and to draw nearer and nearer to Him. The substance of our life should be the continuous upholding of everything in us that furthers nearness to God and rejection of everything that takes us away from Him.
How can the fire of such love and such striving be kindled in the soul? Once it is lit, how can it be guarded, so that it is not allowed to go out, but rather, as much as possible, it is turned into the flame of salvation, which burns up all impurity in the heart? Man cannot do this by his own power, no matter how sincerely he desires it. The winds and waves of the passions are too strong, and they come from sources hostile to man: the world which lies in sin, the flesh which loves sin and the devil, the originator of all evil.
For salvation, therefore, it is necessary to cling to Christ with all one's strength, to become one with Him. Then His divine power and His love will fill our souls. They will protect, sanctify and strengthen us; they will lead us on the sure but narrow path to eternal life. Christ speaks thus about the necessity of staying with Him: "I am the Vine, ye are the branches. The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine" (John 15:5). In other words, authentic spiritual life, which brings forth good fruit, is impossible unless one is united in the closest possible way with the Source of spiritual strength - Christ.
The Need for the Church
The mystery of the Church, the kingdom of God - a mystery which is great and wise, surpassing our understanding - was brought into being by Christ in the following way. First, when He was baptized by John in the Jordan, at the moment when the Holy Spirit came down and the voice of the Father was heard, He sanctified the nature of water. By this act the water of Baptism became a conduit of God's grace, which gives a man new birth. Christ taught that a man is spiritually born and becomes a member of the Church only by being "born of water and of the Spirit" in the sacrament of Baptism (John 3:5).
Just as a newborn infant requires nourishment in order to grow, so also one who is born anew in the mystery of Baptism requires spiritual nourishment, which the Lord gives us in the sacrament of Holy Communion, of which He says: "I am that bread of life. ... The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. ... Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. ... He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me" (John 6:48-57).
At His Mystical Supper, the evening before He suffered on the Cross, Christ Himself first changed bread into His true Flesh and wine into His true Blood and gave Them in communion to His disciples, thereby showing them how the Sacrament of Holy Communion should be observed.
From that time on, the sacrament of Holy Communion has been celebrated at a divine service, called the Liturgy. Believers receive the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ and are thereby united with Him, and not in a purely abstract or mystical sense, but really and truly! The whole being of a man, spiritual and physical, partakes of the spiritual and physical life of Jesus Christ, the God-Man. Love opens a path to spiritual closeness; moreover, in Holy Communion, while people are united with Christ, they are united with one another at the same time, and in Christ they become a single whole, a living organism, called the Church. This is why the Apostle Paul called the Church the Body of Christ (Col. 1:24).
Just as the Incarnation of the Son of God was accomplished by the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Virgin Mary, so also the Church was founded on the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus Christ sent from the Father to the Apostles on the fiftieth day after His Resurrection. Since that day the Holy Spirit has remained with the Church constantly, giving it life, illuminating it and cultivating it as a single living organism of the Body of Christ, consisting of many "members," faithful Christians.
There is something which must not be forgotten, especially in our times when Christianity is being split up into more and more churches and "jurisdictions." Man is called to be saved not by a mere mental acknowledgement of the truth of Christianity, and not merely by his own best efforts, but by belonging organically to the living body of the Church. Only in the Church, in this mystical Body of Christ, does the believer find correct spiritual guidance and the strength necessary for an authentically Christian life.
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Your spirit should not grow weary, but should become warm from spiritual reading, from it
should come thoughts about eternity, and from prayer, even though it may be brief.
Say to the Lord; '' Gather my scattered mind, O Lord and humble my hardened heart with fear of Thee, and have mercy on me.''
For without Divine help we are powerless; we cannot even deal with pesky flies, much less
invisible enemies.
St. Anthony of Optina
