“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.”
One of the major differences between Orthodoxy and non-Orthodox forms of Christianity is in the area of soteriology. That word derives from soter, which means Savior. Soteriology is the study of salvation in its broadest sense. Non-Orthodox begin the study with fallen humanity and how sin affects God, whereas traditional soteriology commences not with man as a sinner, but as a sharer in the life of God. It contemplates first the goal of redemption, which is our participation in the divine nature. Non-Orthodox have basically opted for the premise that our sin has offended the holiness and honor of God, and He demands proper payment. Orthodoxy begins with who we are meant to be and how the work of Christ accomplishes that salvation.
It is vital for us to understand the nature of salvation, in order that we may more fully appreciate the absolute uniqueness of the Christian revelation and the full work of God in Christ. To appreciate why we believe what we believe and why it is the gospel, the good news of the Kingdom.
St. Maximos the Confessor, the great 7th century theologian, understood redemption not based on a philosophical, pre-baptismal evaluation of sin, but on the fullness of the Christian revelation, the “mystery according to Christ”.
A properly theological grasp of sin requires that we begin not with how it allegedly affects God, as most non-Orthodox do, but how it truly affects us. Sin is the loss of the divine life, the true human destiny.
St. Maximos begins with the premise that the goal of both creation and
redemption is our deification in Christ – our participation in the divine life.
St. Nicholas Cabisilas, in the fourteenth century, further developed St. Maximos’ outline of soteriology. Apart from Christ, there is a threefold barrier separating us from God; “human beings are separated from God in three ways: through nature, through sin, and through death.”
As creatures, our nature is human and nothing more. We have no longer any
share in the life of God by nature. The second barrier consists in the corruption of our will – the disobedience of sin – originating in the fall of our first parents.
The third barrier is death, the corruption introduced when “by one man’s sin,
death entered into the world.” The Son of God, Jesus Christ the Savior, removes all three barriers. First, the barrier of nature: by partaking of our humanity – “this division gave way when God became man, thus removing the separation between Godhead and humanity…when our nature is deified in the Savior’s body, nothing separates the human race from God.”
By dying on the Cross, “He removed the second. The Cross delivered us from
sin. Since Baptism has the power of His Cross and death, we proceed to the anointing, the participation in the Spirit.” The illumination of the new nature which is ours by baptism into Christ.
“By rising from the dead, He completely overthrew the final barrier, death’s
tyranny of nature.”
In the Incarnation, the Son opened a path for our return to union with God. In his sacrificial death on the Cross, He vanquished the reign of sin over our lives. In His Resurrection from the dead, He delivered us from that final enemy, which will be finally destroyed at the return of Christ.
The Son of God has reversed the disobedience of fallen humanity, submitting His human will in obedience to the Father. His loving and obedient surrender, “Thy will be done”, delivered the human race from the power of darkness. Only in Christ are the three barriers or impediments to our salvation overcome.
By His Incarnation, we must consider not only His assumption of our nature, but also His ongoing entrance into our whole existence. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us not only at the moment of the Virgin’s “be it unto me according to thy word”, but at every moment of our Lord’s earthly life. Everything in His life is revelatory and redemptive.
His life cannot be sundered from the Church’s experience of worship: these are liturgical mysteries. In the spring of the year, the Church devotes special times of prayer, reflection and observance to these three means of our redemption – the Word’s Incarnation on March 25, His sufferings and atoning death during Holy Week, and His Resurrection, celebrated throughout the 50 days of the Paschal season.
This is not speculative theology or soteriology – it is the faith of the Creeds: “who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and became man; And was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried: and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures: and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father”.
Hence, our soteriology, the theology of our salvation, is nothing less than an
extended meditation on the Church’s creedal and sacramental worship. The work of salvation is vastly more than the satisfaction of God’s offended honor, as much non-Orthodox theology would have it. It addresses every aspect of our separation from God, and is discerned through its full effect, our total transformation, body and soul, in Christ.
Because it includes also the final gift of immortality, it will not be perfect until
Christ returns to raise the dead. Then the final enemy will be destroyed.
In Jesus Christ alone is our redemption secured, and our salvation wrought in its fullness, to bring us back to perfect union with God. God himself has remedied our separation, out of His love, not out of some need to be paid a debt we could never pay. He does all this out of the impetus of His love for us, not for some demand that the scales of justice be set right. And in Christ alone is it all possible. He is our salvation – and He alone can bring us back to the Father.