The Inheritance of death rather than the firstborn’s sin
That the Orthodox Church does not accept the doctrine of original sin as espoused in the West, in no way suggests we do not need to be born anew. Orthodoxy continues the teaching of the Early Church that we inherit only the results of Adam’s sin, not his guilt. This is known as Ancestral Sin because the sin of our first parents resulted in our inheriting a cosmos where sickness, and death reign.
Christ’s death on the cross has as it’s power, not an atonement sacrifice, but in the conquering of the power of death itself. Death has been trampled down by death, and Christ’s resurrection opened the door to eternal life, and ended the finality of death. Christ’s resurrection becomes our resurrection.
Although we do not refer to ourselves as “saved”, as do Evangelical Christians, believing as we do that salvation is a process, we nevertheless know we are in need of salvation. Our understanding of the nature of sin as distinct from the concept of original sin and the hereditary guilt that requires a substitutionary, atonement-type, sacrifice, separates us doctrinally from Western Christianity.
Had there not been a fall, Christ the Logos (Word) would still have, in the mind of many Church Fathers, incarnated in the flesh and taken on our nature. For this condescension by our God to take on the flesh of His creatures, opened wide the door for our communion with Him, allowing us to enter into the very Heart of God, thus completing creation as it was meant to be.
Our journey into the heart culminates in theosis, whereby we are joined in everlasting communion with the very God Who created us, for as Saint Athanasius of Alexandria said, “The Son of God became man, that we might become god.” And in II Peter 1:4, we read that we have become “…partakers of divine nature.” Saint Athanasius went on to say that theosis is “becoming by grace what God is by nature.”
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Sunday March 6, 2016 / February 22, 2016
Sunday of the Last Judgment (Meatfare). Tone seven.
Uncovering of the relics of the Holy Martyrs at the gate of Eugenius at Constantinople (395-423).
New Hieromartyr Priest Michael Lisitsyn of Ust-Labinskaya, Russia (1918).
New Martyrs Joseph Smirnov protoierey, John Kastorsky deacon, Vladimir Ilinsky priest. John Perebaskin (1918).
New Martyr Theoktista Michailovna, fool-for-Christ of Voronezh (1936).
New Hieromartyrs Michael, John, Victor, John, Sergius, Andrew priests, New Hieromartyr Sergius and Antipa, Virgin-martyr Parasceva, Martyr Stephen, Virgin-martyrs Elizabeth, Irina and Barbara (1938).
Martyr Andrew (1941).
New Hieromartyr Philaret (1942).
Martyrs Maurice and his son Photinus, and Martyrs Theodore, Philip, and 70 soldiers, at Apamea in Syria (305).
Venerables Thalassius, Limnaeus, and Baradates, hermits of Syria (5th c.).
Venerable Athanasius the Confessor of Constantinople (826).
St. Telesphorus, pope of Rome (127).
St. Papius of Hierapolis (2nd c.).
Venerable Peter the Stylite of Mt. Athos (Greek).
St. Abilius, patriarch of Alexandria (98).
St. Titus, bishop of Bostra in Arabia (378).
Holy Nine Children of Kola: Guarami, Adarnasi, Bakari, Vache, Bardzini, Dachi, Djuansheri, Ramazi, and Parsmani (6th c.) (Georgia).
St. Leontius of Lycia (6th c.).
Sts. Babylus and his wife Comnita of Nicosa (7th c.).
Martyr Anthusa and her 12 servans (Greek).
St. Blaise, bishop (Greek).
Scripture Readings
1 Corinthians 8:8-9:2
8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.
9 But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? 11 And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12 But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
A Pattern of Self-Denial
9 Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
Matthew 25:31-46
The Son of Man Will Judge the Nations
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Dear Sir,
I’ve started examining Orthodox teaching. The churches of the west seem to me to be in great division and confusion. And it is leaving me discouraged and confused also. One important element the Orthodox church follows which is largely ignored by protestant churches is your reading and knowing the views of the very earliest believers following the apostles.
Because I know I am currently confused and now understand I hold greater ignorance within me, I’m confused about some things you wrote here.
For example, I can see in a sense I do not share guilt for Adam’s own sin. However, because we were all, as it were, within Adam, did he not pass on a nature of sin which leads to death and separation from the Almighty?
And salvation. Well, it is indeed a process but didn’t the Lord say ‘if you believe in me, you have eternal life’?
I’m living in rural central Ontario and have little to no work. So travelling far is not a current option and there are no Orthodox churches in sight here. But I have to start some place and this seems a good place to do that.
Thank you for your article and reading my letter.
Thank you Father Tryphon for touching this topic that made me to go and read more on the Original Sin as it is explained on the Orthodox Wiki site. From those notes I found out about the writing of St. Gregory of Nyssa on the On Infants’ Early Deaths. He distinguishes between the destiny of infants and that of adults who lived a virtuous life:
“The premature deaths of infants have nothing in them to suggest the thought that one who so terminates his life is subject to some grievous misfortune, any more than they are to be put on a level with the deaths of those who have purified themselves in this life by every kind of virtue;”
In our times with so many abortions this is something worth reading his conclusions that are so meaningful:
“He Who does everything with Wisdom knows how to effect by means of evil some good.”
This is fascinating to me. I’ve recently left pastoral ministry in the evangelical world and am studying Orthodoxy for the first time. While I have many questions to ask and lots more to learn, I find the Orthodox understanding of these ideas refreshing. Thanks for this!
Abbot Tryphon,
I am often bless by your daily blog, but I have trouble with this idea of lack of atonement. To say that Christ did not atone for our sins causes great alarm for me. How do you explain Romans 3:25 “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith.” (I do understand there is some disagreement among scholars in the translation of “propitiation”)
I am reading the commentary in the Orthodox Study Bible that defines this “propitiation” to relate to the sprinkling of blood on the mercy seat, on the Ark of the Covenant; where the priest entered on the annual Day of Atonement to cover the people’s sins and reconciled them to God (to atone). Then now, Jesus being the Great High Priest, has entered Heaven and sprinkled His own blood on the mercy seat of Heaven, once and for all. … This is a perspective greatly familiar to my Christian background.
My question is- if the blood of the old covenant is atonement for the people, how can Christ not be an atonement for us, as a fulfillment of that old covenant?