God sharing His divinity with our humanity
The idea that Christ would have incarnated in the flesh, even if Adam and Eve had not fallen, was taught by a number of early Church Fathers. Although not a formal teaching of the Orthodox Church, the understanding comes from the view that the Logos took on our flesh because God wished to share His Divinity with our humanity. This is called Theosis, or Deification.
The teaching that Christ’s incarnation and death on the cross was intended as a propitiation for our sins (the Father demanding death as payment for our sins), was foreign to the Early Church Fathers. Christ’s death on the Cross, followed by His Holy Resurrection, was seen from the beginning, as the destruction of the power of death over the whole of the cosmos. The fall introduced death into the world, for before the fall death was unknown, even in the whole of the cosmos. We did not inherit Adam’s sin, but rather the result of his sin, death.
Theosis (deification) is the process of a worshiper becoming free of hamartía (“missing the mark”), being united with God, beginning in this life and later consummated in bodily resurrection. For Orthodox Christians, Théōsis (see 2 Pet. 1:4) is salvation. Théōsis assumes that humans from the beginning are made to share in the Life or Nature of the All-Holy Trinity. Therefore, an infant or an adult worshiper is saved from the state of unholiness (hamartía — which is not to be confused with hamártēma “sin”) for participation in the Life (zōé, not simply bíos) of the Trinity — which is everlasting.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Monday September 17, 2018 / September 4, 2018
17th Week after Pentecost. Tone seven.
Hieromartyr Babylas, bishop of Antioch, with Martyrs Urban, Prilidian, and Epolonius, and their mother Christodula (251).
Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses (1531 B.C.).
Uncovering of the relics (1911) of St. Ioasaph, bishop of Belgorod (1754).
Uncovering of the relics (1989) of St. Metrophanes, bishop of Voronezh (1703).
Synaxis of All Saints of Voronezh.
Hieromartyr Parthenius, abbot of Kiziltis Monastery in Crimea (1867).
New Hieromartyrs Paul, John, Nicholas, Nicholas, John, Nicholas, Alexander, Peter and Michael priests, Hieromartyr Stephen, Martyrs Basil, Peter, Stephen and Alexander (1937).
New Hieromartyrs Gregory (Lebedev) Bishop of Shliserburg and Sergius (Druzhinin) Bishop of Narva (1937).
Virgin-Martyr Helen (1942).
Martyr Hermione, daughter of Apostle Philip the Deacon (117).
Martyr Babylas of Nicomedia, and with him 84 children (4th c.).
Martyrs Theodore, Mianus (Ammianus), Julian, Kion (Oceanus), and Centurionus of Nicomedia (305-311).
New Hieromartyr Peter, metropolitan of Dabro-Bosnia (1941).
Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “The Unburnt Bush” (1680).
St. Joachim, patriarch of Alexandria.
Venerable Petronius of Egypt (346), disciple of St. Pachomius the Great.
Martyr Charitina of Amisus (Greek).
Martyrs Tathuil and Bebaia of Edessa (2nd c.) (Greek).
Martyr Jerusalem of Berroia (Greek).
Martyrs Theotimus and Theodulus the executioners (Greek).
St. Simeon, abbot and wonderworker of Garesja (1773).
St. Anthimus the Blind, new ascetic of Cephalonia (1782).
Translation of the relics of St. Birinus, bishop of Dorchester-on-Thames and enlighterer of Wessex.
Translation of the relics St. Cuthberg, bishop of Lindisfarne.
The Scripture Readings
John 10:9-16
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep,and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
Ephesians 1:22-2:3
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
By Grace Through Faith
2 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Mark 10:46-52
Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus
46 Now they came to Jericho. As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.
Then they called the blind man, saying to him, “Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you.”
50 And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus.
51 So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.”
52 Then Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.
Dear Abbot Tryphon,
Thank you so much for your recent posts on the Orthodox understanding of salvation. As I convert of 4 years from a Protestant background, I still struggle with understanding this. If Jesus is not a propitiation for our sins, what are we to make of Romans 4:24,25? I would love your help in understanding.
I read your posts every morning. Yours words mean so much to me!
Leslie
“Therefore, an infant or an adult worshiper is saved from the state of unholiness (hamartía — which is not to be confused with hamártēma “sin”) for participation in the Life (zōé, not simply bíos) of the Trinity — which is everlasting.”
This is why the sacrificial system never covered moral guilt – it was only a temporary impartation of life, the life of an animal to make Sacred space safer for the worshipper. Moral guilt was only punished, death was dealt with through sacrifice.
As an Episcopalian, I do not hear much on sin in my church. Whenever it comes up, it usually is in the form of something like this: sin is the missing of the mark. This always seems way to weak regarding sin. Then there is the paragraph above. The Abbot writes about hamartía (“missing the mark”) which is not to be confused with hamártēma “sin”.
My question is this: what is sin (hamártēma) for Orthodoxy?
Father, I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this teaching. I have whole heartedly embraced orthodoxy for its simplicity and “clean” theology, yet sometimes I feel like I am “a stranger in a strange land.” I was taught we inherited the blood covenant God made with Abraham through our membership in the Body of Christ and that Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son Isaac for God set the stage for God to offer his only begotten son, Christ, on the cross for us. Thus in my understanding Christ is the ultimate substitionary sacrifice for sin. I am having difficulty reconciling your teaching with this.
I would recommend you read the writings of one of the Orthodox world’s most notable theologians, His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos. These teachings are not mine, but that of the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Church.