Christ is Risen! Thank you again for tuning into Blooming in the Desert. This episode we have brought back our special guest, Sub-Deacon Jon Failla.
Blooming in the Desert – Episode 9 – Pillars of Piety Series Part 4 – Forgiveness Part 2
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FORGIVENESS Part 2
V. A Brief Note on Salvation as understood by the Orthodox Church
The following is taken from “Orthodox Church-Wikipedia“:
Sin, salvation and the incarnation
At some point in the beginnings of human existence man was faced with a choice, to learn the difference between good and evil through observation or through participation. The biblical story of Adam and Eve represents this choice by mankind to participate in evil. This event is commonly referred to as “the fall of man” and it represents a fundamental change in human nature. When Orthodox Christians refer to Original Sin what they mean is this adoption of evil into human nature. As a result of this sin, mankind was doomed to be separated from God. This was mankind’s ultimate dilemma. The solution to this problem was for God to effect another change in human nature. Orthodox Christians believe that Christ Jesus was both God and Man absolutely. He was born, lived and died. Through God’s participation in humanity, human nature is changed thus saving us from the fate of hell. The effective change included all those who had died from the beginning of time – saving everyone including Adam and Eve. This process, to Orthodox Christians is what is meant by “Salvation”. The ultimate goal is theosis – an even closer union with God and closer likeness to God than existed in the Garden of Eden.
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Briefly, what we are to understand is that human nature was created by God as “good”, without defect or mar. When Man sinned, to this “good” nature was attached corruption or evil, separating Man from God. With the Incarnation, God in Christ, the God-Man, restored humanity, but even more than this, He “recreated” human nature making it other than what it was before the Fall because the Son of God, The Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Very God of Very God(as the Creed states),entered into the creation deifying it.
Salvation as it was understood in the beginning, and as it is understood to this day in the Orthodox Church, is not only the payment of a debt by Christ at the Cross but involves something more than this. We bring this out in order to help those who are not Orthodox Christians listening to our program understand the difference in the views of salvation as offered on one hand by Roman Catholic teaching and which Protestant teaching follows, and that of the Orthodox Catholic Church.
The following is from here from a person called Herman. He was asked the following question by someone:
“Could you please explain to me, how a Protestant’s (Evangelical /Charismatic)view on Salvation is different to Russian Orthodox?”
To which he replied,
“One major difference is that Protestants tend to view “salvation” as an event. It is the moment you “accept Jesus into your heart”. Orthodoxy teaches that salvation is the journey itself, not the destination. Protestants tend to accept the Catholic teaching, that sin is a crime to be punished, rather than the Orthodox position, that sin is a disease to be healed. They do not understand that the Church is the spiritual hospital, ordained by the Divine Physician, Jesus Christ. Protestants, by and large, do not understand the efficacy of the sacraments, how they serve as medicine in the healing process, or how fasting helps build up our resistance to the disease of sin.”
We mention all this to better make sense of why we forgive. When we forgive, we are acting as God and when we act as God, we are partaking in His Energies and when we partake of His Energies we are deified which means we take part in the Very Life of God Himself and are thereby healed.
So to forgive for the sake of the Gospel is to obey Christ’s commandment and to find and know Life Himself.
VI. What Happens When I Forgive?
We have spoken on what forgiveness is and why we forgive. We have seen that to forgive is to participate in the Gospel in the very real way that as God forgives us, we are to forgive others, all others.
Further, forgiveness brings healing to the one who wronged but as well and just as importantly, forgiveness brings healing to the one wronged who is doing the forgiving.
I used to have a person in my life who was a spiritual guide of sorts. It so happened that one time, when I used to work for a man whom I felt superior to, that I developed an extreme dislike of him and also a disdain because I felt I was better at the work of which he was my boss.
I steamed and stewed for days over this and that. Not being able to bear the fact that I knew I shouldn’t be feeling this way and entertaining such thoughts, I finally went to my “spiritual guide” for help. I related to him all the bad things this person had done to me and I explained how justified I was to feel such feelings and the like.
He listened to me patiently for some time and then finally, I had said all that I felt needed saying to him. I then looked for resolution to my problem from him and I guess I sort of expected him to see how right I was after all and how justified I was to be feeling what I was feeling.
He gave me none of that but instead asked me a simple question: “Do you want to be free or do you want to be right?”
That question took me aback and made me realize that as I held on to all the anger, hurt, injustice I felt I had endured at my boss’ hands(in truth, looking back, I was very wrong in my estimation of my boss of this time), I was a slave and in bondage to a certain condition of soul and mind that I could only be free of if I chose to simply forgive him and let go of any and all of my “rights” in the given situation.
Another very important thing to understand about forgiveness is how important it is to us that God indeed forgives. If we believed that God did not forgive, we would give up on the spiritual life and despair. But His forgiveness spurs us on to keep trying, to keep getting back up after our falls. His forgiveness towards us teaches us to keep trusting Him. His forgiveness of us extends as often as we turn to Him and seek His friendship once again. When we sin, what we are doing is breaking our friendship with Him. We turn on Him and follow after our own lusts and pursuits and shun Him. When we confess before Him and each other, we restore this friendship and once again the communion which happens between persons who are friends takes place and heals us. And God forever seeks out this restoration between Himself and us. It is we who choose to stay separated from Him and not He from us.
VII. More passages from the Holy Scripture on Forgiveness
The Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels
Mark 11:25-26: “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
Luke 6:37: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
Luke 17:3-4: “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
The Book of Acts- Stephen the Proto Martyr
Chapter 7:60: Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
The Epistles of Paul and the other Epistles
There are numerous references to forgiveness but in a bit of a different context. They are not spoken of in the Epistles for the most part as we have discussed thus far where we are commanded to forgive to receive salvation. Forgiveness here is more often spoken of in the context of how God has forgiven us or is willing to forgive us when we confess our sins.