Слово 2

(1) That human nature, through the incarnation of the Son and God the Word, comes again into goodness, that is, into that good and divine state in which it was before Adam’s crime. – (2) Also about natural, written and spiritual law. – (3) More about how someone can come to prosperity. – (4) And by doing what works we can enter the kingdom of heaven. 1. Since human nature lost its goodness through Adam’s crime, it is necessary for us to know what Adam was like before the loss of goodness, and what this goodness consisted of, or the good and divine state that man had before the crime. The Holy Fathers tell us that God became man in order to, through His incarnation, again bring human nature into goodness. Why is it necessary for us to find out how, through the incarnate economy of Christ, man again comes to well-being. God in the beginning, when he created man, created him holy, impassive and sinless, in His image and likeness, and man was then exactly like God, who created him. For a holy, sinless and impassive God creates holy, impassive and sinless creatures. But since immutability and immutability are the properties of one beginningless and uncreated Deity, created man was naturally changeable and changeable, although he had the way and the opportunity, with the help of God, not to undergo change and change. So the man was holy and, like a saint, had no need for any law, for a righteous person does not need a law. What need of law is there for the holy, impassive and pure? The law commands to do good and not to do evil. But Scripture says that God saw everything and created everything, and every good thing (Gen. 1:31). So, since everything was good and good, what need was there for man to learn what is good and what is not good? Since there was nothing that was not extremely good, this divine man had no need for the law. 2. However, since it was in his power to eat from every tree of paradise, and also from the tree of life itself, the commandment was given to him not to eat from the tree alone, so that he would know that he was changeable and changeable, and would beware, and would remain forever in that good and divine state. God, in the words that he said to him, giving the commandment that if he tasted, he would die, made him understand that he was changeable and changeable. So - then, in paradise, there was no need for a law, neither written nor spiritual. But after man ate from that forbidden tree and died a bitter death, that is, he fell away from God and was subjected to corruption, then, so that he would not completely fall away from all good (since evil spread greatly in the human race and tyrannized him violently, due to the disastrous relaxation that he suffered as a result of corruption), a law was given to him to show what was good and what was bad. For man became blind, lost his mind and lost his senses, which is why he needed teaching, as it is written in the Psalms: open my eyes and I will understand the wonders of Your law (Ps. 119:18). Give me understanding and I will learn Your commandments (73). Do you see what a pitiful state man had come to and how he therefore needed a written law? For after he fell, he could no longer even know this world, if he had not first been enlightened from above by God with knowledge regarding it. Afterwards, when Christ came and so closely united the Divinity with humanity in Himself that these two, extremely distant, that is, the Divinity and humanity, became one person, although they remained unmerged and unmixed - from that time man became, as it were, light, through union with it, the first and unevening light of God, and no longer has the need of any written law, because the Divine grace of Jesus Christ abiding with him and in him, goodness brings him fruit, that is, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness and self-control. Why does the Apostle Paul, having listed such fruits of the Holy Spirit, say at the end: for such there is no law (Gal. 5:22-23), for the righteous does not require the law. Whoever does not yet have such fruits of the Holy Spirit is not Christ’s, as the Apostle says: if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His (Rom. 8:9). Such a one must strive and try to become Christ’s, so that he does not believe in Christ in vain, in which case Christ benefits him nothing. All his efforts and all his feat must be directed toward acquiring the Spirit of Christ, and thus bearing the fruits of the Holy Spirit, for this is what spiritual law and goodness consist of. 3. If human nature comes again into well-being, as it was originally, through the incarnation of Christ, and there is no other way and no other power, or wisdom, or labor and achievement, so that human nature again comes into well-being and becomes, as it was originally created, but is solely in the hand of God, who gave it being, and that is to grant him well-being, and there is no other way for this to happen, then what is the need to work in vain, struggling for the sake of this alone through his exploits, readings, suffering, tormenting himself with greed, thirst and vigils? And if such and such great sufferings are in vain and useless for one who does not know this great sacrament (salvation), then every Christian has the duty to learn it and come to know it, so as not to work in vain in those sufferings and not allow his soul to perish (and with them), which is worse than any other disaster. For all such and such suffering must be endured not in order to come to well-being, but in order to preserve the well-being that we previously received through holy Baptism, since this treasure is difficult to preserve, and we must pay good attention, so that we may preserve it, as the holy fathers said. And in the future life, a Christian will not be tested whether he has renounced the world, whether he has fasted, performed vigils, prayed, cried, or done other good deeds in the present life, but will be carefully tested whether he has any likeness to Christ, like a son to his father, as Paul also says: “My children, in the image of my sickness, until Christ will be imagined in you” (Gal. 4:19). For those who are baptized into Christ put on Christ (Gal.3:27). 4. Those who guard the gates of the kingdom of heaven, if they do not see in a Christian likeness to Christ, like a son to the father, will not open them for him and will not allow him to enter. For just as those like the old Adam, who transgressed the commandment of God, remain outside the kingdom of heaven, despite the fact that they are not at all guilty of being like the forefather Adam, so Christians, like the new Adam, their Father Christ, enter the kingdom of heaven, despite the fact that the fact that they are like Christ is not their own work, since this is accomplished through faith, which they receive in Christ. The likeness of Christ consists of truth, meekness, truth, and with them humility and love for mankind. Truth is seen in all words, and meekness in all contradictions; because a meek person, whether surrounded by praise or censure, keeps himself dispassionate, and is neither exalted by praise nor upset by censure. Truth is seen in all matters: for just as we determine the weight of things by means of scales and as we recognize the quality of gold by rubbing it on a stone, so in no undertaking do we go beyond the limits of truth, if at the same time we keep in memory those measures (measurement methods or scales) that our Lord gave us (commandments). Humility is, as it were, an unstealable treasury, built in that mind that bears the conviction that only by the power of grace acceptable from Christ does it possess the demonstrated good qualities, that is, truth, meekness and righteousness. Humanity is likeness to God, since it does good to all people, both the pious and the wicked, the good and the evil, the known and the unknown, just as God Himself does good to everyone, the sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous, and it rains on the evil and the good. So, those who have received this from Christ, from Him have likeness to Him, just as a son from a father has likeness to his father, because a son does not exist except from the nature of his father. For this purpose, God became man, and through such a union of the Divinity with human nature, the Divinity reigns over human nature, as it is written: come, and succeed, and reign for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness (Ps. 45:5). Thus, over whom Christ has not reigned through those virtues that we have spoken about, he is not like Christ as a father, and is not worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven. Truly it is. Why are all other feats unnecessary if they don’t happen for the sake of them? Let us also, brothers, try to become like Christ through those virtues, so that we may be worthy of His kingdom. To him be glory and power forever. Amen. You might be interested in: