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(1) God on the day of judgment will judge as sinners those who do not seek to receive the grace of God. – (2) The power of sin is incomprehensible. – (3) Christ uses the members of Christians as instruments. 1. It is natural for human nature to sin, because from the time Adam transgressed the commandment of God, this nature became weak and cannot help but sin. (It is weak because it is not endowed with the intelligent power of the Holy Spirit from above, which is called the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; it is called grace because it is given to a person by faith alone, and not for good deeds.) Again, it is characteristic of the angelic nature not to sin, because the Angels are strong in strength and are clothed in the divine robe of the Holy Spirit, without Whom it is impossible not to sin. Therefore, when God sits on the throne to judge the world, then, condemning sinners for the fact that they have sinned, He will condemn them especially for the fact that they did not resort to the Most High God, as weak and sinning out of weakness, and did not beg Him to send them from above the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, that He might deliver them from weakness and give them the strength not to sin. Who does not know that Angels, whether they are clothed with their full armor or not, are stronger than men? (And the entire armor of the Angels is the all-powerful power of the Holy Spirit, which they carry within themselves from the moment they are created, since they were created to be rational and mental companions of the uncreated and divine radiance, as the purest beings.) Stronger, because they are simple nature, and people are made up of a verbal and mental soul and a body, sensory and visible. They were also clothed with the same full armor, that is, with divine power, which the Angels carry within themselves, with which people are strong and holy (although only Adam, before breaking the commandment, was clothed in such a full armor of God). But since God withdrew this divine power from the devil for his pride, as well as from his entire horde, this evil spirit was jealous of man and used its efforts so that the divine power was withdrawn from man. And indeed, through her slander, man lost the divine power that covered him and became naked from her, just as the demons had already been naked from her. And so naked demons defeat a naked man, as his strongest, because they are simple and incorporeal, while humans are complex and bear the burden of the flesh. And from the time the primordial One fell, even to this day no one has been able or could, and in subsequent times not a single person will ever be able to resist the devil and other unclean forces and defeat them, because, as I said, although they are naked of divine power, but as incorporeal, they are stronger than people naked of the same power. Why does the Apostle say: brothers... put on the full armor of God, for you are able to stand against the wiles of the devil; for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:10–12). And there is nothing marvelous in this (that is, that they are the rulers of the world). For as soon as man was naked from Divine grace, immediately all visible creation, created for man, was naked together with man from the divine light that shone upon it, and was corrupted, as the same Apostle says: the creation is not subject to vanity by will, but for him who obeyed it in hope, as the creation itself will be freed from the work of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that all creation sighs and suffers with us even to this day. For creation longs for the revelation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19–22). And when all visible creation was thus deprived of divine illumination, then the devil and other demons began to rush about (χορευειν, prance) in it, as he wanted and where he wanted, and became the prince of this transitory world. The prince and ruler of this world was man, but when the devil deceived him, then, by the permission of God, he took leadership and power from him and called himself the prince of this world, and he rules, just as thieves rule over what they forcibly seize into their hands; I am not the one who delivers, but the one who saves (Ps. 7:3). True, there is a God who delivers and saves, but this robber the devil manages to so deceive those who have fallen under his tyranny that they remain satisfied with the plight in which they find themselves, are glad of their slavery, love the uncleanness and untruths in which they wallow, and do not desire liberation. 2. And this slavery to the devil is some kind of strange thing. For imagine how incomprehensibly sin dominates human nature! For the most part, neither the mind understands this nor the conscience feels it. It is impossible to understand how it happens that a person finds joy and fun in songs and dances, in jokes and laughter, in games and amusements, in wrestling and fist fights, and in many other unnecessary and indecent things, and despite the fact that all this is obviously useless and indecent for a person, he does not spare work, care and strength for it, and to the fact that good is pleasing to God and sometimes does not require any work, his soul does not lie, and he is burdened by this, misses this and runs away from it, although it does not cause him any harm, but brings only good. And look how cunning this secret power is! She has brought man, a rational creature, into such a poor and pitiable state that he turns away from what is due to him as unbecoming, and loves what is unbecoming and incongruous with him as due and appropriate. And what’s even worse is that when, having learned the emptiness and falsity of such pleasures, he wants to lag behind and turn away from them, he encounters great difficulty in this. Do you understand this misery? Do you comprehend the need and violence that human nature endures? Do you see the danger? When they are called to the church of God, both the elders and the young men and children are burdened to go, and everyone runs to festivities, games and round dances with great joy and haste. 3. How great a strength is required for human nature to overcome this evil force acting in it, and to put aside such an unnatural disposition, which seems natural to it, and to accept a natural one, which seems unnatural to it? Divine and supernatural power is required, because unless it is recreated and renewed by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it cannot change for the better and return to its natural state. And let no one arrogate salvation to himself if he has not yet changed into a spiritual and godly mood, which a person should have, so that he rejoices over divine deeds and grieves over evil ones. Only in this case, in proportion to the change he perceives, can he nourish the hope of salvation. Therefore, every Christian look at himself according to these features, as in a mirror, so as not to deceive himself, because the character and sign of those who may have the hope of salvation are obvious. The ancient holy prophets also knew this incomprehensible violence that human nature suffers from sin and the devil, and in order to get rid of it, they cried out to the Lord, and He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their corruptions (Ps. 106:20). And the saints who appear after the incarnate economy have within themselves Christ Himself, the Son of God and God, and carry Him within themselves, this hypostatic Power and Wisdom of God. And who will dare to attack and arm themselves against those who have put on Christ as the whole armor of God? The devil does not dare to attack such people with their sins, that is, with their sins, but attacks with their gums, that is, with their good deeds, trying to plunge them into arrogance. But there is no sense in anyone who would think of being proud of the whole armor of God or the omnipotent power of God manifested in him. For the Apostle, saying: present your weapons to the weapons of God's righteousness, and sin will not possess you, because you are under grace (Rom. 6:13-14), clearly shows that the one who works with these weapons is God. Therefore, just as sensual weapons do not have their own will and meaning to contradict the warrior who uses them in anything, but are obedient to him, no matter what he uses them for, leaving him the freedom to act with them as and when he wants; in the same way, a Christian must present his souls as obedient to God and, no matter what he does, do it the way God wants; let him listen, and look, and speak, and touch, and smell, and walk, and stand, and lie, and sit, and do, and be idle, and communicate with others and be alone, and give and receive, and build and destroy, and in general let him do everything as God wants. Consider this, everyone: when an armed warrior defeats the enemy with his weapons, and, like a fair fighter, thereby shows his strength and military experience, then he is a conqueror, not a weapon; and just as it is true that he could not fight without weapons, so it is not false that victory is the work of a warrior, and not weapons. Hence, take this advice for yourself that just as weapons, if they are not in the hands of a warrior who could use them, remain idle and ineffective, so the members of a Christian, if Christ does not act with them, wearing them, remain inactive (for good), and not only ineffective, but the devil, finding that Christ does not carry them and they are ineffective, seizes them, puts them on and begins to fight with them against Christians, and defiles many souls. If Christ is the Warrior, if the members of those who believe in Him are the weapons of Christ, and the one who conquers with these weapons is Christ Himself, just as He leads the battle itself, then it is in every possible way necessary that every Christian should be obedient to Christ, just as soulless weapons are obedient to a warrior, so that Christ would gain victory through them and then make them, like weapons, participants in His glory. These weapons, despite all the fact that they are reasonable, should not have any other movement except that which happens by the will of Christ Himself - the Warrior and the Victor. And whoever is disobedient to the will of Christ is in vain among the Christians. Let us always present our members as weapons obedient to Christ, by His power. To him be glory and power forever. Amen. You might be interested in: