22. Продолжение о искупительном восстановлении падшего человека. Участие всея Святыя Троицы в нашем спасении. Порядок возбуждения в спасаемом человеке добрых чувств от Духа Божия. Участие в сем деле самого человека. Ревность о спасении как первое условие к достижению его

I continue. The Only Begotten Son of God, who became incarnate for our sake, having satisfied the righteousness of God by death on the cross, reconciled us with God; Having ascended into Heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father, He now intercedes for us with His reconciling intercession. But at the same time, He is for us the source of truly human life. What a person should be, He revealed this in His humanity, and all believers, when they receive a new birth, receive the seed of life like Christ. Those who are baptized into Christ put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). This is what the grace of the Holy Spirit produces in believers. What exactly happens in us under the influence of grace? But in advance I ask you to always keep the thought that when it is said that the Son of God did and is doing one thing, and the Holy Spirit another, then we should not divide between Them their restorative action in us. It comes inseparably from God, in the Trinity worshiped. Why does St. Peter, expressing his benevolent greeting to those to whom he wrote the letter, say: “According to the insight of God the Father, in the holiness of the Spirit, in obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace to you” and so on (1 Pet. 1, 2), and St. Paul concludes his letter to the Corinthians with a similar benevolence: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Father and fellowship The Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Cor. 13:13). The restorative action of God in us, worshiped in the Trinity, is His communication with our spirit. And this communication does not happen from One Person, but from God, inseparable in Three Persons. Why is it said that the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Father enter into communion with us. The Lord Savior, although He sits at the right hand of God the Father, is, according to His promise, with us “always” (Matt. 28:20), and this is not externally, but internally, for he says: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and I will come to him and make my abode with him” (John 14:23). Behold, God the Father and God the Son dwell in us and live through faith and love, expressed by fulfilling the commandments. And that the Holy Spirit lives in believers and in those who keep God’s commandments, about this last time I cited the testimony of Scripture: “Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you” (1 Cor. 3:16). How great and inexpressible is God’s mercy towards us! The Trinitarian God lives in us if we are faithful to the conditions under which this happens! But the production of communion with God is accomplished by the grace of the Holy Spirit. He makes an abode in us and, together with God the Father and God the Son, dwells in us. How is this monastery made? The Spirit of God secretly acts on our spirit and sets it in motion. Our spirit, when it comes into motion, restores within itself its natural knowledge of God, that God exists, contains everything, and is the Giver of Rewards. Consciousness of this restores a feeling of complete dependence on God and revives the fear of God. Both disturb the conscience - the witness and judge of our deeds and feelings, among which there is rarely anything that God would look upon favorably. An alarmed conscience, together with the fear of God and a feeling of complete dependence on God, makes a person feel the hopelessness of his situation: “Which way will I go... which way will I run?” (Ps. 139:7). But there is nowhere to run: he is caught and in the hands of God - the Judge and the Rewarder. One can feel “the wrath of God from heaven against all... unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18). But then the gospel of the Gospel comes and leads you out of trouble. Without the Gospel, such an awakening of our spirit would be disastrous, for it would inevitably plunge us into despair. But the goodness of God arranges it in such a way that the true awakening of the spirit is both accomplished and accompanied by the Gospel. To the one who has formed inside, as a result of the awakening of the spirit: “Which way will I go... which way will I run?” – The Gospel proclaims: “Where and why should we run? Go under the shadow of the Cross and you will be saved. The Son of God, having become incarnate, died on the Cross for the cleansing of our sins. Believe in this, and you will receive forgiveness and receive God’s mercy.” The apostles always did this when preaching the Gospel. They disturb you, and then they say: “Believe in the crucified Lord - and you will be saved.” Thus, Saint Peter, in his first sermon, on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit, alarmed and frightened the Jews to the point that they began to cry out: “What should we do now? Where to go? He then proclaimed to them: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus... for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). The Holy Apostle Paul arranged his Epistle to the Romans in such a way that he first frightened everyone, saying: “The wrath of God... is revealed” (Rom. 1:18), and then he indicated the refuge of everyone - in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:22ff). When someone is in extreme trouble and encounters an indication of an outcome and refuge, with what zeal does he grab hold of this. So our spirit, having heeded the gospel of salvation in the Lord, strives for it with all its might, with trust and readiness to do everything in order to become a partaker of the blessings of the Gospel. This mood of our spirit makes it ready for communion with God, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, which hitherto acted from the outside, exciting, takes root inside not directly, but through the sacrament. The believer repents, is baptized and receives the “gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). This is the action of communion with God - living and active. This action manifested itself so tangibly during the initial preaching of the holy apostles, so it manifested itself after them and is manifested to this day, when everything on our part is fulfilled properly. The Spirit of God alone does not do everything. Something is required from us, and this something is important. The Spirit of God excites, the gospel shows what to take up. This is from God. But having done this, God stops and waits for our will. With His first actions, God seems to ask: “Do you want to get out of trouble? Here's what you do." This moment is the most important. If anyone bows to the instruction, he opens the entrance to further actions of grace, which then introduces him into the region of the saved. If he does not bow down, he stops further actions of grace, and remains such among those who are perishing. The Apostle Paul preaches in the Areopagus. After the sermon, Saint Dionysius and someone else follow him and are baptized, and some of the others say: “What does this vain one teach?”, and some: “Come another time, we will listen to you.” God does not force anyone to be saved, but offers a choice and saves only the one who chooses salvation. If our will were not required, God would have made everyone saved in an instant, for “all... desire to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4). Yes, then there would be no people dying at all. But our will is not always rational, it persists and does not listen to God Himself. Here we are dying. So please note this moment. It must always be present in every spirit when someone stands on the side of those being saved. It consists of the following actions: after grace arouses the feeling of the extremity of the situation, and the gospel indicates the outcome from it, you must add to the feeling of misfortune the consciousness that you yourself are to blame for everything, and repent of that; believe in the effectiveness of the proposed image of salvation; desire to be saved in this way and have hope in this; express full readiness to diligently do everything that is indicated as a condition of salvation. When all this happens in our spirit, all that remains is to begin the sacraments - and communion with God will be accomplished. Let's sum it up: he repented, desired salvation in the Lord and gained trust in this - these actions are actions at rest, occurring within and being content with the manifestation there. And the last action - the willingness to do whatever is required - is the real active force for salvation, since it depends on us, the source of saving activity and saved life. This readiness, while it is expressed by us alone, is weak, but when the grace of God takes root inside, then it becomes omnipotent, knowing no obstacles, overcoming everything. It is an insatiable zeal for pleasing God and diligently fulfilling the will of God, with all faith in the Lord and hope of salvation in Him alone. She fulfills the eternal determination of God “to be holy and blameless before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4), for which the Lord makes us zealous for good deeds (Titus 2:14). I purposely draw your attention to this jealousy, so that you will become jealous about it. For when it is on our side, then the grace of God, for its part, will not fail to do everything in abundance, so that when there is this zeal - in the area of ​​​​faith and the search for salvation - then everything is there and the work of our salvation is undoubtedly in progress and goes to its end; and when it is not there, then there is no longer anything: he who is not zealous for salvation is not involved in salvation. What a long detour I took to bring you to this point. But these were all general arguments. Now we will begin to talk about you. You might be interested in: