ГЛАВА II. О БОГЕ, КАК СУДИИ И МЗДОВОЗДАЯТЕЛЕ

§ 247. Connection with the previous one, the concept of God as a Judge and Giver, and the composition of church teaching about this 1. For the complete restoration and salvation of fallen man, three great things had to be accomplished: a) to reconcile the sinner with God, whom he had endlessly offended by his fall; b) cleanse the sinner from his sins and make him righteous and holy; c) free the sinner from the executions themselves for sins and grant him, according to his holiness, the benefits he deserves (§ 124). The Lord God himself did the first thing - without our participation, when he sent down to earth his only begotten Son, who... having become incarnate and taking upon himself the sins of the entire human race, by his death he brought for them the most perfect satisfaction to the eternal Truth, and thus not only redeemed us from sins and from punishment for sins, but also acquired for us the gifts of the Holy Spirit and eternal bliss (§ 153). The second thing is accomplished by the Lord God with our participation. He founded his saint on earth. Church as a living and constant instrument for our cleansing from sins and sanctification; bestows upon us in the Church and through the Church the grace of the Holy Spirit. the Spirit, as a real force that cleanses us from sins and sanctifies us; established various sacraments in the Church to impart to us the various gifts of this saving grace in accordance with all the needs of our spiritual life: and it depends on us to use or not to use the means of sanctification offered to us by God. Having given them to us, He at the same time appointed a certain period of time during which we can use them: for private individuals this period lasts until the very end of their earthly life, and for the entire human race it will last until the very end of the world. Finally, the third work is performed by the Lord God after the end of the second, which He performs with our participation: He is then the Judge of people, rightly weighing whether they took advantage or did not take advantage of the means given to them on earth for their cleansing from sins and sanctification, and whether they are worthy or unworthy to be freed from punishment for sins and receive bliss; is then a righteous Rewarder, assigning people a certain fate to each according to their deserts. 2. How all the Holy Persons participated in the work of our redemption. Trinity, although actually and directly our Redeemer was the Son of God, who took upon himself our nature and tasted death for us (§ 126); how all the Persons of the Most Holy One also participate in the work of our sanctification. Trinity, although it is God the Holy Spirit who actually and directly accomplishes our sanctification with His grace (§ 165): just so, in the matter of judgment over us, in the matter of retribution to us, the whole Holy Spirit participates. Trinity. This idea - a) follows, as a consequence, from the dogma that the Persons of the Most Holy. The Trinity is of the same essence, has one Divinity, one will and, differing only in personal properties, are inseparable in everything - which is why it is impossible for One of Them to act only from Itself, without any participation of the Other Two; – b) confirmed by St. Scripture, which says, for example, about God in general: Fear God and keep his commandments, as every man does: for God will bring all creation into judgment for every sin, whether good or evil (Eccl. 12:13. 14), and in another place: without faith it is impossible to please God: it is fitting for one who comes to God to believe, as he is, and he is a rewarder of those who seek him (Heb. 11:6; 12:23); and one more thing: God, despising the years of ignorance, now commands man to repent everywhere: he has not appointed a day, in which he wants to judge the world in righteousness, about the man whom he ordained, giving faith to everyone, raising it from the dead (Acts 17, 30. 31). But actually and directly, named by God, the judge of the living and the dead is the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 10:42): to whom the Father has given the domain to execute judgment (John 5:27); through Him God judges the secret things of man (Rom. 2:16); He, the Son of man, will come to receive in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then he will reward everyone according to his deeds (Matthew 16:26; Demolition 19:28; 24:30; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 4:1; Jude 14; Apoc. 1:7), as he confesses in his very symbol and St. Church 1628, confessed in their writings and the teachers of the Church 1629. “The judge is Christ,” says, for example, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, The Father judges no one, but all judgment is given to the Sons (John 5:22). The Father does not deprive himself of power, He judges through the Son. And so, according to the will of the Father, the Son will judge, for there is not another will of the Father, but another of the Son, but one and the same” 1630. 3. Expounding the doctrine of God as the Judge and the Giver of Rewards, the Orthodox Church distinguishes between the twofold judgment of God, the twofold retribution: firstly, the private judgment that the Lord executes over each person separately suddenly after his death, and the retribution that follows is still incomplete, not final, and, secondly, the general judgment, which the Lord will solemnly execute over the entire human race at the end of the world, and which will conclude with a reward that is already complete, decisive, eternal (Right. Confession of Faith, part 1, answer to questions 58–61). Thus this teaching is divided into two halves, each of which is divided into two parts. “And the one who is to come will judge the living and the dead with glory.” Also in the liturgical books: “Whom thou didst incarnate the Son of above nature, O Pure One, this is the judge of the living and the dead and the judge of the whole earth, and saves from torment, as He desires, more than with the love of those who worship in images the One and Thee praising the Mother of God forever” (Trebn. l. 144, Moscow 1836). “To Thy terrible, trembling and terrible throne, O Christ, who stand before Thy, like those who have died from eternity, await Thy righteous utterance, and accept divine justice” (Octoech. Part 1, l. 158 reverse. Moscow 1838). Barnabas. last paragraph 7; Justin. Apologist. 1, paragraph 8; Conversation with Tryphon. paragraph 125; Irin. adv. haer. 111, 16, n. 6; IV, 33, n. 3; Tertullus. de praescr. Haeret, n. 13. Pouch. public XV, paragraph 26, page 333, in Russian. translation You might be interested in: