СПАСИТЕЛЬ

1. It is the Savior who saves souls, not us. But it is the Savior who saves souls, not us. We only testify to our faith, our devotion to Him, and He, as we cleave to Him, gives us everything we need for salvation (1, p. 74). 2. The Son of God, having united the Divinity with humanity, gave us the opportunity to unite through Him with God The Son of God and God came to earth and became incarnate and in His person united humanity with the Divine, and through this gave us all the opportunity to unite through Him with God. Those who believe, are baptized and others accept the Sacraments are united alive with the Savior, and through Him with God. And this is salvation! Our goal is life in God, but we have no other way to God than the Lord Jesus Christ (1, p. 74). 3. We have a Savior who cares about our salvation and disposes us in every way for good For we have the Lord the Savior, who cares about our salvation and who in every possible way disposes and strengthens us for it (1, p. 250). 4. We have a Savior, Who cares only about our salvation We have a Savior, Who cares only about our salvation. Call... he will hear! And he will say: “I want to, be cleansed” (1, p. 253). Thinking about yourself, you lament the past and fear for your powerlessness; Always attach to this the hope of salvation. For we have the Lord the Savior, who only cares about the organization of salvation for every believer... that salvation, the foundation of which He Himself laid. He Himself laid the foundation of the salvation of all, He Himself applies it to everyone. Believe and surrender all of yourself to the Lord (3, p. 22). 5. About being with the Lord and about internal cleansing What to miss? The Lord is near. To be with Him is all the same, be it in this world or in the next world. If only He would deign to keep from everything unrelated to Him, both within and without. It is easier to be correct on the outside. Shame in front of people helps. And inside - maybe, I suppose. And bad thoughts and desires take their course. And there is no way to protect yourself. God, be merciful to us sinners (3, p. 74)! 6. The Savior wants to save everyone. Wanting Him is a matter of fact if it does not meet obstacles from our will. We have the Lord Savior, who wants to save everyone. since His will is and deed, as soon as it does not meet obstacles from our will, you yourself see what prevents the birth of confidence in salvation. This is precisely the wrong mood of will. See how prayer is going - a barometer of spiritual life (4, p. 5). 7. The Savior is the sun in the spiritual world The planets face the Sun and are ruled by motion. And the entire spiritual world: Angels and saints in Heaven, and people living spiritually on earth are turned to the Lord Savior and dance with Him. He is the center around which everything revolves, the head of everything in heaven and on earth (see Eph. 1:10) (10, pp. 111–112, note 3). 8. The necessity of reunification with God for salvation. Man himself cannot do this. The Spirit of God does it in us for the sake of the redemption brought by the Son of God Just as we slid down the mountain, we have to go back and climb the mountain again. Once the disease has set in, by acting in the opposite direction, you can drive it out. If you have fallen away from God, you need to reunite with Him. They fell away, doubting the word of God; we must restore full faith in this word. Having lost faith in God and in God, we made a disastrous decision: this is me, I must destroy this myself. When this destructive self was formed, our spirit lost its inherent power to rule over soul and body and, on the contrary, itself fell under the yoke of slavery to it; it is necessary to restore this power of the spirit. When the power of the spirit was cut short, the needs of the soul and body scattered in different directions and confusion occurred in our desires; it is necessary to bring all these needs back to unity and establish mutual subordination in their order. Along with the destructive, I myself have been squeezed into the circle of our life by a flock of passions, like wild beasts tormenting us; these passions must be driven out (9, pp. 76–77). We especially cannot hope to settle this most important matter of ours ourselves, because the first point in it, without establishing which there is no point in taking on the others, namely, reunification with God, cannot in any way be in our power. We may wish for it and seek it, but to arrange it is not the work of our hands. Who can squeeze into the realm of God or pave the way to Him? Who is able to take from God what he desires, much less force God to be in us, so that we too may be in Him, and especially after all this has already been given to us, but is despised, and the face of God is belittled by mistrust, and His power is trampled upon by self-will? You say: I will repent and repent. But it's not your place to set conditions. Repentance can go into action, but only when God Himself decrees it and agrees to accept it. But what is it in itself?! I’m hurt and it hurts: what’s going on here?! Thus, reunification with God is not in our power: its conditions, and the manner of its implementation, and everything related to this is not in our hands. Meanwhile, this is how important it is, that if you accomplish the reunion, everything else will go by itself. The spirit will immediately take strength, subjugate the soul and body, organize needs and desires and drive out passions. But how can he succeed? I am leading this speech to let you understand that there is no need for us to rack our brains over how to reunite with God. No matter how much you break, you won’t come up with anything; but rather, if God was pleased to establish the law and order of this reunion, hasten to accept it with full faith and use it with warm gratitude. And thanks be to the philanthropic God! Everything has already been accomplished, established and explained for this purpose. Take it and use it. I will not tell you how all this was accomplished; I'll tell you the main thing. To restore our spirit and reunite it with God, it is necessary that the Spirit of God descend into it and revive it. To open the way for the descent of the Spirit of God, the Only Begotten Son of God descended, became incarnate, suffered, died on the Cross, was resurrected and ascended. In this regard, the Son of God Himself puts His work before the Holy Spirit, when, having announced to His disciples about His departure to the Father and thereby arousing sorrow in them, He spoke to them as a consolation: I say to you the truth: I am gone to you. Unless I go, the Comforter will not come to you 206 (John 16:7). And even before St. Evangelist John the Theologian, explaining the words of the Lord: believe in Me... rivers from his belly will flow out living waters, added: this is what is said about Dus, whom those who believe in His name want to receive: for the Holy Spirit had not been glorified, for Jesus had not been glorified 207 (John 7:38-39). The Son of God had to be glorified, having humbled Himself through incarnation and suffering, so that the Holy Spirit could come and abide with those who believe in Him. He came and began to abide, and His presence in the believers is so urgent that another apostle asked them in amazement: Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you 208 (1 Cor. 3:16). So that's it for you. The Son of God became incarnate, suffered in the flesh, died on the Cross, was resurrected, ascended into Heaven and sent from the Father the Holy Spirit, who, being accepted by those who believe in the Son, fulfills in them what this Son prayed for: as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in us 209 (John 17:21). How does He do this? It is combined with the spirit of those who believe in the Son of God and, reviving it, reunites it with God. This is called the new birth from God, which makes believers children of God by grace, as St. John the Evangelist: The little ones received Him, and gave them the realm to become children of God, who believe in His name: who were not born of blood... but born of God 210 (John 1:12-13). And it became the law of spiritual life about Christ Jesus: unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, for only that which is born of the Spirit is spirit 211 (John 3:5-6). Please do not try to explain why all this is necessary to restore true life in us, and accept and support it with the simplicity and sincerity of a child’s faith. If you begin to torture, the enemy will approach you and, like Eve once, will whisper temptations to you and shake your faith, and thereby deprive you of the fruits of faith. Just as it was not clear then how such consequences could arise from eating the fruit, but they arose precisely from this eating, so now it is not clear why the Son of God had to be incarnate and suffer and then, having ascended, send down the Spirit to restore us - and, however, our restoration depends on sincere faith in precisely such a dispensation, and all who accepted and accept it with faith are restored. So do not torture God’s dispensation (9, pp. 77–80). 9. Participation of the Holy Trinity in our salvation And 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 one should not divide between Them their restorative action in us. It comes inseparably from God, in the Trinity worshiped. Why St. Peter, expressing his benevolent greeting to those to whom he wrote the letter, says: 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 212 - etc. (1 Pet. 1, 2); and St. Paul concludes his Second Epistle to the Corinthians with a similar goodwill: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of 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 the indivisible God 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 all the days (Matthew 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 we will come to him and make our abode with him 213 (John 14:23). Here, God the Father and God the Son dwell in us and live through faith and love, expressed by fulfilling the commandments (9, pp. 80–81). 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 (9, pp. 81–82). 10. The Lord Savior – Intercessor to God the Father The same applies to petitions. There is one intercession, and without it no other intercession is strong... The intercession of the Lord Savior. And there can be many side intercessors, conductors of that intercession... multipliers... Here is the Mother of God Intercessor, acting by virtue of the intercession of Her Son... Moreover, the Lord the Savior is the Intercessor to God the Father. And if Himself The Savior was angered; who will intercede with Him? But we anger him, because we trample His blood underfoot through our sins (6, p. 3). 11. The Savior is the executor of the incarnate economy of salvation, the reconciler of humanity with the Divine Christ the Lord is the original Intercessor as the reconciler of humanity with the Divine. By His death He reconciled us with God and through this opened access to us to all the mercies of God. He is the finisher of the incarnate economy of salvation. The Mother of God is the Intercessor of salvation as a prayer book. Both Angels and saints are intercessors in this regard, for they pray for us. But neither the Mother of God, nor the Angels, nor the saints are the producers and givers of salvation. They only intercede so that the image of salvation, given by the Lord the Savior for everyone, would be applied to us and that we would thus be saved by virtue of it... The Lord is the Savior, all others are accomplices in granting us salvation (6, pp. 5-6). 12. The Savior as the beginning of creation Why is the Savior called the beginning of creation? So called as the Creator, for everything was that, and especially as the re-creator of the fallen human race. In terms of humanity, He is our new ancestor... He revealed in Himself a restored man. All people are then restored to His example and by His power. He is the head and the beginning (6, p. 50). I tell you the truth: it is better for you that I go; for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you. Whoever believes in Me...out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. This He said about the Spirit, which those who believed in Him were about to receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given to them, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? as You, Father, are in me, and I in You, so may they also be one in Us. And to those who accepted him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the power to become children of God, who were born not of blood... but of God. unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace to you. whoever loves Me will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him. You might be interested in: