Часть первая. Общие рассуждения и положения о нравственно-христианской жизни I. Основы христианской жизни

A) the basics of Christian life; B) determine the characteristic features of Christian activity as moral; B) depict the consequences and fruits of a good Christian life and a life contrary to it. a) is rooted in the embodied economy; b) is supported, revealed and bears fruit in a living union with the Church; c) flows according to the predetermined norm arising from the two previous points. 1. The root of the Christian life is in the incarnate economy Without this economy, Christianity, Christian life and salvation are unthinkable. It was destined from the ages, and came into action in its own time, in the person of the One from the Most Holy Trinity, for us for the sake of men and for our salvation, who came down from heaven and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and the incarnate Christ the Lord. From Him came Christian life and salvation, and through Him everything necessary for this was arranged and provided. All this is the embodied economy. In essence, it is the restoration of the fallen: “for the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Matthew 18:11). “For God so loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And this is why “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). Just as the foundation of Christianity, this saving Divine institution, is laid by the Incarnation of God the Word, so the foundation of Christian life is laid by faith in this Incarnation and the participation of His power. “He who believes in the Son will have life” (John 3:36), and “whoever has faith...will be saved” (Mark 16:16). Faith in the power of the incarnate economy is “the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). But the impulse to seek it and to treasure it is generated by the reasonable conviction that there is no other salvation but through it. It is with this conviction that the outline of Christian moral teaching should begin as a guide to Christian life leading to salvation. At the same time, it is clear that raising to the conviction of the necessity of the incarnation for our salvation will not be an introduction to the comprehension of this mystery. That “God has appeared in the flesh”, this will certainly remain “piety in mystery” (1 Tim. 3:16). We are led to the conviction of the necessity of the incarnation of God for our salvation not by comprehending this mystery, but by the reasonable understanding that the conditions of our salvation could not be fulfilled by anyone other than God incarnate. We fell through the fall of our ancestors and fell into unending destruction. Our salvation must consist in delivering us from this destruction. Our destruction consists of two evils: firstly, in angering God by violating His will, in losing His favor and in subjecting ourselves to a legal oath; secondly, in the damage and disorder of one’s nature by sin or in the loss of true life and the taste of death. Why is it necessary for our salvation: firstly, the propitiation of God, the removal of the legal oath from us and the return of God’s favor to us; secondly, in reviving us, killed by sin, or giving us new life. If God remains unmerciful towards us, we cannot receive any mercy from Him; if we do not receive mercy, we will not be granted grace; If we are not granted grace, we will not be able to have a new life. Both are necessary: ​​the removal of the oath and the renewal of our nature. For even if we had somehow received forgiveness and pardon, but remained unrenewed, we would not have received any benefit from it, because without renewal we would constantly remain in a sinful mood and constantly pour out sins, and through sins we would again be subject to condemnation and disgrace, or we would all remain in the same destructive state. Both are necessary; but neither one nor the other can take place without the incarnation of God. 1) The removal from us of the guilt of sin and the legal oath, or our justification, cannot take place without the incarnation of God To remove the guilt of sin and oath, complete satisfaction of the truth of God, offended by sin, or complete justification is required. Complete justification, or complete satisfaction with the truth of God, consists not only in bringing a propitiatory sacrifice for sin, but also in enriching the one pardoned with deeds of righteousness, in order to fill with them the time of life spent in sin and remaining empty after pardon. For the law of God’s righteousness requires that a person’s life not only be free from sins, but also filled with deeds of righteousness, as the Lord showed this in the parable of the talents, where the servant who buried the talent in the ground is condemned not for using the talent for evil, but for doing nothing about it. But - a) Only the God-Man, or God incarnate, could bring a sufficient sacrifice for sin Whether we listen to the feelings of a sinner standing before God with a clear consciousness of God’s truth and his sinfulness, or contemplate God, who would like to have mercy on this sinner, in both cases we will see a certain mediastinum blocking the path of the descent of mercy from God to the sinner, and the ascent of hope for mercy from the face of the sinner to the throne of God’s mercy. The Lord does not show mercy unrighteously, or when His truth is insulted and dissatisfied. The truth and justice of God require that the unjust bear the punishment awarded for unrighteousness, otherwise merciful love will be a merciful indulgence. In the soul of a sinner, the feeling of God's truth is usually stronger than the feeling of God's mercy. Therefore, when he approaches God, this feeling not only makes him unrequited before Him, but suppresses him with complete hopelessness. Consequently, in order to bring the sinner closer to God and God to the sinner, it is necessary to destroy such a mediastinum, it is necessary that some other mediation arise between God and man, which would hide the sin of man from the eyes of God’s truth, and the truth of God from the eyes of the sinner; a means for the sake of which God would see the sinner innocent and worthy of mercy in the face of truth itself, and man would look at God as a sinner already appeased and ready to have mercy; a sacrifice of propitiation is needed, which, satisfying the truth of God and pacifying the soul of the sinner, would reconcile God with man and man with God. What kind of sacrifice is this? What is she wearing? And how can he appear with such immeasurable power of propitiation? This sacrifice is death - and the death of a person. It was first determined by the truth of God to be punishment for sin; it is offered to God by the repentant sinner, crying out: take life, just have mercy and save him, although he immediately feels that his death is not strong enough to save him. 1) It is obvious that such a propitiatory sacrifice cannot be the death of me, another, a third, or in general anyone from the human race: for my death, and that of another, and a third, and of any other person in general, is a punishment for sin and does not represent anything propitiatory. Moreover, we - people - all without exception have a need for this sacrifice ourselves and through it, while still alive, we seek pardon and justification, and in order to improve salvation, those still alive must be justified and pardoned for its sake. Therefore, the propitiatory sacrifice for sin can only be the death of such a person who would be removed from the circle of people without ceasing to be a person. How is this possible? Not otherwise than if he does not belong to himself, will not be a special independent person, like every other person among people, but belongs to another higher being, who would take him into his personality, hypostatically unite with him, or become human and die his death. It would be human death, not belonging to anyone in the circle of people. 2) If the death that propitiates and justifies the sacrifice cannot be the death of me, another, a third, or any other person in general, and yet the condition of pardon and justification is still human death, then I, and the other, and the third, and in general every person cannot be pardoned and justified except through the assimilation of someone else’s death. And in this case, in that other dying human being from whom it is borrowed, it itself should not be a consequence of guilt or in any way involved in it: otherwise it will not be possible to justify others for it. Therefore, again, being a human death, it should not belong to a human person, since every death that belongs to a person is a punishment; but to belong to another person, who would be holy with the most perfect holiness. That is, a propitiating and justifying human death is possible only if some holy being, having taken a person into his personality, dies by him, so that in this way, having removed the death of a person from the law of guilt, he gives it the opportunity to be assimilated by others. 3) Further, if pardon and justification of a person is possible only through the assimilation of someone else's innocent death - the persons who need pardon and justification are generally all people who live, have lived and have to live, the entire human race in all times and places - then for their pardon and justification it is necessary either to arrange as many innocent deaths as there are people or even as many sins, or to manifest one such death, the power of which would extend to all times and places and covered all the sins of all people. From the all-merciful and wise God, who arranges our salvation, only the last is possible. How could this work out? How can human death, insignificant in itself, acquire such all-encompassing power? Not otherwise than when it belongs to a person who exists everywhere and always, belongs to God; that is, when God Himself deigns to accept human nature into His personality and, having died its death, imparts to it a comprehensive and eternal meaning, for then it will be the Divine death. 4) Finally, this death, in its power extending to the entire human race and to all times, in price must correspond to the infinite truth of God, offended by sin, to have infinite significance, just as God is infinite, which again it cannot acquire otherwise than by being appropriated by God or becoming the death of God; and this will happen when God, having taken upon Himself human nature, dies its death. These provisions were not taken from the mind, but were borrowed through guidance from what is said in the Word of God about the incarnate economy of our salvation. For our salvation has already been arranged and is ready for everyone who wants to receive it. The Son of God and God became incarnate, by death on the cross he offered God a sacrifice of propitiation for our race, removed the guilt of sin from us and reconciled us with God. The instructions about this from the Word of God are brought together so that it is clear that the incarnation of God the Word is not an excess of God’s mercy; but, although there is a free work of God’s favor, it is, however, without which our salvation would not have been possible. By virtue of this economy, God righteously has mercy on us and saves us. This is what the Word of God says about this: “There is one... God and one Advocate for God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself redemption for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6). He destroyed the “mediastinum of the fence” (Eph. 2:14) and established peace between God and man (Rom. 5:1, 5:10–11). God offered Him as a sacrifice of propitiation through faith in His blood, to show His righteousness in the forgiveness of sins... so that they may know that He is “just and justifies” (not without anything), but “he who believes in Christ” (Rom. 3:23–26), and thus righteously “reconciles” in Him “the world to Himself, not imputing the sins of people” (2 Cor. 5:19). In Him we too, “children of wrath by nature,” hopeless (Eph.2:3, 2:12), having been delivered from exhaustion and weakening of souls (from discouragement due to hopelessness) (Heb.12:12–13) and having arisen to hope and “the hope of salvation” (Gal.5:5; 1Pet.1:3; Heb.7:19), we have boldness and reliable “access to the Father... into the interior behind the veils” (Eph. 2:18; Heb. 6:19), we have the freedom to “enter into the sanctuary by means of His blood, in a new and living way, which He again revealed to us through the veil, that is, His flesh” ( Heb. 10:19-20). For “Christ has already redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become the curse of us” (Gal. 3:13), and destroyed “the handwriting that was against us, taking it out of the way and nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). 1) “He receives from the Seed of Abraham” (Heb. 2:16) in order to “have something to offer to God” (Heb. 8:3), “in everything he is made like the brethren, to be... for them a high priest... to make atonement for sins” (Heb. 2:16–17); 2) “He suffered as the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Pet. 3:18), “endured the cross instead of the joy that was set before Him” (Heb. 12:2), “having seen no sin, he became sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21), for “this is what the High Priest should have been for us - holy, blameless, free from evil, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (Heb. 7:26); 3) He does not “offer Himself many times” - otherwise He would have to suffer many times - but “he appeared once with His sacrifice to put away sin” (Heb. 9:25, 9:26) and with this “by the once offering of the body He sanctifies all” (Heb. 10:10); “Finding into one holy place found eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12); “having abided forever, He also has an inviolable priesthood, which is why He can always save those who come to God through Him, being always alive to make intercession for us” (Heb. 7:24, 7:25; 1 John 2:1, 2:2); 4) “With this price we were bought” (1 Cor. 6:20) - not “with silver or gold..., but with the precious blood of Christ, as the lamb of the spotless and most pure Christ” (1 Pet. 1:18, 1:19), “which is better than the saying of Abel” (Heb. 12:24) and more cleansing than “the blood of goats and heifers and ashes” young man" (Heb.9:13, 9:14), for with her "Christ appeared before the very face of God for us" (Heb.9:24) and with this offering he took away the curse from us, "being a curse against us" (Gal.3:13), and thereby revealed both the boundless truth of God (Rom.3:25), and "the riches of His grace" (Eph.1:7). b) Only the works of the God-man can make up for the time of life spent in sin by deeds of righteousness To justify a person, it is not enough just to remove the guilt of sins from him, it is also necessary to make up for the lack of deeds of truth and goodness in his life. Living in sin (here we mean continuous sinning before conversion and erupting sins after conversion), he not only omits the deeds of truth and goodness, wastes time on things that are not proper, but also fills it with positive deeds of untruth and evil, subject to appropriate punishment. When sinful guilt is removed from him through pardon and forgiveness and the corresponding punishment for it is eliminated, then only the wrong and unclean things are erased from his life, and that is done for his life that these wrongs and unclean things were not in it. But the time of life spent in sin, thus freed from the burden of sin, does not yet acquire through it the deeds of truth and goodness with which it must have been filled according to its original purpose. Since the truth of God requires that a person’s entire life be filled with deeds of truth and goodness, then the one who has been pardoned and justified is not yet completely right before God; For this it is necessary to fill the emptiness of his life with right and good deeds. How is this possible? Obviously, the person himself, who has converted, repented and forgiven, cannot do this, being jealous to increase his good deeds. Because, no matter what he does in this way, he will only do what is obligatory for him to do at the time he does it, and therefore cannot be used to make up for past omissions. Thus, this replenishment of the lack of due deeds, as well as the previously stated requirement of a sacrifice of propitiation, is possible for him only through the assimilation of such deeds of strangers or the deeds of another person. Who could be such a person for us, from whose wealth we could borrow deeds for ourselves to cover the lack of them in our lives? He must be a man in order to do human deeds so that they can make up for the shortcomings of such deeds in human life. But in himself such deeds should not be obligatory for him, should not be his own deeds or belong to him: otherwise they cannot be acquired by others in return for the lack of such deeds in them. How is this possible? It cannot be otherwise than if some being takes upon itself human nature and, combining it with its personality, will create human affairs with its powers, without being obliged to do them according to its nature, so that, having them in itself as free wealth, it will have the power to enrich others with them. And who can be such a being as to perceive another nature and do things with its powers that are not necessary for himself? None of the creatures can be like that. Every creature has its own purpose and its own circle of affairs, which should fill all moments of its existence and life. Therefore, she does not have time to do things for others and for others. This is possible for her only through omission of her own affairs: it would be the same as, saving others, destroying herself. Apart from creatures, there is only God, independent of anything. So, enriching us with deeds of truth and goodness in order to make up for their lack in our lives is no other way possible than when God deigns to take upon Himself human nature and with its strength to create deeds of truth and goodness. For only such deeds, being free from obligation, can be appropriated by others as the free wealth of God incarnate. Moreover, since the life of every person, the life of all people - present, former, and future - needs such matters, their wealth should be so great that it can satisfy everyone, and their power should extend throughout all times and to all humanity. But the power of every created being, as well as the significance of its deeds, cannot extend beyond the limits of its nature and cannot in any way rise to such strength and space as to embrace all of humanity. Therefore, the deeds of truth and goodness required to compensate for the insufficiency of such deeds in the life of every person, in order to have such immeasurable and eternal significance, must be accomplished by human forces, but from such a person who is eternal and limitless in its essence, that is, from God; and this is possible only with the hypostatic union of the Divine with humanity in one person, or with the incarnation of God. Such is our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Word of God depicts Him. It represents Him in all fullness, saying that the Father “was pleased to dwell in Him for all fulfillment” (Col. 1:19). Of course, the fullness of blessings for our salvation, including the fullness of truth and goodness to cover our untruths and evils. “There was no sin in Him” (1 John 3:3, 3:5), and He did no such thing (1 Peter 2:3, 2:5). For he did only the will of God, or all truth. While still taking upon Himself the work of saving us, He said to the Father: “I come to do Your will, O my God” (Heb. 10:9) - and, having come to earth, at the very beginning of entering into His work, He said to the Forerunner: “Leave; we must fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 3:15) - and he did, testifying before everyone that he did not come to do his own will and does not seek it, but has one desire - to do "the will of Him who sent" (John 5:30, 6:38), - to the point that he had this creation as his only food and drink (John 4:34), "having been obedient even to death" (Phil. 2:8). Since there was never a moment when He did not do something, but always did only the truth, then what wealth of deeds of truth and goodness was collected by Him? But for whom and for what? For those who believe in His name, for He Himself had no need for this, being by nature infinite truth. This was a rich inheritance for those who sought His righteousness (Eph. 1:18). From this fullness “we have received everything” (John 1:16) and are “filled with the fruits of righteousness” (Phil.1:11). I sow with the fullness of the truth of St. Paul wishes for everyone to be fulfilled and even confirms that everyone already has this completeness in the Lord (Col. 2:10) and that, having accepted this “gift of righteousness,” they “will reign in life” (Rom. 5:17), that is, they will inherit the kingdom of heaven. Why does this apostle generally testify of the Lord that He is for us “righteousness, sanctification and deliverance” (1 Cor. 1:30). Deliverance here is the forgiveness of sins, truth is the covering of our iniquities with His truth; Our sanctification was formed from the same and another. And the apostle calls blessed those whose “iniquities are only forgiven,” but at the same time “sins are covered” (Rom. 4:7). How? The richness of the truth of Christ. So it happened that, as “one sin, all men were condemned; so through the righteousness of all men there is the justification of life” (Rom. 5:18). So, let us conclude, only the death and riches of the truth of the God-man can atone for the guilt of the human race by offering a suitable sacrifice and make up for the lack of its truth. Therefore, the justification of the human race is impossible without the incarnation of God. 2) But our renewal, or the giving of new life to us, is also impossible without the incarnation of God To save a person, as noted at the beginning, it is not enough to just justify him before God; It is also necessary, after justification, to make him strong to resist sin and stand firmly on the good path he has begun, and for this to completely regenerate him, give him new life, abolish in him the beginning of a life worthy of condemnation. For as long as this principle remains in him, he will not stop doing evil deeds and, therefore, will never escape from under the oath and condemnation. And this goes on and on. Thus, without the renewal of our nature, justification itself is useless. How can this be? We must eradicate this evil inclination in him. How's that? Granting him a new life, strong to displace that evil principle. In the fall, man lost his true life and began to live some other life, which must be called a false life, looking at it from the point of man’s destination. It, having begun at the head of the human race, then spread into all its members, so that our entire race represented one huge, falsely or untruely human body. It is obvious that in order to renew this fundamentally damaged body of humanity, it is necessary to infuse into it from the outside the beginning of true human life, just as a completely damaged human body is renewed by transfusing the blood of a completely healthy organism into it; it is necessary, imagining humanity as a tree, to graft it from another tree, full of healthy life, so that under the influence of its life-giving juices it will be reborn inside and begin to give new, living shoots; it is necessary to rise up to a new head of humanity, a new ancestor of people, so that, being born from him, or reborn through the true principle of life borrowed from him, they, in union with him, constitute a new body of humanity, full of true human life. Who could be such a head? Such a head of a truly renewed humanity, this ancestor of new, true people, obviously must be a man in order to be able to give people a new life, not another kind, but a human one; because people who have to borrow new life from him can only live human life, and therefore, come to life only for it and through it. But this human life in him must be pure, healthy, undamaged, and therefore come from a human being, but in an extraordinary human way: for any such life cannot be uninvolved in universal human corruption. And not only this, but also, having been transformed and renewed in its very origin and in the composition of our nature, and in all its powers and functions, it will then remain unchanged forever. The same beginning and such unchanging persistence and firmness are possible in it only when it is completely extracted or torn away from ordinary human independence and self-efficacy and does not belong to itself, but is carried and controlled by another person possessing creative power and Divine immutability, or God; that is, when God, having transformed and creatively renewed the principles and elements of human nature, forms for Himself a man from them and, having clothed Himself in him, will live and act God-humanly. But this is what the incarnate economy consists of, representing the incarnation of God the Word so necessary for our salvation. Moreover, this new life at the head must combine in itself such fullness that, giving birth to a new humanity, it does not become exhausted, but remains always full, so as not to give birth only to new members, but, having given birth to all, then to live in their temporary and eternal existence. Since by its nature it cannot be like this, being created, it is necessary for it to receive such a quality from another person, uncreated, or from the very Source of all being and life, from the ever-present God, which is accomplished through incarnation, in which God accepts human nature into His personality and, having clothed itself in it, imparts to it an ever-present, inexhaustible fullness. Finally, this new founder, giving birth to everyone to a new life, must keep everyone in unity both with each other and with Him, so that everyone, living one life and under one head, would form a single living, harmoniously combined body. And the original purpose of humanity was for it to all be one in everything and live one life. But sin arose and separated everyone, so that all humanity became like a heap without living combination and articulation. The new humanity, through a new founder and head, has the purpose of restoring this lost unity within itself. Therefore, human nature in this ancestor, while remaining human, should not belong to itself, but to another person, existing everywhere, containing everything and eternal, in order to unite in Himself people of all times and places, guard them and guide them to the final end, with submission to the requirements of this end and all other creatures existing in the world. That is, this ancestor, having to be the ancestor of men, must be not only a man, but God in human nature, or the God-man, which is what the incarnation consists of. Such is our Lord Jesus Christ, God from God, the Word who has been with God from time immemorial (John 1:1); The Son of God, who abides in the “bosom of the Father” (John 1:18). He, without leaving the bosom of the Father, deigned to receive our flesh, or our human nature (John 1:14), through birth from the Ever-Virgin in His time for the “redemption” of us and “adoption” (Gal.4:5). Having renewed human nature in Himself, He became the “firstfruits” (John 8:25) of new people living a true human life, the “principal of this life” and the dispenser (Acts 3:15). “In Him is our true life” (John 1:4), the fullness of this life, from which, as from a source, we are all destined to draw it (John 1:16); and He “lives whomever He wills” (John 5:21). And He thus became the new Adam, the new ancestor, and all who come to Him in the prescribed way and are reborn from Him are His generation (1 Cor. 15:45-48). He is the head, and they are His body (1 Cor. 12:27), born from Him (Col. 2:19), “of His flesh and of His bones” (Eph. 5:30). He is the tree, and they are the branches (John 15:5). For this purpose, everyone who comes to Him, upon repentance and renunciation of everything that was before, receives Holy Baptism, in which, for the sake of faith and determination to work for the Lord, the old man is put off and put on with the new, after which the old man dies in him and the new man begins to live, “created according to God, in righteousness and the excellence of the truth” (Rom. 6:3-6; Eph. 4:24). For here believers put on Christ, who is “our life” (Col. 3:4) and gives us the strength to be so, so that “we should not live for ourselves, but the Lord who died for us and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15), so that we no longer live ourselves, but Christ lives in us (Gal. 2:20), with whom “our life is hidden in God” (Col. 3:3). Thus, “if anyone is a new creation in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17), born again “by water and the Spirit” (John 3:3, 3:5), for the sake of which all such, as “born of God,” are called “children of God” (John 1:12–13) and “receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:5). And behold, a new humanity, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy tongue, a people of renewal, who must proclaim the virtues of Him who called them out of darkness into His wonderful Light” (1 Pet. 2:9) and translated “from death to life” (1 John 3:14). This is the first foundation of Christian life - faith in the incarnate economy of our salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ, a deep conviction in its strength, not allowing the slightest hesitation or splitting of thoughts in this, and with strong hope standing motionless on the fact that “there is no other salvation for us, and there is no other name under heaven given among men, in which it is fitting for us to be saved” ( Acts 4:11–12). It remains to either cleave to the Lord Savior or perish. For whoever is not with Him, no matter what he does, “does not gather..., but scatters” (Luke 11:23). No one “can do anything worthy of salvation unless he abide in the Lord” (John 15:4–6). Behold the door leading into the church of salvation! “This is the stone”, laying the foundation for the creation in the spirit of a church of salvation for the infusion of the Lord Savior into it (Matthew 16:18). 2. The second foundation of Christian life, inseparable from the first, is a living union with the body of the Church, of which the Lord is the head, life-giver and mover. Our Lord Jesus Christ, God and Savior, having performed Divine care for us on earth, ascended into heaven and sent down the All-Holy Spirit from the Father; then with Him, by the favor of the Father, through St. The apostles established the Holy Church on earth under His leadership and in it combined everything necessary for our salvation and life in accordance with it. So now, through it, those already seeking salvation receive from Him both redemption with the remission of sins and sanctification with new life. In it, “all Divine powers are given to us, including life and godliness... and honest and great promises are given,” and if we, because of this, strive to be adorned with every virtue, then we, without any doubt, “are abundantly taught the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1: 3-11). The Holy Church is the new humanity, from the new ancestor Christ the Lord. During His stay on earth, the Lord only promised to build the Holy Church on the rock of firm confession of His incarnate economy. The very creation of it, according to the will of the Father, He accomplished with the Holy Spirit through the holy apostles, establishing and protecting it with dogmas, commandments, sacraments, sacred rites, canons and worthy guidance, and in all this, showing the right path to the Kingdom of Heaven, which He prepared for the faithful, to which He deigned to call us all. In the Holy Church everything is from the Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit, according to the good will of the Father through St. the apostles, and everything contained in it must be contained and fulfilled by all who enter into it and become members of it, on all designated points or aspects of the structure of the Church. All this is truly contained and fulfilled by all who are in living union with her, as a result of which they are one - “one body and one spirit” (Eph. 4:4), - both in the confession of faith or the content of “sound form of speech” (2 Tim. 1:13), and in life according to the commandments or in fulfilling the will of God, and in sanctification by the sacraments, and in approaching God in prayer, and in submission to the canons and established leadership. Those who act in this way “walk worthy of their calling..., being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:1-6). But those who deviate from this separate themselves from the Church internally and, if they do not listen to her admonishing voice, addressed maternally to them to admonish them, they are excommunicated from it externally and join the ranks of the pagans (Matthew 18:17). Those who exist in the Church, her true children, guard the unity of the spirit in the union of peace and are therefore in living union with her; those who re-enter make a vow to unite with it and actually unite upon entering it; those born within the Church are reborn to a new life and then are educated and grow in its spirit and in all its orders. All such are living members of the Church and from its Head through the Holy Spirit are granted all spiritual blessings of grace with promise and eternal. Those who deviate from the shown structure of the Church, although they are numbered in the Church, are not in a living union with it, therefore they are not alive, but have died or frozen. They are kept in the Church in the hope that they will come to their senses, emerge from the network that holds them and hasten to restore the union they have broken with the Church and with the Lord - its Head - and again enter the rank of those being saved. Everything contained by the Church is not such that it can be left to arbitrariness, but is such that without it salvation cannot take place. For it is the realization, or manifestation in practice, of embodied economy, without which there is no salvation. Why is someone alien to the Church alien to Christ the Lord and salvation in Him. So, what is offered to those who decide to work out their salvation and begin to live like a Christian? To accept churching if you did not have it, to revive it if you had it and lost it, and then guard it wholeheartedly and abide in it; and his life will be supported, mature and flow to perfection in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the essential conditions of Christian life. This demand naturally follows from the closest union of the Lord with the Church and the Church with the Lord. In the Word of God this union is represented by the image of the union of the head with the body. It says that “Christ is the head of the Church” (Eph.5:23), “the head of the body of the Church” (Col.1:18), and the Church “is His body, fulfilling all things in all” (Eph.1:22–23), which, according to St. Chrysostom means that the Church is full of Christ and that He fulfills all its members, so that “everything is in it and Christ is in all” (Col. 3:11). “As the head he is also the Savior of the body of the church” (Eph. 5:23); “nourishes and warms her, as if she were... of His flesh and of His bones” (Eph. 5:29–30), loves her and for her sake “he gave himself up to eat, that he might sanctify her, cleansing her with the washing of water in the verb, that he might present to himself a glorious Church, not having filth or vice, or anything from such, but being holy and blameless” ( Eph.5:25–27); “The church is subject to Christ in everything” (Eph. 5:24). The body in its essence is not one, but many; but all such “the parts of one body, being many, are one body: so is Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12, 12:14), or so is the body of the Church, of which Christ is the head. Christ the Lord gave His Church “apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–12). These are the most important members (rulers), but all the others are appointed to serve the entire body of the Church, so that no one is idle, just as in the animal body there is not the slightest particle idle. Why does everyone receive their gift: “to one... the word of wisdom is given, to another the word of understanding...; to another faith..., to another the gift of healing...; to another the action of powers, to another prophecy; to another to reason in the spirit, to another to give birth to tongues, to another to speak in tongues” (1 Cor. 12:7-10). Therefore, it was ordained that everyone, whatever gift he received, should serve everyone, “as a good builder of Divine grace: if anyone speaks as the words of God, and if anyone serves, as with might, as God bestows, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:10-11); “If anyone has prophecy, let him prophesy according to the measure of faith; If anyone has a ministry, remain in the ministry; If anyone is a teacher, remain in teaching; whether you are an exhorter, exhort; whether you are a distributor, distribute in simplicity; Whether you are a boss, lead with zeal; whether you are a benefactor, do good with cordiality” and so on. and so on. (Rom.12:6-8). Through such interaction of all members, the entire building of the body, being harmonized, grows into the Holy Church in the Lord, in whom all are “built into a habitation of God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). For this reason, it is instilled in everyone - “truly in love, to return everything to Him who is the Head, i.e. in Christ, from whom the whole body, which is composed and held together through all kinds of mutually fastening bonds, when each member works to its own measure, receives increase for the building up of itself in love” (Eph. 4:15, 4:16). Into this “body we were baptized... and we were all drunk with one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13), i.e. through baptism they entered into it and united in it spiritually, committing themselves to like-mindedness, like-will, like-feeling and unity of action - “let there be no strife in the body” (1 Cor. 12:15-25). Judging by this, the Church is the mother’s womb, conceiving, forming, growing and perfecting every Christian: just as in the bosom of nature various creatures are seeded, germinate, grow, grow and bear fruit for the glory of God. Just as there is no life and living beings outside of nature, so outside the Church there is no spiritual life and spiritually living persons. Why is being in the Church, in living combination and union with it, an urgent condition for those who want to live in the spirit and prosper in Christian life. 3. The norm of Christian life By norm we mean here a rule that, defining a person’s goal and the means to achieve it, gives guidance on where and how one should direct one’s life. The purpose of such a norm lies in the creation of man in the image and likeness of God and the breathing into his face of the breath of Divine life. But the fall came and upset her. Upset, but did not destroy. Therefore, when the incarnate dispensation was completed in the restoration of the fallen, then the person pardoned and renewed by virtue of it, although he received a new norm for his spiritual and moral life, one, however, that stood on the original norm spoiled by the fall, restoring it, replenishing it and revealing it in its most perfect form. Thus, we must first outline aa) the initial norm of a person’s moral life, and then, in relation to it, establish bb) the norm of Christian moral life. 1) The original norm of human moral life When understanding the norm of moral life, it is necessary, as stated above, to determine a) the goal of a person and b) the means that God has given him to achieve it, and from both of them c) to derive a general guiding rule for moral life. So - Man's final goal is in God, in communion or living union with God. Man, created in the image and likeness of God, by his very nature is in some way of the Divine race. Being of the race of God, he cannot help but seek communion with God, not only as his beginning and prototype, but also as the supreme good. That is why our heart is content only when it possesses God and is possessed by God. Nothing but God calms him down. Solomon knew much, possessed much, and enjoyed much; but all this finally had to be recognized as vanity and ruin of the spirit (Eccl. 1:8, 1:17–18, 3:10–11, 8:17). There is only one peace for man in God. “What do I have in heaven and what do I desire on earth from You; My heart and my flesh have perished, the God of my heart and my portion, God forever” (Ps. 72:25–26). “There is life in God,” teaches Basil the Great. “Alienation and separation from God is an evil more intolerable than even the future torments of Gehenna, the most grievous evil for a person, like the deprivation of light for the eye and the taking of life for an animal.” And again: “What was the primary benefit for the soul? Being with God and uniting with Him through love. Having fallen away from Him, she began to suffer” (Tv. of the Holy Fathers. Vas. Vel., vol. 4). That is why we are told: “Seek the Lord,...seek His face” (Ps. 104:4). The Prophet Moses made seeing the face of God the cornerstone of his desires, and after God had already revealed through him and in him so many extraordinary actions of His goodness and omnipotence: “if I have found grace before You, show me Yourself, so that I can see You with understanding” (Ex. 33:13), he prayed. With what fear the prophet David cried out to the Lord: “Do not cast me away from Your presence” (Ps. 50:13), knowing that “those who withdraw themselves from Him will perish” (Ps. 72:27). With what desire he always rushed to God: “my soul thirsted for God...” (Ps. 62:2); “In the same way that the trees of the springs of water desire, my soul still desires Thee, O God” (Ps. 41:2). With what warmth I rested in Him alone: ​​“It is good for me to cleave to God” (Ps. 72:28). But our goodness does not lie in this one aspiration of all desires towards God. Thirst without quenching, hunger without satiation, need without satisfaction is sorrow, illness, torment. Seeking God, we want to find Him, we want to possess Him and be possessed by Him, to sincerely partake of Him, to be in Him and to have Him in ourselves (St. Macarius the Great). This living, internal, direct communication of God with man and man with God is his final goal. This is how this communication is depicted in the Word of God. So God Himself says about some: “My Spirit may not abide in these men, for they are flesh” (Gen. 6:3), and promises others: “I will dwell in them and walk around” (2 Cor. 6:16). “Listen,” says St. Chrysostom - who dwells in you! You carry God within you.” The Savior promises a certain inner dwelling of God in the human heart when he says: “We will come to him and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). St. John the Theologian teaches that when someone abides in love, then not only he abides in God, but God also abides in him (John 15:10). At St. fathers, living communication with God is elevated to the deification of man. Yes, St. Gregory the Theologian depicts man as “a living being who achieves deification through the desire for God.” Theodore, Bishop of Edessa, teaches about the purpose of man: “The purpose of our life is bliss, or, which is the same, the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God, which consists not only in ripening the royal, so to speak, Trinity, but also in receiving Divine influence and, as it were, accepting deification and in this influence finding the fulfillment and completion of all shortcomings and imperfections. This is what the food of mental powers consists of, that is, in replenishing deficiencies through the Divine influence.” At St. Macarius in almost every conversation one can find a reminder of the living communication of the soul with God. Thus, in the 46th conversation, he teaches “that God created the soul of man in such a way that He might be His bride and accomplice, and that He might be one dissolution and one spirit with it” (§ 6). Therefore, “if the soul cleaves to the Lord, then the Lord, moved by mercy and love, comes to it and cleaves to it, and so there is one spirit, and one dissolution, and there is one mind between the soul and the Lord” (§ 8). “It is necessary for a person,” he says in another place, “that not only he himself should be in God, but that God should also be in him.” No one would think, however, that a living union with God is the disappearance of the soul in God with the violence of its independence and freedom. No, although the soul really stands under Divine influence, touches in some way God and is imbued with His power, however, it does not cease to be a soul - a rationally free being, just as red-hot iron or coal, penetrated by fire, does not cease to be iron and coal. Only through this communication does she acquire the fullest and fastest power to act according to the will of God - freely, but also unquestioningly. On the other hand, it would be wrong if anyone began to think that when communion with God is the last goal of a person, then a person will be awarded it after, for example, at the end of all his labors. No, it must be an everlasting, continuous state of a person, so that, since there is no communication with God, since it is not felt, a person must admit that he is outside his goal and his purpose. A state in which a person realizes that the true God is his God, and he himself is God’s, i.e. says in his heart to God: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28), like the Apostle Thomas, and to himself: “I am God’s - I am God’s” (Is. 44:5) - such a state is the only true state of a person, it is the only decisive sign of the presence in him of the beginning of a truly moral and spiritual life. So, those who set man’s last goal as the last goal, no matter how pompous names they adorn it with, are far from the truth, the development, for example, of spiritual powers or the desire for improvement. With such a goal, people are separated by caring only about themselves and get used to turning everything into a means, not even excluding God Himself, whereas in fact, man, like everything created, is a means in the right hand of God for the purposes of His Divine Providence. “The Lord created everything for His own sake” (Proverbs 16:4). Therefore, “in Him we live, we move, and we are” (Acts 17:28), “as from Him, and by Him, and in Him are all things” (Rom. 11:36). It is unfair that man’s last goal is the good of his neighbors, i.e. people, even in the sense that all his concern should be directed to the welfare of society. Contributing to the common good is unquestionably a person’s duty, but not the first and not the exclusive one. If we put this as the first duty, then every person will turn his thoughts and hearts to others, and not to God, and, therefore, all together will form a society of people, closed in themselves, but with their souls cut off from God. It will be a body without a head. On the contrary, during communion with God, all people, converging on this single goal, are united not only in thought, but in deed itself, and all, filled with one spirit and one strength, form a single, living and harmonious body. Only under this condition can a true and reliable union between people be created. That's the goal! b) The question is, what is the path to this goal, or how is a person adapted to it? Unreasonable creatures reach their destination without knowing it, by their very nature or structure. Man - a rationally free creature - must himself be aware of his goal, know the path leading to it, and freely determine himself to follow this path steadily in order to achieve his goal and fulfill his purpose. From this it is obvious that, as soon as 1) the meaning of moral freedom and its true use are indicated, as soon as 2) the path that it must choose, and 3) the grounds on which it must do this are indicated, then the totality of all these concepts will depict how a person is adapted to his goal, to which he must strive with his whole being, and, consequently, everything that is required of him in order to be faithful to his destiny, or, what is the same, to be in communication with God. 1) Having deigned to accept a person into living communion with Himself, the Lord granted him freedom so that this communication could be accomplished in a God-worthy manner, i.e. granted him the power to dispose of his internal and external actions according to the purpose or at his own discretion. For a person must first control himself in order to then surrender himself to God. God, having created the being of man, gave him to himself, so that he could do what he wanted with himself and with his own strength. “You yourself created man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his will” (Sir.15:14). Freedom belongs to a person’s face and constitutes his characteristic feature. The person himself must be in charge of his thoughts, desires, feelings and the affairs corresponding to them. In this sense, he himself is a government official. The forces closest to consciousness constitute his inner council, with the help of which he decides all his affairs and undertakings. Demands come to a person from different sides, both from the outside and from the inside, but, with all the power of their very action, the one they inspire never happens until there is a conscious decision on it from the person himself. The essence of freedom lies in this decision or consent to a matter. No force can forcibly remove it. One word: I do not deign - disarms all power and all violence. This is how man is portrayed everywhere in the Word of God. Here the most necessary orders for him are offered to his freedom and election. So, Moses, having depicted to Israel what his life and death, blessing and oath are, convinces him: “Choose your life, that you and your seed may live” (Deut. 30:19). “Choose for yourselves,” Joshua says to the same people, “whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). We hear the same thing from Sirach: “I have offered you fire and water, and if you want it, stretch out your hand. Life and death are before man, and if he pleases, it will be given to him” (Sir.15:16-17). And the Savior, having come to earth, does not bind freedom, but offers a choice: “Whoever wants to follow Me,” and so on. (Matthew 16:24); “If you want to be perfect...” (Matthew 19:21). He does not forcefully enter the house of the soul, but “I stand,” he says, “at the door, and it will do nothing if anyone hears” (Rev. 3:20). “God does not force us,” says St. Chrysostom “He has given us the power to choose good and bad, so that we may be good freely. The soul, as a queen over itself and free in its actions, does not always submit to God, and He does not want to forcefully and against the will to make the soul virtuous and holy. For where there is no will, there is no virtue. It is necessary to convince the soul so that it will become good of its own free will.” In freedom, a certain independence is given to man, but not so that he is self-willed, but so that he freely submits himself to the will of God. Voluntary submission of freedom to the will of God is the only true and only blessed use of freedom. The will of God is the principle according to which a person must arrange his actions. It alone must be decisively guided by him in his personal orders. Under this condition alone, his freedom will receive scope and breadth, for there is nothing free either in man himself or outside of him. Everything is arranged according to certain laws of the Divine will, which after this is alone and remains completely free. Therefore, only the will of God can be a decent field for freedom. Submitting to it, human freedom becomes, as it were, unlimited, or enters into a certain boundless region: “We walk in breadth, as we seek Your commandments,” says the prophet David (Ps. 119:45). “Look what inexplicable mysteries take place in the soul,” says St. Macarius the Great (Conversation 46) - how the thoughts of her mind expand and spread into the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of all visible and invisible creation.” On the contrary, with any other use of freedom, on the one hand, it is the good of man to suffer, on the other hand, freedom itself will fall into constraint. The whole man in his composition and powers, as well as the whole order of things surrounding him, is imprinted by the law of the Divine will. If a person with such powers and in such a world begins to act according to principles alien to the will of God, then he will necessarily come into conflict with himself and with the world: he will upset himself and be subject to disastrous influence from the outside, that is, the person will inevitably suffer and suffer. Moreover, the very use of his freedom will be limited. By willfully deviating from the will of God, a person inevitably falls into certain bonds and loses a significant part of the perfections possible for him. “If a person is free,” asks Saint Tikhon, “then he can do whatever he wants?” And he answers: “No. Freedom is not about living willfully. This is not so much freedom as slavery - true, hard. Those who disobey God fall under the heavy yoke of the tormentor - the devil and sin, become the poorest captives of the passions and are under a legal oath" (St. Tikhon, vol. 11). Thus, man, a free creature, having deviated from the will of God, falls into a region of darkness, enveloped in the wrath of God, where he comes under the power of Satan, sin and passions, rampant in himself and in others. 2) Thus, the path that we must freely choose in order to fulfill our destiny is indicated by itself, namely, the path of the will of God. God alone, who deigned to create us rationally free and gave us this high purpose - to be in living communion with Himself - can show us the right path by which we can achieve this communion with God and remain in it. “Who can know from man the counsel of God; or whoever thinks what God wants; ...whoever knows His will” (Wisdom 9:13–18), unless He Himself reveals it. This declaration of God's will to rational creatures, or an indication of how they should manage their internal and external actions in order to please God, is God's commandment, or moral law - “the blameless law of the Lord, converting souls, the faithful testimony of the Lord, making children wise, the just justification of the Lord, gladdening the heart, the bright commandment of the Lord, enlightening the eyes...” (Ps. 19:8-11). Therefore, unwavering adherence to God’s law, willingly walking according to His commandments, faithful fulfillment of His justifications is the only reliable path to communion with God. Only “whoever created that person will live in them,” teaches the apostle (Gal. 3:12). “If you want to take heart, keep the commandments,” the Lord said to one zealot for pleasing God (Matthew 19:17), and promised everyone in general: “If you have My commandments and keep them, he is the one who loves Me... If anyone loves Me, he will keep My commandments: and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him” ( John 14:21, 14:23). Therefore, the Word of God calls the law “a way, a light, a lamp ... shining in a dark place” (Ps. 119:32, 119:35, 119:105; 2 Pet. 1:19), and its fulfillment assimilates those benefits that can only flow from Communion with God. A man who keeps the law develops like “a tree when the waters come out, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not fall away, and everything that it does will prosper” (Ps. 1:3). That is why God Himself, with such care and with some, so to speak, persistence, always revealed His will to people and gave them His laws. He imprinted His first law on the conscience, according to which “the pagans, who do not have the law, create the law by nature, being a law to themselves” (Rom. 2:14). “The soul is truly a great, Godly and wonderful thing!” - says the Venerable. Macarius the Great (Conversation 46). “When she was created, God created her in such a way that no vice was put into her nature; on the contrary, He created her in the image of the virtue of the Spirit, put into her the laws of virtues - prudence, prudence, love and other virtues,” for this, as St. Chrysostom in one place (see Krat. teaching, November 6), so that no one can claim ignorance of the law. Then, when, as a result of the fall, this internal law became darkened, or as if covered with a veil, and in addition another law was formed in us, warring against the law of God, the Lord sent the written law to restore, cleanse from impurities and clarify this internal law in the minds of people and provide them with the most reliable guidance to piety and pleasing God. Finally, when this law, clarifying the requirements of the will of God, at the same time illuminating the life of man in its relation to the law and, like a mirror, presenting its face, always almost unclean and ugly, only convicted people of their iniquities, and did not correct them; only pointed out the path, and did not give strength to walk along it, then the merciful Lord promised to open a different path for people and give a new law. “And I will give them another way and another heart... giving My laws in their thoughts and in their hearts I will write, and I will be their God, and they will be My people” (Jer. 32:39, 31:33). And he truly gave and continues to give this “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2). 3) Despite the importance of the law, however, it still stands, as it were, outside freedom. In order for a free being to follow the path of the law, their voluntary combination must first occur, and for this there must be grounds on which a free being must voluntarily bind itself to the law. A being involuntarily drawn to a certain type of activity is no longer free, just as a law without compulsory grounds for its execution is not a law. It is self-evident that these foundations cannot lie either in freedom, because it must still only perceive them in order to subordinate itself to the law by force of them, or in the law itself, because it does not have autonomy and independence. They must be sought in the source of freedom and law - in the will of God, who granted freedom and prescribed the law. In other words, the reasons for which a person must voluntarily subordinate his freedom to the law of God are the same ones for which the will of God is sacred to us. The will of God must be sacred to us because it is the will of God. God is our King. We unquestioningly, but willingly, must obey everything that is His determination. One name - God should make us bow to His command, for He is the Lord of all. Therefore, when a commandment is given or judgment is pronounced against any nation in the Word of God, it is always said: this, or this, says the Lord. For “who is there that can be against Him?” - as Job says (Job.23:13). Such unconditional and at the same time free obedience to God is naturally formed in us 1) on the one hand, from the consciousness that God is our Creator and Provider. Our life is from God, our strength is from God, our destiny and everything we have is also from God: how can we disobey Him? Therefore, the 24 elders, having bowed to God Almighty, sang: “Lord, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power: for you created all things, and by your will they were created” (Rev. 4:11). The prophet David prays: “Give me understanding, and I will learn Your commandments.” Why? Because “Thy hands make me and create me” (Ps. 119:73). Further, he confesses to God: “I have not forgotten Your law, ... I have sought Your justifications.” Why? For “I am yours... I will take my soul into your hand” (Ps. 119:94, 119:109). 2) On the other hand, from the consciousness that He is our Judge and Rewarder. Although God has given us freedom and, therefore, some independence, he nevertheless wants us to certainly achieve our destination, and precisely through His commandments. Therefore, he does not allow us to walk with impunity in the wills of our hearts, but persecutes us with justice in order to bring us to obedience. “Let not the weak... let not one dishonor,” says Sirach (Sir.15:20). Therefore, although he says: “If you want” (Matthew 19:17, 16:24), he adds at the same time: “If you do not want, then listen to Me, you will girdle the sword. For this is the mouth of the Lord... My wrath will not cease against those who oppose” until they submit (Isa. 1:20, 1:24; Wis. 12:28). These two sensations, which, however, are not always clearly recognized, imprinted on all sides in the heart, form in it reverent fear or a feeling of our complete dependence on God, which forces us to voluntarily submit to the determinations of God’s will, or to the law. In our soul, it is this feeling of complete dependence on God that serves as the only basis for the subordination of our freedom to the law. Therefore, whenever this feeling weakens, people indulge in lawlessness, and vice versa - those who indulge in lawlessness console themselves with some independence from God. They say to the Lord: “Depart from us, we do not want to see Your ways. That He is Worthy, let us work for Him” (Job 21:14–15). “The Lord will not see; God will not understand Jacob” (Ps. 93:7). “Darkness surrounds me, and the walls close me... the Most High will not remember my sins” (Sir.23:25). So is St. Basil the Great says that all evil occurs because they abandon the great and true one King of all and God... and they want to rule in spite of the Lord rather than to be under the rule of the Lord themselves. In general, the source of wickedness in the Word of God is considered to be forgetfulness of God (Deut. 32:18) and apostasy from God (ibid., 15). But this feeling of all-round dependence is only an intermediary, so to speak, link between law and freedom. The very combination of freedom and law is again produced by the spontaneous submission of oneself to the law, or the will of God. For all the reasons, God does not forcibly bind us, but leaves us free, so that we ourselves conquer and sacrifice our freedom to Him - the only thing that a person can make of himself, an offering to God, worthy of God. The sacrifice of freedom to God consists of the true character of a moral and pious life, or, what is the same, it consists of the determination to dispose of one’s internal and external actions in no other way than according to the will of God. It is with this determination that a person’s moral life begins and is maintained. The Word of God portrays it sometimes under the guise of an oath and a free offering to God: “I swore,” says David, “and appointed them to preserve the destinies of Thy righteousness... The freedom of my lips, O Lord, pleases” (Ps. 119:106, 119:108); then under the guise of humility before God and turning to Him, for example, in Job: “if you turn and humble yourself before the Lord and commit unrighteousness far from your dwelling... the Almighty will be your Helper” (Job.22:23-30; Hos.6:1); then under the guise of seeking the Lord: “Seek the Lord, and whenever you find Him, call upon him; Whenever he comes near you, let the wicked leave his ways and the wicked man his counsel, and let him turn to the Lord” (Is. 55:6-7); then, finally, under the guise of disappearing in the law and God: “my eyes disappear for Thy salvation and for the word of Thy righteousness” (Ps. 119:81–82). Let us conclude from this that when a person, in a sense of his complete dependence on God, defines himself or decides to steadily and always walk in the will of God, or the law of God, he will reach his goal or fulfill his purpose. For you can say to everyone: make up your mind and fulfill the law and you will be in constant communion with God. At the same time, as man submits himself to God, God is assimilated to man, and man is assimilated to God. For this is what the Lord Himself says: “They will be my people, and I will be their God: until then they will turn to me with all their hearts” (Jer. 24:7). The Holy Prophet David says: “My part, O Lord, has decided to keep Your law” (Ps. 119:57), that is, desiring to have God as mine forever, or, what is the same, to be in communion with Him, St. the prophet resolves to always fulfill His holy law. In Job, this is depicted under the guise of boldness towards God. He says that he who turns to the Lord and humbles himself before Him has Him as his Helper and he himself “will have boldness before God, looking up joyfully to heaven” ( Job 22:26 ); and the wicked - “When shall we have food to show boldness before Him?” ( Job 27:10 ). Hence the norm of moral life in general can be expressed in the following rule: c) fulfill the will of God in order to be in communion with God or remain in communion with God by actively fulfilling His holy will This rule is spoken continuously throughout the entire space of the Word of God, and its fulfillment is the source of all blessings, and failure to fulfill it is the source of all evils. God promises Abraham a blessing, and not only to him, but also to his seed after him, under the condition of being well-pleasing: “Be well-pleasing to Me” (Gen. 17:1); God chose the people of Israel, and this people surrenders itself to Him, unanimously crying: “All that the Lord says, let us do and hear” (Ex. 24:7). And the Savior says: “Not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom; but do the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). 2) The norm of moral Christian life The norm of moral life in general is depicted as the being of the first covenant, or the spiritual life of man in his primitive state. Like a submissive child, he would humbly walk in the will of God and thereby be in His favor and remain in constant communion with Him. Man already possessed everything necessary to achieve this goal, namely: freedom - pure, unconstrained; consciousness of the law - a definite and obvious feeling of fear of God, or dependence on God - strong, and therefore the determination to walk in the will of God unperturbed. Just as through creation itself man was placed in his meaning, so he would remain in it with the powers and means that the merciful Creator and Provider gave him. But when man fell, he suffered a complete breakdown both in himself and in his relationships. Communication with God is interrupted: a person is under an oath and does not dare to look at heaven; free initiative is bound by sin and passions; the law has darkened; the feeling of dependence has weakened, and at the same time the determination to walk in the will of God has weakened to the point that it is impossible for a person to return to it. He is held in the bonds of sinful slavery by the prince of darkness - the devil. Meanwhile, even after the fall, man remained a man. Its purpose and goal is the same Communion with God; the path to this goal is the same - walking in the will of God, to the fulfillment of which he must determine himself by the feeling of his dependence on God. And yet, out of all this, a person cannot fulfill a single requirement on his own. At all points he needs Divine, extraordinary help. Therefore, the Triune God - the Father - through His Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, deigned to establish a kingdom of grace on earth, in which the extreme spiritual needs of man are satisfied. Here, a person who has fallen away from God is reunited with Him through the Lord - Jesus Christ - as the only Mediator, reconciling God with people and people with God, reconciling them to the source of true life; the weakened free initiative of man is restored by Divine grace; the lack of fulfillment of the law is made up for by faith in Christ the Savior; the feeling of dependence on God and the determination to walk in His will are resurrected in repentance. As a result of repentance, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Divine grace descends into a person in the sacraments, which, reviving him, unites him with the Lord Jesus Christ, and through Him and in Him with God. These are the most necessary conditions for a truly Christian life. It is so obvious that the most important thing in it is: 1) communication with the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom the source of true life is revealed to man; 2) on the path to communion with Christ the Savior and in communion with Him, the following are necessary both in the person himself, and partly on the part of the person: a) repentance and b) faith - and from above - conceiving, forming and fulfilling in a person’s being a new life in Christ, c) Divine grace. By explaining these aspects of Christian life, 3) the norm of moral Christian life will be revealed. 1) Communication with the Lord Jesus Christ Now there is no other way for a person to enter into a living union with God than through Jesus Christ. “No one can come to the Father except by Me,” says the Lord (John 14:6). Therefore, “there is one God, and one Advocate for God and men—the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5), by whom “only we have bringing... to the Father” (Eph. 2:18). Man who fell away from God suffered three evils: he was subjected to the curse of God, he was upset in himself and fell under the power of the devil - three evils that again by their force keep a person in a state of falling away from God, so that approaching God is only possible with the elimination of these evils. The Lord Jesus Christ delivered us from all of them: He took away the curse from us by His death (Gal.3:13), for “He was sacrificed for us” (1 Cor.5:7), and “we are sanctified by the offering of His body” (Heb.10:10). “In Christ God reconciled the world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:18–19) and through him gave people “boldness to come before himself” (Heb. 10:19). Therefore, the apostles begged everyone on behalf of God to be reconciled to Him in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:18-20). He healed our disorder, becoming for us strength for salvation (Rom. 1:17; 1 Cor. 1:24), being filled with which we are strengthened (1 Tim. 1:12) and can do all things (Phil. 4:13). He quickens “us who were dead in sins” (Eph. 2:5), and “frees us... from the law of sin” (Rom. 8:2; John 8:36). And in general, without Him we “can do nothing” that is truly good (John 15:5). He destroyed the works of the devil, “destroyed him who had the power of death” (Heb. 2:14), condemned this “prince of the world and cast him out” (John 12:31, 16:11); therefore, He draws all believers out of darkness into His wonderful light and from the realm of Satan to God, putting on them “with the whole armor of God, so that they can be able to withstand the wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). But this “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8) is hidden in Himself. He is for people “righteousness, sanctification, deliverance” (1 Cor. 1:30), “life” (John 1:4; Col. 3:4) and the only source of all “heavenly blessings” (Eph. 1:3, 1:10); in Him we are “made alive, ... seated together in heavenly places” (Eph. 2:5–6), “adopted as sons of God” (Rom. 8:4–17); but in such a way that only those people who enter into living communion with Him and are so closely united as members with the body (1 Cor. 6:15) or as branches with the vine (John 15:5) are truly worthy of all the benefits contained for us in Christ and revealed in Him to fallen humanity. Therefore, communion with the Lord Jesus Christ is commanded and depicted as the only and supreme good. Thus, the Lord Himself says to the apostles: “Be in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4). God the Father, through the apostles, calls us precisely “into the fellowship of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:9); the apostles call believers “partakers of Christ” (Heb. 3:14); They pray to God “to let Christ dwell... into their hearts" (Eph. 3:17); they regret “those who have become devoid of Christ” and are sick until He is again imagined in them” (Gal. 4:19, 5:4); They testify about themselves that they no longer live for this, “but Christ lives in them” (Gal. 2:20), and they command everyone to “put on Christ” (Rom. 13:14), setting this as the goal of the Divine economy: “that we may be in His true Son, our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 John 5:20). Thus it is revealed that the only means of communication with God is communication with the Lord Jesus Christ. This secret was revealed by the Savior Himself to St. to the apostles, saying: “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20). Therefore, he taught that the Father loves only those who love Him (the Son), comes to them and together with Him “makes His abode in them” (John 14:23, 16:27), and prayed to the Father: “that they may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us” (John 17:21). Believers are granted sacramental communion with our Lord Jesus Christ in the holy sacrament of baptism. Here they become members of the body of Christ and put on the Lord, as the Apostle teaches: “as many as were baptized into Christ, put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27), and at the same time they were worthy of those benefits that the Lord acquired for us: justification and rebirth. He who is immersed in baptism is buried in Christ and receives the power of His death—the forgiveness of sins (Rom. 6:3). The baptized person emerges from the font in renewed life, like a new creation, “because sin will not work,” which from now on no longer possesses him and does not reign in him (Rom. 6:3–14). The apostle says about these blessings: “but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). 2) The gifts communicated, however, capture the internal changes that must occur in the heart of one approaching the Lord before baptism and which, in fact, lay the foundation, beginning and embryo of a truly Christian life. These changes are repentance and faith, as the Savior Himself demanded from everyone who came to Him, saying: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). They are produced in the soul by Divine grace - prevenient. In baptism and (confirmation) grace enters inside, into the heart of a Christian, and then constantly remains in him, helping him to live like a Christian and ascend from strength to strength in spiritual life. The reason for a bad life, revealed in consciousness and experience, is a weakening in us of the feeling of fear of God, or the feeling of dependence on God, a weakening that sometimes reaches an extreme degree - to the complete loss of this feeling. The principle of sinful life operating in us is selfishness or self-indulgence, otherwise selfishness, selfishness. Selfishness is crushed, and the fear of God, or the feeling of dependence on God, is resurrected in a person in repentance. That person lives in a state of falling away from God, who lives only for himself and does not think about God and heaven, or, in the words of David: “does not offer God before him” (Ps. 53:5, 86:14). Such a person is usually all concerned about something of his own: either about knowledge, or about art, or about a position, or about a family, or, even worse, about pleasure and the satisfaction of some passion; he does not think about the future life, but tries to arrange the present in such a way that he can live calmly and, as it were, forever; he does not turn inward, therefore he does not know his condition and the consequences that will come from his life, but he always considers himself something great and is driven forward by vain worries; he does not love others, but treats them as soon as decency demands, therefore he is ready to offend if this does not denigrate himself; he sometimes does good deeds, but they are all spiritual properties (Episode Eastern Patr., 3 parts), imbued with his general spirit of pride, which robs them of their true value. All this is confessed by everyone who has turned to God, but the unconverted one remains in this state, no matter how strictly he sometimes begins to examine himself and his life, but cannot convince himself that his deeds are insignificant and evil. Satan, who possesses a person through sin, living in a person along with his selfhood, strikes his spirit with all his might, like a lethargic sleep. Therefore, he suffers from blindness, insensibility and negligence. A person in such a state cannot feel himself until the light of Divine grace shines in his sinful darkness. Satan brings darkness upon him, entangling him in his nets, from which no one will arise without admonition from above (2 Tim. 2:26). “No one can come to Me,” says the Lord, “except the Father who sent Me draws him... Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father will come to Me” (John 6:44, 45). Therefore, the Lord Himself “stands at the door of the heart and pushes,” as if saying: “Arise, sleep, and rise from the dead” (Rev. 3:20; Eph. 5:14). This calling voice of God comes to the sinner either directly, right in the heart, or indirectly, mainly through the Word of God, and often through various external events, in nature and in the life of himself and others. But it always falls on the conscience, awakens it and, like lightning, illuminates (clearly presents to consciousness) all the legal relationships of a person that were violated and perverted by him. Therefore, this action of grace always opens with strong restlessness of the spirit, confusion, fear for oneself and self-contempt. However, it does not force a person, but only stops him on the vicious path, after which the person has the complete power to either turn to God, or again wallow in the darkness of self-love. In the parable of the prodigal son, this state is expressed in the words: “having come within himself” (Luke 15:17). In a person who has heeded (not resisted) the action of grace, calling and enlightening his inner darkness, a special ability to vividly perceive revealed truths is revealed, as if some special heartfelt hearing and understanding: “eyes are opened” (Acts 26:18), “the spirit of wisdom ... in the knowledge of the truth” (Eph. 1:17). Examples of this are provided by all those who apply (for example, Mary of Egypt, Evdokia, etc.). Revealed truths can be studied without the assistance of the Lord, but then they, being formed in the mind, usually do not penetrate deeply into the heart. Under the influence of grace, the heart feeds on them, accepting them inside itself, completely assimilating and holding them within itself, becoming, as it were, an unwaterable sponge. At the same time, since revelation constitutes the law and the Gospel, then, perceiving revealed truths in the heart, the convert experiences two kinds of changes: some difficult and joyless, others relieving and calming the soul. However, according to the state of the person who turns, first of all, the law falls on him with all its burden and tortures him as the culprit. A series of changes of this kind in the heart constitute the totality of repentant feelings. In this order, first of all, the knowledge of sins occurs. The law shows a person all the actions that are obligatory for him, or the commandments of God, and consciousness presents a whole field of actions that are contrary to them, with the assurance that they might not have happened, that everything is a matter of his freedom and is often allowed by him with the consciousness of their illegality. The consequence of this is the internal conviction of a person for all omissions and violations: a person feels completely guilty before God, unapologetically, unrequited. Hence, further, painful, sorrowful, crushing feelings about sins are crowded into the heart from different sides: contempt for oneself and indignation at one’s evil arbitrariness, because one is to blame for everything; shame that I brought myself to such a humiliating state; painful fear and expectation of near evils because you have offended the Almighty and Most Righteous God with your sins; finally, a confused feeling of helplessness and hopelessness completes defeat: a person would like to shake off all this evil from himself, but it seems to have grown together with him; I would even like to die in order to rise in a better state, but I do not have the power to do this. Then a person from the depths of his soul begins to cry out: “what will I do, ... what will I do!” - how the people cried out from the denunciations of John the Baptist (Luke 3:10, 3:12, 3:14) and from the words of the Apostle Peter, after the descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:37). Here everyone, even if he were a ruler or some other famous person in the world, feels that he is caught by the judgment of God and is completely subject to His power, that he is “a worm, and not a man, a reproach to men and the humiliation of people” (Ps. 21:7), that is, all human selfhood turns to dust and the consciousness of service to God is resurrected, or the feeling of dependence on Him - complete, inevitable. Such feelings are immediately ready to bear fruit, to arouse, that is, to submission to God, or in the present case, to correct oneself and begin a new life according to the will of God. But at the same time, a person is oppressed from above by the feeling of God’s wrath and God’s oath, and within himself he is disarmed by the consciousness of his powerlessness to overcome himself through the power of passions and corrupted will that has already been tested many times. That’s why he stands as if amazed, not even daring to make a single movement. This is where faith comes to him in time of need, on the one hand, and on the other, grace-filled power that helps in doing all good. The sinner, constrained by the strict reproof of the law, cannot find consolation anywhere except the Gospel - the preaching of Christ the Savior, who came into the world of sinners. Without Jesus Christ, the Lord, it would be impossible for sinners convicted of the law to avoid despair, which is why it is proclaimed that it was for them that the Savior came. “I did not come,” he says, “to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32); also: “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). “This is to whom the Gospel consolation is preached,” teaches St. Tikhon, “to the poor, that is, to those who recognize their spiritual poverty, do not find in themselves any truth before God, but see only damnation; contrite hearted, that is, those whose hearts are wounded by sorrow for sins like an arrow... “The Law is always a guide... to Christ” (Gal. 3:24). Showing our guilt and weakness, he forces us to look for another means and, as if taking us by the hand, leads us to Christ, for in the tightness of conscience there is no other refuge than Christ, Who “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24) and Whom, “who knew no sin, God made sin for us, so that we might be the righteousness of God.” Him” (2 Cor. 5:21)... In order for the faith of the Gospel to be conceived in the heart, it is necessary to first know one’s weakness and vividly feel the wrath of God, the oath, judgment and condemnation determined on sinners. Then, already in the heart with this fear, as if purified and prepared by fire, faith is conceived from the Holy Spirit.” Just as the thirsty earth receives rain and just as someone weary from the heat is revived with cooling moisture, so a soul tormented by conscience drinks in the gospel of the Gospel, and a contrite heart joyfully listens to the comforting messages of faith. Here everything is preceded by the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the knowledge of the dispensation of salvation in Him, what the Apostle to the Ephesians asked: “so that we may lead away” (Eph. 1:18). Such knowledge is a necessary condition for the birth of faith or the point from which its formation begins, for how can one believe without knowing the subject of faith? Therefore, the apostles were sent to teach people by preaching, to show, that is, what the truth is (Matthew 28:19). “How will they believe,” says the apostle, “if they do not hear from the preacher?” (Rom.10:14). For someone who thirsts for salvation, this knowledge is accompanied by pleasure, occupies him completely, embraces all his attention and leaves behind a desire to hear more, learn more, learn more. A weak similarity to this is represented by the Athenians and Agrippa and Festus during the preaching of the Apostle Paul (Acts 17:32, 26:28–32). But this is not what faith is all about. Knowledge, sincerely accepted, is followed by a heartfelt conviction in the truth of the Gospel or in the fact that the salvation of the human race has really worked out as it is preached, and that there is and cannot be any other basis for the salvation of people than in the Lord Jesus Christ. This heartfelt conviction is the distinctive quality of faith. Many know with their minds the economy of salvation, but not all of them have faith. A true believer is so committed in his heart to faith in Christ that he not only fearlessly confesses Him, but also stands for this confession to the point of bleeding: it is dearer to him than life itself. The pinnacle of the perfection of faith is the lively personal conviction that the Lord, like everyone else, saved me, just as He removed the curse from everyone, and from me, too, just as everyone is the Belly, so is mine. “A true believer,” says Saint Tikhon, “confesses with the apostle: “I live by faith, the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). The Son of God loved the whole world and gave Himself for the whole world, but the Apostle Paul appropriates this great benefit of His to himself. And Saint Damascus sings: You have saved me, the whole man... You come to me, looking for me who is lost (voice 3, song 4). In such faith lies the whole essence of Christian bliss,” for from it a real feeling of salvation in the Lord is revived in the heart, a feeling of freedom from the curse and wrath of God, the consciousness of one’s own reconciliation with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Such faith,” says St. Tikhon, “frees from sin, oath, hell, brings with it spiritual joy, joy in the Lord the Savior, about His goodness and love for mankind, peace and tranquility of conscience, as the Apostle says: “Having been justified by faith, the world imams to God by our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).” What happened in the hearts of the Galatians under the influence of this faith, the apostle speaks about this: “What is your blessedness; For I testify to you that, even if it were mighty, your hair would run wild and give you speed” (Gal. 4:15). All saving actions of faith, which are mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, belong to such a faith. Its main fruit and, as it were, the foundation of all others, is justification. “She (St. Tikhon) mysteriously unites the soul of a believer with Christ, like a bride with a groom (Hos. 2:20; 2 Cor. 11:2). At the same time, Christ takes away from such a soul the oath, condemnation, and all the filth of sin, and instead gives it blessing, purity and holiness (1 Cor. 1:30). Like any wife, He clothes her in the pure scarlet robe of righteousness, so that before the eyes of Him and His heavenly Father she will appear pure and, like a royal daughter, spiritually clothed and covered with spots (Ps. 44:10). Contemplating this good, the prophet exclaims in spiritual joy on behalf of the soul that has been granted this: “Let my soul rejoice in the Lord, for he has clothed me with the robe of salvation and clothed me with the robe of joy: as a bridegroom, place a crown on me, and as a bride, adorn me with beauty” (Is. 61:10). One must, however, know that just as such a gift by faith is bestowed in the sacrament of baptism, where, as Chrysostom says, during the immersion of the body in water, both truth and adoption are given to us, so here the last feeling of faith is also impressed, that is, the real feeling of salvation and justification in the Lord, for one cannot feel what does not exist. Consequently, in baptism, received with faith, faith itself is completed.” c) Grace (helpful) A person, as if destroyed by the court of the law, as he enters the realm of faith, comes to life with joy in his heart, lifts up his head, killed by sorrow, and becomes relaxed and tense. The more faith grows, the more confidence in the possibility and fruitfulness of efforts to fulfill the law with God’s help is rooted in him, at the same time a good intention is formed and strengthened to determine oneself decisively to serve God by walking in His law. Until a person is convinced of God’s mercy and help, he cannot make a decisive intention to live according to the will of God (1 Pet. 1:3). Therefore, when the feeling of trustworthiness in God and God's blessing, poured into the heart by faith in the propitiatory death of the Lord Jesus, assures him that God will not despise him, will not reject him, will not abandon him with His help in fulfilling the law for the sake of the Lord; then, firmly established on this feeling, as on a stone, a person makes a decisive vow to leave everything and devote himself to the God of all, without any restrictions, he is inspired by zeal for all-round purity and holiness with hatred of sin, with fear, however, of the hope of Divine power and help... Here a turning point of will occurs: a person is in the state in which the prodigal son was when he said: “I have risen, I am going” ( Luke 15:20). This decisive intention, however, is only a condition of life according to God, and not life itself. Life is the power to act. Spiritual life is the power to act spiritually, or according to the will of God. Such power has been lost by man; therefore, until it is given to him again, he cannot live spiritually, no matter how much he sets his intentions. This is why the outpouring of grace-filled power into the soul of a believer is essential for a truly Christian life. A truly Christian life is a life of grace. A person is elevated to holy determination, but in order for him to act on it, it is necessary that grace be combined with his spirit. With this combination, moral strength, signified only by the first inspiration, is imprinted in the spirit and remains with it forever. It is this restoration of the moral strength of the spirit that constitutes the action of regeneration performed in baptism, where both justification and power are sent down to a person to act “according to God in righteousness and the excellence of the truth” (Eph. 4:24). Thus, a truly Christian life begins in baptism, which is called “the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5), a new birth (John 3:5), and the baptized person is “a new creation in Christ Jesus” (2 Cor. 5:17). From now on, the grace that has infused into a person remains in him, helping him to be “faithful to the Lord until death” in order to receive the “crown of life” (Rev. 2:10); for all who believe are not otherwise than “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to appear at the last time” (1 Pet. 1:5). Having received this power, a person walks reliably in fulfillment of the Divine law, or walks like a lion, trusting, under the continuous shadow of Divine grace, with “joy and fear”, surrendering to its guidance (Ps. 2:11) and striving in deeds pleasing to God, in a sense of his strength in God with a deep awareness of his powerlessness. The whole life of a believer after this flows in the following order: with humble submission and desire he accepts the grace-filled sanctifying means - the Word of God and the sacraments, and grace at this time produces in him various actions of enlightenment and strengthening. From this, with the continuation of the field of earthly life, the spiritual life of a Christian gradually grows and ripens, ascending from strength to strength “by the Lord’s Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18), “until he comes... according to the age of the fulfillment of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Therefore, he does not, in fact, have a single action that he would perform without grace and which he would not consciously attribute to it. They really relate to it, both at first, because it excites, and after completion, because it gives strength. “God is the one who works in him, both to will and to do good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Man has only his own ardent desire to remain in this order of Divine preservation, in a morally good life and a decisive surrender of himself to the guidance of God. Everything that is learned here through Holy Baptism acts in the sacrament of repentance on those who come to the Lord from sins after baptism. The mode of action of grace that precedes and abides in man, with their difference, the latter’s relation to arbitrariness and sin that tempts man, is depicted in detail by Blessed Diodochos, Bishop. Cameras. Dobrot., vol. 3, especially chapters from 76 to 90. The same in Kr. instructive But nowhere is this subject more fully revealed than in the Conversations and Words of Macarius the Great. 3) The norm of moral Christian life and its character So, the last goal of man invariably is to communicate with God. Therefore, when he fell away from God and could not restore communion with Him himself, then, by the good will of God, the God-man appeared - Christ Jesus, so that through Him man would enter into communion with God. Thus, the final goal was fellowship with God in Christ Jesus our Lord. “No one can come to the Father except by Me,” says the Lord (John 14:6). The path to the goal assigned to a person invariably is walking in the law of God, in the commandments, or in the will of God. “Having done these things, man will live in them” (Gal.3:12). Therefore, when a person became a transgressor of the law, he could not hope to achieve his goal otherwise than through assimilating someone else’s righteousness. This internalized righteousness makes up for the lack of legitimacy in our lives and gives us the opportunity to be close to God. “For what is weak in the law, in which there is weakness in the flesh, God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh, sin and sin, condemn sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk in the flesh, but in the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4). This assimilation is accomplished through faith in Christ. Therefore, it must be said: the path to the goal for man is still the same - fulfillment of the law, but only completed by faith. All a person’s sins before conversion and all falls after conversion are blotted out by faith, so that in general our entire life in the eyes of God is righteous only through justification by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Achieving a goal must invariably be a matter of human freedom. Therefore, when, through a crime, a person lost the perfection of his freedom and fell under the yoke of sin and the devil, he could only rise to the state of moving toward the goal by breaking these bonds by Divine grace and receiving it to help him - to resist and overcome his enemies. Man himself now acts in goodness, but not otherwise than under grace. He is “mighty through God” (2 Cor. 10:4). So now man moves freely towards his goal, but with freedom resurrected and constantly strengthened by grace. The fulcrum for moral life is invariably a feeling of dependence on God, and its essence is the donation of freedom to God. Therefore, when all this has been destroyed by sin, a person begins to live in the spirit in no other way than when the feeling of dependence on God is resurrected in him by Divine grace acting on him in repentance, and as a result, through faith, the determination arises to subordinate himself entirely to the will of God, or to sacrifice his freedom to God. This is evidenced and sealed in baptism, where a person denies Satan, all his works and all his ministry and surrenders in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ; This is why baptism is called “a good question of the conscience,” or a promise (1 Pet. 3:21). So, now the beginning and character of a person’s moral life is the donation of freedom to God in a feeling of dependence on Him, made by a vow in baptism (or repentance), as a result of a change of will from repentant contrition for one’s corruption. After this, the general principle of moral life: remain in communion with God by freely active fulfillment of His will - should be presented like this: remain in communion with God in the Lord Jesus Christ, active under the guidance and strengthening of grace, walking in the will of God, fulfilled and accomplished by faith in the endless merits of the Redeemer, as you were solemnly promised before the Church in baptism (or the sacrament of repentance). Judging by this beginning and by the very composition of a truly Christian life, it must have the following essential and distinctive properties, by which anyone can reason for himself, “if he is in faith” (2 Cor. 13:5). The truly Christian life is: 1) Hidden with Christ in God. Having established his mind and heart in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, a Christian acts before the face of God, according to the will of God, for the sake of the glory of God, by the power of God. With his attention and heart he is immersed in God. 2) Detached from the sensual, or dispassionate. A Christian so rises above everything that is in him and around him that he is alien to all worldly passions and earthly hopes: “he seeks the things on high, where Christ is, sitting on the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). He who approaches Christianity, trusting in this only world, is “the most wretched of all people” (1 Cor. 15:19). 3) Selfless. Having experienced what walking in the will of the flesh and mind can lead to, a Christian, for the sake of pleasing God, rejects with hostility all of his own will simply because it is his own, and always, when the will of God demands, he treats himself without self-pity, even with severity, both in relation to the natural movements of the heart, mind and will, and in relation to the passions and demands of the flesh and the world. 4) Militant. By grace a Christian has already been born into a new life according to God, but the seed of evil hidden in him has not yet been destroyed. From this, throughout all earthly life, “the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh” (Gal. 5:17). Standing on the side of good and accepting the attacks of sin, the Christian, “clothed with the full armor of God” (Eph. 6:11), resists it and defeats it. 5) Vigilant and sober. In order to be ready to meet and be able to repel the continuous unexpected attacks of spiritual enemies from without and within, especially from demons, a Christian “is sober, watchful,” and pays attention to himself (1 Pet. 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:6). From morning to evening he stands at the entrance of his heart, watching for the creeping evil enemies of inner peace and purity. 6) Self-coercive. All his forces, both spiritual and physical, are in tension, either to confront his inclinations towards evil, or to force himself to do good. These are two essential directions of the will that decides to serve God. 7) Difficult, but also sweet. The Christian strives to enter through the strait gate, but also tastes “truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). 8) Thorough. With the fire of pious zeal, the Christian, “always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58), “forgets what is behind and reaches out to what is before” (Phil. 3:13), being transformed from glory to glory in order to come “to the measure of the stature of the fulfillment of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). 9) Strong in God, therefore prolific and self-abasing. A Christian feels within himself, as the apostle says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13), and together he confesses: “What is in me that I would not accept?” (1 Cor. 4:7), which is why he seeks and finally expects justification from the only Christ the Savior, despite all the abundance of good deeds. You might be interested in: