45. Слово в неделю Святых Праотцев (Снять вину греха с рода человеческого может только смерть Богочеловека. Восполнить жизнь человека, проведенную во грехе, делами правды могут только дела Богочеловека)

This and next Sunday are designated for the remembrance of all the holy forefathers and fathers who have pleased God from the ages, from Adam to the righteous Joseph the Betrothed. In praising them, the Holy Church depicts how, from afar, foreseeing the appearance of God incarnate for our salvation, they looked forward to it and, delving into thought about it, rejoiced in advance - both for themselves and for everyone who will be honored to see or recognize this wondrous work of God’s condescension towards us. The holy forefathers and fathers looked forward to the birth of Christ the Savior; We are now anticipating the approach of the festival in honor of the Nativity of Christ. Therefore, just as they delved into the contemplation of the mystery of the incarnation of God the Word and thereby prepared to accept Him, so it is fitting for us, before the feast of the Nativity of Christ, when remembering them, to devote these days especially to reverent reflection on the same mystery of the incarnation and to restore within ourselves all the power of confirmation that there is no other salvation for us except the Lord Jesus Christ - the God-man; so that not only with the lips, but with the mind, with the heart and with the whole being, we confess this mystery and perceive it with a wide heart. joy on the joyful day of the Nativity of Christ. “God appeared in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). This is the great mystery of piety. The mind will not think of it. But when it is brought into manifestation and is not only attested, but also actively revealed and reveals its power in us, then, still without comprehending the mystery, he can at least affirm with certainty that it could not have been otherwise, that the incarnation of God the Word, on the part of the Trinitarian Divinity arranging our salvation, is of course the abyss of His mercy towards us, but on our part there is such a necessity, without which our salvation could not be arranged. For the conditions of our salvation could not be fulfilled otherwise than by the power and action of God incarnate. I ask you to delve deeper into thinking about this mystery. The image of our salvation is built on the concept of the depth of our fall. In the fall, man became guilty before God and was upset, or damaged in his life and strength! Therefore, in order to save a person, it is necessary, firstly, to justify him before God, to show him righteous before the line of His infinite justice, to reconcile him with Him. For an unjustified, unreconciled child of wrath by nature, according to the Apostle, is deprived of every benevolent blessing of God, which fertilizes and opens up the depths of human nature, and therefore, feeling within himself a contraction, constraint and diminution of strength, he loses all hope of rebellion and revival. Secondly, to save a person, his life and strength must be corrected; destroy the sinful damage in him, give him new life - revive him. For otherwise, justification itself will not bring him any benefit, because the sin living in him will at every moment again make him guilty; and this goes on forever. So, to save a person, you need to justify him and give him new life. But neither the justification of man, nor the granting of new life to him could be accomplished otherwise than by the action and power of God incarnate. Consequently, without the incarnation of God we have no salvation. Let us first dwell on the first, namely, that the justification of man could not have been achieved otherwise than by the power and action of God incarnate. What does it mean to justify a person and show him righteous before the face of God? - This means not only declaring him innocent, absolving him of guilt, but also fulfilling his entire life spent in sins with deeds of righteousness. For this is the law about our life, so that it not only has no sins, but also, in all its moments, is full of good deeds, or the fruits of righteousness. But: 1) only the death of the God-Man can remove the guilt of sin from the human race, and 2) only the works of the God-man can replenish a person’s life spent in sin with works of righteousness. And therefore, for the complete justification of sinful man and the human race, the incarnation of God is necessary. Now we will explain only the first thought, that only the death of the God-Man can remove the guilt of sin from the human race. Whether we delve into the feelings of a sinner standing before God with a clear consciousness of Divine justice and his sins, or contemplate God bending towards a repentant sinner, in both cases we will open some mediastinum that blocks the path of the descent of mercy from God onto the sinner and the ascent of hope from the sinner to the throne of the Just God. The mercy of God would be ready to show mercy, but the truth turns away the merciful right hand. – The truth of God and the justice of God demand that the unjust suffer the penalty sentenced for unrighteousness: otherwise merciful love will be merciful condescension. On the other hand, in the soul of a sinner the feeling of God’s truth is usually stronger and deeper than the feeling of God’s mercy, or it alone, one might say, fulfills it! Therefore, when he approaches God, this feeling not only makes him unrequited before God, but also suppresses him with complete hopelessness, as if pushing him away from Him. – Why in the Apostolic Epistles one of the most beneficial consequences of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ is the resurrection of the hope of salvation (1 Pet. 1, 3). So, it is necessary to destroy this mediastinum, it is necessary to rise between God and man by another medium, which would hide the sins of man from the eyes of the Truth of God, and the Truth of God from the eyes of the sinner, for the sake of which God would see the sinner worthy of mercy - innocent, and man would contemplate God not only bowing to mercy, but already freely pouring it out on everyone who approaches the Throne of His grace - it is necessary a sacrifice of propitiation, which, satisfying the Truth of God and pacifying the soul of the sinner, would reconcile God with man and man with God. The question is, who is this sacrifice and what is it?!... This sacrifice is the death of a person. It is determined by the original righteousness as punishment for sin: you will die; the repentant sinner also offers it to God, for he cries out to Him: take life and everything, just save. But: 1) such a sacrifice cannot be the death of me, another, a third, or in general anyone from the human race, for I, and another, and a third, and in general every person has a need for this sacrifice and seeks to be justified by it while still alive, and while still alive must be justified in order to be saved. Therefore, the death of a person as a sacrifice of propitiation can only be the death of such a person who would be removed from the circle of people. And this is possible only if this person, being a man, does not belong to himself, will not be a special person like any other person; but will lose his personality in some other being, or if some other being takes this person into his personality, hypostatically unites with him, or becomes human. 2) If the justifying sacrifice - death - cannot be the death of me, another, a third, or in general anyone from the human race, then I, another, a third, and in general every person can be justified in no other way than through assimilating someone else's death. And in this case, it itself in another dying for us should not be a punishment, should not be a consequence of guilt, otherwise others cannot be justified for it, and therefore again, being a human death, it should not belong to a person, because every death that belongs to a person is a punishment, but should belong to some other person, completely innocent - a saint. In other words: a justifying death is possible only if some holy being, having taken a person into his personality, dies in him, in order to thus remove the death of a person from the law of guilt and give it the opportunity to be assimilated by others. 3) You see now that a person’s justification is possible only through his assimilation of someone else’s innocent death. But those who need justification are all people in general - those who have lived, are living and have to live, the entire human race, in all times and places. Therefore, to justify them, it is necessary either to present as many innocent deaths as there are sinful people, and even falls, or to show such a death, the power of which would extend to all times and places and would be strong to cover all the falls of all people. From the all-wise God, who arranges our salvation, we can expect only the latter, that is, the arrangement of a single, all-propitiating death. But the question is, how is such a death possible? How can the death of a person, which in itself does not bring any benefit not only to others, but also to the dying person himself, acquire such comprehensive power? - No other way than when she, remaining human, will belong not to man, but to Him, “Who is, and who is, and who is to come” (Rev. 1:4) - the being who exists in all times and places - God; in other words, no other than when the Lord Himself deigns to accept human nature into His personality and, having died his death, imparts to it the property of His nature and through then – eternal and all-encompassing power. 4) This last condition of all-propitiating death is especially determined by the fact that this death, in its power extending to the entire human race, at its price must correspond to the infinite Truth of God, have, that is, an infinite meaning, which it, again, cannot acquire otherwise, unless it has been appropriated by God, or when God, having taken upon Himself a person, dies his death. So, only the death of a man can remove the guilt from a sinner and excuse him before God, but a man who does not live in his own person, but belongs to the face of another being - the most holy, eternal, infinite - God, or the death of the God-man - God incarnate. Let's stop here for now. We will explain other conditions of salvation that make the incarnation of God necessary next Sunday. And now, brethren, let us glorify the Lord Emmanuel, “as it is said: God is with us” (Matthew 1:23), and, delving into reflection on the Nativity of Christ - the first appearance on earth of God in the flesh, let us sing from now on with the Angels: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). He is the hope of all the ends of the earth. Just as all the saints from all eternity have looked forward to salvation in Him alone, so from His Nativity until now and from now until the end of the ages, the hopes of all who seek salvation can rest firmly and undeceivingly only on Him alone. “There is one God and one mediator for God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself redemption for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6). By him the mediastinum of the fence was destroyed (Eph. 2:14) and peace was established between God and man (Rom. 5: 10-11). God offered Him as a sacrifice of propitiation through faith in His blood, in order to show His Truth in the forgiveness of sins - so that they would know that He is righteous and justifies freely those who believe in Christ (Rom. 3:23-26). And thus he justly reconciles the world with himself in Him, without imputing sins to people (2 Cor. 5:19). In him we too, children of wrath by nature, are hopeless (Eph. 2:3, 12), having been delivered from despondency, we have boldness and reliable access to the Father, to the interior, behind the veil (Eph. 2:12), we have freedom to enter the sanctuary - through 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, becoming a curse upon us” (Gal. 3:13), and “has destroyed the handwriting that was against us, taking it out of the way and nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). And for this, this is what He did: 1) He received “from the seed of Abraham” (Heb. 2:16), so that he would have something to offer to God (Heb. 8: 3), and in everything he became like the brethren, so that he could be a High Priest for them to atone for sins (Heb. 2: 17). 2) He suffered as “the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Pet. 3:18), suffered death instead of the joy set before him (Heb. 12:2), “not knowing sin, sin was committed against us, that we might be the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). For “such a High Priest also ought to be for us, holy, blameless, not involved in evil, separated from sinners” and exalted above the heavens (Heb. 7:26). 3) He does not offer himself many times: otherwise he would have had to suffer many times, but he appeared once with his sacrifice to destroy sin (Heb. 9:25-26), and with this one-time offering of the body he sanctifies everyone (Heb. 10:10). Being eternal, He also has an “intransigent priesthood”, which is why “he can always save those who come to God through Him, being always alive to intercede for us” (Heb. 7:24-25). Possessing such a great gift, let us most of all keep our thoughts from splitting, or double-minded deviation, either as if towards the excess of God’s mercy, or as if towards the non-exclusive need for such mercy; but, having declared with full faith the mystery of the incarnation, let us worship the one who became incarnate and as a gift we offer him the deep conviction that there is no salvation for us without God incarnate, cutting away all lack of faith and stopping the lips of all those who preach otherwise. Amen. You might be interested in: