Глава II. О Христе-Спасителе в особенности

§ 78. The teaching of the Church and the composition of this teaching About Christ our Savior we, together with the entire Orthodox Church, confess this in the symbol of faith: “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God..., for our sake man and for our salvation, who came down from heaven, and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man, and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scripture, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.” These words of the symbol contain: 1) the teaching about the Face of our Savior or the sacrament of the incarnation and 2) the teaching about His accomplishment of our salvation or the sacrament of redemption. Member I. About the Person of Jesus Christ § 79. The teaching of the Church and the composition of the teaching The dogma of the Orthodox Church about the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ was expressed with particular clarity by the fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council in the following definition: “Following the Divine Father, we all unanimously teach to confess the one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, perfect in Divinity and perfect in humanity; truly God and truly man, the same from soul and body; consubstantial with the Father in Divinity, and consubstantial with us in humanity, similar to us in everything except sin; and was born before the age of the Father according to Divinity, but in the last days also, for our sake, and for the sake of our salvation, from Mary the Virgin Mother of God, according to humanity; one and the same Christ, the Son of the Lord, the Only Begotten, in two natures, unmerged, unchanging, inseparably, inseparably cognizable (not like the difference of two natures consumed by the union, but rather the preserved property of each nature, in one person and in one hypostasis of the copulated); not into two persons cut or divided, but one and the same Son and Only Begotten God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Prophets of old about Him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught us, and as our fathers gave us the symbol.” From this it is clear that the entire teaching of the Orthodox Church about the Person of the Lord Jesus consists of two main provisions: 1) From the fact that in Christ Jesus there are two natures, Divine and human, and 2) From the fact that these two natures in Him constitute one hypostasis. 1. About the two natures in Jesus Christ § 80. The Lord Jesus has the divine nature and is precisely the Son of God We are convinced of this truth: 1) From the Old Testament writings about the Messiah, 2) From the teaching of Christ the Savior about Himself and 3) From the teaching of St. Apostles. I. In the Old Testament the Messiah is called - 1. The Son of God, born from eternity from the being of the Father. In Psalm 2, which all the Apostles (Acts 4:24–28; 13:32–34; Heb. 1:5; 5:5) refer to the Messiah, the Messiah testifies of Himself: The Lord said to Me: My Son, Thou art, this day I have begotten Thee (Ps. 2:7), i.e. gave birth or give birth forever. In Psalm 109, also attributed to St. The Apostles (Acts 2:34–36; Heb. 1:13; 7:17, 21, 24, 25) to the Messiah, God Himself speaks to Him: from the womb, i.e. from My being, before the morning star, i.e. before all time, I gave birth to Thee (Ps. 109:3). 2. The Lord, God (Adonai, Elohim) and even Jehovah, a name exclusively attributed to God alone. These are, for example: a) the words of the 109th psalm: the Lord spoke to My Lord: sit at My right hand (v. 1), which refers to the Messiah, Christ the Savior Himself (Matthew 22:41–46), b) the prophecy repeated twice by Jeremiah: these days are coming, says the Lord, and I will raise up a righteous east for David, and he will reign the king will be wise and will do justice and righteousness on earth. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will remain in hope, and this is the name by which they will call Him, our Lord (Jehovah) is righteous (Jer. 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16). II. According to the Old Testament prophecies, Christ the Savior Himself, having appeared on earth, taught about Himself as the true Son of God, as God. Of the many examples of this, we will point out a few. When the Savior healed the paralytic, and the Jews sought to kill Him, having done this on the Sabbath (John 5:16), He answered them, as if in His justification: My Father is working hitherto, and I am working (5:17). This answer, in which the Lord Jesus assimilates to Himself equality with God the Father in right and authority, was understood in this exact sense by the Jews, and for this reason I seek to kill Him, as not only destroying the Sabbath, but also His Father (ἴδιον) in the verb God, He is equal in creating with God (5:18). Then Jesus not only did not notice to the Jews that they understood Him incorrectly, on the contrary, he continued: Amen, Amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything for Himself unless He sees the Father doing it: what He does, the Son also does in the same way (- 19). Just as the Father raises the dead and lives, so the Son also lives when He wants them. The Father does not judge anyone, but all judgment is given to the Sons: Let all honor the Son as they honor the Father, (and) whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him (21, 22, 23). Just as the Father had life in Himself, so the Sons also had life in Himself (- 26). Here the Savior assimilates to Himself the same independent power to work miracles, the same Divine respect, the same originality as God the Father. This is not enough to further convince the Jews of the truth of their words, and so on. in the truth of His Divinity, He further points them to third-party testimonies about Him: a) to the testimony of John the Baptist, who called Him the Son of God who came from heaven and is above all (John 5:32, 33; demolished 3:31–36); b) for the testimony of His wonderful works, which no one else has done (John 5:36; demolished 15:24); c) on the testimony of the Heavenly Father, who said about Him: This is My beloved Son, in whom I was well pleased (John 5:37; taken down by Matt. 3:17), and d) on the testimony of the Old Testament scriptures: test the scriptures, for in them you believe to have eternal life: and that is the one who testifies about Me (John 5:39). 2. Another, similar, but even more striking incident occurred before the death of the Savior. He was brought bound to the judgment seat before Caiaphas. Here, after listening to many false witnesses against Jesus, the bishop finally stood up and solemnly asked Him: I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou mayest tell us, Are Thou the Christ, the Son of God? (Matthew 26:63; taken down. Mark 14:61) - and Jesus, without hesitation, answered: I am. And you will see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming from the clouds of heaven (Mark 14:62). Then the bishop tore his vestments to pieces, saying, as if blaspheming the verb: what else do we require witnesses? behold, now you have heard His blasphemy. What do you think? They answered and decided: I am guilty of death (Matthew 26:65, 66). And then bringing Jesus to Pilate, the Jews said to him: we are imams of the law, and according to our law we must die, because we have created for ourselves the Son of God (John 19:7). Thus, the Savior did not hesitate to confirm the truth of His Divinity by His very death. 3. As Christ the Savior taught about Himself, so His disciples later taught about Him, by inspiration from the Holy Spirit. For example - 1. St. John the Theologian begins his gospel with the words: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word. This is from time immemorial to God. All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing came into being (John 1:1-3). Further he writes: and the Word became flesh and dwelt in us, and we saw His glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth... as the law was given by Moses, and grace and truth came into being by Jesus Christ (1:14, 17). And finishing his gospel, he makes the remark that the purpose of his writing was to prove the Divinity of Jesus Christ: this was written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that you who believe may have life in His name (20:31). The same Apostle, at the beginning of his first epistle, calls Jesus Christ the Savior the living word (1 John 1:1) and the eternal life, which was with the Father, and appeared to us (-2), and at the conclusion of the epistle he says: We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us (light and) understanding, that we may know the true God, and that we may be in His true Son Jesus Christ, who is true God and eternal life (5:20), here calling the true Son of God and true God Him whom he previously called eternal life. Finally, in the Apocalypse he repeatedly quotes the words of the Savior who appeared to him: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (1:10–12, 17, 18; 2:8; 22:12, 13), and it is expressed that Christ is the prince of the kings of the earth (1:5), King of kings and Lord of lords (19:16). 2. St. Apostle Paul calls the Savior in his epistles: God revealed in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16), Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8), God (Rom. 9:4, 5), God's own Son (ἰδίου) ( Rom. 8:32), Who is in the form of God, not being equal to God through admiration (Phil. 2:6); Assimilates to Him divine properties: eternity (Heb. 13:8), immutability (1:10–12), omnipotence (Heb. 1:3; Phil. 3:21) and divine actions: creation and providence (Col. 1:16, 17; Heb. 1:3). § 81. The Lord Jesus has human nature and is precisely the Son of the Virgin Mary Being perfect God, Christ the Savior is at the same time a perfect man and, consubstantial with the Father in Divinity, consubstantial with us in humanity, like the Most Holy Son. Virgin Mary (Right. Confession, part 1, answer to question 38). I. This truth is revealed in Holy Scripture with the greatest detail, and is obvious - 1. From the promises and prophecies about the Messiah that were in the Old Testament. Here the Messiah is called the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), the seed of Abraham (12:2, 3; 22:18), Isaac (26:4) and Jacob (28:14), the descendant of David (Jer. 23:5, 6); the image of the birth of the Messiah from the Virgin (Is. 7:14) and the place of birth (Mic. 5:2) are also foreshadowed. 2. From the genealogies of Christ the Savior, presented in the books of the New Testament by the Evangelists Matthew and Luke, of which the first sets out this genealogy in the line descending from Abraham to Jesus Christ, and the latter in the line ascending from Jesus Christ to Adam. 3. From the story of the Evangelists about the circumstances of the birth of Jesus Christ. The evangelists tell: a) how the Angel preached the gospel to the Holy One. to the Virgin about Her conception in the womb and the birth of the Son Jesus (Luke 1:30, 31); b) how then the Most Holy Mother actually gave birth. Virgin after the usual time of pregnancy (Luke 2:6, 7); c) like the Bethlehem shepherds, according to the instructions of the Angel, they came to the city of David, and found Miriam and Joseph, and the Child lying in a manger (Luke 2:16); d) how, after completing eight days from birth, He was circumcised, and having called His name Jesus, the one who was named by the Angel was not even conceived in the womb (Luke 2:21), etc. 4. From the entire subsequent gospel story about the earthly life of Jesus Christ. Here we read, for example, that the Lord Jesus, as a man, gradually grew stronger and stronger in spirit (Luke 2:40); like a man being baptized by John in the Jordan (Mark 1:9); and John only recognized Him among other people who came to be baptized because he saw the Spirit of God descending and remaining on Him (John 1:32, 33). We also read that the Lord Jesus, as a man, sometimes took part in human institutions (Luke 5:29), was at a marriage in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-11), reclined at supper in the house of Lazarus (John 12:2), and He Himself celebrated the Passover with His disciples, according to the law of rites (Matthew 26:17, etc.). Finally, the Evangelists depict in great detail the suffering of our Lord, talking about His death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven - all about such events that would have been absolutely impossible if He had not had human nature. 5. From the names of Jesus Christ in Holy Scripture. He Himself called Himself - a) a man: now, - He once said to the Jews, - you seek to kill Me, a man, Who has spoken the truth to you, even as you have heard from God (John 8:40), and b) very often - the Son of Man, for example: foxes have wounds, and birds of the air have nests: But the Son of Man has no place to lay his head (Matthew 8:20 and etc.). The Holy Apostles also call Him a man (1 Tim. 2:5), a husband (Acts 17:31), and the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45, 47, 49). 6. In particular, from the fact that the word of God assimilates to Jesus Christ the true, and not the illusory, human body, with all its parts, properties and functions. a) Assimilates the body. So it is said that one pious wife first anointed His body for burial (Mark 14:8), that He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree (1 Pet. 2:24), that, after His death, Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate, asking for the body of Jesus... and received the body, wrapped it in a clean shroud, and laid it in his new the tomb, which was carved in stone (Matthew 27:58–60). b) Assimilates parts of the body: head (Matthew 27:29–30), hands and feet (John 12:3; Luke 24:39), fingers (John 8:6), legs (19:33), and ribs (19:34; 20:27), flesh and blood (Acts 20:28; Heb. 2:14). c) Assimilates bodily properties and functions. The body of Jesus: was circumcised (Luke 2:21), had a need for food and drink (Matt. 4:2; 21:18; Luke 4:2; John 19:28), was subject to fatigue (John 4:6), required rest and sleep (Mark 4:38; Matt. 8:24), was capable of pain and suffering (Luke 22:41–44; John 19:34), tasted death, was buried and resurrected (Matthew 27:40–60, etc.). 7. Finally, from the fact that Jesus Christ is taught in Holy Scripture the other half of the human being, the soul or spirit with its powers, properties, manifestations. a) The soul or spirit is assimilated. My soul is sorrowful unto death (Matthew 26:38), - the Lord Himself said to His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the same way, the Evangelists, narrating about His death on the cross, note among other things: And Jesus cried with a great voice and gave up the ghost (Matthew 27:50). b) The powers of the soul are assimilated, namely: aa) the human mind, as can be seen from the words of the Evangelist: Jesus excelled in wisdom and age (Luke 2:52), and even before: He became a child, strengthened in spirit, filled with wisdom (2:40); bb) human will, as shown by the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me: not as I will, but as You will (Matthew 26:39; Luke 22:42). c) The properties and manifestations of the soul are assimilated. It is narrated, for example, that Jesus sometimes rejoiced in spirit (Luke 10:21; John 11:15), sometimes was indignant in spirit (John 11:33; 12:27; 13:21), that He expressed special love for children (Mark 10:13–16), and had zeal for the glory of God, sometimes accompanied by just anger (John 10:13–16). 2:14–17; Matt. 21:12, 13; 23:28), that He grieved and grieved at the thought of suffering and death (Matt. 26:37, 38; Luke 22:42–45). § 82. The Lord Jesus was born according to humanity in a supernatural way, and the Most Holy. His Mother is the Ever-Virgin However, although Christ the Savior came from us according to the flesh, took on the human nature that is consubstantial with us, he did not come into being as all people do, but in a supernatural way; He became incarnate and became man “by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,” so that the Most Holy. His Mother, before the Nativity, and at the Nativity, and even after His Nativity, remained a Virgin, and is an Ever-Virgin (Orthodox confession, part 1, answer to question 39). I. The Lord Jesus became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and the Most Holy. His Mother remained a Virgin before His Nativity and at His Nativity. This truth is known - 1. From the prophecy of Isaiah about the birth of the Messiah: behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Immanuel (7:14). Here it is foreshadowed: that it is the Virgin (alma), the pure, immaculate Virgin, who will conceive and give birth to Emmanuel (with us, God). 2. From the Annunciation of the Angel about the birth of the anciently promised and foretold Messiah. Having been sent from God to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the heavenly messenger announced to Her that She would conceive and give birth to the Son of the Most High: Do not be afraid, Mariam: for she has found grace from God: And behold, you conceived in your womb, and gave birth to a Son, and you called His name Jesus. This one will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High (Luke 1:30–32). When the Virgin expressed bewilderment: how will this happen if I don’t know my husband (- 34)? The angel answered that Her virginity would remain, that She would conceive and give birth without a husband in a supernatural way: The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You: in the same way, the holy thing to be born will be called the Son of God (- 35). And as proof of the possibility of such a miracle for God, he pointed to the example of Her relative, Elizabeth, who, despite her old age and barrenness, conceived, however, according to His will, in her womb, and added in general: with God every verb will not fail (- 36, 37). After which the Most Rev. spoke. Virgin: behold the handmaid of the Lord: be unto me according to thy word (- 38). 3. From the Evangelist’s account of the actual conception and birth of the Messiah. The Evangelist begins this story like this: Mary Joseph, who was betrothed to His former Mother, had never even dreamed of it before, and was found possessed, in the womb of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18). Then he continues that when Joseph, not yet understanding the sacrament, desired to let Yu (- 19), an angel appeared to him in a dream and said: Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to accept Mariam your wife: for what was born in her is Holy from the Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus: He will save His people from their sins (- 20, 21). Noticing later that all this happened, that what was spoken from the Lord by the Prophet speaking about the birth of Emmanuel from the Virgin would be fulfilled (- 22, 23), he concludes: Joseph arose from sleep, and did as the Angel of the Lord commanded him: and he received his wife. And without knowing Her, Dondezh gave birth to Her firstborn Son, and he called His name Jesus (- 24, 25). 4. From the constant faith of the entire Church of Christ. She expressed this belief, firstly, in the ancient symbols used in her from the beginning, which directly speak of the virgin conception and birth of the Lord Jesus from the Virgin Mary, through the influx of the Holy Spirit upon Her; and then solemnly testified at the Ecumenical Councils. Thus, the Second Ecumenical Council placed in its very symbol the words: “I believe in the Son of God, incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,” - in a symbol that since that time has become an unchanging example of faith for all centuries. II. Rev. The Mother of the Lord Jesus remained a Virgin forever and after His birth. An indication of this truth by St. the fathers and teachers of the Church found - 1. In the words of the Prophet Ezekiel about the eastern gates of the church, shown to him by God in a vision: and this gate is shut, says the Prophet, and the Lord said to me: this gate will be closed, and will not be opened, and no one will pass through it: for the Lord God of Israel will enter through it, and it will be closed (Ezekiel 44:1-2). In a mysterious sense, according to the minds of the fathers, these gates signified the immaculate Virgin Mary, who remained imprisoned, i.e. remained in pure and inviolable virginity forever, not only before the Nativity, and at the Nativity of the Savior, but also after the Nativity, through which He alone, the Lord our God, entered into this world, and no one else entered. 2. It is even clearer in the words of the most blessed Virgin herself to the angel of good news: how will this be, where I do not know a husband (Luke 1:34)? It must be remembered that this question was proposed by the Most Rev. The virgin at the time was already betrothed to Joseph (Luke 1:27). What would Her words mean if, even before the betrothal, She had not vowed to God to preserve Her virginity forever, and if She had not only been betrothed to Joseph so that he would remain the guardian of Her virginity? Otherwise, having been betrothed as to Her future husband, She could not have said: I don’t know where my husband is. And if there is no doubt that Rev. The Virgin took a vow of perpetual virginity before God: it is impossible that She would not keep Her vow forever, especially after She was worthy to become the Mother of the Son of God. 3. Priest the legend is valid and confirms that the most immaculate Mother of God kept her vow of virginity to the end. Based on this legend, St. The Church, since the time of the Apostles themselves, has constantly confessed Her as a Virgin in its symbols; all private pastors of the Church and all believers have constantly confessed Her as a Virgin, so that, according to the testimony of St. Epiphania, the name of the Virgin became, as it were, the proper name of Mary. Based on this legend, She was very often called the Ever-Virgin (ἀειπάρθενος), Ever-Lady (ἀείπαις). § 83. The Lord Jesus is a sinless man Differing from us in humanity by the supernatural image of his birth from the Virgin, Christ the Savior differs from us in humanity in that He is completely not involved in any sin (Orthodox confession, part 1, answer to question 38). 1. The Word of God teaches, firstly, that the Lord is not involved in original sin - a) When the words of the Angel of the Gospel are presented by the Most Holy. To the Virgin: The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You: in the same way, what is to be born holy will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). From this it is clear that although the Lord Jesus was conceived from the Virgin, the daughter of man, but from the Virgin, in whom soul and body, in the words of the church song, were purified by the Holy Spirit (Services on the 25th day of March, stichera on lit. 4); conceived of the Virgin by the power and action of the same Holy Spirit, and therefore was born completely pure and holy. b) When he testifies that God sent His Son only in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3), etc. expresses the idea that the Son of God, although He took upon Himself flesh, essentially similar to that which all people enslaved to sin have, but not the sinful flesh in which they are born, live and die, He took on human flesh, but pure from sin and corruption. 2. The Word of God teaches, secondly, that the Lord Jesus is completely pure from all personal sin. He Himself asked His enemies: who of you accuses Me of sin (John 8:46)? And He said to His disciples before the onset of His suffering: For the prince of this world is coming, and in Me there is nothing (14:30). The Holy Apostles also unanimously testify that He appeared to take away our sins: And in Him there was no sin (1 John 3:5); that He did not commit sin, nor was flattery found in His mouth (1 Pet. 2:22); that He who knew no sin, God made sin for us, so that we may be the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21); that we have been redeemed with the honest blood of Christ, like the spotless and pure blood of a lamb (1 Pet. 1:19). 2. About the Unity of the hypostasis in Jesus Christ § 84. The reality of the union in Christ of two natures into a single Hypostasis Confessing in Christ Jesus our Lord two natures, Divine and human, we together confess that in Him there is one Person, that the two natures in Him are united into one Hypostasis of God the Word, for “we believe that the Son of God... took upon Himself in His own Hypostasis human flesh, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary from the Holy Spirit, and became man.” (Ecclesiastical Eastern Patriarch. on the Right. Faith, Part. 7), and that, therefore, His humanity does not have a special personality in Him, does not constitute a special hypostasis, but is accepted by His Divinity into the unity of His Divine Hypostasis. Those. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one Divine Person, uniquely conscious of Himself in the duality of His natures, Divine and human, is the true Emmanuel, the God-man. I. Holy Scripture presents the firmest foundations of this truth. It teaches 1) that in Christ Jesus, with two natures, Divine and human, there is one Hypostasis, one Person, and 2) that this Hypostasis is precisely the Hypostasis of the Word or the Son of God, which, having taken upon itself and united in itself the human nature with the Divine, remains inseparably one hypostasis of both natures. 1. The first thought Holy Scripture preaches is - a) When he calls one and the same Jesus Christ, as a specific Person, both God and man, and the Son of God and the Son of Man, and represents him with the properties of the divine nature and with the properties of the human nature. We have already seen this. b) It is even clearer when he ascribes to one and the same Jesus Christ sometimes, as God, human properties, and sometimes, as a person, Divine properties, saying, for example, that the Jews, even if they knew, did not crucify the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8), that they killed the ruler (ἀρχηγὸν, the chief author) of life (Acts 3:15), that the Lord is God acquired the Church with His blood - διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου (Acts 20:28; demolished Rom. 5:10; Heb. 5:8); or testifying that no one ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who came down from heaven (John 3:13), that this Son of Man, born during the reign of Caesar Augustus of Rome, existed, however, before even Abraham did not exist (John 8:58). c) Finally, with complete clarity, when he says that Jesus Christ, our Lord, is one, one Person, one Hypostasis, just as there is one God the Father, the first Person, the first Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity: to us there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we are with Him: and there is one Lord Jesus Christ, by Him are all things, and we by Him (1 Cor. 8:6). One Lord, one faith, one baptism: one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in us all (Eph. 4:5, 6). 2. The second thought, that in Jesus Christ the Hypostasis of the Word or the Son of God, having taken upon Himself human nature and united it in Himself with the Divine nature, remains inseparably the one Hypostasis of both natures, is expressed in those especially passages of Scripture where the incarnation of the Son of God, His coming to earth is discussed. So - a) St. Apostle Paul writes about Jesus Christ: He who is in the form of God is not equal to God through admiration; but He humbled Himself and took on the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of mankind, and found in the likeness of a man (Phil. 2:6, 7). These words very separately preach, firstly, the idea of ​​the perfect unity of the Hypostasis in Jesus Christ: for if there were two separate hypostases in Christ, the Apostle could not say that the same one who is in the image of God, or has the Divine nature, took the form of a servant; The same one who does not consider it robbery to be equal with God, having been found as a man, and what He diminished to Himself by becoming a man. And secondly, it is preached that this single Hypostasis of both natures in Christ remained unchanged His Divine Hypostasis: since, according to the word of the Apostle, it was in the image of God that He took upon Himself the form of a servant, i.e. He took on human nature into the unity of His Person, and He diminished Himself, becoming in the likeness of humanity; He will become like a man. b) In another letter, the same Apostle, listing the advantages of the Jews, among other things expresses: they are the fathers, and from them is Christ according to the flesh, who is God blessed above all forever (Rom. 9:5), and even before that he calls the same Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was from the seed of David according to the flesh (1:3). This means that humanity in Jesus Christ did not receive a special hypostasis, does not constitute an independent personality, but was accepted by the Divine into the unity of His Divine Hypostasis, so that He, even after His incarnation, remains the same Son of God, the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, as He was before the incarnation (see similar passages 1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 2:9, etc.). II. The belief of the entire Church that in Christ the Savior, with two natures, there is one Hypostasis and Divine Hypostasis, can be seen in all its ancient symbols, starting with the so-called Apostolic: here one and the same Lord Jesus Christ is confessed to be the Only Begotten Son of God, God from God, who for our sake came down from heaven, incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, crucified and buried, risen and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. § 85. Image of the hypostatic union of two natures in Christ How the two natures in Jesus Christ, Divine and human, despite all their differences, were united into one Hypostasis; how He, being perfect God and perfect man, is but one Person; This, according to the Word of God, is a great mystery of godliness (1 Tim. 3:16), and therefore is not accessible to our minds. But as far as this mystery is accessible to our faith, on the basis of the same word of God, St. The Church teaches us that two natures were united in our Savior: on the one hand, unfused (ἀσυγχύτως), and unchanging or immutable (ἀτρέπτως), contrary to the false teaching of the Monophysites, who merged two natures into one in Christ, or allowed in Him the transmutation of the Divinity into flesh; and on the other hand, inseparably (ἀδιαιρέτως) and inseparably (ἀχορίστως), contrary to the error of the Nestorians, who separated the natures in Christ, and other heretics, who rejected that they should be united constantly and continuously. I. Two natures were united in Christ: a) unfused, i.e. did not merge with each other so that some new - third nature - was formed from them, but both remain in the Person of the Savior, as two different natures; b) unchanging or immutable, i.e. neither the Divine nature has changed into the human, nor the human has been transformed into the Divine, but both remain intact in the Person of the Savior (Orthodox Confession, part 1, answer to question 38). This truth about the perfect integrity and difference of two natures in Jesus Christ, and by their hypostatic union with each other, is visible: 1. From all those testimonies of Holy Scripture that we have already considered, in which Jesus Christ is ascribed the Divine nature, Divine properties, Divine actions, and He is called perfect God; and on the other hand, human nature, human properties, human actions are attributed, and He is presented as a perfect man. But if Divinity and humanity in Christ merged or mixed with each other: then He would be neither perfect God nor perfect man, and neither Divine nature nor human nature could be ascribed to Him; but it would be necessary to attribute some new nature, composed of a fusion or mixture of both, with new properties and differences. Likewise, if in the Hypostasis of Christ either the Divinity was transformed into humanity, or humanity changed into the Divinity, being absorbed by the latter: then only one of these two natures could be ascribed to Jesus Christ, remaining intact, and not the other, abolished and losing its qualities. 2. From the definition and testimonies: a) all those Councils, ecumenical and local, and teachers of the Church who defended and proved, against numerous heretics, the true Divinity of Jesus Christ; b) all Councils and teachers of the Church who defended and proved, against heretics, the true humanity of Jesus Christ; c) finally, from the clear definition of faith of the Council of Chalcedon, directly against the Monophysites, about the unfused and immutable union of both natures in Jesus Christ. II. The two natures were united in Christ inseparably and inseparably. Inseparable in the sense that although they are in Christ completely whole and different, with all their properties, they do not exist separately, do not constitute two special persons united only morally, as Nestorius taught, but are united into a single Hypostasis of the God-Man. This truth has already been revealed to us. Inseparable - in the sense that, having united into a single Hypostasis of the Savior from the moment of His conception in the womb of the Holy One. Virgins, these natures have never been separated and will never be separated: their union is continuous. It, as, in particular, was revealed by the teachers of the ancient Church, in refutation of the heretical opinions that arose - 1. It began at the very moment of the Savior’s conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin (Orthodox Confession, part 1, answer to question 38). For the Prophet predicted that the Virgin would conceive and give birth to Immanuel, i.e. God-man (Isa. 7:14); and the Angel announces to Her that She will conceive in her womb and give birth to One who will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:31, 35). 2. It was not dissolved even in the moments of the Savior’s suffering on the cross (Orthodox Confession, part 1, answer to question 46). For if His Divinity, as some heretics asserted, separated at those moments from His humanity and abandoned Him: in that case it would not be possible to say, together with the Apostle, that the Jews crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8); that we were once reconciled to God by the death of His Son (Rom. 5:10), that the Lord God acquired the Church with His blood (Acts 20:28). 3. It was not dissolved after the resurrection of the Savior and after the ascension into heaven, and will never be dissolved (Orthodox Confession, part 1, answer to question 56). For the word of God certifies that He was resurrected in His flesh, in which He appeared to His disciples (John 20:26–27); that in the flesh He ascended into heaven as the Son of Man (John 6:62; carried down. Luke 24:50, 51); He, the Son of Man, will appear in the flesh again to judge the living and the dead (Matthew 25:31). § 86. Consequences of the hypostatic union of two natures in Jesus Christ: a) in relation to Himself The following consequences follow from the hypostatic union of two natures in Jesus Christ: a) in relation to Himself, b) in relation to the Holy One. His Virgin Mother and c) in relation to the Most Holy. Trinity. The consequences of the first kind are: 1. Communion in Jesus Christ of the properties of both His natures. It consists in the fact that in the Person of Jesus Christ, each of His natures transfers its properties to another, and precisely, what is characteristic of Him in humanity is assimilated to Him as God, and what is characteristic of His Divinity is assimilated to Him as a man. It is said, for example, in Holy Scripture that the Lord God acquired the Church with His blood (Acts 20:28), that we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son (Rom. 5:10), or the second person is the Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47); no one has ascended into heaven, except the Son of Man who came down from heaven (John 3:13), etc. Likewise, in the writings of the fathers and in church songs, expressions about Christ are very often found: “God suffered, the Creator and King of the ages tasted death,” or “the eternal Child,” etc. This is because Divinity and humanity do not constitute two special persons in Jesus Christ, but are united inseparably and inseparably into one Hypostasis. It must, however, be remembered that such mutual communication of the properties of the Divine and human natures in Christ takes place only when both natures are considered as inextricably united in the single Hypostasis of Christ. But it does not take place, and cannot be allowed, when they are considered each separately, outside the unity of the Hypostasis. Those. it is in no way possible to attribute to the Divinity of the Savior the properties of His human nature, and to humanity - the properties of the Divine nature: because both natures remain completely whole and different in Christ, as united in Him, in the words of the Ecumenical Council, unfused and immutable; and therefore, neither the Divinity turned into humanity nor received its properties, but retains its properties; neither humanity turned into the Divine, nor received His properties, but retains its properties. II. The deification of human nature in Jesus Christ. Deification does not mean that humanity in Christ turned into Divinity, lost its limitations and received, instead of human properties, Divine properties; but in the fact that, having been accepted by the Son of God into the unity of His Hypostasis, it partook of His Divinity, became one with God the Word, and through this communion with the Divine it rose in its perfections to the highest degree possible for humanity, without ceasing, however, to be humanity. Therefore, we should not understand the deification of human nature in Christ as if it lost its limitations and, indeed, received some infinite Divine perfections, became, for example, omnipotent, infinitely wise, omnipresent and original: this would mean that humanity in Christ changed in its nature and in its natural properties; would mean that it either merged with the Divinity, or was transformed into the Divinity, and not only deified. It is another matter to say that Christ, as a single Person, as the God-Man, is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and has all Divine properties: this is completely true, according to the unity of the Hypostasis. It is also another matter to say that human nature in Jesus Christ rose in all its perfections to the very last degree possible for it, received from the Divine everything that it was capable of receiving, without ceasing to be humanity, was enriched with all wisdom, grace, holiness and life-giving power, and this is absolutely true due to the closest hypostatic union of natures and according to the ability of humanity to accept the indicated properties from the Divine to a certain extent. But it is a completely different matter to assert that the very humanity of Jesus Christ, considered outside the unity of His Hypostasis, has indeed been enriched and possesses actually Divine properties; This is contrary to the teaching about the non-merging and immutability of two natures in Christ, and it is also contrary to the limitations of human nature. The Fathers of the VIth Ecumenical Council, in their presentation of this dogma, by the way, say: “Just as His (Jesus Christ’s) all-holy and immaculate flesh, with deification, was not destroyed, but remained within its own limit, and with what it is in itself: so His human will was not destroyed, with deification, but remained intact.” III. Jesus Christ, as one Person, as the God-Man, is due one, indivisible Divine worship both in Divinity and in humanity, precisely because Divinity and humanity are inseparably united in Him; because His humanity, although it remains humanity, is accepted by Him into the unity of His Divine Hypostasis, and is the own humanity of God the Word. Such undivided Divine worship of Jesus Christ, the God-man, is clearly preached by Holy Scripture. These include: a) the words of the Savior Himself: The Father judges no one, but all judgment is given to the Sons, so that everyone honors the Son as they honor the Father: (a) whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him (John 5:22, 23); b) the words of St. The Apostle Paul about the Savior: In the same way God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, those in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Phil. 2:9, 10). IV. In Jesus Christ there are two wills and two actions: a dogma that naturally follows from the doctrine of the unfused and immutable union of two natures in Jesus Christ, but deliberately considered, on the occasion of the heresy of the Monothelites, at the sixth ecumenical Council, and solemnly expressed in the following words: “and two natural wills or desires in Him, and two natural actions, inseparably, unchangeably, inseparably, unmerged, according to the teachings of St. our fathers, we preach in the same way: the two natural desires are not contrary, let them not be, like the wickedness of the heretics, but His human will, subsequent and not opposing, or opposing, and moreover, subordinate to His Divine and omnipotent will. The reality of two wills and two actions in Christ, or the reality that in Him, contrary to the false teaching of the Monothelites, not only the Divine will, but also the human will remains intact, is visible from the Word of God. Thus, the Savior Himself spoke of Himself: I came down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me (Jn. 6:38), and in the garden of Gethsemane he prayed to the Father: My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; Moreover, not as I will, but as You will (Matthew 26:39), not My will, but Yours be done (Luke 22:42). Distinguishing in both of these cases His will from the will of the Father, and subordinating the former to the latter, the Lord Jesus points, without a doubt, to His human will; because His Divine will is not different from the will of the Father, but one and the same with it. The evangelists repeatedly mention revelations of His actually human will, for example: giving Him drink is mixed with bile; and tasted, not wanting to drink (Matt. 27:34; 26:17; demolished. Mark 6:48; 7:24; 9:30). § 87. b) – In relation to the Blessed Virgin, Mother of the Lord Jesus The consequence of the hypostatic union of two natures in Jesus Christ in relation to the Holy One. The Virgin, His Mother, is that She is, truly, the Mother of God (Orthodox Confession, part 1, answer to question 40; Space Chron. Catech. on part III). For She gave birth to One who, being the true God, at the very moment of conception in Her womb, accepted human nature into the unity of His Hypostasis, so that both in the incarnation he was from Her, and, after the incarnation, invariably remains the one Divine Person, as he existed from eternity before the incarnation. Otherwise: She gave birth to the Lord Jesus, not according to His Divinity, but according to humanity, which, however, from the very moment of His incarnation, became inseparably and hypostatically united in Him with His Divinity, and became its own to His Divine Face. Therefore, the Word of God teaches us to confess the Most Holy. Virgin Mary. 1. The Prophet also predicted that the Virgin would be pregnant and give birth to God with us - Emmanuel, i.e. God, who accepted our nature into the unity of His Hypostasis (Isa. 7:14; taken down. Matt. 1:23). And the Archangel announced to Her that She would conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son, who would be called the Son of God (Luke 1:31, 35). If the Rev. The Virgin, as these heralds said, will conceive and give birth to God in the flesh or the Son of God: then She will rightly be called the Mother of God. 2. Indeed, as soon as She was found in the womb of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18), and when she was still carrying the eternal Child in Her womb, the pious Elizabeth, when meeting with Her, solemnly confessed Her as the Mother of the Lord, or, what is the same, as the Mother of God. And it happened,” the Evangelist narrates, “when Elizabeth heard Mary’s kiss, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried with a great voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And where do I get this, so that the Mother of my Lord comes to me (Luke 1:41–43)? And what is especially important here is that righteous Elizabeth named the blessed Virgin Mother of the Lord not on her own, but being filled with the Holy Spirit, and so on. at His inspiration, she named the Child of God even before the birth of Her (Orthodox Confession, part 1, answer to question 41). 3. St. Apostle Paul writes: when the end of summer had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman (Gal. 4:4); and in another place: the great thing confessed is the mystery of piety: God appeared in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). And in this way he directly expresses the idea that from the Most Rev. The Virgin Mary was born precisely the Only Begotten Son of God or God in the flesh, and so on. She, in truth, is the Mother of God. § 88. c) – In relation to the Holy Trinity Finally, from the dogma of the hypostatic union of two natures in Jesus Christ, the following truths regarding the Most Holy One follow. Trinity against heretical opinions: I. Not all of the Most Holy Ones were incarnate. Trinity, but only one Son of God was incarnate, the second Person of the Holy One. Trinity, the Word became flesh (John 1:14). For although the Divine nature of all three Divine Persons is one and inseparable; but They are different from Themselves, as Persons, and the Divine nature does not exist outside of Their Hypostases, but “entirely (albeit inseparably) resides in each of the Hypostases of the Divine; everything is in the Father, everything is in the Son, everything is in the Holy Spirit - therefore the Father is perfect God, and the Son is perfect God, and the Holy Spirit is perfect God.” Track. when the Son became incarnate and united in His Hypostasis two natures - Divine and human, it does not mean that both the Father and the Holy Spirit were incarnated together: for it was not the Divine nature itself, common to all of them, that was directly incarnated, but it was the second Hypostasis of the Most Holy One who was incarnated. Trinity, having a Divine nature. II. Attitude of the Second Person Rev. The Trinity to the other Persons was not changed in the least through His incarnation; and after the incarnation, God the Word remains the same Son of God as he was before; and after the incarnation He is precisely the natural Son of God the Father, and not the adopted one. For, although He became man, humanity in Him does not have a separate existence and does not constitute a special person that could be adopted, but on the contrary, humanity is perceived in Him by the Divine into the perfect and inseparable unity of His Divine Hypostasis, so that He now remains one, not at all changed, Divine Person, as He has been from the ages. Consequently, if from eternity He was and was called the Son of God the Father, actually as a Person, and not by nature, common to all three persons of the Divinity: then even now, with two natures hypostatically united in Him, He remains the same Son of God, and follows. A true, natural son, not an adopted one. The truth is very well known - 1. From Holy Scripture. Here God the Word, and after the incarnation, is called: a) the Only Begotten Son of God: the Word became flesh, and dwelt in us, and we saw His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14), so God loved the world, for He gave His only Son to eat, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John. 3:16); b) the true Son of God: we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us (light and) understanding, that we may know the true God, and that we may be in His true Son Jesus Christ (1 John 5:20); c) God’s own Son, and not an adopted one: God, says the Apostle, did not spare His (τοῦ ἰδίου, i.e., His own) Son, but gave Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32). All these passages, as their very content shows, refer to Jesus Christ the God-Man. 2. From the teaching of the universal Church. Thus, in the dogma of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, she teaches us to confess “one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only Begotten..., not divided or cut into two persons, but one and the same Only Begotten Son, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Prophets of old about Him taught us, and as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught us, and as the Father gave us the symbol ours." Member II. About the accomplishment of our salvation by Jesus Christ 89. Teaching of the Church and division of this member The Orthodox Church teaches: “Jesus means Savior.... The name Christ means the Anointed One.” For in the Old Testament those who were anointed were called Christ: high priests, kings and prophets, into which three positions Christ was anointed, however, not in a common manner with others, but primarily before all other anointed ones, as the Psalmist says about Him: anointing Thee, O God, Thy God with the oil of joy more than a partaker of Thy (Ps. 44:8) "Thus, in the very name of Christ, according to the explanation of the Church, those three offices are indicated in which He was anointed as our Savior: the office of a prophet, the office of a high priest, the office of a king, or what also indicates His threefold ministry to the human race (Matthew 20:28): prophetic, high priestly and royal, through which He actually accomplished our salvation. I. About the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ § 90. The concept of the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ and the truth of this ministry 1. The ministry of the Old Testament Prophets consisted, in general, in, by inspiration from above, proclaiming the will of God to people (Hag. 1:13), and instructing them, admonishing them, strengthening them in true faith and piety (2 Kings 17:13; Jer. 25:4). Accordingly, the ministry of the Lord Jesus, as the greatest of the Prophets, of whom the Old Testament Prophets were only heralds and prototypes, was expressed in the fact that He announced to people, in all possible fullness and clarity, the will of God for the salvation of the world (John 1:18; 9:16-18) and taught them a new, most perfect law of faith and piety, saving for the entire human race (Lk. 4:18–21). 2. This ministry of Jesus Christ was clearly foretold in the Old Testament. Even to Moses, through whom the ancient law was given to the Israelites, God Himself spoke about the new, future Lawgiver, the Messiah: I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brethren, just as you did: and I will put My word in His mouth, and He will speak to them as I have commanded Him (Deut. 18:18, 19). Then the Psalmist cried out to God on behalf of the Messiah: I will tell Your name to My brethren, in the midst of the church I will sing praises to You (Ps. 21:23). Some time later, the Prophet Isaiah also testified on behalf of the Messiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for the sake of My anointing, to bring My ambassador good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach release to the captives, and restoration of sight to the blind, to call the year of the Lord pleasant (Isa. 61:1, 2; Luke 4:18). 3. This service was recognized by Christ the Savior Himself as His essential service. “I was born for this,” He said, “and for this I came into the world, that I may testify to the truth: and everyone who is of the truth will listen to My voice (John 18:37). And therefore: a) he called Himself the only Teacher: you proclaim Me as the Teacher and the Lord: and you speak well, for I am (John 13:13); Do not be called teachers: for there is only one Teacher, Christ (Matthew 23:8); b) preaching in one place, he testified: for the Kingdom of God is fitting for Me to preach the gospel to the rest of the city: for to this end I was sent (Luke 4:43); and c) having finished His preaching, he said to the Father: I have glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me, that I might do it..., making Your name known to man...; the verbs which you gave to me, you gave to them (John 17:4, 6, 8). 4. The Holy Apostles also called the Lord Jesus teacher and mentor (Luke 9:49; narrated by John 13:13); a prophet who was powerful in deed and word before God and all people (Luke 24:19), and testified: we know that the Son of God has come and given us (light and) understanding, that we might know the true God, and that we might be in His true Son Jesus Christ (1 John 5:20). § 91. How the Lord Jesus performed His prophetic ministry, and the essence of His preaching I. The Lord performed His prophetic service to the human race in two ways. First - directly, when, having reached the age of thirty years of life (Luke 3:23), He took office as a public Teacher, and for about three and a half years until His death, he walked around the cities and villages of the land of Judea and preached the gospel of the kingdom everywhere (Matthew 9:35). Then - through His disciples, whom He Himself had previously chosen (Luke 6:13), and deliberately prepared for the work of teaching; whom, moreover, after His ascension into heaven, He clothed with power from above (Luke 24:49), and who, according to His commandment (Mark 16:15), carried His teaching throughout the whole earth, proclaimed it to all nations (Rom. 10:18), and committed it orally and in writing to the Church for all times (2 Thess. 2:15). II. This teaching embraces the entire essence of the restored faith, and, consisting of two parts: the law of faith and the law of activity, is entirely directed towards one great goal - the salvation of man. 1. Christ Himself expressed the essence of the law of faith in the following words: God so loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16); or: Behold, this is the eternal life, that they may know thee the one true God, and whom Jesus Christ hath sent (17:3). And accordingly, in particular, he taught: a) About God, the highest and most perfect Spirit (Matt. 5:45; John 4:24), one in essence (Mk. 12:29), but threefold in persons (Matt. 28:19), original (John 5:26), omnipresent (John 4:21–23), all-good (Matt. 19:17), omnipotent (Matt. 19:26), Creator and Provider of the universe (Matthew 6:26–29), who fatherly cares for all His creatures, especially for the human race (Luke 12:7). b) About Himself, as the Only Begotten Son of God, who came into the world for the reconciliation and reunification of man with God (John 3:16; 17:21), about His saving suffering, death and resurrection (Matthew 12:40; 16:21). c) Finally, about fallen, damaged man (John 3:7), and about the means by which he can rise and assimilate salvation for himself, can be reborn (John 3:5), become sanctified (John 17:11, 17), reunite with God through his Redeemer (John 14:6, 20), and thus achieve an ever-blessed life beyond the grave (John 3:16). 2. The essence of the law of activity, in accordance with the law of faith, Christ expressed in two main commandments: a) In the commandment of self-sacrifice. “Whoever wants to come after Me,” He said, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me (Mark 8:34). The commandment is obviously aimed at eradicating in us the very beginning of all sin - pride or self-love (Sir. 10:15), next. to the cleansing of us from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1), to the putting aside by us, according to the first life, of the old man who is corrupting in the lusts of deceitful desires (Eph. 4:22), who will never enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5). b) In the commandment about love for God and neighbors (Matthew 22:37–39), a commandment that aims to root in us, instead of the old, sinful one, the seed of a new life, holy and pleasing to God (John 13:34); to bring into us a union of moral perfection (Col. 3:14), and pure, renewed ones to truly reunite us with God (John 17:21). 3. And in order to excite people to accept and fulfill both laws, the law of faith and activity, the Lord Jesus pointed out to them: a) on the one hand, those greatest disasters and eternal torments from which the all-good God predestined to deliver the human race through His Only Begotten Son, and to which all sinners will inevitably be subjected if they do not follow His teaching (Matt. 25:41; Luke 13:28); b) on the other hand, for those greatest and eternal blessings that the Heavenly Father has prepared, also for the sake of the merits of His beloved Son, for all the righteous who follow His teaching (Matthew 19:28, 29; 25:34); c) finally, to that boundless and, to the highest degree, touching love of God for us sinners, which appeared in the work of redeeming us from eternal disasters and giving us eternal bliss (John 3:16, 17; 15:9, 13-15). § 92. Jesus Christ taught a new, most perfect law to replace the law of Moses This law of faith and activity, taught by Christ the Savior and entirely aimed at the salvation of man, is a new law, more perfect than the law of Moses or the Old Testament, and replaced it with itself. 1. There is a new law. What we are convinced of - a) From the prophecy of Jeremiah: These days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that their father commanded, on the day that I will take them by the hand, that I will bring them out of the land of Egypt (Jer. 31:31, 32), i.e. not according to the covenant of Sinai, the Old Testament. b) From the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another, as you have loved (John 13:34), new in the height and abundance of the love that is commanded (as you have loved), although the commandment to love your neighbors was also known in the Old Testament (Lev. 19:18). c) Finally, from the fact that in the teaching of Christ we actually encounter new laws, which were not in the Old Testament. Thus (the most important member of the faith) Christ taught us that He is the Messiah promised from ancient times (John 5:39; Luke 24:27), the Only Begotten Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation (John 3:16), and after that: a) he obliged everyone to believe in Him: this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whose messenger He is (John 6:29); b) obliged to love Him and fulfill His commandments: be ye in My love (John 15:9); If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (14:15); c) obliged to render Him Divine worship: that all should honor the Son as they honor the Father, (a) whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him (John 5:23). These are His laws: a) on the fulfillment and necessity for all people of the sacrament of baptism (Mark 16:16; John 3:5), which He established instead of the Old Testament circumcision (Col. 2:11, 12); b) about the fulfillment and necessity for everyone of the sacrament of the Eucharist (John 6:53–58), etc. 2. There is a law more perfect than the law of Moses, the Old Testament. Because - a) The Mosaic law served only as a preparation for the Gospel, it was a nurturer in Christ (Gal. 3:24), there is one shadow of the good things to come, and in the Gospel law the very image of things is offered (Heb. 10:1); there are only promises about the Messiah, prophecies, prototypes, but here the very fulfillment of the promises, prophecies and prototypes is shown. b) In the Gospel law, the most important truths of faith are revealed incomparably more fully and clearly: about the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, about the mystery of the incarnation, redemption, rebirth, sanctification of us by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and about the afterlife, about which there were only hints in the Old Testament. c) In the Gospel law, and especially in the Savior’s Discourse on the Mount, much more fully and sublimely than in the old one, moral truths and virtues are depicted, such as: complacent tolerance and forgiveness of insults, love for enemies, self-sacrifice and humility, filial devotion to God as an all-good Father, chastity not only physical, but also spiritual (Matt. ch. 5-7 , 11, 29), mutual love of Christians according to the highest example of the love of the Savior Himself for them (John 13:34), etc. d) Finally, the Gospel law offers much higher, purest incentives for man to do the will of God than the Law of Moses. The latter, at least understood literally, was limited, in this case, to the promise of temporal blessings (Ex. 20:12; Lev. 26:3; Deut. 28:2), while the gospel law points primarily and even exclusively to eternal, spiritual blessings, to the afterlife (Matt. 5:1–12, 19, 20; 19:28, 29; 25:34). 3. Replaced the Law of Moses. About this replacement of the law of Moses, actually ritual and civil, with a new, most perfect, evangelical law - a) Christ the Savior clearly testified in word and deed. Although He Himself submitted to the law of Moses (Luke 2:21, 23, 39; 22:9–16), and was under the law, that He might redeem those under the law (Gal. 4:5), but at the same time wisely prepared the abolition of this law, a) when He called Himself Lord of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8; John 5:17); b) when he said to the Samaritan woman: “Woman, have faith in Me, for the hour is coming, when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father..., the hour is coming, and now it is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father is looking for such as those who worship Him (John 4:21, 23); c) when, finally, at the last supper, establishing the sacrament of the Eucharist, he said: this cup, the New Testament of My blood, is shed for you (Luke 22:20; taken away Ex. 24:8). b) St. also testified. The apostles, although they too, following the example of the Savior, acted in abolishing the law of Moses with wise gradualness, until, finally, they solemnly accomplished this at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:28). The most detailed disclosure of the idea of ​​​​replacing the law of Moses with Christ is presented in the epistles of St. Paul to the Romans, Galatians, Ephesians and Hebrews, where the Apostle clearly states: we are not under the law, but under grace (Rom. 6:14); In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision is able, nor uncircumcision, but faith hastening through love (Gal. 5:6). Note It must be added that the abolition of the ritual and civil law of Moses by Christ the Savior was inevitable. The ritual law, as having only a prototypical meaning, naturally lost its meaning when, with the coming of the Messiah, it was fulfilled: what is the shadow when the very image of things appeared? (Heb. 10:1). And besides, the ritual law was inextricably linked with the Jerusalem temple, just as the civil law was applied to one people of Judah and Palestine; and the next neither one nor the other could have an application outside of Jerusalem and Palestine, could not become common and obligatory for all peoples. Meanwhile, Christ came to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom for all people and for all times. One moral law of Moses, as based on the very moral nature of man, and as completely similar, in essence, and even identical with the law of Christ (Deut. 6:5; Mark 12:30), could be united with the latter and retain its meaning in it. § 93. Jesus Christ taught the law for all people and for all times 1. He taught the law to all people, and not to the Jews alone. This truth was foretold in the Old Testament. Thus, in the Prophet Isaiah, God Himself says to His Son the Messiah: Behold, I have given You for a covenant of generations, for a light of the tongue, so that You may be saved, even to the last of the earth (Isa. 49:6); I gave You for the covenant of the race of Israel, to be a light with your tongue, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out those who are bound, and from the prison house, and those who sit in darkness (42:6, 7). Accordingly, righteous Simeon called the Savior light in the Revelation of tongues (Luke 2:32); Christ Himself testified about Himself: I am the light of the world (John 8:12), and after the resurrection He commanded His disciples: go and learn all languages ​​(Matthew 28:19); Going into the whole world, preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). 2. Taught the law for all times. For Christ - a) sending His disciples to teach all languages, added: and lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20); b) giving to the same disciples a promise about the Holy Spirit, he expressed himself: I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever (John 14:16); c) among the signs of the imminent death of the world he put the fact that the gospel of the kingdom will then be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony with every tongue (Matthew 24:14). The Holy Apostles also preached that the covenant of Jesus Christ is an everlasting covenant (Heb. 13:20), and that it is fitting for Him (Jesus Christ) to reign, until He puts all enemies under His feet (1 Cor. 15:25). § 94. Jesus Christ taught the only saving law, and so on. necessary to achieve eternal life 1. Christ the Savior Himself clearly testified: - a) when he says: I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one will come to the Father except by Me (John 14:6); This is the eternal life, that they may know thee the one true God, and whom Jesus Christ hath sent (17:3); I am the door; By me whoever enters will be saved (10:9); and b) when, commanding the Apostles: go into the whole world, preach the gospel to every creature, he added: whoever has faith and is baptized will be saved; and whoever does not have faith will be condemned (Mark 16:15, 16). 2. They later witnessed St. The apostles, when: - a) taught about Christ: no one can lay another foundation than that which lies, which is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11), and there is no other salvation: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which it is fitting for us to be saved (Acts 4:11, 12): b) they called the teaching of Christ: the gospel of our salvation (Eph. 1:13), the word that can save our souls (James 1:21), the power of God, which is for salvation to everyone who believes, but to Jews first and to Greeks (Rom. 1:16), and - c) they commanded Christians: if an angel from heaven brings you good news, let him be accursed (Gal. 1:8). II. About the High Priestly Ministry of Jesus Christ § 95. Connection with the previous one, the concept of the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ, and the truth of this ministry 1. As a Prophet, Christ the Savior only announced to us about salvation, but has not yet accomplished salvation itself: he enlightened our minds with the light of true knowledge of God, testified of Himself that He is the true Messiah, who came to earth to seek and save the lost (Matthew 18:11); He also explained how He will save us, how we can assimilate His merits, and showed us the direct path to the eternal life. But by His very deed He saved us from sin and from all the consequences of sin, and by His very deed He earned us eternal life through His high priestly ministry. This ministry of our Savior consisted in the fact that He, in accordance with the ministry of the Old Testament high priests, whose main duty was to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins (Heb. 5:1), offered Himself as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world, and thus reconciled us with God, delivered us from sin and its consequences, and acquired eternal blessings for us. 2. The truth of the high priestly service of our Savior - a) was proclaimed in the Old Testament by God Himself through the mouth of David the Prophet, speaking to the Messiah: You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 109:4); b) Christ the Savior testified, referring to Himself this prophetic psalm, in which He is called an eternal priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Matthew 22:44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42); c) finally, St. revealed in detail. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, where he clearly and repeatedly calls Jesus Christ the High Priest, the Hierarch, the Archpriest, for example: Christ did not glorify Himself to be a High Priest, but He said to Him: Thou art My Son, this day I begot Thee. Likewise he also says: You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:5, 6); understand the messenger and Holy One of our confession Jesus Christ (3:1); For the great Apxhierea has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession (4:14, 16). § 96. How did the Lord Jesus perform His high priestly office? His state of exhaustion I. In order to truly serve as a propitiatory sacrifice to God for the sins of mankind and to deliver us from all the disastrous consequences of sin, Christ the Savior deigned to fulfill two conditions for us, to bear the deep cross. 1. Since people, in the person of their ancestors, did not fulfill the will of God, did not obey the commandments of their Creator, and so on. fell by self-will and pride: since each of their subsequent sins was a new crime of the will of God, a new disobedience, a new expression of self-will: then Christ the Savior, in order to satisfy the eternal Truth for all these human sins, deigned, in their place, to fulfill for people, in all its integrity and breadth, the will of God, to show in Himself the most perfect example of obedience to it, and to humble, humiliate Himself for the sake of us to the last degree. “Thou didst not desire sacrifices and offerings,” He said to His Father, entering the world, “but He made the body ecu.” The ecu did not favor burnt offerings and sins. Then reh: here I go; in the head of the book it was written about Me, to do Your will, O God (Heb. 10:5-7). And after this, He, Who is in the image of God, did not by the admiration of being equal to God, but He diminished the form of a servant and accepted Himself, becoming in the likeness of humanity, and being found in the likeness of a man; He humbled himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross (Phil. 2:6-8). This is the first cross raised for us by our Savior, the cross of His free self-sacrifice for our sake, His deepest humility, His unconditional obedience and submission to the will of God. 2. Since people, with their first crime in paradise and all their subsequent sins, rightly deserved the wrath of God, were subjected to a curse and other numerous disasters and sufferings, the inevitable offspring of sin: then Christ the God-Man, in order to save people from all these disasters and sufferings, deigned to take all the wrath of God from people onto Himself, to become a curse for us (Gal. 3:13), and to suffer for us everything that we they were worthy for their iniquities. “We bear this sin,” the Prophet says about Him, “and it hurts for us, and we impute His being in labor, and in the ulcer from God, and in embitterment. The same ulcer was for our sins, and it was tormented for our iniquities, the punishment of our peace was on Him, by His ulcer we were healed. All like sheep have gone astray: man has gone astray from his way, and the Lord gave up His sin for our sakes (Isa. 53:4-6). This is the second cross of our Savior, the cross of His free suffering, His indescribable illnesses, torments and sorrows, which He tasted for us sinners. II. Thus, the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ embraces His entire earthly life. During all this time, which is usually called the state of humiliation or exhaustion of our Savior, He constantly bore His cross of self-sacrifice, obedience, suffering and sorrow, and was constantly a propitiatory sacrifice to God for our sins. In particular, the high priestly ministry of our Savior - 1. It began at His very coming into the world and in the incarnation: a) His coming into the world was already obedience, submission to the will of the Father, to whom He said: Behold, I come... to do Your will, O God (Heb. 10:5-7); b) In the incarnation He infinitely exhausted Himself, or diminished Himself, as the Apostle put it, when, being God, He took on the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of humanity, and being found in the likeness of a man (Phil. 2:7). 2. Continued throughout His earthly life from birth to death. This whole life was one continuous feat of His humility, obedience to the will of God, suffering and sorrow. He was born from the Mother, the Most Pure and Holy Virgin, but poor and unknown, and moreover, he was born in a den and was laid in a manger. A few days later, obeying the law of Moses, he suffers the disease of circumcision, and here he is imputed with the lawless (Isa. 53:12). Soon he was persecuted by Herod and fled to Egypt. Upon returning from Egypt, he settled in the most insignificant town of Nazareth, and for about thirty years remained completely unknown to the world, living in the house of his imaginary father, a woodcutter, and sharing his labors with him. Before assuming the office of a public Teacher, He, the Lord and Master of the World, goes to receive baptism from one of His servants, John, in order to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15), and is again imputed with the lawless, voluntarily endures a forty-day fast and even temptation from the devil. Upon entering, about three and a half years, He does the work of His ministry, but not according to His own will, but according to the will of the Father, testifying: He came down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me (John 6:38). He preaches, but he preaches what the Father commanded Him: My teaching is not Mine, but that of Him who sent Me (John 7:16). He fulfills the very law of Moses, which for others came to replace it with a new, more perfect one. He cares about the enlightenment of his compatriots, going around their cities and towns preaching, but he himself does not have where to bow his head (Matthew 8:20). He benefits with all His teachings and miracles (Acts 10:38), but He Himself suffers only evil from others: they do not believe His teaching; His miracles are attributed to the power of Beelzebub; They persecute Him Himself with secret envy, hatred, slander, reproaches, and more than once they even attempt to take his life. In the circle of even his own twelve disciples, with whom he dealt most closely, He constantly sees and tolerates His future traitor. And this whole difficult feat of the life of our Savior was precisely the feat of His high priestly service; all this exhaustion of Him was aimed at our eternal salvation. “Even in the days of His flesh,” the Apostle testifies about the Savior, “he brought supplications and supplications to Him who was able to save Him from death, with a strong cry and with tears, and was heard with reverence; Even if the Son was born, he must also learn obedience from these things, even if he suffered; and having become perfect to all who listened to Him, guilty of eternal salvation, He was called High Priest by God, according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:7–10). 3. Finally, it was completely accomplished in His death on the cross with its preceding and accompanying circumstances, for here the humility of our Savior, and His obedience to the will of God, and His suffering and sorrow had already reached the highest degree. Here He appeared, truly, dishonored and humbled more than all the sons of men (Isa. 53:3); here He has already drunk for us the whole cup of God’s wrath (John 18:11), and suffered the very diseases of hell (Isaiah 53:12). Here, as a high priest, He actually sacrificed Himself on the tree of the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice to God for the sins of the World, and redeemed us with His honest blood (1 Pet. 1:19); so His incarnation and entire earthly life served only as preparation and, as it were, His gradual ascent to this great sacrifice. And therefore, both in the word of God and in the teaching of the Church (Orthodox Confession, part 1, answer to question 47) it appears - § 97. Especially the death of Jesus Christ, as an atoning sacrifice for us This most important truth was foreshadowed in the types and prophecies of the Old Testament. So the copper serpent, which saved from death all who, having been bitten by deadly snakes, looked at it, foreshadowed that in this way it is fitting for the Son of Man to ascend, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:14, 15; taken down by Num. 21:8, 9). The blood of all sacrificial animals that were slain to cleanse people from sins, and, in particular, the blood of the Passover lamb, which protected the firstborn of Israel from the sword of the angel of death in Egypt; the blood of a goat or a calf, with which the high priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year to sprinkle it as an atonement for the sins of all the people - all this clearly indicated to the people of God that for true cleansing from the sins of the entire human race, the blood of the lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, would be used (Heb. 9:11, 12, 26; 10:11, 12; 1 Cor. 5:7; Ap. 5:12). And from the prophecies of the Old Testament, it is enough to recall here the main and clearest thing spoken by the Prophet Isaiah about the Messiah: He was ulcerated for our sins, and tormented for our iniquities, the punishment of our peace was on Him, by His ulcer we were healed. All like sheep have gone astray: man has gone astray from his way, and the Lord gave up His sin for our sakes (Isa. 53:5-7). 2. This truth was proclaimed by St. John the Baptist, when, seeing Jesus coming to him to be baptized, he said in the hearing of everyone: Behold, Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). 3. This truth was repeatedly witnessed by Christ the Savior Himself. Speaking about the purpose of His coming to earth, He expressed: The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His soul redemption for many (Matthew 20:28). Calling Himself the only true shepherd of the verbal sheep, he said: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11), - I am the good shepherd (- 14), and I lay down my life for the sheep (- 15). Announcing to the Jews the establishment of the sacrament of His body and blood, among other things, he noted: I am the bread of life that came down from heaven: if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I will give, My flesh is, which I will give for the life of the world (John 6:51). 4. This truth was preached by St. Apostles. Ap. John in his epistle says: the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). The Apostle Peter commands Christians: Live your life with fear, seeing that you were delivered from your vain life, O faithful fathers, not by corrupt silver or gold, but by the honest blood of Christ, like the unblemished and pure blood of a lamb (1 Pet. 1:17-19). Christ alone suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he may bring us to God (3:18). But more often than others, Ap repeats this truth in his messages. Paul: I delivered it to you from the beginning, even as I received it, for Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3); Christ loved to eat us, and gave Himself an offering and sacrifice for us to God as a fragrant aroma (Eph. 5:2); He was delivered up for our transgressions, and was raised up for our justification (Rom. 4:25). 5. This truth has always been contained by St. the Catholic Church, as can be seen: a) From the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol, where she teaches us to believe: “and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God..., for us man and for our salvation came down from heaven..., crucified for us”...; b) From the Afanasiev symbol, which says: “Christ alone suffered for our salvation.” § 98. Revealing the very manner of our redemption by the death of Jesus Christ The whole mystery of our redemption by the death of Jesus Christ is that He, in our place, paid with His blood the debt to the Truth of God for our sins, which we ourselves were not able to pay: otherwise, in our place, He fulfilled and suffered everything that was required for the remission of our sins. The possibility, in general, of such a replacement of one person by another before the court of God's Truth, such payment of a moral debt by one person instead of another or others must necessarily be recognized by common sense: a) when this replacement is the will of God and the consent of the Supreme Lawgiver and Judge Himself; b) when a person who has taken upon himself to pay a debt instead of other unpaid debtors is not himself in the same debt before God; c) when it voluntarily decides to fulfill all the requirements of duty that the Judge suggests; and d) when, finally, he really brings such payment that would fully satisfy the debt. All these conditions, which we borrowed from the example of our Savior and only generalized, were completely fulfilled in His great feat for our sake. AND - 1. The Lord Jesus suffered suffering and death for us according to the will and permission of His Father, our supreme Judge. This is why He, the Son of God, came to earth, not to do His will, but the will of the Father who sent Him (John 6:38); That’s all he did throughout his entire earthly life, to fulfill the will of the Father (John 4:34). Finally, when, approaching death, in the midst of His greatest suffering, in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed to the Father: My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me (Matthew 26:39), he immediately added: not as I will, but as You will (-39), not My will, but Yours, be done (Luke 22:42). On the other hand, the word of God clearly teaches that the Father Himself did not spare His Son, but gave Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32); His God Himself presupposed cleansing through faith in His blood, in the manifestation of His righteousness, for the remission of former sins (3:25). 2. The Lord Jesus suffered suffering and death for our sins, Himself being completely sinless and innocent, and, therefore, being completely free before God from this moral duty. Him who knew no sin, says the Apostle, God made sin for us, so that we may be the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). He offered Himself blameless to God by the Holy Spirit (Heb. 9:14), the righteous suffered for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18). 3. The Lord Jesus suffered suffering and death for us completely voluntarily, which is why they could be pleasing to the heavenly Judge. For this reason the Father loves Me,” says Christ the Savior, “for I lay down My soul, that I may again receive it.” No one will take it from Me, but I set it about Myself: the imam will set the region, and the imam will restore the region (John 10:17, 18). 4. The Lord Jesus, by His suffering and death, brought payment for us to the truth of God, not only completely full and satisfactory for our debt, but also exceedingly abundant, and thus not only redeemed us from sin, but also gained us eternal blessings. a) The Lord Jesus brought full and completely satisfactory payment for our debt. This duty of ours to God consisted in the fact that we did not fulfill His will, which we had to fulfill, and by our disobedience we endlessly offended our Creator, and after that we were condemned by Him to suffering and death, which is the inevitable consequence of sin and just retribution for sin, according to the word of Scripture - the patterns of sin are death (Rom. 6:23; demolished. Gen. 2:17). But the Lord Jesus completely and completely fulfilled the will of God for us throughout His entire earthly life and especially in His suffering and death on the Cross, when His selflessness, humility, and obedience to the will of the Father reached the highest degree (Phil. 2:8); He completely and completely suffered for us all the suffering and death that we deserved for all our sins. For, although He suffered and died for us according to humanity: yet this humanity, even during His suffering, was inseparably united with His Divinity, and is the own humanity of God the Word. Although He suffered and died alone for the entire human race, which includes millions of people, He is the Divine Person, with whom not only all people, but also all creatures together cannot be compared in dignity. Although He fulfilled the will of God for us and was obedient for only thirty-three and a half years, and although He suffered and died for us once: such obedience to the will of God, and such suffering and death of Him as the Person of God, without a doubt, is able to replace all our innumerably multiple disobedience to the will of God, all the countless types of our suffering and death, temporary and eternal. God could not remain dissatisfied with such a sacrifice for our sins, because God was the one who satisfied (Heb. 5:8–10; 9:27, 28; 10:12, 14). b) The Lord Jesus brought an exceeding price for us. For no matter how great and numerous the sins of the entire human race may be, they are limited both in nature and in number, and the self-sacrifice, suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the Divine and Limitless Person, must have an infinite price, in all respects, before the court of eternal truth. And next. no matter how great, no matter how immense the insult caused by our sins to the Majesty of the highest Being; but the satisfaction brought for them by Jesus Christ is incomparably greater. Therefore, He not only completely paid the debt for us with His priceless blood, but also bought and acquired eternal blessings for us with it. This truth is clearly preached by St. The Apostle, saying: not as a sin, so is a gift: if by the sin of one many died, the grace of God and the gift of the grace of the one man Jesus Christ are abundant in many... If by one sin the death of the kingdom is one, much more the excess of grace and the gift of righteousness are accepted, will reign in life one in Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:15, 17; 8:32). That is why we believe that the suffering and death of our Savior have the meaning of not only a ransom for us and the payment of a debt; but also the meaning of the greatest merits before the court of eternal Truth, for the sake of which God gives us everything (Rom. 8:32: demolished. Space Cat. on Part IV). § 99. The vastness of the redemptive actions of the death of Christ The sacrifice made for us by Christ the Savior on the cross is a comprehensive sacrifice. Its power and actions extend - 1. For all people. The Holy Apostles call Jesus Christ – a) the intercessor for all: there is one God, and one intercessor for God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself redemption for all (1 Tim. 2:5–6); b) Savior of the world: That cleansing is for our sins, not for ours specifically, but also for the whole world (1 John 2:2); and we see and testify that the Father sent the Son of the Savior to the world (4:14); c) who died for all people: if one die for all, then they all die. Christ died for all, and those who live live not for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again (2 Cor. 5:14, 15; Heb. 9:9). If the Holy Scripture sometimes says that the Lord gave His soul redemption only for many (Matthew 20:28), or bore the sins of many on the cross (Heb. 9:28); then we must remember, firstly, that, when expressing this truth in the sacred. language, the word many is used in the sense of all, as a part instead of the whole, for example in the Apostle: just as by one sin there came condemnation to all men: so also by one justification to all men came the justification of life. For by the disobedience of one man many were sinners, and even by the obedience of one man many become righteous (Rom. 5:18, 19; 12:15). And secondly, it is known that, although Christ died for everyone, and wants everyone to be saved, and to come into the mind of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4), not everyone believes in Him, not everyone assimilates the salvation He accomplished, and, indeed, only many are saved (Matthew 20:16). 2. For all sins. This confirms the word of God when it says that Christ delivered us: a) from all sin in general: He who gave Himself food for us, that He might deliver us from all iniquity (Titus 2:14); the blood of Jesus Christ His Son (God) cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7), - and, in particular, b) from original sin: for by the disobedience of one man there were many sins, even if by the obedience of one righteous there were many (Rom. 5:19; 1 Cor. 15:45); c) from all past sins: God has ordained cleansing through faith in His blood, at the revelation of His righteousness, for the remission of former sins (Rom. 3:25); d) from all future sins: my children, I write this to you, so that you do not sin; and if anyone sins, the imams will intercede with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And this cleansing is for our sins, not for ours specifically, but for the whole world (1 John 2:1, 2). 3. For all times, i.e. from the very beginning of the fall of man to the end of the world. Therefore - a) Christ is called, on the one hand, a lamb slain in the sight of God from the foundation of the world (Ap. 13:8); and on the other hand, the eternal high priest (Heb. 7:21), who did not need to suffer many times from the creation of the world, but appeared one at the end of the ages, to sweep away sin, by His sacrifice (9:26); and with one offering he made to eat for ever those who are sanctified (10:14). In the same way b) the redemption He accomplished is called eternal: Christ came as the bishop of the good things to come,... not by the blood of a goat, nor by the blood of a heifer, but by His own blood, entering alone into the Holy One, having found eternal redemption (9:11, 12); and c) His priesthood - imperishable: He who abides forever, has an impregnable priesthood; In the same way, He can save to the end those who come to God through Him, He who is always alive, by interceding for them (Heb. 7:24, 25; Rom. 8:34). Note Although Christ the Savior actually died for the fallen human race, which is why he is called the Intercessor of God and men (1 Tim. 2:5); but since the purpose of His atoning sacrifice was to consume not only sin, but all the consequences of sin, and the consequences of the Fall extended to the whole world; then the consequences of redemption extended to the whole world, both spiritual and material. a) In relation to the spiritual world, the consequence of the fall of our first parents was that sin, which dissolved our union with God, the most holy being, inevitably dissolved our union with the holy Angels (Matthew 25:31). Christ reconciled heaven with earth with His cross, reunited angels and men under His single head into the one Church of God. In him,” says the Apostle, “God deigned to dwell in all fulfillment, and thereby reconcile everything to Himself, having pacified through the blood of His cross, through Him, whether earthly or heavenly (Col. 1:19, 20); put in Him..., to lead all things, even in heaven and on earth (Eph. 1:9, 10), and, after He had completed the work of redemption, He gave Him the Head above all the Church, which is His body, fulfilling all things in all (1:22, 23). b) In relation to the material world, or at least to earthly nature, human sin has brought about the fact that the earth is cursed in the deeds of man (Gen. 3:17), the creature obeys vanity unwillingly, and even to this day it groans and suffers with us (Rom. 8:20, 22). As a result of the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ, the curse is lifted from the earth, and all creation will be freed from vanity and from sighing: this should fully follow when the renewal of humanity is finally completed and the glory of the sons of God is revealed. That is why, as the Apostle testifies, the desire of creation is for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation obeys futility not by will, but because of him who obeyed in hope, for the creation itself will be freed from the work of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:19-21). Then the last enemy of all earthly beings – death – will be abolished; the work of decay will inevitably end; then the earth and the works in it will be burned up (2 Pet. 3:10), and a new heaven and a new earth will appear, in which only righteousness will live (- 13). § 100. Consequence of Jesus Christ's merits on the cross in relation to Himself: the state of His glorification I. The great feat of our redemption, which the Lord Jesus accomplished through His suffering and death, as His free feat, as the feat of the Divine Person, has, before the court of eternal Truth, the significance of the greatest merit not only in relation to us; but also in relation to Himself, our Redeemer. He voluntarily submitted Himself to the will of the Father, who determined to save the world through the blood of His incarnate Son; voluntarily went through the entire path of exhaustion; voluntarily, instead of the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, neglecting His shame (Heb. 12:2): for all this, following the state of His exhaustion, a state of glorification and glory came for Him (John 7:39; 12:16), - glorification not according to the Divinity, which was always glorious, and only in the days of the flesh (Heb. 5:7), hid its glory under the cover of the flesh, but according to to humanity itself, accepted by Him into the unity of His Divine Hypostasis, which before death, in truth, was belittled (dishonestly) and had no kindness, below glory (Isa. 53: 2, 3). About this complete glorification of our Savior as the God-man due to His merits - 1. He Himself clearly announced when, after the resurrection, appearing to two of His disciples who were going to Emmaus and perplexed about the death of the Teacher, He exclaimed: Oh, foolish and inert-hearted one who believes in everything that the Prophets said. Isn’t this fitting for Christ to be brought into His glory (Luke 24:25, 26; taken down by John 10:17)? 2. St. also clearly testified. Apostles. Ap. Peter writes that the Prophets foretold our salvation, first testifying to the passions of Christ, and to the glories that are still to this day (1 Pet. 1:11). Ap. Paul, having depicted how Christ, being the true God, voluntarily humbled Himself, took on the form of a servant, and humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, the death of the cross, directly adding: Likewise (διὸ) God exalted Him, and gave Him a name that is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth ( Phil. 2:7–10 ). And in another message he says that we see Jesus, precisely for the acceptance of death, crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9). II. What this glorification of our Savior consists of can be seen in part from the evidence given. The fact that He, already as the God-man, entered into the very glory that, as God, had with the Father, before the world did not exist (Luke 24:26; John 17:1); in that He, and according to humanity, the Father, raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at Your right hand in the heavenly places, above all principality and authority and power and dominion and every name that is called, not only in this world, but also in the future; and put all things under His nose (Eph. 1:20–22); in that He, having ascended into heaven, was an angel who submitted to Him and the authority and powers (1 Pet. 3:22), and in human form receives from all those in heaven, on earth and under the earth the same exact worship that, according to His Divinity, He had from time immemorial (Phil. 2:10; taken down. Apostle 5:11–14). III. This complete and complete glorification of Jesus Christ began with His resurrection from the dead, when His very body was transformed and became the body of glory (Phil. 3:21), and when He said to the Apostles: all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). Then followed His ascension in the flesh to heaven, where all the Angels of God submitted to Him (1 Pet. 3:22; Heb. 1:6). Then - sitting at the right hand of the Father in all Divine glory (Eph. 1:21, 22; 1 Cor. 15:27), in which He will one day appear to the whole world to judge the living and the dead (Matthew 16:27; 19:28; 24:30), and in which He will abide forever and ever together with the Father and the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:33). III. About the Royal Ministry of Jesus Christ § 101. Connection with the previous one, the concept of the royal ministry of Jesus Christ and the truth of this ministry I. As a Prophet, the Lord Jesus made known to us the mystery of salvation; how the High Priest accomplished our salvation, redeeming us from sin, the domain of Satan (Acts 26:18), and from eternal death, and earning for us the kingdom of heaven and eternal bliss. But with this and that service, it was still necessary for Him to have the power of the King, so that, on the one hand, to prove the divinity of His gospel, He would perform a series of signs and wonders, without which people could not believe in Him; and on the other hand, to truly destroy the realm of the devil - hell, to truly defeat death and open for us the entrance to the kingdom of heaven. That is why our Redeemer was predestined, along with the prophetic and high priestly ministries, to have a third ministry—royal. This service consists in the fact that the Lord Jesus, the eternal King according to Divinity, being anointed by the Holy Spirit as King and according to humanity in the very incarnation (Luke 1:32-35; Acts 10:37, 38), used and uses His royal power and authority for the great work of our salvation. II. The truth of our Savior's royal ministry is most clearly attested in the word of God. 1. He was born a King and endowed with authority. “Being born to us as a child,” cries the Prophet Isaiah, “a Son was given to us, whose rulership was on His frame.” and His name is called: great of counsel, Angel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Sovereign, Prince of Peace, Father of the age to come (Isa. 9:6, 7; taken down. Luke 1:32, 33; Matt. 2:2). 2. He was a King and had royal power in the days of His humiliation. For He Himself then took upon Himself the name of the King, as can be seen from the accusation brought against Him by the Jews (Matthew 27:37; Mark 15:2, 32), and how, indeed, He confirmed this before Pilate (John 18:37). He also assimilated the power of the Tsar, as shown by the words of His prayer to the Father: Father, the hour has come: glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also glorify Thee; just as He gave Him power over all flesh, so that whatever He gave Him He will give them eternal life (John 17:1, 2). He himself showed himself to be the King when he entered Jerusalem, in accordance with the ancient prophecy: Rejoice greatly, daughters of Zion, preach, daughters of Jerusalem: behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and saving, He is meek, and always on the yoke and the young stallion (Zech. 9:9; John 12:15), and when he received solemn greetings from the people: Hosanna to the Son of David (Matthew 21:9); blessed is the king of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord (John 12:13). 3. Finally, in all glory and power, He appeared as the King in the state of His glorification, when He had already said to the disciples: all power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), and when God, indeed, seated Him at His right hand in heaven, above all principality and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is called, not only in this world, but also in future; and put all things under His nose (Eph. 1:21, 22). § 102. In what actions was the royal ministry of Jesus Christ expressed? His miracles The main actions in which the royal ministry of Jesus Christ was expressed are: firstly, all the miracles that He performed as proof of His Divine embassy and the truth of His teaching, and in which He demonstrated His royal power both over all of nature, and, in particular, over hell and death; secondly, His descent into hell and victory over hell; thirdly, His resurrection and victory over death; fourthly, His ascension into heaven, through which He opened for us the entrance to the kingdom of heaven. 1. The Lord Jesus performed His miracles to prove His Divine mission and the truth of His teaching. He Himself speaks about this: if I do not do the works of My Father, do not have faith in Me; Even if I do, even if you do not believe Me, believe in My work (John 10:37, 38); For the works that the Father has given Me to do, the works that I do testify of Me that the Father has sent Me (John 5:36). 2. The Lord Jesus demonstrated His power over all nature in His miracles. Thus, He turned water into wine (John 2:1–11), walked on the waters (Matthew 14:26), and with one word calmed the storm of the sea (Luke 8:24); with one word or with one touch He healed all kinds of diseases (Matthew 9:20–23; 14:35, 36), gave sight to the blind (Mark 10:46–52), hearing to the deaf, tongue to the dumb (Matthew 9:32–35; 12:22; Luke 11:14) and so on. 3. He demonstrated His power over the forces of hell. This is in all those numerous cases when, with one command, He cast out unclean spirits from people (Mark 1:25; 5:8; 9:25; Luke 8:32, 33), and when the demons themselves, recognizing the Son of God in Him, trembled at His power and authority over them, and cried out: what do we and You, Jesus the Son of God? He came here before the time to torment us (Matthew 8:29). 4. He demonstrated His power over death. For - a) he resurrected the son of the widow of Nain with one touch to the bed of the deceased and the command: young man, I say to you, arise (Luke 7:14 et seq.); b) raised the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, with a touch and a word: little damsel, arise (Luke 8:54); c) raised the four-day-old dead man, Lazarus, with a loud cry: Lazarus, come out (John ch. 11). Thus, even in the days of our Savior’s exhaustion, when He performed primarily His prophetic ministry and high priestly ministry, His miracles already showed that He was both the King of the universe, the Conqueror of hell and death. § 103. The descent of Jesus Christ into hell and victory over hell But all the actions in which the Lord Jesus demonstrated His power over the spirits of evil while still on earth can only be called the beginnings of His victory over hell. By His very deed, He conquered and destroyed hell, when, by His death, abolishing those who possessed the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14), He descended into hell with His soul, like God, to preach good news to the captives of hell about salvation, and brought from there all the Old Testament righteous people to the bright abodes of the Heavenly Father (Orthodox Confession, part 1, answer to issue 49; Chr. I. The teaching that the Lord Jesus really descended into hell with His soul and Divinity while His body was in the tomb, and descended precisely for the purpose of preaching there about salvation - 1. There is apostolic teaching. St. Peter in his speech to the Jews, citing the words of the Psalmist: do not leave my soul in hell, nor let your saint see corruption, noticed that David, as a Prophet, predicted in these words about the resurrection of Christ, as if His soul would not remain in hell, nor His flesh in the form of corruption (Acts 2:27-31). And in one of the epistles he expresses his thought even more clearly, saying that Christ alone suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, he preached about him and those in spiritual prison (1 Pet. 3:18, 19). 2. It was always maintained by the Church. We find proof of this partly in some of its ancient symbols, such as the Aquileian symbol, where there is a member about the descent of Jesus Christ into hell; but much more in the writings of her ancient teachers. For example, a) St. Irenaeus: “The Lord descends into the underworld of the earth, preaching His coming and the remission of sins to those who believe in Him, and all who expected His coming and served His orders, the Righteous, the Prophets and the Patriarchs, believed in Him”; b) St. Basil the Great: “clearly (David) prophesies (Ps. 48:16) about the descent into hell of the Lord, who, together with other souls, delivered the soul of the Prophet himself, so that it would not remain in hell.” II. The Lord Jesus, by His descent into hell, destroyed hell and brought the captives out of it - all the Old Testament righteous. This idea is also preached by St. The Apostle, saying: having ascended on high, he took captivity captive, and gave giving to man. And even as he came up, what is, he also came down first into the further lands of the earth (Eph. 4:8-10). And then, after St. The Apostle, the teachers of the Church also preached, for example, a) St. John Chrysostom: “hell was captured by the Lord who descended into it, abolished, desecrated, killed, deposed, bound”; b) St. Gregory the Theologian: “He repulsed the sting of death, crushed the gloomy gates of a dreary hell, and gave freedom to souls”; c) St. Cyril of Jerusalem: “descended into the underground places in order to free the righteous from there.” § 104. Resurrection of Jesus Christ and victory over death Just as Christ destroyed hell by His own descent into hell, although He had previously demonstrated His royal power over the forces of hell: so He conquered death by His own resurrection from death, although He had previously demonstrated His power over it more than once. This is revealed by St. The Apostle, saying: Christ is risen from the dead: the first fruits of those who died: for death was made by man, and the resurrection of the dead by man. Just as everyone died in Adam, so in Christ everyone will live. Each one in his rank, Christ the firstfruits, then those who believed in Christ at His coming (1 Cor. 15:20–23). To understand how, as a result of the resurrection of Christ, we will all one day be resurrected, and complete victory over death will be achieved, we must take into account that, according to the teaching of the word of God, we, through faith in Christ and through the communion of St. through His sacraments we become partakers of Christ (Heb. 3:14), one with Christ (John 6:56; 15:4, 5); and in Him and partakers of His life. That is why He Himself taught: I am the resurrection and the life: believe in Me, even if you die, you will live (John 11:25). He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood will have eternal life: and I will raise him up on the last day (6:54). He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him (56). Because of this union with Christ, in a sense, we have already been resurrected with Him (Col. 3:1), just as we all once sinned and suffered death in our forefather Adam (Rom. 5:12–19). § 105. The ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven and the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all who believe in Him After the Lord, by His descent into hell, liberated the Old Testament righteous from there and, having risen from the dead, provided the first fruits to the dead, He finally solemnly ascended to heaven with the human nature He assumed and thus opened for all people free entry into the kingdom of heaven. He Himself expressed this truth when, talking with His disciples about His departure to the Father, He said: I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am, you also will be (John 14:2, 3). Then, with all clarity, St. The Apostle Paul in different places of his epistles. In one place he says that Christ is not in the holy place made with hands, but in heaven itself, now let him appear to the face of God for us (Heb. 9:24); in another he directly calls Him our forerunner into heaven (6:20); in the third it is expressed that just as God raised us with Christ, so He also made us sit in heaven in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6), after His ascension into heaven; fourthly, that we are heirs to God and heirs to Christ (Rom. 8:17); in the fifth he gives instructions: if you are risen with Christ, seek those on high, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Be wise above, not earthly: for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:1-3). You might be interested in: