Patristic Soteriology #
According to Christian doctrine, everything that exists, apart from God Himself, is God’s creation. All that exists has its cause in God and is therefore intimately connected with Him. Unfortunately, rational beings do not always understand this; yet, even if creation does not acknowledge it, it was, is, and will always remain a manifestation of God’s Goodness and Love. All that exists was created by the Good God and therefore, by its nature, was good. Moreover, everything that exists was created by God as subordinate to His highest creation—man. All visible things were subject to him, and he was the ruler of the universe. However, it was not only the subordination of the entire universe to man that determined his exalted status. Above all, human nature was created “in the image of God and after His likeness.” This nature was honored with the great gift of freedom. Being originally in direct communion with God, man had the ability to choose whether to follow his great destiny or to neglect it. As we know, he, unfortunately, did not handle this precious gift worthily. Adam fell into sin and thereby distanced himself from God; through his fall, he subjected not only himself but also the universe under his dominion to the power of the curse.
A cosmic catastrophe took place, altering the order of life and corrupting the mode of existence. Man and the entire universe came to live only in the memory of a lost paradise. Everything that exists came to live solely in the hope that one day, perhaps, the promise of return to its primordial state would be fulfilled. Over time, this assurance grew stronger, faith in God’s Goodness increased, and “when the fullness of time had come,” it was accomplished. Human nature was restored to its true state. The entire world was saved. Man not only regained his former gifts but was exalted to an inconceivable height. His nature was seated at the right hand of God. And now, this restored humanity lives and moves solely by faith and hope in this. The entire people of God strive for this, struggle for it, and seek it. And this people walks toward its goal, led by God Himself and His saints, who, like divine trumpets, proclaimed the divinely revealed truths to the whole universe. “Following the Fathers,” we now have before us the image of divine Love and Providence for the human race. Knowing God’s plan for us, each person is moved to acquire the gifts that the Lord offers to every believer and strives to partake in that Kingdom which the Savior has prepared for mankind.
Our understanding of the very act of the Redemption of the human race from the power of death is based, first and foremost, on Divine Revelation and the Church’s teaching on this mystery. The Church’s doctrine is a precious treasury of the spiritual experience of many faithful children who, abiding in the Spirit, have left us the possibility of a true and righteous understanding of God’s plan for the fate of humanity. Drawing from this treasury, every person who approaches it is given the opportunity to behold the ineffable good Providence of God concerning His creation. It is precisely in understanding this that each person finds the possibility of reevaluating their life and directing it along the path that the Creator has prepared for us.
The Orthodox Church’s doctrine and understanding of Redemption were formed over time through both fruitful and contentious discussions within the Church. Authoritative opinions on this matter did not emerge immediately, nor was the true picture of this great work immediately understood. But in the end (as always happens in the Church), it turned out that the correct thoughts and teachings were put forward by those who led a proper spiritual life—those who were later honored with the title of “Fathers of the Church.” It is upon their teachings that the current dogmatic doctrine of human salvation is founded.
The very act of Redemption was foreordained by God at the creation of the world to rectify the consequences of the Fall. But why was such an act necessary for the restoration of man? What consequences of the Fall needed to be corrected? According to the teachings of the holy fathers, the Fall, first and foremost, damaged human nature itself and destroyed the image of God within man. It severed man’s grace-filled connection with God, made him an outcast, and subjected him to a curse. “As the understanding of God faded among men, and as they turned toward non-being (for all evil is non-being), their continuing existence also began to fade away… and they lost the grace of the divine image” (St. Athanasius the Great). “The alteration of human nature toward passion, corruption, and death is the condemnation for Adam’s freely chosen sin” (St. Maximus the Confessor). “Heaven was closed to us, and we became children of wrath, which meant that we were justly abandoned by God due to our sin and unbelief” (St. Gregory Palamas). “Through sin, man became an exile, cast out from the tree of life, from paradise, and from God. He was clothed in garments of skin, first learned shame, hid from God, and acquired death—so that sin would not become immortal” (St. Gregory the Theologian).
This was the second major consequence of the Fall. Man introduced death into the world, this force of non-being, which from then on held dominion over God’s creation. “Man introduced death into the world, and it became doubly destructive: for not only did it become natural, but through his actions, all death became violent” (St. Gregory Palamas). And this death was not merely physical. “For just as the departure of the soul from the body and its separation from it is the death of the body, so too is the departure of the soul from God and its separation from Him the death of the soul” (ibid.).
The third aspect of the Fall was man’s complete inability to free himself from the power of sin and death that had overtaken him. “For this, it was necessary that man become incapable of sin. But this was impossible” (St. Gregory Palamas). “Through Adam’s transgression, sin entered human nature… and there was no hope for salvation” (St. Maximus the Confessor). In examining the consequences of the Fall and the reasons for Redemption, all the fathers agree and teach about the extreme depth of man’s fall and the obscuration of the image of God. This profound darkness became the very reason for a new manifestation of God’s Goodness in His care for His creation.
Man was utterly powerless to do anything for his own salvation because corruption had touched his very nature. That which God had imparted to man from His own divinity was damaged within him. Therefore, “the renewal of the created image had to take place… for this reason, the Word of God came personally, so that He, as the Archetypal Image of the Father, might recreate the image of man who had been created” (St. Athanasius the Great). Only God, the Creator of man, could save him. “We were in need of a God who was incarnate and put to death so that we might live” (St. Gregory the Theologian).
At the same time, since man had been conquered by the devil, he needed to take revenge, so to speak—man needed to defeat the devil. “It was necessary that the conquered become the conqueror over the one who had conquered, and that the deceiver be deceived” (St. Gregory Palamas). This defined the essential problem of Redemption.
According to the demands of divine justice, man himself had to defeat the devil. But man was incapable of doing this due to the limitations of his nature and his subjection to death. The salvation of the human race could be accomplished only by the One who possessed human nature and yet was also the Lord of nature and death. “The Word knew that corruption could not be abolished in mankind except through a necessary death; yet for the Word, as the Immortal and the Son of the Father, death was impossible” (St. Athanasius the Great). At the same time, as the Creator, God the Word alone could restore man and repair the ruined creation. But how was this restoration to be accomplished? “Should He demand repentance from men for their transgression? But repentance would not have satisfied divine justice” (St. Athanasius the Great). And no miraculous intervention alone could restore man, who is the image of God. “I received the image of God and did not preserve it; He assumes my flesh so that He may save the image and make the flesh immortal” (St. Gregory the Theologian).
Even in his fallen state, man retained full freedom, and any compulsion upon him was inadmissible. Who could restore man “except God the Word, who in the beginning created the universe out of nothing? It belonged to Him alone to bring the corruptible back to incorruption… He alone sufficed to suffer for all and to intercede for all before the Father” (St. Athanasius the Great). Thus, all the fathers unanimously affirm that only the God-Man could accomplish the Redemption of mankind, and that only God could restore the damaged human nature.
This was accomplished in the most gracious Incarnation of God the Word. “The Lord Himself, in His boundless mercy, willed to save us and to recreate us, remaining unchangeably God while becoming, in perfect likeness to us, a true Man” (St. Gregory Palamas). But human nature was not merely restored. Here, we must pause on a question to which all the Fathers devote much of their attention—namely, the manner and fullness of God’s assumption of humanity and the undeniable consequences of this assumption. This theme is present in all writings concerning the work of our salvation, and this truth is expressed in a remarkably identical and consistent manner. The fundamental idea of this teaching is that the Savior assumed human nature in its entirety—that is, both body and soul, including the human will. This complete union occurred without division or separation, yet at the same time, without confusion or change. And in this lies an immense theological, soteriological, and mystical significance.
“The body was born and was nourished with appropriate food, yet the Word of God, which remained within the body, did not manifest itself as a mere man, but as the divine Word… The body did not belong to anyone else, but was the Lord’s own” (St. Athanasius the Great). “He (Jesus Christ) was sent, but as a man, because in Him are two natures; thus, He grew weary, He hungered, He thirsted, He struggled, and He wept—according to the law of bodily nature” (St. Gregory the Theologian). “We do not separate the man in Him from the divinity, but we teach that the same One—who was not a man before, but was God and the Only-begotten Son—became Man for our salvation, subject to suffering in the flesh, yet impassible in His divinity, limited in body, but unlimited in Spirit… so that the whole man, who had fallen into sin, might be wholly restored as both man and God” (ibid.).
While distinguishing the two natures, we do not divide the Person; we do not introduce two hypostases, two separately acting or existing persons. All of this is said concerning the one hypostasis of the Incarnate Word of God. “Our Lord and God assumed our entire nature… For our sake, He became, by nature, a suffering man” (St. Maximus the Confessor). And this union—at first glance unworthy of God’s majesty—was the only possible means for the fulfillment of the divine plan. “For if He had not been a Man, He could not have suffered; but if He had not been God, He could not, by His flesh, have accepted such a death for us, through which He granted us resurrection and, more truly, immortality” (St. Gregory Palamas).
This union was aimed not only at delivering human nature from the power of death and restoring it, but at something even greater and more glorious. “Divinity took upon itself your coarseness and, through the mind, entered into communion with the flesh; and the earthly man became God after being united with God and becoming one with Him… so that I too might become god” (St. Gregory the Theologian). “The Lord… not only assumed human nature to save it from its fall, but He also wholly clothed Himself in it in an incomprehensible manner and united Himself inseparably with it, and being born, was both God and Man… God took on human nature to show to what extent it is without sin and so pure that it could be united with Him in hypostasis and, inseparably, co-exist with Him in eternity… We have become the children of His good pleasure, bound together in one with Christ, and beloved sons of His… and at the appointed time, we were lifted up by Him into heaven… where, above all rule and authority, our nature is seated at the right hand of Majesty on the throne” (St. Gregory Palamas).
This was the ultimate purpose of God the Word’s assumption of humanity. The healing of human nature took place through its union with Divinity. Therefore, the Fathers place great emphasis on the fullness of human nature assumed by the Savior. Christ’s human nature was entirely saved. “For that which is not assumed is not healed; but that which is united with God is saved” (St. Gregory the Theologian). This is a crucial aspect of our salvation.
The second aspect of the Incarnation of God the Word was the revelation of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity to the world. The manifestation of the true God the Word to mankind was simultaneously the manifestation of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. “To teach about the Father belonged to no one else but the Word, the Only-begotten, the true Son of the Father” (St. Athanasius the Great). “He who sets the eyes of his soul upon the image of the Only-begotten contemplates the hypostasis of the Father… for the Only-begotten is the image of the Father’s hypostasis… For all that belongs to the Father is also beheld in the Son… because the entire Son abides in the Father, and again, He has the entire Father in Himself” (St. Basil the Great). St. Gregory Palamas further expands on this: “Had the Word of God not become incarnate, then neither would the Father have been revealed as truly the Father, nor the Son as truly the Son; nor the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father; nor God in essence and hypostases, but He would have appeared to creation merely as a power, just as the senseless ancient philosophers claimed.”
Thus, in the revelation of God to mankind in a form perceptible to human consciousness, true knowledge of the Most Holy Trinity was given—knowledge accessible to human reason. Through His image, His life, His teaching, and His works, Jesus Christ imparted to humanity the necessary understanding of divine Goodness, and by His own example, He presented the model of restored humanity.
At the same time, Redemption includes a deeply tragic moment—the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. How did this great abasement become necessary in the history of mankind’s salvation? On this question, the Fathers differ somewhat. St. Athanasius the Great, one of the earliest teachers on the Incarnation of God the Word, spoke of a certain juridical aspect in the offering of the great Sacrifice: “Since it was necessary to pay the debt that lay upon all… after proving His divinity through His works, He also offers the sacrifice for all, giving up His temple to death in place of all, so that He might free all from liability for the ancient transgression.” In a certain sense, God appears as a hostage to His own justice—He cannot override the commandment that He Himself established. However, St. Athanasius did not insist upon this view absolutely, and later this idea was refined.
St. Gregory the Theologian addresses this point: “To whom and for what purpose was this blood, shed for us, offered?… The Father accepts it not because He demanded it or needed it, but for the sake of divine economy, because man needed to be sanctified by the humanity of God, so that He Himself might deliver us, overcoming the tormentor by His power, and lead us to Himself through the Son, who mediates and accomplishes all things to the glory of the Father, to whom He submits in all things.” This refutes all heterodox views on the Sacrifice offered. It rejects the juridical approach to resolving the problem, as well as even more impious claims, such as the notion that the Sacrifice was offered to the evil one, who supposedly had power over humanity. The Sacrifice was made as an act of reconciliation and sanctification, and in this, all the Fathers are in agreement.
The consequences of the offered Sacrifice for humanity were not merely theoretical, to be realized only in the age to come, but also practical, tangible, and already present in our earthly life. The entire redeemed human race now has the opportunity to receive divine grace and enter into the joy of the Lord. The first and most necessary step in this entrance, according to Jesus Christ, is the Mystery of Baptism, which serves as the foundational and purifying sacrament for every person. “He established Baptism as a cleansing remedy for the defilements that arose in us through passionate birth and life” (St. Gregory Palamas). Thus, the renewed and redeemed humanity now lives a new, true life in Christ Jesus. This new life is reflected in the transience of natural death, which still exists yet has been transformed, as well as in the changed purpose and direction of human existence.
“We, the faithful in Christ, no longer die as before… but because of the mortality of the body, we only dissolve for a time, as determined by God, that we may attain the better Resurrection” (St. Athanasius the Great). Or, as St. Gregory Palamas states, “For the sake of discipline, for testing, for correction, for comprehending the insignificance of this world, we are still burdened with the weight of this perishing flesh. Yet this is so that, through diligence, we may even here become partakers of His manner of life, and upon departing from this world, become sharers in His blessedness, His radiance, and His incorruption.”
This is the general perspective and teaching of the Fathers of the Church regarding our accomplished Salvation—the degree of human transformation, the goals and possibilities that now stand before everyone who turns to Christ. Such a great gift means that in the life of the Church, we can continually receive sanctifying grace, and this grace is poured out upon man without limit. Through the redemptive work of Christ, people have been given the possibility of that glorification which was granted to the Savior Himself in His humanity. And the greatest gift of all is the possibility of theosis—the deification of man, the participation of human nature in the Divine.
This hope was revealed to mankind through the spiritual labors of the Fathers of the Church. They became our helpers, tireless nurturers, urging and imploring us to rise from our inertia and to turn our gaze toward that ineffable glory which God has prepared for those who love Him.
by John Raspopin