One of the essential dogmas of the Orthodox Church is God became man so man might become God. The Old Testament, such as the Book of Isaiah, includes numerous prophecies and commentary that God would become man.(incarnate). Thus, Christ’s birth, life, and resurrection were known long before The Theotokos gave birth to Christ. God first promised mankind redemption from the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Gen. 3:15, which stated that stating God would put enmity between the serpent’s seed and the woman. The woman’s seed is first Christ and then His Church (OSB, p. 8). The Church of the Gentiles is prophesized in Isaiah 54 as a remedy for the barren (spiritually) woman the Gentiles had become, stating that “all of your children will be taught by God (Isaiah 54:13),” which was fulfilled when God became incarnate as Christ and erected the Church of Christ. And when Christ experienced physical death on the cross and resurrected, all of humanity died and resurrected with Christ because Christ was God incarnate. Like God, one cannot understand and know everything about Christ. However, Christ directly taught us how to return to Paradise, establishing a Church that, like Christ and God, exist outside of time and are eternal.
Christ is God Incarnate
God created nothing bad. Evil, suffering, and physical death exist because Adam and Eve committed the sin of pride and refused to repent. They believed they could become gods without God’s grace. God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden, cursing the ground and proclaiming that Adam, Eve, and their descendants would experience death, pain, sickness, hunger, painful childbirth, thirst, and other ailments and struggles. The first reference to the arrival of Christ occurs immediately after Adam and Eve sinned in Paradise. While God enforced the sentence of death upon Adam and Eve for their sin, He also proclaimed that God would return to dwell among mankind and rescue humanity from their fate of certain death. God did not want mankind to languish in a cycle of eternal spiritual and physical death. And Christ became the way in which God descended to rescue His creation from the consequences of their own sinful choices. Pomazansky writes in Dogmatic Orthodox Theology that:
“The Son of God came into the world in order:
a) to open the path to mankind in its entirety for the personal salvation of each of us; and in order by this means
b) to direct the hearts of men to the search, to the thirst for the Kingdom of God, and “to give help, to give power on this path of salvation for the acquirement of personal spiritual purity and sanctity (Pomazansky, p. 90).”
God, therefore, chose to descend from Paradise as Christ to establish a ladder to lead mankind to the Kingdom of Heaven.
As the Body of Christ, the Church is a physical place in which man can go to connect with God, Christ, and The Holy Spirit, and learn how to ascend to the Kingdom of Glory. The Church becomes a way to guide mankind back to Paradise, becoming a place on Earth that provided spiritual light to people blinded by disbelief and sin. The Church is a place for mankind to express love to one another and God, as well as to learn how to receive the Holy Spirit. Christ is the head of the Church, with The Church becoming an aspect of the eternal and divine in which mankind, despite living outside of Paradise, can commune with God. Even sinners and nonbelievers can enter The Church, meaning that The Body of Christ is accessible to all of mankind, regardless of their spiritual state. This embodies the saving mission of Christ, as Christ came not for the wealthy or powerful, but rather for those condemned as sinners by The Law.
Christ serves as a divine and eternal intermediary for mankind, as "no one comes to the Father except through (John 14:6),” Christ. And to reject Christ is to reject the Father, which demonstrates that Christ is God despite a having different form (which has human nature while being fully divine). 1 John 2 is entitled The Truth: Jesus is God, and explains the human-divine nature of Christ and that Christ is God incarnate:
He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.
Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either;
he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also (1 John 2:22-23).
Christ is the Redeemer of Mankind
Christ’s birth was the first time since the Garden of Eden that God walked and lived side-by-side with His Creation. God’s intent for mankind was to live with His Creation. God’s intent was not for mankind to die in sin. As God states in the Book of Isaiah:
I created you [mankind], not as a metalworker who blows coals in the fire and brings out a vessel fit for work; I created you, not for pain so as to destroy you.
I will not prosper any instrument of destruction used against you, and every voice raised against you in judgment, you shall overcome them all;
And you adversaries shall be judged guilty. This is the inheritance for those who serve the Lord, and you shall be my righteous ones, Says the Lord
(Isaish 54:16-17)
Thus, God’s purpose for creating humanity was as an act of love. God wanted to live with His Creation, which is why Adam and Eve lived in Paradise with God. After Adam and Eve left Paradise, mankind (even the most righteous) was unable to gaze upon the face of God (Exodus 33:32). And if mankind could not look at God, how could God live with His Creation on Earth?
To save humanity, God descended as Christ. Christ had human nature and form, which allowed mankind to not only look at the face of God, but also to interact with and learn from God. Christ, like humanity, experienced pain, suffering, evil, and physical death. None of which are things present in Paradise. Thus, God chose to take an inferior form, knowing it would include the ability to physically and emotionally experience evil and the sin of others, in order to redeem humanity.
Not only did God live with His Creation outside of Paradise, but He also taught mankind how to return to Paradise and obtain divinization through grace (theosis). Christ’s ministries provided examples for humanity about how to not only honor and obey God, but, more importantly, how to avoid spiritual death and enter the Kingdom of Glory. Christ and the Apostles healed the sick, resurrected the dead, cast out demons, and performed other miracles by and through their faith in Christ and the Holy Spirit. Christ became the teacher referenced in Chapter 54 of the Book of Isaiah, fulfilling God’s promise to the Gentiles that their children would be “taught by God.” This meant God Himself would teach the descendants of the Gentiles, which Christ did throughout His ministries. The Church founded by Christ was built upon the confession of the Apostle Peter that Christ was God incarnate and promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against faith in Christ. While The Church cannot be identical in every way to Christ, The Church is a place to be with God, through Christ, while outside of Paradise.
Christ is the Judge
In addition to being a Redeemer, Christ is also the Judge. Christ will return to separate the righteous from the unrighteous. Christ carries out the judgment of all of the living and all of the dead. Christ provided all of humanity with a choice: eternal life or eternal death. Those who reject Christ are antichrists, fulfilling the role of the goats who are sent to eternal fire in the excerpt entitled The Judgement of Work in Chapter 25 of the Book of Matthew. God has no limits, meaning He could compel all of humanity to worship Him. However, mankind’s free will is a part of the image of God. Thus, God respects the free will of every person to decide whether they want to partake of the fountain of life or everlasting flames.
Christ Himself provided the teachings upon which The Orthodox Church is erected and has protected throughout the age. Christ states that had He not done these works among man, then man would have an excuse for their sin (John 15:24). Christ, therefore, provided the right way (Orthodox) to mankind, which are the dogmas of the Church. It is ultimately up to each individual to choose to accept or reject these teachings, all of which are founded upon love. Where there is love, there is no sin or fear of death. Christ’s covenant with mankind is not sustained on laws that can be distorted and manipulated by human reasoning. Instead, Christ chose to use love as the litmus test for salvation. Christ showed and taught mankind about love, instructing humanity that God’s only command of us is to love one another. And what better teacher for mankind than He who will judge the living and the dead? Thus, Christ is a merciful judge whose intent is to ensure as many souls ascend to the Kingdom of Glory as possible.
Knowledge of Christ
While Scripture and the teachings of Christ can allow us to know aspects of Christ and God, it is impossible for man to fully understand everything about Christ and God. The Church teaches its members about the life and ministries of Christ with icons, Scripture, liturgy, and processions. More importantly, the members of The Church are in communion with Christ. Attacks on the physical Church cannot rupture the unity between the members of Christ’s Church. When Christ declared He would erect His Church on the “rock” of Apostle Peter’s confession that Christ was God, Christ did not build a tangible structure. This demonstrates that faith in Christ is ultimately that which unifies all of God’s children. And when we experience love and communion with Christ, we experience an aspect of the divine and perfect love God has for all of us.
Christ defines Himself as “the way, the truth, and the light (John 14:6),” and Apostle John states that “God is love (1 John 2:16)” and while “no one has seen God at any time, if we love one another, God abides in us (1 John 2:12).” Becoming a member of Christ’s Church and choosing to love others and Christ are how we become spiritually united with Christ, improving our understanding of Christ. However, this type of divine love, truth, and light cannot be fully understood by mankind, for:
“We faithful, speaking on things that pertain to God, touch upon an ineffable mystery, the Crucifixion, that mind cannot comprehend, and the Resurrection that is beyond description : for today death and hell are despoiled, while mankind is clothed in incorruption” (Sedalion after the second kathisma, Sunday Matins, Tone 3) (Pomazansky, p.90).”
IC XC NIKA
References
Pomazansky, M., & Rose, S. (2005). Orthodox dogmatic theology : a concise exposition. Saint Herman Of Alaska Brotherhood.
St. Athanasius Orthodox Academy. (2008). The Orthodox study Bible. Thomas Nelson.