Do I Get a Free Pass, or Is God Unfair?

In the current political season in the U.S., we are entertained if not enticed by offers of free medical care, free higher education, free this and free that. People love free stuff! What we often fail to realize is that there's always a string attached: if you take the free education, food and housing, you'll vote for XYZ, and you will belong to XYZ. If you take the free apps and services from ABC Internet Company, your identity will belong to that company, and they can market you to all their advertisers. The free medical care, free higher education, free apps and services and so on are not the products: YOU are the product... on the auction block for sale to unknown money-changers, political power-brokers and advertisers.

Does that mean that nothing is free? Shouldn't I get a Free Pass? I'm entitled to free food and housing because I'm a poor and oppressed [name the income level or ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation]! What about free grace, God's free gift of salvation? "I'm one of God's chosen people - the 'elect' - so I have a Free Ticket to Heaven. I can get away with murder (figuratively or even literally), sexual immorality, stealing and/or lying because I have the True Faith!" This notion of "free grace" is a misunderstanding of the Greek word "kharis" or grace: it is not merely a free gift, but also the miraculous power of God to transform us into the image of Christ. The inherent danger, the reductio ad absurdum of such faulty thinking is what C.S. Lewis wrote in the quote to the left: God selected Abraham to become the father of God's chosen nation, then He further selected out of that nation those who chose to follow His commandments, and the selection process continued all the way down to just one young woman, who replied to the Angel Gabriel - "Behold, I am the Lord's handmaid, may it be as you have said!" But God didn't merely elect them as inanimate objects, they had to respond:

This selection is a two-way process that requires man's response: when God said to Abraham - "Get up and go!" - Abraham got up and went! When the people of Israel called out to the Lord - "Save us from the Philistines!" - He sent Barak, Sampson, Samuel and others to deliver them. Still, they chose to fall back into sin, and suffered the consequences: virtually the entire nation of Israel was deported to Babylon because of their idolatry and immorality. Only a remnant returned to Israel, the majority chose to stay in Babylon. So you see, it's not only God who chose Abraham, then He chose the remnant, and finally He chose the Virgin Mary, but each of them chose to obey God: it works both ways, it is a two-way choosing!

Here's the deal: You can choose to whom you will belong. The Apostle Paul wrote - "For sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be! Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?" (Romans 6:14-16). You always belong to someone or something. It may be a bunch of drinking buddies, a group of sports fans, a political party, a bunch of pot smokers, a fanboy of a technology giant... or you can belong to Christ and His Body, the Church. As St. Paul wrote here, you can present yourself - commit yourself - to serving sin and thus belong to the sinful, distorted world system; or you can let God's grace transform your life and be free from sin. Becoming a servant of Christ, belonging to Him. is real freedom!

Is God Unfair? St. Paul recounts the story of Isaac and Rebekkah: "it was said to her, 'The elder will serve the younger.' Even as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.' What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion" (Romans 9:12-15). Jacob wasn't exactly a nice guy, but Esau chose to sell him his birthright for a bowl of stew. God is not unrighteous, He's not unfair. In my recent article Does God give us A Second Chance? you read about Christ's descent into hell after His crucifixion, where He preached salvation to those in bondage to the devil. He destroyed the power of Satan and Death... but even in hell people must choose whether to accept Christ's victory, or stay under Satan.

It might seem that if people get a second chance after they die, there's no need for us to evangelize and try to rescue people from Satan's power. But in Ezekiel 3:18-19, we read that we have a great responsibility to speak out for our faith: "When I tell the wicked, 'You shall surely die'; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand. Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn't turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul." Perhaps the wicked person will repent in the afterlife, but it's you who will pay the price, you may end up in his place in hell! Further on in Ezekiel's prophecy we read:

"Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair. Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not fair? Aren't your ways unfair? When the righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies therein; in his iniquity that he has done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Yet says the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not fair. House of Israel, are not my ways fair? Are not your ways unfair? Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, says the Lord God. Return and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin" (Ezek. 18:25-30).

Is God Unfair? No! It is we who are unfair! We are trying to deceive and cheat God by "demanding our rights," thinking that because God is loving and merciful we should get a Free Pass, we are "entitled" to a Free Ticket to Heaven, as well as lots of other free stuff on earth. God is the very definition of fairness and righteousness. We are the ones who are messed up in our thinking and stuck in our iniquity that will bring us to ruin. Again, we read in Ezekiel's prophecy:

"The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and tell them, When I bring the sword on a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman; if, when he sees the sword come on the land, he blows the trumpet, and warns the people; then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn't take warning, if the sword comes, and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and didn't take warning; his blood shall be on him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul. But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and doesn't blow the trumpet, and the people aren't warned, and the sword comes, and takes any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand" (Ezek. 33:1-6).

But so many people who call themselves Christians will take these words as merely a theological mind-puzzle, a nice little word game, or churchy entertainment that helps them feel good and righteous for an hour or so, until Sunday afternoon football comes on and they forget it all: "They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they don't do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain. Behold, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they don't do them. When this comes to pass (and behold, it is coming!), then shall they know that a prophet has been among them" (Ezek. 33:31-33). It's coming, folks! You choose! Church is not just entertainment, lovely singing by leaders and choirs with pleasant voices, it is the Kingdom of God coming into the here-and-now.

God is not unfair! St. Paul wrote - "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; Who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3-4). God's will is for "all people to be saved" - He isn't an angry judge sitting up there on the clouds, throwing thunderbolts on the hapless people below and casting them willy-nilly into hell. That is a false notion taken from the ancient Greek gods. Christ's descent into hell gives every single person a fair opportunity to believe in Him and be saved. And St. Peter wrote - "The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). God doesn't wish "that any should perish" ...but He also wills "that all should come to repentance." Repentance means choosing to change our ways! He will eventually judge the world in all fairness and righteousness: there's no Free Pass, it's up to each one and all of us to choose to commit our lives to Christ, take up our cross and follow Him.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 03 Apr. 2016.)

So, Why Does It Matter?

Today is the "Sunday of Orthodoxy" on which Orthodox Christians celebrate the victory of Orthodoxy over the Iconoclasts. For over one hundred years around the eighth century, the icon-smashers ripped down and burned all the icons they could get their hands on, destroying not just magnificent works of art, but objects personifying Christ, as well as beloved saints and martyrs who were personally known to many Christians of that time. And the icon-smashers also murdered thousands of priests, monks and lay-people who defended the belief that we should venerate and honor the images of Christ, the saints and martyrs. So, why does it matter?

It matters precisely because matter matters! "God created man in His own image" (Genesis 1:27). "Image" is "eikon" in Greek. We were created as material beings, with bodies as well as souls. In the beginning, Adam and Eve were glorious beings: I can envision that their bodies glowed, clothed only in the glory of God, as they walked in the Garden of Eden with the pre-incarnate Christ. They were young and innocent, like teenagers, curious to learn all about this wonderful garden paradise, and even more curious to know God more and more, being transformed from one degree of glory to another in the presence of the Lord. But then the deceiver Satan tricked them to go beyond the limits that God had set for them. They took the bait: they ate, and their eyes were opened to see the glory fade away and and their nakedness appear.

Ever since Adam and Eve lost the glory of God in their bodies, mankind has created a false dichotomy, a dualism that opposes soul and body, mind and matter. All over the world and throughout human history, religions have sprung up teaching that the soul or spirit is good but the body or matter is evil. Some, called Ascetics, taught that the body isn't important, so we should deny our bodily needs. Others, called Epicurians, taught that the body isn't important, so we should eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow we die. Just as there is a bit of truth in every lie, there is a bit of justification for this false dualism: the soul lives forever, but the body eventually dies and decays into corruption - at least in our fallen, sinful state.

The body is important: we ought to take care of it, getting enough exercise, rest and nourishment, but not too much of any of those. The glorious image of God that we ought to possess in our bodies has been sullied by sin - gluttony, fornication, drunkenness, drugs and sloth that destroy our bodies: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). So God forbade mankind to make and worship images that try to depict God, because it was impossible: the image was always imperfect, defective and corrupted due to sin, and thus not worthy of God. But then, all of that changed....

"The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw His glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). God put on a human body! The glory of God returned to human flesh! "His Son is the radiance of His glory, the very image ['icon' in Greek] of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself made purification for our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3). From the moment of the Incarnation onward, it is possible to depict God in an image, because the original image of God in mankind has been restored: the image - the icon - has been restored!

And not only in Christ's body is the divine image restored: "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image [icon] from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18). The process of our being restored, re-modeled into Christ's image and likeness has begun. The icon-smashers are smashed. The false dualism of soul versus body, mind versus matter, is overcome. Now matter matters! Human life matters, from before the cradle to the grave and beyond, our bodies are in the process of being transformed into glorified bodies: "He [Christ] has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust" (2 Peter 1:4).

So, why does it matter? Matter matters because we are no longer talking about subjective ideas and feelings, but we are dealing with objective material reality. The whole material universe that has been groaning and travailing under the burden of mankind's fall into sin will be transformed along with us: "the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now" (Romans 8:21-22). The objective material world is affected when we sin, and the objective material world is also being transformed when we are transformed.

If the only reality is one's own subjective ideas and feelings, then matter doesn't matter at all. I can treat my body to all sorts of pleasures and passions because the only important things are my thoughts and feelings. I can conjure up an infinite number of parallel universes in my mind so I can explain away the need for a Creator of this finite universe that must have had a beginning and will certainly have an end. In the final analysis, the ultimate subjectivity of one's ideas and feelings denies the real existence and created goodness of the material universe, and ends in the twisted thought that the only thing which really exists is the one thinking such thoughts. It denies the personhood of others, and makes them into mere objects that satisfy one's own passions and drive for power. No! The Incarnation cancels all that nonsense! God now inhabits not just the body of the baby Jesus Who grew up to die for our sins and rise again: God now inhabits the Body of Christ - the Church. And when we partake of His Body and Blood, we receive the Divine Nature into our human nature and are transformed.

So, why does it matter? Matter is important because God became incarnate in Christ. From the Incarnation onward, God is not merely an idea or a theory, but a material reality, a divine-human Person. For centuries mankind has been theorizing and speculating about the existence and nature of God, as if He were just an abstraction in our minds. Even after Christ was born, lived, died and rose again, people argued that Christ only "appeared" to be human (Docetism), or that Jesus was merely a really holy man, a prophet, sort of god-like but not fully God (Arianism and its stepchild, Islam), or that Jesus was born as an ordinary human and that the Spirit of God later inhabited him at his baptism and made him into Christ that obliterated his human nature (Nestorianism), or that Jesus' human will was totally dissolved into Christ's divine will (Monothelitism).

All of these heresies destroy the image of God in Christ, the fact that Christ is fully God and at the same time fully man, two natures and two wills - divine and human - in one Person. We are not talking about a mere idea that can be debated, or an opinion that can be modified, or a mirage that vanishes like a mist: we are talking about a real, material human Person. It matters what we believe about Who Christ is, because if we believe wrongly, we believe in the wrong Person, we don't believe in the real Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the real Person Who became one of us so that we could become one with Him. If Christ did not fully partake of our human nature, we cannot become partakers of the divine Nature, be saved and deified. He is not just a bunch of conflicting ideas, He is the one real Person who can deify us into His image and likeness, making us into real persons again.

We should always ask the "So what?" question. So what! - if we have all our theological ducks lined up, and we have rejected Docetism, Arianism, Nestorianism and Monothelitism. So what! - if we know all about being transformed and becoming partakers of the divine nature, if we don't have one thing: LOVE. If we don't love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves - that includes "those people" with a different skin color, dialect or ideology. Christ teaches us to love even our enemies! So what! - to all that theology theory, if we don't love those who are not-us! They are persons, not objects, just as much as we are persons... in Christ.

So, that's what matters. That's why God became matter.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 20 Mar. 2016.)

The Fullness

The photo here, taken from inside the dome of a church in Romania, shows the halo around Christ, in which are the Greek letters "HO ON" for "I AM", and on each side the Greek letters "IC XC" for "Jesus Christ" around it, and below "HO PANTOKRATOR" for "The Almighty." He is surrounded by the Seraphim, Cherubim and the angelic host. This gives you an inkling of understanding of the awesome greatness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ!

In our 04 Jan. 2015 Hosken-News essay, "The Fullness of Christ," we considered several passages dealing with this topic: Eph. 1:19-23 & 3:19; Col. 1:14-20 & 27-28; 2:9-10. Take a few minutes to re-read that issue and meditate on the Scripture passages. But today let's consider the question: "What exactly is this Fullness?"

Perhaps the central text is - "For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily," (Col. 2:9) where St. Paul tells us that the man Jesus Christ is also fully God. As well as being fully man with a rational mind, human emotions, and a free will - all that makes up human nature - He also possesses the infinite love, power, wisdom, knowledge and authority of the Godhead. When the Virgin Mary conceived, she gave human nature to the divine nature. In Christ Jesus from that very moment, our weak, fallen human nature was transformed by being united to the divine nature. This is not to say that Christ assumed sinfulness, but He did take upon Himself our human nature that was weakened by the Fall. And by uniting this human nature with His divine nature, He began the process of redeeming and transforming human nature.

What does this mean for us? St. Paul continues in the very next verse - "and you have this fullness in Him, Who is the head of all principality and power" (Col. 2:10). We possess the same fullness of the Godhead! That is rather astounding, but it is exactly what St. Paul wrote and taught. Because Christ took upon Himself our fallen human nature with all its weaknesses, redeemed and transformed it, He gives us the privilege of participating in His divine nature. And just as He did not lose His divine nature by taking up human nature, we do not lose our human nature and personhood by partaking of the divine nature. Christ is fully God and fully human, and we become fully human and fully divine - deified not in our essence, but by participating in the divine energies flowing from Christ. We do not lose our human personhood, but rather we are being transformed into the perfect human beings that Adam and Eve were before the Fall.

As mentioned in our last essay "Transformation," St. Peter wrote about this - "Seeing that His [Christ's] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue; by which He has granted to us His precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust" (2 Pet. 1:3-4). This is called sanctification, theosis or deification. Adam and Eve's sin brought death and corruption into the world. But corruption can be overcome by our partaking of the divine nature. Cheryl and I have seen the bodies of saints in Russia who died hundreds of years ago, and their bodies lie in the caskets incorrupt. There are stories of people seeing these saints at prayer glowing with the fiery light of transfiguration.

St. John of Damascus writes - "So then, He had by nature, both as God and as man, the power of will. But His human will was obedient and subordinate to His divine will, not being guided by its own inclination, but willing those things which the divine will willed. For it was with the permission of the divine will that He suffered by nature what was proper to Him. For when He prayed that He might escape the death, it was with His divine will naturally willing and permitting it that He did so pray and agonize and fear, and again when His divine will willed that His human will should choose the death, the passion became voluntary for Him. For it was not as God only, but also as man, that He voluntarily surrendered Himself to the death. And thus He bestowed on us also courage in the face of death." (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, p. 211, available for free at www.agape-biblia.org/literatura/.)

This is how we "become partakers of the divine nature": by submitting our human will to the divine will of Christ our God. We can voluntarily give up the desire for wealth, position and power. We can voluntarily identify with the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind, helping them overcome these obstacles to having the fullness of life in Christ. The path to transformation, glorification and sanctification is through humility and suffering, not through pride and power. This is how we become fully human, like Adam and Eve were before the Fall, and even more, because this new, transformed human nature will be fully mature, tried by the fire of the divine presence of Christ.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 03 Mar. 2016.)

Transformation

In June of last year I wrote an article on "Tradition and Transformation." God accepts us just as we are, but He does not want us to remain just as we were: His goal is to transform us into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. As Christians we have received a great treasure of spiritual truths: doctrines and rules for living that can transform our minds and our lives.

In his letter to the church at Rome, St. Paul wrote - "Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:1-2).

Whenever you see the word "Therefore" in the Bible, ask yourself - "What is it there for?" In this case it refers to the previous chapter, where Paul writes about God's eternal plan for mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, concluding with "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen" (Rom. 11:36). Origen commented on this verse - "Paul declares that God is the beginning of the substance of all things by the words 'of Him' and the bond of their subsistence by the expression “through Him” and their final end by the term 'to Him.'"

What is transformation all about? First of all, St. Paul contrasts it to being "conformed to this world." The opposite of transformation is being conformed to this world. The world - our family, schools, churches and our neighborhood - exert tremendous pressure on us to conform. Today I heard of a young man who had a 4.0 GPA in high school, but yielded to neighborhood pressure and began a life of crime.

This isn't the only kind of conformity, though. Modern forms of sub-par Christianity have inculcated in us the notion that the norm for Christians is to just go to church on Sundays, take communion, maybe say some prayers and/or read a snippet from the Bible (or maybe not) during the week, and leave the rest to the professionals - the clergy. After all, they're paid to be good, and we lay-people are good for nothing, right? Wrong!

This false notion is what St. Paul is writing against: the fear of breaking social conventions. Transformation is "breaking out of the box" that society puts us in by its pressures and expectations. The Greek word for "be transformed" is "metamorphoo". It's the same word used when Christ was transfigured - "After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and brought them up onto a high mountain privately by themselves, and he was transfigured in front of them" (Mark 9:2). It means "changed into another form", as when a caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly.

St. Paul again wrote about our being changed into Christ's image - "As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let us also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can't inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed" (1 Cor. 15:49-51). The Greek word for "image" here is "eikon" - we are to be changed into an icon of Christ, reflecting His glory!

St. Paul uses the word "metamorphoo" again when writing about having the Holy Spirit in us - "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:17-18). In the previous verses, Paul was writing about how Moses had to put a veil on his face after seeing the glory of the Lord God on Mt. Sinai. When he came down from the mountain, his face shone so much that the people couldn't stand to look at him, so he put a veil over his face.

Isn't this the kind of pressure we often experience? People in the world might say - "Don't be a holy Joe!" or "What are you, some kind of Jesus freak? These demeaning expressions make us want to conform to this world. But St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote - "Therefore, let no one be grieved if he sees in his nature a penchant for change. Changing in everything for the better, let him exchange 'glory for glory,' becoming greater through daily increase, ever perfecting himself and never arriving too quickly at the limit of perfection. For this is truly perfection: never to stop growing toward what is better and never placing any limit on perfection." Just as Christ was transfigured on Mt. Tabor and His divine glory shone forth, so we can also be transformed or transfigured into His image and likeness, shining forth His glory. We can change for the better!

Rather than being conformed to this world, let's be conformed to the image and glory of Christ - "For whom He [God] foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. Whom He predestined, those He also called. Whom He called, those he also justified. Whom He justified, those He also glorified" (Rom. 8:29-30). We may experience ridicule, social shaming or even persecution, but as St. Paul wrote - "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18). Let's go for the glory!

Our being transformed or transfigured into Christ's image is what St. Peter wrote about - "Seeing that His [Christ's] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue; by which He has granted to us His precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust" (2 Pet. 1:3-4). The Greek word for "partakers" is "koinonos", also used in 1 Cor. 10:18, the passage about communion, the Lord's Supper. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote: "When Christ’s body and blood become the tissue of our members, we become Christ-bearers and 'partakers of the divine nature,' as the blessed Peter said." How does this happen?

St. Peter continues - "Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control perseverance; and in perseverance godliness; and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love" (2 Pet. 1:5-7). These are the virtues, the godly habits, the lifestyle of the Christian who is being transformed, glorified and partaking of the divine nature!

So let's review the formula: diligence + faith + moral excellence + knowledge + self-control + perseverance + godliness + brotherly affection + love = glory, virtue and partaking of the divine nature. That's not so hard, is it?

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 24 Feb. 2016.)

OLD THINGS AND NEW, PART 2

In Luke 5:36-39 we read - "Jesus also told a parable to them: 'No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment, or else he will tear the new, and also the piece from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved. No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, "The old is better."'"

Matthew 9:22-23 and Mark 2:17-18 tell this same parable of Jesus, but they omit that last sentence: "No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, 'The old is better.'" This raises an interesting question: is the point of the parable that the new wine (the Gospel) is better - Matthew's and Mark's versions, or that the old wine (the law of Moses) is better - Luke's version?

The question goes deeper than that: should Christians worship in ways that stick to old forms of dress, language and music; or should they adopt new forms - blue jeans and Hawaiian shirts, recent slang expressions, and rock music? Certainly, Jesus Christ did not have the latter in mind when He spoke this parable! But to rephrase the question, is the Gospel of Christ a complete break with the Old Testament law, or does it carry over some aspects of the law of Moses? Let's take a look at some of the relevant Bible passages and writings of the Church Fathers:

Concerning Luke 5:36-39, St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote: "Those who live according to the law cannot receive the institutions of Christ. These institutions cannot be admitted into the hearts of such as have not as yet received the renewing by the Holy Spirit. The Lord shows this by saying that a tattered patch cannot be put upon a new garment, nor can old skins hold new wine. The first covenant has grown old, nor was it free from fault. Those, therefore, who adhere to it and keep at heart the antiquated commandment have no share in the new order of things in Christ. In him all things are become new, but their mind being decayed, they have no harmony or point of mutual agreement with the ministers of the new covenant." (Commentary on Luke, Homilies 21-22)

This week I've been reading the book of Leviticus: in chapters 1-23 Moses prescribed very detailed laws not only about the priesthood, worship and sacrifices of animals and grain, but also property rights, health and disease, sexual conduct, planting crops, weaving fabrics, treatment of slaves and resident foreigners and so on. We have incorporated some of the underlying basic principles into Christianity: the clergy must be held to stricter standards of purity, worship should occur in a specific holy place, no incest or marriage between close relatives, treating foreign refugees as equals if they adopt our culture and laws, etc.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that He is the fulfillment of the law of Moses, that His Gospel exceeds the O.T. law's righteousness: “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished. Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Mat. 5:17-20)

St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote: "Whoever sets aside one of the least of the commandments of the law should expect to be set aside as an inventor of laws opposed to God." St. Jerome commented: "Teachers’ learning, even if tainted by a small sin, demotes them from the highest degree. It does not profit them to teach a righteousness that they undermine by the slightest fault." And St. John Chrysostom penned these words: "After the coming of Christ we are favored with a greater strength than law as such." All of these Church Fathers understood that the Gospel did not do away with the O.T. law, but rather has set a higher standard.

St. Paul that the O.T. law is holy, righteous and good, but unable to change human nature: "Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin." (Rom. 7:12-14) He goes on to describe the inner struggle that humans experience, and the resolution in Christ:

"For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice. But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present. For I delight in God’s law after the inward man, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin." (Rom. 7:19-25)

Paul thanked through Jesus Christ, Who in chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Hebrews is called "a priest forever, after the order of Melchizidek," that is, Christ instituted a new priesthood, not from the line of Aaron and his sons, who needed to cleanse their own sins before they could intercede for the people of Israel. Thus we see that the New Testament and the Church Fathers clearly saw a carry-over of some elements from the Old Testament, not discarding them completely, but transforming them into something new, higher and greater.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 06 Feb. 2016.)

OLD THINGS AND NEW

In Matthew 13:52 we find a rather enigmatic saying of Jesus - "Therefore, every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder who brings out of his treasure old things and new." What does this mean? It comes at the very end of a chapter devoted to "Parables of the Kingdom" - The Sower and the Seed, The Wheat and the Tares, The Mustard Seed, The Pearl of Great Price, and The Dragnet.

Jesus did not abolish the Old Testament Law or the teaching of the Prophets; rather, He fulfilled them (Matthew 5:17). The Apostle Paul was well-versed in the Torah, he was "a Pharisee of the Pharisees." He was able to apply many of the stories and teachings of the Old Testament to the new era of the Gospel of Christ. Thank the Lord that we also have many great Church Fathers who can show us how to correctly apply the Old Testament teachings to the Christian era:

Origen wrote that such a scribe "has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven, in every word of the Old Testament and in all knowledge concerning the new teaching of Christ Jesus. He has these riches laid up in his own treasure house — in heaven, in which he stores his treasure as one who has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven. There neither moth consumes nor thieves break through and steal."

Cyril of Alexandria also explained this verse in a similar way: "A scribe is one who, through continual reading of the Old and New Testaments, has laid up for himself a storehouse of knowledge. Thus Christ blesses those who have gathered in themselves the education both of the law and of the gospel, so as to 'bring forth from their treasure things both new and old.'”

Gregory the Great, however, understood it as the summary of all these Kingdom Parables: "It was the old fate of the human race to descend into the gates of hell to suffer eternal punishment for its sins. But something was changed by the coming of the Mediator. If a person really desired to live uprightly here, one could attain to the kingdom of heaven and, even though earth-born, can depart from this perishable life and be given a place in heaven. The old fate was such that by way of punishment humankind could perish in eternal punishment. The new fate was such that, having been converted, humankind could live in the kingdom.

"And so we see that the Lord concluded his discourse as he began it. First he likened the treasure discovered in a field and the pearl of great value to the kingdom. Then he spoke of the punishments of the lower world and the burning of the wicked. Then he added in conclusion: 'So then, every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings forth from his storeroom things new and old.' It was as though he had said, 'That person is a learned preacher in the holy church who knows both how to bring forth new things about the delights of the kingdom and to speak old things about the terror of chastisement, so that punishments may fill with dread those not induced by rewards.'” (Forty Gospel Homilies)

It is certainly true that a "scribe who is a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven," a follower of Christ who studies and teaches the Holy Scriptures, must delve into the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. The Old Testament tells how the Lord God prepared a special people and a special revelation, the Law of Moses, to make the way ready for the coming Messiah. Although much of Old Testament teaching has been modified by the New Testament, the Old contains many, many sound principles for organization of society that we still practice today, and some we've discarded that we need to restore.

The Apostle Paul compared the Old Testament to the veil that the Israelites asked Moses to put on when he came down from receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai - "to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (2 Cor. 3:15-16). Thus we see he understood much of the Old Testament allegorically. As St. Paul wrote - "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). We have here a clean break between the Old and the New Testaments.

We have new life in Christ: this is the Pearl of Great Price. But at the same time we have great treasures of "both old things and new," both things in the Old Testament that need to be rightly understood in the light of the Gospel, as well as entirely new things revealed in the New Testament: God as our loving heavenly Father, Jesus the Messiah as the Son of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from God the Father. These were only vaguely hinted at in the Old Testament, but clearly made manifest in the New. We need to become "scribes of the Kingdom" by studying the rich treasures of the Church Fathers, discovering "both old things and new."

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 23 Jan. 2016.)

DOES GOD GIVE US A SECOND CHANCE?

The famous author C. S. Lewis once wrote - "At the final Judgment there will be just two kinds of people: those who said to God, 'Your will be done'; and those to whom God says, 'May your will be done.'" How many, many people there are who have heard the Gospel but think they can outsmart God, they can do whatever their stubborn, self-indulgent will decides, and then at the point in life when they no longer are driven by the passions of lust, gluttony, laziness, hate, etc., they can repent "at a more convenient time" and just barely squeak into heaven.

Does God give a "Second Chance" to such people? What about those who have never heard the Gospel? Is there a "Second Chance" for them after they die? Or is life just one big lottery, with just a few destined to win big, and the rest destined to lose the little they've wagered, even though they had hoped and believed they would win the bet? Tens of millions of people buy PowerBall tickets, firmly believing they will be the big winner. Fate or Freedom? The age-old question of predestination versus free will, with all its twists and turns, comes into play here.

Many people believe in predestination, especially if they believe they're among the "winners" who have "made a decision for Christ" and thus have eternal security - guaranteed eternal life that can never be taken away from them, all without ever paying for a ticket. It's sort of like winning the Publisher's Clearing House "Forever" Prize of $10,000 a week for as long as you live (which is not quite forever!). You have a greater chance of being hit by a meteor than of winning the sweepstakes. Of course, you'd never believe that you'll be struck by a meteor, so why believe that you'll win such a cosmic lottery?

But how many, many people have deceived themselves, fully believing they are saved forever just because they said the sinner's prayer, or were baptized, or take communion once or twice a year ...but later on in life they yielded to the passions and denied Christ? Predestinationists would say that such people were never truly saved in the first place. But that "true believer" was certain he was saved ...until he renounced his faith! Only God knows who are predestined to be saved: as for us finite human beings, we must live with our free will to choose to believe in Christ and follow Him for the rest of our lives. We've all heard of or even known first-hand great evangelists, missionaries and pastors who fell into grievous sin and denied their former faith. Will they get a "Second Chance" in eternity?

From the earliest times in Christianity, from the Apostles and their immediate successors the Apostolic Fathers and onward, we have the teaching that immediately after Christ died on the Cross, He descended into Hades and preached to all those in the realm of the dead. St. Peter wrote -

"Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and preached to the spirits in prison, who before were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you - not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:18-21).

And in 1 Peter 4:6 we read - "For to this end was the Gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed as men in the flesh, but live as to God in the spirit." St. Paul wrote - "Now this, 'He ascended,' what is it but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?" (Eph. 4:9). And again - "Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?" (1 Cor. 15:55), and "'Who will descend into the abyss?' - that is, to bring Christ up from the dead." (Rom. 10:7), "...having stripped the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 2:15). So there is ample New Testament written teaching, as well as oral teaching passed on by the Apostles to their successors, that Christ triumphed over Hades and Satan by descending into the realm of the dead and breaking asunder the chains and bars on the gates of hell that held them captive.

But in the west St. Augustine and John Calvin were perhaps the strongest proponents of predestination: eternal security for true believers, and eternal damnation for the unfortunate souls who maybe lived good lives but never heard the Gospel, or those innocents who died in infancy without being baptized in the Church. This has given rise to much rejection of Christianity or even outright atheism: "How could a loving God be so cruel as to damn to hell people, even innocent babies and right-living folks, who've never had a chance to hear the Gospel?"

What about those atheists like Stephen Hawking who may be embittered against God and reject Him because of terrible illness or injuries in their own lives? It has also given rise to the notion that because a totally sovereign god, such as Allah the god of Islam, predestines everything, then those who are that god's true believers must necessarily be doing their god's will, and thus everything they do - including mass murder, adultery, thievery and lying - is righteous because it is their god's will: whatever such a believer thinks or does is morally good. The same mentality exists with totalitarian ideologies such as communism and fascism: what the Party dictates is necessarily true and right. No! The ancient Church's doctrine of Christ's descent into Hades is the answer to all these totalitarian ideas and moral dilemmas.

The doctrine that Christ preached the Gospel even to the dead means that every human soul, including those innocent babies, people who never heard the Gospel, and those who were given only a distorted view of the Christian faith by a hate-filled judgmental person or a priest or pastor who turned out to be a sexual predator - all will have an opportunity to hear the pure Gospel preached by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Those souls who repent and gladly receive the truth will be taken to Paradise, including the Old Testament prophets and saints, as well as the righteous Gentiles - all who ever lived or ever will live will be given this opportunity. But those who, while living on earth, deliberately rejected the true Gospel and aligned themselves with Satan will continue to be with Satan for all eternity.

This is not "strong universalism" - the false teaching that all humanity will eventually be saved just because God loves everyone. Yes, it is God's will that "all men be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4), but some will continue to reject Christ due to their completely hardened hearts. There is an unforgivable sin - "whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" (Mark 3:29). And in Heb. 6:4-6 we read - "For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame." We must never think that we can deny the Lord, dance with the Devil, and not get burned!

So we call Christ's preaching to the souls in Hades a "weak universalism" - the Apostolic teaching that all mankind, the living and the dead, will clearly hear the Gospel of Christ and have an opportunity to repent, believe in Him, and be saved. We must never let this teaching lead to a lack of urgency to evangelize, or to not encourage believers to remain firm in their faith and their growth in the virtues that lead to holiness and theosis - becoming transformed into the likeness of the glorified Christ. Genuine faith is full commitment: "we commend ourselves and one another and all our lives to Christ our God," as we repeat several times in every Divine Liturgy service. "Commend" is another way of saying "commit." The Greek word for "believe" or "have faith" is pisteuo, which includes the idea of committing oneself to Christ, to live according to what we profess to believe. This leaves no room for those who claim to believe but think they can outsmart God and "continue to sin, that grace may abound. God forbid! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?" - wrote the Apostle Paul (Rom. 6:1-2).

Once we have heard the clear preaching of the Gospel, we can never hide behind the excuse - "God's not fair, He can't condemn those who have never heard!" No, that is a moot point for you who have heard the Gospel, as well as for all those dead who had heard or will have heard the Gospel from Christ's own lips. The atheist can no longer use this as an excuse for rejecting the existence of a supposedly "unjust" God. For "whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Rom. 10:11) - both the living and the dead. Thus there is a very limited "Second Chance"!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 09 Jan. 2016.)