What is Regeneration?

In my blogs on baptism, I have frequently mentioned that people are regenerated when they are baptized. The question, then, may arise as to what exactly is regeneration. The answer to the question can be found in the Holy Scriptures, in the writings of the Church Fathers, and in those of other ancient Christian writers.

In St. John's Gospel, we read that our Lord told Nicodemus:

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. (St. John 3:3)

We can see here that "being born again" or regenerated is essential to a person's eternal salvation. Without a new birth, one will not be able to enjoy eternal life in the Kingdom of God. This is what our Lord was telling Nicodemus.

Nicodemus asked our Lord:

How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? (St. John 3:4)

Nicodemus was asking Jesus how to be born again.

Jesus told him how. He said:

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (St. John 3:5-8)

The Lord told Nicodemus that we are born again when we are born of water and of the Holy Spirit. He was talking about baptism. When we are baptized, we are "born again." This is the teaching of the Church Fathers and ancient Christian writers.

For Christ, being the first-born of every creature, became again the chief of another race regenerated by Himself through water, and faith, and wood, containing the mystery of the Cross; even as Noah was saved by wood when he rode over the waters with his household. (The Dialogue of Justin with Trypho the Jew, Chapter CXXXVIII, by St. Justin the Martyr, 110-165 A.D., vol. 1, p. 268, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

“And dipped himself,” says [the Scripture], “seven times in Jordan.” (II Kings 5:14) It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but [it served] as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: “Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” (St. John 3:5) (Fragments of the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, Fragment XXXIV, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 543, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

Moreover, the things proceeding from the waters were blessed by God, that this also might be a sign of men’s being destined to receive repentance and remission of sins, through the water and laver of regeneration, — as many as come to the truth, and are born again, and receive blessing from God. (To Autolycus, Book II, chapter 16, by St. Theophilus of Antioch, 115-181 A.D., vol. 2, p. 101, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

The view I take is, that He Himself formed man of the dust, and regenerated him by water; and made him grow by His Spirit; and trained him by His word to adoption and salvation, directing him by sacred precepts; in order that, transforming earth-born man into a holy and heavenly being by His advent, He might fulfil to the utmost that divine utterance, “Let Us make man in Our own image and likeness.” (Gen. 1:26) (The Instructor, Book I, chapter 12, by Clement of Alexandria, 153-217 A.D., vol. 2, p. 234, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

But what a thing it is, to assert and contend that they who are not born in the Church can be the sons of God! For the blessed apostle sets forth and proves that baptism is that wherein the old man dies and the new man is born, saying, “He saved us by the washing of regeneration.” (Titus 3:5) (Epistle LXXIII, paragraph 6, by St. Cyprian of Carthage, 200-258 A.D., vol. 5, p. 388, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

These verily are they who are entrusted with the pangs of spiritual travail and the birth which comes through baptism: by their means we put on Christ, and are buried with the Son of God, and become members of that blessed Head. (A Treatise on the Priesthood, Book III, paragraph 6, by St. John Chrysostom, 347-407 A.D., vol. 9, p. 47, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series)

People who are from religious traditions that do not teach baptismal regeneration may think of this as being odd. They may wonder how can the water of baptism bring about the new birth. It is not the water. It is the Holy Spirit in the water. The Holy Spirit regenerates us in the waters of baptism. The water is supposed to be consecrated by prayer before performing a baptism. This is Holy Tradition. St. Basil the Great wrote about this apostolic tradition in his book, On the Holy Spirit.

Moreover we bless the water of baptism and the oil of the chrism, and besides this the catechumen who is being baptized. On what written authority do we do this? Is not our authority silent and mystical tradition? (On the Holy Spirit, chapter 27, by St. Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D., vol. 8, p. 41, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

The prescription to do this is not found anywhere in the Bible.

Regeneration is spiritual. It happens to our souls. Jesus said:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (St. John 3:6)

Clement of Alexandria wrote:

And as the regeneration was conformably spiritual, so also was the nutriment of man spiritual. (The Instructor, Book I, chapter 6, by Clement of Alexandria, 153-217 A.D., vol. 2, p. 221, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

When God regenerates someone's soul, it happens invisibly. No one can see the work of the Holy Spirit taking place in the waters of baptism. We know by faith that it does occur, because this is the true teaching of the Church. Jesus said:

Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (St. John 3:7,8)

When we are regenerated, we become children of God and we put away our former manner of life. We embrace a new life, living in obedience to God.

Truly, then, are we the children of God, who have put aside the old man, and stripped off the garment of wickedness, and put on the immortality of Christ; that we may become a new, holy people by regeneration, and may keep the man undefiled. (The Instructor, Book I, chapter 6, by Clement of Alexandria, 153-217 A.D., vol. 2, p. 217, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

Therefore, when the soul embraces the faith, being renewed in its second birth by water and the power from above, then the veil of its former corruption being taken away, it beholds the light in all its brightness. It is also taken up (in its second birth) by the Holy Spirit, just as in its first birth it is embraced by the unholy spirit. The flesh follows the soul now wedded to the Spirit, as a part of the bridal portion — no longer the servant of the soul, but of the Spirit. (A Treatise on the Soul, Chapter XLI, by Tertullian, 145-220 A.D., vol. 3, p. 221, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated ourselves to God when we had been made new through Christ; lest, if we omit this, we seem to be unfair in the explanation we are making. As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water. For Christ also said, “Except ye be born again, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (St. John 3:3) (The First Apology, Chapter LXI, by St. Justin the Martyr, 110-165 A.D., vol. 1, p. 183, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

Regeneration is not repentance and it is not faith. St. Peter told the Jews who witnessed the first Christians speaking in foreign languages that they had never studied:

Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2:38)

The Jews to whom St. Peter spoke had to repent before being baptized. When they were baptized, they were regenerated.

For an adult or teenager converting to Christ, repentance comes first along with faith in Christ. Then, baptism follows. It is in baptism that one experiences the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

The Ethiopian eunuch in the Book of Acts had faith in Christ before he was baptized by St. Philip the Deacon.

And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. (Acts 8:34-38)

So, it is possible to have faith in Christ and not be regenerate.

The children of Orthodox Christians are baptized shortly after they have been born. The 110th Canon of the Council of Carthage (419 A.D.) says:

Likewise it seemed good that whosoever denies that infants newly from their mother’s wombs should be baptized, or says that baptism is for remission of sins, but that they derive from Adam no original sin, which needs to be removed by the laver of regeneration, from whence the conclusion follows, that in them the form of baptism for the remission of sins, is to be understood as false and not true, let him be anathema.

For no otherwise can be understood what the Apostle says, “By one man sin is come into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed upon all men in that all have “sinned” (Rom. 5:12), than the Catholic Church everywhere diffused has always understood it. For on account of this rule of faith (regulam fidei) even infants, who could have committed as yet no sin themselves, therefore are truly baptized for the remission of sins, in order that what in them is the result of generation may be cleansed by regeneration. (Canon CX, Council of Carthage, 419 A.D., vol. 14, p. 496, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

As little babies, they are incapable of repentance and faith. They are not incapable of being regenerated, however.

So, repentance is not regeneration. Faith in Christ is not regeneration either. Repentance and faith in Christ are necessary for a person's salvation. The baptized children of Orthodox Christians need to be instructed in the Orthodox faith and they need to understand what sin is and repent when they sin. People outside the Church need to repent and have faith in Christ before they can be baptized. Regeneration, however, happens in the consecrated waters of baptism.

The Orthodox Church does not view the Fall of Man as being a total and complete fall, leaving man totally incapable of doing any good at all. Unregenerate men and women can still do good. Tertullian wrote:

Just as no soul is without sin, so neither is any soul without seeds of good. (A Treatise on the Soul, Chapter XLI, by Tertullian, 145-220 A.D., vol. 3, p. 221, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

However, unregenerate people cannot climb to the heights of spiritual sanctity that the Saints have reached. Regeneration makes one a child of God and enables one to advance further up the ladder of spiritual perfection. Jesus said:

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. (St. Matt. 5:20)

and:

Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven. (St. Matt. 7:21)

We must advance spiritually in order to gain admittance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Without regeneration, one can only advance to a certain level of goodness and go no higher.

The Pharisees were capable of doing good, but they were unregenerate. Jesus said:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. (St. Matt. 23:25,26)

It is possible to be outwardly good and inwardly evil. It is also possible to be good and have no relationship with Christ. St. Lydia of Thyatira worshiped God and was a good woman, but she was unregenerate. After she heard the Gospel preached by St. Paul, she believed in Christ and was baptized. She was unregenerate until she had been baptized.

And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us. (Acts 16:13-15)

St. Paul taught that we are regenerated when we are baptized.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. (Eph. 5:25,26)

But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. (Titus 3:4,5)

Baptism is not a work, by the way. It is a gift. St. John Chrysostom wrote the following text about baptism:

But, if you will, let us discourse about the name which this mystic cleansing bears: for its name is not one, but very many and various. For this purification is called the laver of regeneration. “He saved us,” he saith, “through the laver of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” (Titus 3:5) It is called also illumination, and this St. Paul again has called it, “For call to remembrance the former days in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great conflict of sufferings” (Heb. 10:32); and again, “For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and then fell away, to renew them again unto repentance.” (Heb. 6:4) It is called also, baptism: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.” (Gal. 3:27) It is called also burial: “For we were buried” saith he, “with Him, through baptism, into death.” (Rom. 6:4) It is called circumcision: “In whom ye were also circumcised, with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh.” (Col. 2:11) It is called a cross: “Our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away.” (Rom. 6:6) It is also possible to speak of other names besides these, but in order that we should not spend our whole time over the names of this free gift, come, return to the first name, and let us finish our discourse by declaring its meaning; but in the meantime, let us extend our teaching a little further. (Instruction to Catechumens, First Instruction, by St. John Chrysostom, 347-407 A.D., vol. 9, pp. 160-161, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series)

Notice that he called baptism a "free gift."

Regeneration of the soul is essential to our salvation. Tertullian wrote:

Every soul, then, by reason of its birth, has its nature in Adam until it is born again in Christ; moreover, it is unclean all the while that it remains without this regeneration (Rom. 6:4); and because unclean, it is actively sinful, and suffuses even the flesh (by reason of their conjunction) with its own shame. (A Treatise on the Soul, Chapter XL, by Tertullian, 145-220 A.D., vol. 3, p. 22o, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

When we are regenerated, our souls are renewed and cleansed. They are enabled to live the kind of life that God wants us to live and to reach greater heights of holiness and righteousness in life.

There is another regeneration — regeneration of the flesh. Baptism also is an aid in the regeneration of the flesh which will take place at the general resurrection of the dead when Jesus Christ returns to judge the world. In the writings of Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian this connection between baptism and the regeneration of the flesh is made.

And the wretched creatures are not ashamed at having bestowed the greatest pains about this little oyster, when they might adorn themselves with the sacred jewel, the Word of God, whom the Scripture has somewhere called a pearl, the pure and pellucid Jesus, the eye that watches in the flesh, — the transparent Word, by whom the flesh, regenerated by water, becomes precious. (The Instructor, Book II, chapter 13, by Clement of Alexandria, 153-217 A.D., vol. 2, p. 267, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

Now it would not at all have been consistent that any rule of holiness and righteousness should be especially enjoined for the flesh, if the reward of such a discipline were not also within its reach; nor could even baptism be properly ordered for the flesh, if by its regeneration a course were not inaugurated tending to its restitution; the apostle himself suggesting this idea: “Know ye not, that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ, are baptized into His death? We are therefore buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:3,4) And that you may not suppose that this is said merely of that life which we have to walk in the newness of, through baptism, by faith, the apostle with superlative forethought adds: “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of Christ’s death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Rom. 6:5) (On the Resurrection of the Flesh, Chapter XLVII, by Tertullian, 145-220 A.D., vol. 3, p. 580, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

The use of the word, regeneration, in reference to the resurrection of the dead can be found in the New Testament. Jesus used the word, "regeneration," in reference to the resurrection of the dead when speaking to His apostles. He said:

Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (St. Matt. 19:28)

Whence also the resurrection is actually spoken of as regeneration, according to the words of the Lord: “Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (St. Matt. 19:28) (Seven Books on the Incarnation of the Lord against Nestorius, Book V, chapter 7, by St. John Cassian, 360-436 A.D., vol. 11, p. 585, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

Illumination accompanies regeneration. When one is illumined, one is able to know God.

Straightway, on our regeneration, we attained that perfection after which we aspired. For we were illuminated, which is to know God. (The Instructor, Book I, chapter 6, by Clement of Alexandria, 153-217 A.D., vol. 2, p. 215, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

And inasmuch as man, with respect to that formation which, was after Adam, having fallen into transgression, needed the laver of regeneration, [the Lord] said to him [upon whom He had conferred sight], after He had smeared his eyes with the clay, “Go to Siloam, and wash” (St. John 9:7); thus restoring to him both [his perfect] confirmation, and that regeneration which takes place by means of the laver. And for this reason when he was washed he came seeing, that he might both know Him who had fashioned him, and that man might learn [to know] Him who has conferred upon him life. (Against Heresies, Book V, chapter 15, paragraph 3, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 543, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

To sum up, spiritual regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit that occurs in baptism. It is not repentance and it is not faith in Christ. It is possible to be a good person and be unregenerate. We need to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit in order to advance spiritually to the heights of holiness and righteousness that God call us to.

Steve

Bibliography

Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts

Becoming a Christian

People in modern times often join churches more easily than they did in ancient times. Usually what happens in many cases is that a non-Christian goes to a church and listens to a sermon. Then, he makes a decision at the end of the sermon to become a Christian. He goes forward during the altar call, talks to the pastor, reads some Bible verses with him, repents, and then is admitted as a member of the church. Sometime later, the pastor baptizes him.

In ancient times, it was more difficult for a non-Christian to become a Christian. He had to become a catechumen and then spend some time receiving instruction in the Christian faith. His religious instruction might last three years. There is evidence in the writings of the ancient Church Fathers that this was the practice. St. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian lived in the second century. Both of them mentioned the existence of catechumens in the Church in their writings.

For when the Greeks, having arrested the slaves of Christian catechumens, then used force against them, in order to learn from them some secret thing [practised] among Christians, these slaves, having nothing to say that would meet the wishes of their tormentors, except that they had heard from their masters that the divine communion was the body and blood of Christ, and imagining that it was actually flesh and blood, gave their inquisitors answer to that effect. Then these latter, assuming such to be the case with regard to the practices of Christians, gave information regarding it to other Greeks, and sought to compel the martyrs Sanctus and Blandina to confess, under the influence of torture, [that the allegation was correct]. To these men Blandina replied very admirably in these words: “How should those persons endure such [accusations], who, for the sake of the practice [of piety], did not avail themselves even of the flesh that was permitted [them to eat]? ” (Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, Fragment XIII, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 570, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

But he who culls what is useful for the advantage of the catechumens, and especially when they are Greeks [and the Earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof (I Cor. 10:26)], must not abstain from erudition, like irrational animals; but he must collect as many aids as possible for his hearers. But he must by no means linger over these studies, except solely for the advantage accruing from them; so that, on grasping and obtaining this, he may be able to take his departure home to the true philosophy, which is a strong cable for the soul, providing security from everything. (The Stromata, Book VI, chapter 11, by Clement of Alexandria, 153-217 A.D., vol. 2, p. 500, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

I affirm that not one of the Faithful has ever a crown upon his head, except at a time of trial. That is the case with all, from catechumens to confessors and martyrs, or (as the case may be) deniers. (The Chaplet, chapter 2, by Tertullian, 145-220 A.D., vol. 3, p. 93, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

Then Perpetua was received by a certain one who was still a catechumen, Rusticus by name, who kept close to her; and she, as if aroused from sleep, so deeply had she been in the Spirit and in an ecstasy, began to look round her, and to say to the amazement of all, “I cannot tell when we are to be led out to that cow.” And when she had heard what had already happened, she did not believe it until she had perceived certain signs of injury in her body and in her dress, and had recognised the catechumen. Afterwards causing that catechumen and the brother to approach, she addressed them, saying, “Stand fast in the faith, and love one another, all of you, and be not offended at my sufferings.” (The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas, chapter 6, by Tertullian, 145-220 A.D., vol. 3, p. 705, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

To many, nowadays, that may seem absurd to require someone to receive religious instruction for such a long period of time before being baptized. However, it really is not absurd. Think about what happens after one is baptized. After baptism, one is supposed to receive the Sacrament of Chrismation and be sealed with the Holy Spirit.* Many pastors do not do this today though. Afterwards, they receive Communion for the first time. According to the teaching of the Church Fathers, the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.**

St. Paul says:

Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. (I Cor. 11:27-30)

If someone were to partake of the Eucharist without realizing that it is Jesus Christ's Body and Blood under the appearance and form of Bread and Wine and without having properly prepared himself to receive Communion by prayer, fasting, and repentance, then he might eat and drink damnation to himself.

So, people need to learn about the Sacraments before receiving the Sacraments. That is one reason for have a period of religious instruction before baptism.

People also need to understand some things about God. I have met people who are members of various churches, but have some really strange and non-Christian views of God. I have met people who think of God as being everything. They confuse God's creation with God Himself. I have met people who do not even know that Jesus Christ is God, but they are members of a church that teaches that He is. I have even met preachers of certain churches who teach the people in their churches certain ancient heresies, not knowing that what they are teaching is heretical and not in the least bit Christian. For example, I have met some preachers who do not believe in the Virgin birth of Christ or the resurrection of the body when Christ returns to judge the world. These are very basic Christian doctrines that are found in the writings of the Church Fathers and even in some Protestant creedal statements, like the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and the New Hampshire Baptist Confession of 1833.*** This is another good reason for catechism — to make sure that people understand certain basic Orthodox Christian doctrines.

Actually, catechism classes were done by Protestant Churches after the Protestant Reformation. People had to become catechumens in a Protestant church before they were permitted to join the church. With the emergence of modern evangelical movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, catechism classes were largely done away with by many Protestant Churches.

The Orthodox Church still adheres to the ancient practice of catechism before receiving the Sacraments. For most people wanting to join an Orthodox church today, the catechumenate lasts anywhere from six months to a year. It may last longer, however. That is up to the discretion of the priest and bishop. The children of Orthodox Christian parents, however, are permitted to receive the Sacraments, but they must receive proper Orthodox religious instruction while they are growing up. I will talk about infant baptism in a later blog.

Steve

* They who are baptized must after Baptism be anointed with the heavenly chrism, and be partakers of the Kingdom of Christ. (Canon XLVIII, Council of Laodicea, met between 343 and 381 A.D., vol. 14, p. 154, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

Thereupon, they are first sealed or anointed with the holy oil upon the forehead, eyes, nostrils, mouth, and ears; and when we seal them, we say, “The Seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Canon VII, First Council of Constantinople, 381 A.D., vol. 14, p. 185, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

** They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. (Epistle to the Smynaeans, chapter VII, by St. Ignatius of Antioch, died in 107 or 110 A.D., vol. 1, p. 89, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

And this food is called among us Εὐχαριστία [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. (The First Apology of Justin, chapter LXVI, by St. Justin the Martyr, 110-165 A.D., vol. 1, p. 185, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

Then, again, how can they say that the flesh, which is nourished with the body of the Lord and with His blood, goes to corruption, and does not partake of life? Let them, therefore, either alter their opinion, or cease from offering the things just mentioned. But our opinion is in accordance with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinion. For we offer to Him His own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit. For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity. (Against Heresies, Book IV, chapter 18, paragraph 5, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 486, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

When, therefore, the mingled cup and the manufactured bread receives the Word of God, and the Eucharist of the blood and the body of Christ is made, from which things the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they affirm that the flesh is incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal, which [flesh] is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord, and is a member of Him? — even as the blessed Paul declares in his Epistle to the Ephesians, that “we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” (Eph. 5:30) He does not speak these words of some spiritual and invisible man, for a spirit has not bones nor flesh (St. Luke 24:39); but [he refers to] that dispensation [by which the Lord became] an actual man, consisting of flesh, and nerves, and bones, — that [flesh] which is nourished by the cup which is His blood, and receives increase from the bread which is His body. And just as a cutting from the vine planted in the ground fructifies in its season, or as a corn of wheat falling into the earth and becoming decomposed, rises with manifold increase by the Spirit of God, who contains all things, and then, through the wisdom of God, serves for the use of men, and having received the Word of God, becomes the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ; so also our bodies, being nourished by it, and deposited in the earth, and suffering decomposition there, shall rise at their appointed time, the Word of God granting them resurrection to the glory of God, even the Father, who freely gives to this mortal immortality, and to this corruptible incorruption (I Cor. 15:53), because the strength of God is made perfect in weakness (II Cor. 12:9), in order that we may never become puffed up, as if we had life from ourselves, and exalted against God, our minds becoming ungrateful; but learning by experience that we possess eternal duration from the excelling power of this Being, not from our own nature, we may neither undervalue that glory which surrounds God as He is, nor be ignorant of our own nature, but that we may know what God can effect, and what benefits man receives, and thus never wander from the true comprehension of things as they are, that is, both with regard to God and with regard to man. And might it not be the case, perhaps, as I have already observed, that for this purpose God permitted our resolution into the common dust of mortality, that we, being instructed by every mode, may be accurate in all things for the future, being ignorant neither of God nor of ourselves? (Against Heresies, Book V, chapter 2, paragraph 3, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 528, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

*** There is much still in those particular Protestant creedal documents that the Orthodox Church would disagree with, but some very basic doctrines, such as those of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin birth of Christ, and the resurrection of the body, are found in them.

Bibliography

Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts

Is There Salvation Outside the Church?

One lesson that we learn from the story of Noah's ark is that there is safety in the Church. Only eight people were saved from the waters of the Flood. Everyone who was not in the ark perished. The ark typifies the Church. Just as there was no salvation outside the ark, so there is no salvation outside the Church.

In explaining this concept, I need to first talk about salvation — what it is and what are we saved from. Then, I will explain the path to salvation. Finally, I will explain what exactly is the Church.

For many people, salvation is nothing more than having one's sins forgiven. The concern with many people is whether or not God accepts them. Forgiveness is part of the salvation package, but it is not the only part of the package. Freedom from the enslaving power of sin is also part of that salvation package. When we sin repeatedly, we become enslaved to sin. (St. John 8:34; Rom. 6:16,17; II Pet. 2:19) As servants of sin, we need to be set free from our sins. We need to become servants of righteousness and not sin. (Rom. 6:18-22) This is a lifelong process. It is not something that happens instantaneously after saying a short prayer. It requires work and discipline. So, becoming a holy and righteous person in one's life is also part of the salvation package. Another problem that we have is that we die. Our bodies are mortal, but are souls are immortal. Actually, we all have started dying from the very moment that we were born. Our bodies need to be saved from death. They need to be made immortal. The deliverance of our bodies from corruption and mortality is also part of the salvation package.

I will deal with the first part of the salvation package now. We all sin and we do need God to forgive us. God has already sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins. (Heb. 10:12; I John 4:14) Jesus died on the Cross and bore our sins in His body. (I Pet. 2:24) He carried them to the Father and the Father forgave us. (Col. 1:14) Jesus and the Holy Spirit forgave us, too. (Col. 3:13; II Cor. 5:19; 13:14) There is, therefore, forgiveness for those who sin. However, under the New Covenant, God forgives people's past sins at their baptisms. (Acts 2:38; 22:16) Baptism is a Sacrament of the Church. One cannot receive baptism unless one first goes to church. So, the Church is important in receiving forgiveness of sins.

Baptism is also important in helping us live the life that God wants us to live. When we are baptized, our fallen natures are regenerated so that we can more easily obey God's commandments.

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. (St. John 3:5)

After one is baptized, one must be chrismated. Chrismation is the Sacrament of the Church that is given to those who have been newly baptized. It is important that one be chrismated so that one can be sealed with the Holy Spirit. (II Cor. 1:21,22; Eph. 4:30) This sealing of the Holy Spirit helps one to effectively fight the spiritual battle against the devil, the world, and fleshly desires. An unchrismated person is ill-equipped to fight the ongoing spiritual battle over his or her soul. One can only receive chrismation in the Church.

Another thing the Holy Spirit does is give life to our mortal bodies. (Rom. 8:11) We need the Holy Spirit so that our bodies can become immortal in the general resurrection of the dead at Christ's return.

Then, there is the Eucharist. After one receives baptism and chrismation, one receives the immortal, resurrected Body and Blood of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is for the healing of soul and body. When we receive the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ becomes part of our bodies. By becoming part of our bodies, we become part of our Lord's body. St. Paul said:

For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. (Eph. 5:30)

and:

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? (I Cor. 6:15)

Just as He was resurrected, so then all those who are united to Him in the Eucharist will be resurrected after they die. One receives not just part of Jesus in the Eucharist. One receives all of Him. We receive His soul, His body, His humanity, His divinity — all of Him. So, He heals not only our bodies when we receive Him, but also our souls. In order to receive the Eucharist, one needs to go to church.

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. (St. John 6:53,54)

As we live our lives, we are faced with temptations. We commit sins and we need forgiveness of these sins. We may even become enslaved to new sins after our baptisms. To fight these spiritual battles and gain victory over temptations and habitual sins, we must do what the Church prescribes for us to do — fasting, prayer, Bible reading, Confession, Eucharist, obedience.

Fasting is something that Jesus and the apostles did. (St. Matt. 4:1-11; Acts 13:2; II Cor. 6:1-5) We fast in order to be able to win our battles against Satan, his demons, and our own fleshly desires.

Prayer is talking with God. We need to pray daily. There are different types of prayer. There is liturgical prayer, that is, praying the prayers in an Orthodox prayer book. This is a spiritual discipline. By practicing liturgical prayer, we exercise our souls. We do a spiritual work-out, just like an athlete does a physical work-out when he does physical exercises. There is also spontaneous prayer. This is praying off of the tops of our hearts. It is a free form of prayer. Our spontaneous prayers are greatly improved when we practice liturgical prayer. So, we should not only pray spontaneously, but also liturgically. Then, there is the Jesus Prayer: "O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner." This is a prayer that we should pray as we go through the day. If we pray the prayer enough times, it will become a background prayer in our subconscious minds.

Then, there are the prayers to the Saints, angels, and the Mother of God. We need to remember that they know what we are doing and want to help us. (Heb. 12:1,2,22,23; St. Luke 15:10) They help us by praying for us. Talking to the Saints and the angels in prayer is actually quite Scriptural. In the Book of Daniel, the three holy children say to some of the Old Testament Saints:

O ye spirits and souls of the righteous, bless ye the Lord: praise and exalt Him above all for ever. (Dan. 4:87, LXX; Song of the Three Holy Children 64, Protestant Apocrypha)

In the Psalms, the Psalmists Aggaeus and Zacharias say to the angels:

Praise ye Him, all His angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts. (Psalm 148:2, LXX)

Having séances to raise the dead is, of course, forbidden.

There shall not be found in thee one who purges his son or his daughter with fire, one who uses divination, who deals with omens, and augury, a sorcerer employing incantation, one who has in him a divining spirit, and observer of signs, questioning the dead. (Deut. 18:10,11, LXX)

I once read a story about a young Russian girl who had ventured out into the woods by herself. She met a man in the woods who tried to rape her. He was unsuccessful, though. As the young girl struggled against her attacker, she continued to pray a prayer to the Mother of God. She prayed the Kontakion of the Feast of the Annunciation — a prayer that is also prayed in Orthodox evening prayers.

"To thee, O Mother of God, victorious leader of the triumphant hosts, we, thy servants, delivered from evil, sing our grateful thanks: but since thou possessest invincible might, set us free from every calamity, that we may cry unto thee: Hail, O Bride Unwedded. Most glorious ever-virgin Mother of Christ our God, bring our prayer to thy Son and our God, that by thee He might save our souls. All my hope I lay upon thee, Divine Mother, preserve me beneath thy protection. O Virgin Mother of God, despise me not, a sinner, who seek thy help and thine intercession; for in thee hath my soul hoped; have mercy upon me," the young girl prayed repeatedly.

As she continued to pray, a woman appeared and shook her finger at the man who was trying to rape her. The man became frightened and left the young girl alone.

Later, the man who tried to rape this young Russian girl went to her house. When he walked in, he saw an icon of the Mother of God on a table in her home. He pointed to the icon and said to the girl, "There she is. She is the one I saw when I tried to hurt you."

The lesson from this story is plain. We do need heavenly help. We need help from God. That is true, but God often provides us help through His Saints, angels, and the Most Holy Theotokos.

We need to make friends in high places and talk to them as well as to God. They are part of the Church. So then, even when we are not in church, even when we are alone by ourselves, the Church is still present with us through the Saints and angels. We need the Church.

Reading the Bible is also important. In the Bible we see what is God's will for our lives. We see how He wants us to live our lives. We see what kind of people we must strive to be if we want the second part of the salvation package — holiness and righteousness of life. However, we still need the Church. The Church is the "pillar and ground of the truth." (I Tim. 3:15) The Church helps us understand the Bible rightly. If we read the Bible without the Church's guidance, we might get the wrong interpretation and start believing things that are not true.

The Sacrament of Repentance is also important. We can ask God to forgive our sins in our personal prayers at home. Many of the prayers in the prayer book contain petitions to God to remit our sins. Even the Lord's Prayer is like this. In it, we pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." (St. Matt. 6:12) However, we need accountability to someone. Otherwise, we might have a tendency to continue committing the same sins over and over again. We need a priest to hear our confessions. In the Sacrament of Repentance, we receive absolution. Our sins are remitted. (St. John 20:23) We also receive spiritual guidance. Confession is good for the soul. Once again, we need the Church.

I have already mentioned the Eucharist and how important it is for our salvation. Obedience is the next thing we need to practice. After all, those who want salvation are trying to become obedient to God. Jesus said:

He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him. (St. John 14:21)

To understand how important obedience is, think about this example. There is a man who commits fornication with women. He is a "Romeo" kind of guy — one who has no trouble seducing a woman. He becomes a Christian and is baptized. All of his sins are forgiven. However, he goes back to being what he was. He continues to seduce women. He continues to commit fornication. Every time he does it, he says, "God forgive me." He feels guilty one day and confides in someone about his sins. His confidant tells him that he is "saved by grace." This person explains to him that "God sees him through the blood of Jesus." The man continues to think that he is "saved," but he still fornicates with women. He is enslaved to the sin of fornication. One day, the man dies in a car accident. Is he really saved?

Forgiven, but not being made holy. He has part of the salvation package, but not the rest of it; and actually, the part of the package he thought he had — the forgiveness part, he did not have at all. St. Paul said that fornicators are excluded from the Kingdom of God and that they are under God's judgment.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. (I Cor. 6:9,10)

But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. (Heb. 13:4)

He said that people who sow to the flesh, like the fornicator was doing when he was indulging in his carnal desires, reap corruption and not everlasting life. They will be in the resurrection of the unrighteous and not in the resurrection of the just when Christ returns.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Gal. 6:7,8)

As for the forgiveness part of the salvation package, all of the fornicator's past sins are now remembered by God on account of him returning to his old sinful way of living. God now rewards him for none of his righteous deeds that he did after his baptism.

But when the righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, according to all the transgressions which the transgressor has wrought, none of his righteousness which he has wrought shall be at all remembered: in his trespass wherein he has trespassed, and in his sins wherein he has sinned, in them shall he die. (Ezek. 18:24, LXX)

Now, I will deal with the question: What is the Church? The Church is not made up of just one individual. It is made up of many. So, the so-called "stay-at-home" Christian is not a church by himself.

Each member of the Church is a Christian. Christians acknowledge that Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. So, Jews are not part of the Church. They do not believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Christians worship the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So then, Unitarians and Muslims are also not part of the Church.

In the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed it says that there is "one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church." The Church is holy. It is the Bride of Christ. (II Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7-9; 22:17) So, she is special to Him. The Church is catholic. Catholic means universal. It also means complete. The Church is made up of people from many different ethnic backgrounds. It is not confined to just one particular nation. There are Russians, Greeks, Arabs, Serbs, Americans, British, French, Irish, Mexicans, and all sorts of other people who make up the Church. The Church is complete in the sense that it has everything we need for our salvation: the Sacraments, the assistance of the Saints and angels, the Divine Liturgy and the other liturgical services, the clergy, and many other things. The Church is apostolic. It has bishops that can trace their lineage of ordination all the way back to the apostles. The Church did not begin in the 16th century, nor did it originate in the 19th century. It began in the first century after Jesus ascended into Heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples. The Church is also apostolic in the sense that it continues to teach the apostolic faith. It is possible to verify that it is doing so by comparing its teachings with those of the majority of the Church Fathers and all of the Ecumenical Church Councils.

The question may, then, arise as to the salvation of those outside the Church. There is salvation in the Church. That is definitely true. The Orthodox Church, however, does not have an official statement on the subject of whether or not anyone outside the visible Church can be saved as far as I know. I have asked a priest about this once and he told me that some say that only the faithful Orthodox will be saved, others say that everyone but the Orthodox will be saved (That I think is a statement made in humility.), and others say that the faithful Orthodox will be saved along with some others who have an invisible connection to the Church known only to God.

There are two Bible verses that are often used by Orthodox when talking about the possible salvation of those outside of the visible Church.

Judge not, that ye be not judged. (St. Matt. 7:1)

and:

But them that are without God judgeth. (I Cor. 5:13)

We say in response to such a question, "We do not judge them. God judges them."

We have to remember that God loves everyone (Wisd. 11:24; St. John 3:16) and desires that everyone be saved. (I Tim. 2:4; II Pet. 3:9) So, maybe God does have some way of saving those outside of the visible Church. However, we do not know for a fact that He does. Out of love for our fellow man, we Orthodox should, of course, still desire everyone's salvation, but no, it is not all right for someone to pursue his or her salvation outside of the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. We should still point them in our direction. We should try to lead them to the Orthodox Christian faith. The Church is the Ark of Salvation and there is safety in the Ark.

Steve

The Incarnation of God the Word: Healing Our Humanity

Due to Adam's transgression in the Garden of Eden, all of humanity has been plagued with a fallen nature. This fallen nature has a tendency to sin. It also possesses mortality. It dies.

In Psalm 50, it says:

For, behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 50:5, LXX)

From the moment of conception in the Fallopian tube, there exists in man a tendency to sin.

Everyone also receives mortality from the moment of conception. In Ecclesiasticus, it says:

Rejoice not over thy greatest enemy being dead, but remember that we die all. (Ecclesiasticus 8:7)

All flesh waxeth old as a garment: for the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the death. (Ecclesiasticus 14:17)

Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die. (Ecclesiasticus 25:24)

and in Romans, St. Paul said that "death passed upon all men." (Rom. 5:12) In Hebrews, the apostle said:

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. (Heb. 9:27)

That part of man that dies is the body and not the soul. God creates our souls at the moment of conception. In Zechariah, it says:

The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel; saith the Lord, that stretches out the sky, and lays the foundation of the Earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. (Zech. 12:1, LXX)

Forasmuch as he knew not his Maker, and Him that inspired into him an active soul, and breathed in a living spirit. (Wisdom 15:11)

In Jeremiah, it says:

Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee; I appointed thee a prophet to the nations. (Jer. 1:5, LXX)

God knew Jeremiah before He formed Him in his mother's womb. God knew the prophet at the moment of conception. We should not interpret this verse to be teaching the doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul. Instead, we should be interpreting it to mean that God creates our souls at the moment of conception. In its Anathemas against Origen, the Fifth Ecumenical Council of the Church said:

If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema. (First Anathema against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 318, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

The immortality of the soul is taught in the Psalms. In the 29th Psalm, it says:

O Lord my God, I will give thanks to Thee for ever. (Psalm 29:12, LXX)

In God will we make our boast all the day, and to Thy name will we give thanks for ever. (Psalm 43:8, LXX)

I will dwell in Thy tabernacle for ever. (Psalm 60:4, LXX)

King David believed that he would continue to thank God even after his death. He believed that he would live in God's heavenly tabernacle forever. So then, the death of his body is not the cessation of his existence as a person. His soul continues to exist after his body has died and deteriorated.

The immortality of the soul is also taught in the Book of Revelation. The souls of the martyrs still have consciousness. They are said to be under the altar in Heaven crying out to God for justice.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth? (Rev. 6:9,10)

St. Paul, while in prison, wrote to the Philippian Christians and said that if he were to die, he would be with Christ.

For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. (Phil. 1:23,24)

The apostle clearly believed that his soul would survive the death of his body.

The mortality that "has passed upon all men" is transmitted to the bodies of all of Adam's descendants and not to their created souls.

In the Book of Proverbs, it says:

Wisdom has built a house for herself, and set up seven pillars. (Prov. 9:1, LXX)

St. Gregory of Nyssa interpreted this verse to refer to the Incarnation of the Word of God.

But we say that in the earlier part of the book, where he says that “Wisdom has builded herself a house” (Prov. 9:1), he refers darkly in, these words to the preparation of the flesh of the Lord: for the true Wisdom did not dwell in another’s building, but built for Itself that dwelling-place from the body of the Virgin. (Against Eunomius, Book III, chapter 2, by St. Gregory of Nyssa, 331-395 A.D., vol. 5, p. 140, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

There are other Church Fathers who, likewise, interpreted this verse to be a prophecy of in the Incarnation of God the Word.

The Second Person of the Trinity took mortal flesh from the Virgin Mary and fashioned Himself a body in her womb. He also created for Himself an immortal soul. He went through all the stages of physical development that we do.

Wherefore also He passed through every stage of life, restoring all to communion with God. (Against Heresies, Book III, chapter 18, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202, A.D., vol. 1, p. 448, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

So then, Christ developed in His mother's body as a single one-celled zygote possessing a human soul. His human soul did not exist before His mother conceived Him. He created it at the moment of His conception.

If anyone says or thinks that the soul of the Lord pre-existed and was united with God the Word before the Incarnation and Conception of the Virgin, let him be anathema. (Second Anathema of the Emperor Justinian against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 320, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

If anyone says or thinks that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was first formed in the womb of the holy Virgin and that afterwards there was united with it God the Word and the pre-existing soul, let him be anathema. (Third Anathema of the Emperor Justinian against Origen, Second Council of Constantinople, 553 A.D., vol. 14, p. 320, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

He developed in His mother's womb as any other human baby would.

Human babies sin from a day old.

For who shall be pure from uncleanness? Not even one; if even his life should be but one day upon the Earth. (Job 14:4,5, LXX)

Although human in every respect that we are, Jesus never sinned even as a baby.

For before the Child shall know good or evil, He refuses evil, to choose the good. (Isaiah 7:16, LXX)

St. Paul said that He "knew no sin." (II Cor. 5:21) St. Peter said He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (I Peter 2:22) St. John said that "in Him is no sin." (I John 3:5)

Jesus Christ upbraided the Pharisees for being self-righteous.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (St. Matt. 23:25-28)

He told a young, rich man:

Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but One, that is, God. (St. Matt. 19:17)

Yet, He told the Jews who refused to follow Him.

And He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him. (St. John 8:29)

He even claimed to be God. (St. John 8:56-58; 10:27-33)

So, the Second Person of the Trinity assumed a human nature, but He did not assume sin. The human nature that He assumed was in all respects like ours.

In the epistles of St. Paul, we learn that Jesus Christ took human flesh that is like ours in all respects. In Romans, the apostle wrote:

For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:  that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Rom. 8:3,4)

Jesus' body was in the "likeness of sinful flesh." However, it was not sinful flesh. In Hebrews, St. Paul wrote:

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Heb. 2:14,15)

He partook of the same flesh and blood that we have. St. Paul also wrote in this epistle that He was made like us in all respects.

For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted. (Heb. 2:16-18)

In Philippians, he said:

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. (Phil. 2:4-8)

Jesus Christ was made in the "likeness of men" and was "found in fashion as a Man." He was human like we are. He assumed our humanity and He healed it. That is one of the things He did for our salvation through the Incarnation. This is the teaching of the ancient Christian writer Tertullian and the Church Fathers.

Thus, then, was the Word of God made man, as also Moses says: “God, true are His works.” (Deut. 32:4, LXX) But if, not having been made flesh, He did appear as if flesh, His work was not a true one. But what He did appear, that He also was: God recapitulated in Himself the ancient formation of man, that He might kill sin, deprive death of its power, and vivify man; and therefore His works are true. (Against Heresies, Book III, chapter 18, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 448, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

We maintain, moreover, that what has been abolished in Christ is not carnem peccati, “sinful flesh,” but peccatum carnis, “sin in the flesh,” — not the material thing, but its condition; not the substance, but its flaw; and (this we aver) on the authority of the apostle, who says, “He abolished sin in the flesh.” (Rom. 8:3) Now in another sentence he says that Christ was “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” (Rom. 8:3), not, however, as if He had taken on Him “the likeness of the flesh” in the sense of a semblance of body instead of its reality; but he means us to understand likeness to the flesh which sinned, because the flesh of Christ, which committed no sin itself, resembled that which had sinned, — resembled it in its nature, but not in the corruption it received from Adam; whence we also affirm that there was in Christ the same flesh as that whose nature in man is sinful. In the flesh, therefore, we say that sin has been abolished, because in Christ that same flesh is maintained without sin, which in man was not maintained without sin. (On the Flesh of Christ, chapter 16, by Tertullian, 145-220 A.D., vol. 3, p. 535, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

Moreover, the capital element of our salvation is the incarnation of the Word. We believe, therefore, that it was without any change in the Divinity that the incarnation of the Word took place with a view to the renewal of humanity. (A Sectional Confession of Faith, Article VI, by St. Gregory the Wonder-Worker, 205-265 A.D., vol. 6, pp. 41-42, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

For the good which “the law” of nature “could not do, in that it was weak,” being overcome by the lust which lies in the body, God gave strength to accomplish, “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3); so that sin being condemned, to its destruction, so that it should never bear fruit in the flesh, the righteousness of the law of nature might be fulfilled, abounding in the obedience of those who walk not according to the lust of the flesh, but according to the lust and guidance of the Spirit; “for the law of the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2), which is the Gospel, being different from earlier laws, leading by its preaching to obedience and the remission of sins, delivered us from the law of sin and death, having conquered entirely sin which reigned over our flesh. (From The Discourse on the Resurrection, A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words on the Same Discourse, chapter 3, by St. Methodius of Patara, 260-312 A.D., vol. 6, p. 373, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

For therefore did He assume the body originate and human, that having renewed it as its Framer, He might deify it in Himself, and thus might introduce us all into the Kingdom of Heaven after His likeness. (Four Discourses Against the Arians, Discourse II, by St. Athanasius the Great, 296-373 A.D., vol. 4, p. 386, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

Hence it is evident that our Lord assumed the natural affections to establish His real incarnation, and not by way of semblance of incarnation, and that all the affections derived from evil that besmirch the purity of our life, He rejected as unworthy of His unsullied Godhead. It is on this account that He is said to have been “made in the likeness of flesh of sin” (Rom. 8:3); not, as these men hold, in likeness of flesh, but of flesh of sin. It follows that He took our flesh with its natural afflictions, but “did no sin.” (I Pet. 2:22) Just as the death which is in the flesh, transmitted to us through Adam, was swallowed up by the Godhead, so was the sin taken away by the righteousness which is in Christ Jesus, so that in the resurrection we receive back the flesh neither liable to death nor subject to sin. (Letter CCLXI, paragraph 3, by St. Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D., vol. 8, p. 300, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

Yet who of those who are conversant with the oracles of God does not know with regard to what point of time it was said of Him by the mighty Paul, (and that once for all), that He “became obedient”? (Phil. 2:8) For it was when He came in the form of a servant to accomplish the mystery of redemption by the Cross, Who had emptied Himself, Who humbled Himself by assuming the likeness and fashion of a man, being found as man in man’s lowly nature — then, I say, it was that He became obedient, even He Who “took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses” (St. Matt. 8:17), healing the disobedience of men by His own obedience, that by His stripes He might heal our wound, and by His own death do away with the common death of all men, — then it was that for our sakes He was made obedient, even as He became “sin” and “a curse” by reason of the dispensation on our behalf (II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13), not being so by nature, but becoming so in His love for man. (Against Eunomius, Book II, chapter 11, by St. Gregory of Nyssa 331-395 A.D., vol. 5, p. 121, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

The fact, therefore, that at the time appointed, according to the purpose of His will, Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, and buried was not the doom necessary to His own condition, but the method of redeeming us from captivity. For “the Word became flesh” (St. John 1:14) in order that from the Virgin’s womb He might take our suffering nature, and that what could not be inflicted on the Son of God might be inflicted on the Son of Man. For although at His very birth the signs of Godhead shone forth in Him, and the whole course of His bodily growth was full of wonders, yet had He truly assumed our weaknesses, and without share in sin had spared Himself no human frailty, that He might impart what was His to us and heal what was ours in Himself. For He, the Almighty Physician, had prepared a two-fold remedy for us in our misery, of which the one part consists of mystery and the other of example, that by the one Divine powers may be bestowed, by the other human weaknesses driven out. Because as God is the Author of our justification, so man is a debtor to pay Him devotion. (Sermon LXVII, chapter V, by St. Leo the Great, 390-461 A.D., vol. 12, part 1, p. 179, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

The very human nature that was made spiritually ill through Adam's fall into sin was restored to health when Christ assumed it. St. Leo the Great said that our humanity could not have been healed unless the Word of God had taken flesh from the Virgin Mary's womb.

To set food before the hungry denotes human kindness and a philanthropic spirit: but with five loaves and two fishes to satisfy 5,000 men, besides women and children, who would dare deny that to be the work of Deity? A Deity which, by the co-operation of the functions of true flesh, showed not only itself in Manhood, but also Manhood in itself; for the old, original wounds in man’s nature could not be healed, except by the Word of God taking to Himself flesh from the Virgin’s womb, whereby in one and the same Person flesh and the Word co-existed. (Sermon XLVI, chapter II, by St. Leo the Great, 390-461 A.D., vol. 12, part 1, p. 159, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

St. John of Damascus, speaking of the Incarnation, said:

For what has not been taken cannot be healed. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book III, chapter 6, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, p. 50, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

So, if Jesus Christ did not assume a fallen human nature like ours, then He did not heal it. Since He did heal our fallen human nature through the Incarnation, He did assume a fallen human nature like ours. He did not assume sin, however. He took fallen, mortal human flesh from His Virgin Mother and sanctified it.

This brings me to comment on another point in which we disagree with Western Christians: the Roman dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary and the Protestant view of Christ's Incarnation.

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is rejected by the Orthodox Church for two basic reasons. For one thing, it is unnecessary. We inherit death and a tendency to sin from Adam but not the guilt of Adam's sin. (Ezek. 18:20) So, the Most Holy Theotokos could not transmit the guilt of Adam's sin to her Son Jesus Christ. It is unnecessary, therefore, to have a dogma that says that her conception in her mother's womb is in some way different than everyone else's.* The other reason for rejecting this dogma is that if the Virgin Mary did not possess a fallen human nature, then she could not have transmitted that to her Son so that He could heal it of sin through His Incarnation. "For what has not been taken cannot be healed." The teaching of the Church Fathers is that Jesus Christ healed our human nature through the Incarnation. He assumed a fallen human nature like ours, healed it, and sanctified it. He did not assume sin, but He "healed our disobedience through His obedience."

The Protestants, on the other hand, say that the guilt of Adam's sin is transmitted to children by the father and not by the mother. So, in their view, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin woman in order to avoid being guilty of Adam's sin. The Orthodox Church says that the only one guilty of Adam's sin is Adam. Therefore, no one but Adam himself is guilty of his sin. The transmission of a fallen nature and mortality comes from women as well as from men. The Virgin Mary possessed both and transmitted them to her Son so that He could save us.

Jesus Christ had to assume a fallen human nature in order to heal it. He had to assume mortality in order to abolish death (II Tim. 1:10) through His death. (St. John 10:15; Rom. 5:8; II Cor. 5:15)

Steve

* What I have written should in no way be interpreted as demeaning our Lady. The Orthodox Church sees her as being the Great Example and not the Great Exception. She is the Most Exalted of God's creatures and the Chief of Saints. It is the teaching of the Orthodox Church that she fully cooperated with God. She is "full of grace." (St. Luke 1:28) She is the best of all humanity. She is like us, but the best of us.

Bibliography

Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts