An Instruction for the Thirtieth Sunday: On Salvation and Perfection

“If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Mt 19:17), our Lord Jesus Christ said to a certain young man, who, as we heard in the Gospel read to us today, asked the Lord: “Good Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” (Lk 18:18)—that is, what must I do that is good, that I may be saved? When the one who asked asked again: What commandments are these?—the Lord pointed him to the commandments of God concerning his neighbor, as he was a Jew who believed in the true God. The young man answered that he had kept all these commandments, and then asked again: “What do I still lack?”—what else do I lack? The Lord said: “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me, and take up your cross” (Mt 19:20-21; Mk 10:21; Lk 18:22).

From the Lord’s answers to the young man, we are taught that two blessed states are prepared by the Lord for those who believe in Him: the state of salvation and the state of Christian perfection. From these same answers of the Lord, it is evident with complete clarity that the blessed state of salvation is accessible to all Christians in general; but perfection can be obtained only by those Christians who at the same time distribute their possessions to the poor and, having separated themselves from all ties with the world, follow Christ, having taken up the cross—that is, having voluntarily subjected themselves with zeal and love to all deprivations, all ignominies and misfortunes that will be permitted them, as is fitting for true members of Christ, rejecting all justifications presented by carnal reasoning, hostile to Christ, hostile to the bearing of the cross.

Brethren! First, let us consider what the conditions of salvation consist of, since the attainment of salvation is desired by all Christians and is accessible to all Christians. Above, we mentioned that the Lord taught His most holy teaching to a Jew who believed in the true God, for which reason He enumerated only the commandments concerning one’s neighbor, not mentioning faith, about which the Lord spoke on other occasions. It is necessary for one desiring to be saved to believe in God, Creator and Redeemer. “This is eternal life”,“ said our Saviour, ”“that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3). “Whoever believes in the Son” (of God) “has eternal life; but whoever rejects the Son will not see life”, that is, will not attain salvation, “but God’s wrath remains on him” (Jn 3:36). It is necessary for one desiring to be saved to belong to the Orthodox Church, the one true Church, and to obey its ordinances. The Lord compared one who disregards the Church to a pagan, estranged from God (Mt 18:17). Each of us, when reciting the Creed, confesses that he believes in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, confesses, consequently, that apart from this one Church there is no other Church, and still less are there other churches, even if different human societies claim the name of Church for themselves. It is necessary for one desiring to be saved to be baptized in the bosom of the Orthodox Church in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as the Lord Himself said: “Whoever has faith and has been baptized will be saved; but whoever has no faith will be condemned” (Mk 16:16). It should be noted that in Greek, the language in which the Apostles wrote the entire New Testament, the word “baptism” (baptisma) in the precise sense means “immersion.” Everywhere in the New Testament where the words “baptism, to baptize, was baptized, baptized” are used, one should understand immersion, to immerse, was immersed, immersed. For this reason the immersion of vessels in water, as is customary for washing dishes, is called in the Gospel: the baptism of vessels (Mk 7:8). Throughout the universe, the holy sacrament of Baptism was performed by immersion for twelve centuries after the Birth of Christ; from the twelfth century in the West they began to use sprinkling instead of immersion; later, in some Western societies, sprinkling was replaced by aspersion. It is necessary for one desiring to be saved to repent of one’s sins and to cleanse them through confession, as Sacred Scripture testifies: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:8-9).

The Sacrament of Repentance sustains and renews the purity acquired at Baptism, sustains and renews our union with Christ, granted to us by holy Baptism. “By the second baptism you are baptized according to the mystery of Christianity,” says the priest, by the command of the holy Church, performing the Sacrament of Repentance to the Christian repenting before him. The Sacrament of Repentance was altered in the West and rejected by the Protestants. It is necessary for one desiring to be saved to partake of the holy Mysteries of Christ, the most holy Body of Christ and the most holy Blood of Christ. “Truly, truly”,“ said the Lord, ”“unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (Jn 6:53-54). The great mystery of the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is accomplished through the invocation and descent of the Holy Spirit at the preceding and following prayers, which together constitute the Divine Liturgy. Without the Divine Liturgy, performed by an Orthodox bishop or priest, the transubstantiation into the Body of Christ of the presented bread, and into the Blood of Christ of the presented wine, cannot take place. All the ancient liturgies of the world are in their essential parts completely similar to one another: in all of them the Holy Spirit is invoked for the transubstantiation, and the offered gifts—that is, the prepared bread and wine—are blessed by the clergy. In later times, the invocation of the Holy Spirit was excluded from the Roman liturgy, and the Protestants rejected the liturgy altogether. Thus, for those desiring to be saved, first, it is necessary that he believe rightly in God, belong to the Orthodox Church, be baptized in its bosom, be chrismated, be cleansed from sins by repentance, and partake of the holy Mysteries of Christ; second, for him it is necessary, as the Lord said to the young man, to keep the commandments of God. The Lord first pointed to the commandments that forbid gross mortal sins. He repeated what had already been said to ancient Israel by Moses: “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness”; then commanded to honor father and mother; finally, commanded to love one’s neighbor as oneself (Mt 19:18-19). Why did the Lord say nothing about love for God? Because love for God is contained in love for one’s neighbor, and he who cultivates in himself love for one’s neighbor will together with it acquire in his heart an invaluable spiritual treasure—love for God: “if we love one another”,“ said the holy John the Theologian, ”“God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 Jn 4:12).

What does it mean to inherit salvation, to be saved? It means: to unite oneself with the Redeemer, to remain in this union during all one’s earthly life, and after death, on account of such union with the Redeemer, to be transferred in soul to the dwellings of blessed spirits, with them to enjoy holy joy while awaiting the universal resurrection of the dead; then, at the resurrection of the dead, to be united with one’s body, which the Lord will vivify, will make incorruptible, and with one’s body to inherit double, eternal blessedness. Our Lord Jesus Christ is Life and the Source of life; we become sharers of this life through faith in Christ’s teaching, through Baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Baptism sealed through the anointing of the baptized with holy chrism. Chrismation took the place of the laying on of hands by the Apostles upon the newly baptized. The Apostles by the laying on of hands sealed Baptism and brought down the Holy Spirit upon the newly baptized (Acts 19:6). We sustain and maintain our union with the Lord by bringing repentance for the sins into which we fall according to our weakness, by partaking of His Body and Blood, by living according to His most holy commandments. One who neglects to live according to God’s commandments, does not heal himself constantly through repentance, does not maintain his union with Christ through partaking of His Body and Blood, cannot but lose his union with Christ, cannot but lose his salvation. “If you keep my commandments”,“ said the Lord to His disciples, ”“you will abide in my love. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown out like a branch and withers; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” (Jn 15:10, 6).

What does Christian perfection mean? Before this question, silence is more fitting than an answer; weeping is more fitting than eloquence. What can the poor man say about magnificent royal palaces, into which he is constantly forbidden to enter because of his rags, because of his stench and poverty, because of his complete inability to appear decently in a royal palace? If this poor man were able to look upon the exterior of the royal house or often saw it, such a sight could only increase the sorrow of the poor man, for whom his wretched situation seems all the more oppressive, the more magnificent and rich are the objects, unattainable for him to enjoy, that come to his sight. Such a poor man acts rightly if, renouncing vain dreams about the palace inaccessible to him, he takes care to learn the means to provide himself with his daily bread, and about providing this daily bread itself. And we, brethren, bound by worldly cares and duties, do much better to concern ourselves with our salvation, carefully to fulfill God’s commandments, than to dream and speculate about Christian perfection. Such dreams, such speculation are almost always erroneous, because only the spiritual can reason about what is spiritual—that is, perfect—in a Christian, and only the spiritual can understand it and value it (1 Cor 2:15). Whom has the world recognized as holy? Whom has it blessed and exalted with praises? False prophets, false teachers, hypocrites (Lk 6:26). How did it treat the true saints of God? It rejected them, heaped reproaches and slanders upon them, persecuted them as enemies of human society, subjected them to the most grievous persecutions and sorrows (Lk 6:23; Mt 23:34). Let us behold, brethren, the path indicated by the Lord to Christian perfection! Even this path itself is inaccessible and incomprehensible to us. The Lord commands the one who has wished to pursue the seeking of perfection not gradual giving of alms, as is required of those being saved, but commands all at once to sell all one’s possessions and the entire price received for them, all at once, with great haste, to distribute to the poor; thus to break all ties with the world, all relations to the world, and to follow Christ, having taken up the cross. What does it mean to take up the cross and follow Christ? To take up the cross means with faith and love to embrace all deprivations, all persecutions, sorrows, and reproaches from the world, as Christ took them upon himself; to take up the cross means to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires, to live in the flesh not for the flesh, to mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, to live by the Spirit, to be governed by the Spirit (Gal 5:24-25; Rom 8:12-13). What then does Christian perfection mean? It is the tangible and manifest renewal of the Christian by the Holy Spirit, which can be accomplished only upon one who has died to sin and to the world on the cross of Christ. A man renewed by the Spirit becomes a God-bearer, becomes a temple of God and a Priest, serving in this Temple, worshipping God in Spirit and Truth. To such perfection in different degrees the Apostles and all other saints of God were deemed worthy (Col 1:28; Phil 3:15).

Blessed are the chosen ones of God, called by God to perfection! But truly happy also are those to whom the merciful Lord grants salvation. To this happiness, brethren, all of us are called without exception. The path to salvation is indicated to us by the Lord with complete clarity. Whoever has not cared for his salvation up to now, can henceforth take care of it. As long as the course of earthly life is not ended for man, repentance and consequently salvation are entirely possible for him. Let us cease from despair, let us cease to remain in negligence, lest death creep upon us unexpectedly, “like a thief in the night” (1 Thes 5:2), and take from us the possibility to obtain from God the gift of salvation, so necessary for us for eternity. “Be ready”,“ our Saviour says to us, ”“for the Son of Man comes at an hour you do not expect” (Mt 24:44), “and will repay each one according to his works. Blessed are those who do his commandments, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers, fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Rev 22:12-15). Amen.

Concerning the state of Christian perfection, concerning the spiritual state in contrast to spiritual infancy in Christ (1 Cor 3:1), mention is made in the New Testament (Phil 3:15; Col 1:28; Heb 5:14) and in the writings of the holy Fathers (The Philokalia, pt. 1. The Ladder of Divine Gifts, set forth by the sorrowful monk Theophane; the discourse 3, chs. 12, 13, 14, etc. of the venerable Macarius the Great). In the prayer after the 17th Kathisma, we read: “perfect me in Your perfections, and thus lead me through this present life.”

With the exception of the Gospel of Matthew, which was written in Hebrew and translated into Greek. The Hebrew text was soon lost, and all the holy Fathers of the first centuries already refer to the Greek text.

The Philokalia, pt. 1. The venerable Symeon the New Theologian. Active and Theological Chapters, ch. 132