Talk 17—On the Redemption of Mankind and Its Preparation

And now, brothers, we will speak of God’s providence, but not of general providence, but of a special, extraordinary kind225. We have said before that God, who created all the world from nothing, has since its appearance and until now exercised providence over it, watches over it from the height of His holy throne, preserves and sustains it with His almighty Word, and is therefore called the Almighty. From the Seraph, the spirit closest to God, down to the blade of grass, all enjoy His providence or care. Now we will speak of that providence which the Lord has over the lost race of mankind, over the salvation of His rational sheep: “because He, as eternal Love, does not desire the death of sinners, but that they turn and live”226. In what, then, does this special providence of God toward us consist? “God so loved the world, says the Lord Jesus Christ, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life”—that is, the special providence of God over people consists in their redemption from eternal ruin through the sufferings and death of the Son of God, who came down from heaven for the sake of us humans and for our salvation.

Before God appeared in flesh on earth, the Son of God, to live among people and teach them the knowledge of God and a holy life pleasing to God, to suffer and die for them, a long time passed, many centuries. Why was this so? Because, as people of their own will turned away from God and strayed from their path, they needed to experience all the harm of willfulness, of sin; they needed to learn by experience how false were the words of the devil: “You will be like gods”; they needed time to experience their helplessness in struggling against sin, so that of their own will they would earnestly desire divine help when their own efforts were useless. It was for this very reason that the Heavenly Father postponed the coming of His Son to earth for several thousands of years after the fall of the first people. And during this time people saw and experienced every evil and every disaster that sin, the murderous devil, evil human will, or the righteous wrath of God could produce—so that in the end all people began to desire and expect divine help, all learned from experience that evil is bitter, and to be far from God is bitter227.

So, brothers, without God or far from God—life is hard for a person. This is not even life, but some kind of phantom of life, or rather—death. There is no need to explain how this happens: spiritual death is experienced by everyone who turns away from God, and one knows that it is very grievous. What soul of a person who does evil has not experienced sorrow and tightness228?

When evil in mankind reached its extreme degree, when people experienced their powerlessness for good, clearly saw all and felt the need for a heavenly Deliverer from sin; when the torment of the enemy of mankind, the devil, had also reached its extreme—then the time of fulfillment came, and God the Father sent His Only Son, through whom He created the ages. And He, the All-Compassionate One, unable to bear to see mankind tormented by the devil229, came to us on earth to save us and to destroy the works of the devil230.

Long before the Savior came to earth, however, God was preparing people gradually to receive this Divine Messenger through His revelations and prophecies about Him, and also through types, or preliminary likenesses of what the Son of God was to do for mankind’s salvation. This is because prophecies and types nurtured faith and hope in the people for a future Redeemer, and, being exclusively the work of God, they irrefutably assured and assure careful and well-intentioned people of the Divinity of our Savior, to whom they refer. If He had come suddenly, not pointed out to people beforehand, they would not have believed Him that He was the Son of God, despite His miracles, as there were also many people who performed miracles by God’s power. And among people it happens that if a king or royal son wishes to visit certain cities or other places in the realm, the people are informed of this in advance, so that they might prepare for his arrival and receive him as is fitting. So it was here as well. The coming to earth of the Son of God was proclaimed long in advance on earth, a proclamation that was not made for any of the prophets or other holy ones of the Old Testament—an honor befitting only the King of all—God! Already to the progenitor Adam, after he sinned, it was said by God for consolation that the Seed of the woman, that is, the God-man, who was to be born of the Most Pure Virgin and by the Holy Spirit, would crush or break the head of the serpent231, the deceiver of mankind—the devil, who had worked through the serpent. Then to Abraham after the flood it was proclaimed from God that the great, promised Descendant of his would be the cause of heavenly blessing for all the peoples of the earth232; then to Isaac, the son233, and to Jacob, the grandson of Abraham234, the same was confirmed; and in various rites of Jewish faith or in certain events with the Jewish people and with certain of their individuals, God had, thousands of years in advance, set forth much of the circumstances of the birth, life, sufferings, and death of the Son of God for the sins of people, while the Holy Spirit in like manner, several centuries in advance, predicted His birth, life, teaching, miracles, His death for the sins of the world, and much else. Thus, for example, to show to people beforehand the unburnt bearing in the womb of the Mother of God of the Fire of God’s Divinity of Christ, to the Prophet Moses was shown a bush, burning with fire and not being consumed235; likewise, the three youths in the fiery furnace of Babylon or Chaldea were preserved unharmed amid a terrible conflagration236. The Church’s hymn explains this very thing, sung at the All-Night Vigil on Sundays or on feasts of the Mother of God: “The righteous youths in the furnace the birth of the Mother of God saved, then depicted in image, now accomplished in deed237.” To show beforehand, in likeness, the cross-sufferings for us and the death of our sinless Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the Hebrews were commanded to slay every year at the Passover feast an unblemished lamb, that is, without any blemish, and to eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs238; to show beforehand the three-day lying of the body of the Lord Savior in the grave, the Prophet Jonah, by God’s arrangement, lay in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights239; and to nourish in people the faith in the cleansing blood of the sinless, sacrificed by His own will for all the Lamb of God Jesus Christ, among the Hebrews the blood of goats and calves was continually used for sprinkling and cleansing of people and things240; to train the people beforehand to believe in the saving, cross-sufferings of the future Redeemer, a likeness of Him hanging on the cross was shown in the brazen serpent raised by Moses, so that the Hebrews, stung by serpents in the Aravian desert, when looking at this image, would be healed241. Besides, among the Prophets—the great Moses predicted that God would raise up for the Hebrews from among their brothers a great Prophet like himself242; the Prophet Isaiah foretold that the Savior would be born of a Virgin243; the Prophet Micah—that He would be born in Bethlehem244; the Prophet Malachi predicted that the Savior would come to the Temple of Jerusalem, rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity, and that a forerunner would be sent before Him245; the Prophet Zechariah predicted the royal entry of the Savior on a young donkey into Jerusalem246; the Prophet Isaiah and King-Prophet David predicted with such clarity the sufferings of the Savior as if they themselves had been present at His sufferings and stood at His cross and there described all that happened to Him247. The Prophet Daniel, or rather the Archangel Gabriel, to the Prophet Daniel, foretold that only 490 years remained until the coming of Christ the Savior248. Thus the most important circumstances of the life, sufferings, death, resurrection from the dead, and ascension of the Savior into heaven were beforehand written down in the Old Testament in types and likenesses or predicted by the Prophets in such a way that the life of the Savior with all His teaching and deeds was evidently the fulfillment of what was in God’s mind from eternity. This is why Christ the Savior said to His hasty brothers who asked Him to reveal Himself more quickly to the world: “My time has not yet come; but your time is always ready”249; this is why also He said to His Most Pure Mother at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, to Her words: “They have no wine—what is that to Me and to You, Woman? My hour has not yet come”250, although soon after this hour came, and He performed His first miracle. The Evangelists frequently also remark that the Jews, despite their many attempts to seize the Lord, could not do so because His hour of death had not yet come. “The Jews sought to seize Him, and no one laid hands on Him, says the holy Evangelist John, because His hour had not yet come”251. “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” said the Savior to His disciples on the way to Judea, when they pointed out to Him that He could not go there because the Jews had just tried to stone Him to death. “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, for he sees the light of the world”252—as if He said thus: “I know when My hour of death comes, My night. Now it has not yet come; therefore, although I am defenseless and the Jews seek My death, they cannot endanger My life. While My day has not ended, no one will kill Me.” All—both favorable and unfavorable—circumstances in the Savior’s life were predicted long beforehand, and therefore even the unfavorable circumstances in His life disarm all unbelief, so that every mouth should be closed and its silence should affirm the truth of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. If, for example, many did not believe in the Lord, it was not because few signs were done to assure people of His Divinity. No, “the Lord did many good deeds before the people from His Father”253. People did not believe the Savior because of the corruption of their hearts, and only fulfilled what the Prophet Isaiah predicted: “Lord! Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” or: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they might not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts, and turn to Me so that I would heal them”254. “This Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him”255. If many hated the Lord, this too was not a matter of chance, that is, it did not happen because it would be reasonable for anyone in their right mind to hate the most perfect Lord for any reason; rather, evil naturally hates good precisely because it is good, and this also was predicted long beforehand: “the word must be fulfilled that is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without cause’”256. “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”257. If the Jewish people, the chief priests, and the scribes mocked Him, tortured, and crucified Him, it was because the cup of His sufferings and death for the sins of the world had been prepared for Him by the Heavenly Father from eternity. People were only wretched, although free, instruments of God’s will. “Brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance” said the Apostle Peter to the Jews, “(that is, you killed the Author of life Jesus Christ), as did your rulers. But God fulfilled what He had proclaimed through all the prophets, that Christ would suffer”258. If the soldiers, who crucified Him, divided His garments among themselves and cast lots for His clothing, they did this, fulfilling the prophecy—that the Scripture might be fulfilled that says: “They divided My garments among themselves, and for My clothing they cast lots”259. When the Savior, hanging on the cross and suffering in the agony of death, said: “I thirst”260, He said this in order that, according to the prophecy, they gave Him vinegar, and there stood by the cross a vessel full of vinegar. So all that happened with Jesus was predicted by the Prophets down to details. Therefore, to assure the Jews of His Divinity, the Savior pointed them to the prophecies and types about Him in Scripture: “Search the Scriptures, He said, for you think that in them you have eternal life; and they are the ones that testify about Me. These are the words261”, He said to His disciples after His resurrection from the dead, “which I spoke to you while I was still with you, saying that everything written about Me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalms must be fulfilled”262. Throughout His entire life, the Lord did, in the proper sense, the deeds of the One who sent Him, did the will of His Father, and presented to the people His teaching (as He often said Himself263)—that is, He did what, taught what, and fulfilled what was appointed to happen from eternity.

See, brothers, the Heavenly Father, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, employed all means to assure people of His Divinity and to convince us to obey Him in all things as His beloved Son. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to Him,” He spoke from heaven. See how much God loves the world, that “He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life”264. Yes, brothers, there is eternal life, there is another life, for which we were created and to the attainment of which the believing, repenting Christians have a right through the intercession of the Son of God. But there is also eternal perdition, from which no one will be saved except through the only Mediator of God and man—the God-man Christ Jesus. But He will not save those who do not obey Him, those who live not as Christians but as pagans, who know not His commandments and do not fulfill them, and only bear the name of Christians. Such people condemn themselves and deprive themselves of their inheritance in His kingdom. “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father, who is in heaven”265.

Brothers! Jesus Christ is the beloved Son of God. Listen to Him. Amen.