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Hi, Father! Since we've come out of the Pascha period I have the following question. Western Christianity teaches that Christ died to appease the wrath of an angry Father. He died in our place and for our sins. Scripture tells us that Christ was a propotation for our sins and made to be sin for us namely He voluntarily took on the consequences of sin except He at no time sinned. The teaching of western Christianity is given expression in the illustrations of Christ on the cross as battered and beaten. In contrast Orthodox iconography shows an almost serene Christ who seems at peace. Please may you explain how we Orthodox should understand the death of Christ? What should we understand by the expression that He died for our sins?
Answer to Question 563 Can always count on you for an interesting question. The Orthodox believe that when Adam sinned against God, he introduced death to the world. Death was the consequence of the original sin. We are not liable for Adam’s sin but since we are all born of the same human stock as Adam, we inherit the consequences of his sin which is death. Death means that man’s body is no longer immortal as God created him, it has become mortal and the life of every human being, with respect to the body, comes to an end, but also that death generates in us the passions (anger, hate, lust, greed, etc.), and brings disease and aging.
The Roman Catholic church differs on what we inherit from Adam. Following Augustine of Hippo, the Latins teach that Adam and Eve sinned against God. The guilt of their sin has been inherited by every man, woman and child after them. All humanity is liable for their “original sin” whereas the Orthodox believe that we only inherit the consequences of the original sin.
These two different approaches to the understanding of original sin determine how we understand Christ’s death on the Cross. Following the holy Fathers, Orthodoxy teaches that Christ, on the Cross, gave “His life a ransom for many” as we are told by Matthew (Matt. 20:28) and “For even the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” according to Mark (Mark 10:45). The “ransom” is paid to the grave. As the Lord revealed to the Prophet Hosea, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death.” (Hosea 13:14) The man Christ voluntarily gave Himself on the Cross. He died for all “a ransom for many”. But He rose from the dead in His crucified body. Death had no power to hold Him. It has no power over anyone. The human race is redeemed from the grave, from the devil. Free of the devil is to be free of death and sin. To be free of these, we become like God and may live with Him forever.
Now according to Roman Catholic theology, God became man in order to satisfy the divine Justice which was offended by the sin of Adam. In other words, by his sin Adam offended the infinite God and God demands that justice is paid for. Since we are all guilty of original sin we are all liable to pay this debt of honour to God, but we did not have the power to make amends, for the “original sin” of Adam which passed to us, Only Christ, Who was God and man, could pay this “debt of honour.” He pays the debt by dying on the Cross. His death makes up for what Adam had done; the offence is removed. God is no longer angry with man. Thus, the Crucifixion has been understood by the Latins as Christ suffering punishment for the human race when, in truth, Christ suffered and died on the Cross to conquer the devil and destroy his power, to destroy death.
Same member Sorry to ask again but does our forgiveness of our sins happen because of Christ's death on the cross?
Reply Lovely thought but NO, that is what Protestants like to believe that they can do anything because Christ on the Cross has taken upon himself all sin. Christ opened the door of paradise which was shut through Adam's sin and gave man the opportunity to live an immortal life in both body and soul which will happen at the Second Coming. But until that day comes we are all liable for our own sins of which we will be judged for at the last Judgement.
Same member Thanks Father, but every time we sin and we ask for forgiveness, is forgiveness given to us because of Christ's sacrifice or does God still forgive us notwithstanding Christ's sacrifice?
Reply The sacrifice of Christ opened the door for forgiveness. Without it there would be no forgiveness, but that doesn't mean that because he sacrificed himself that we no longer need to ask for forgiveness. Christ said that his blood is the blood of the new covenant shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins, but for us to have forgiveness of sins we must partake of his Body and Blood. Thus the Cross is not enough for our forgiveness, we must partake of his sacrifice and become one with him.
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