I really think Lossky was onto something when he observed that our Lord has saved human nature and that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to save human persons. Our Lord took on human nature, filled it with His own divinity, brought it through suffering and death to the triumph of His resurrection and finally seated it where it was destined to be: at the right hand of the Father. [I still remember when I choked up watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It wasn't the death of Aslan, nor his resurrection; it was the sight of the thrones - and the huge "aha" that THIS is what He created us for, and what He went to such shocking lengths to restore us to!]
Once the work of saving human nature has been accomplished, then the Father sends forth the Holy Spirit to bring the benefit of this renewed human nature to each human person, to let them find their life "in Christ" by giving them the gift of faith and so uniting them to the Savior. Thus moving them from the Old Adam (as the constitutive center of the human race, ending in death) to the New Adam (as the constitutive center of the new human race, ending in eternal life).
In Ezekiel's vision it was not enough to prophesy, to speak the Word, over the bones; the Spirit also needed to enter them for them to be set on their feet. The Word restored their nature, but the Holy Spirit enlivened them and set them on their feet.
Thus there is always this double dispensation in the feast of Easter: the beginning of the celebration is on the restoration of human nature accomplished through our Lord's paschal mystery. The culmination of the celebration, though, is the sending forth of the Holy Spirit who brings to life persons by joining them in faith to that new nature, so that they discover the gift of a life that does not end in union with Jesus Christ. The readings begin to tilt, half way through the Sundays of Easter, toward the second and great culmination of Pentecost, the sending of the OTHER Paraclete.
9 comments:
Is that from his book "In the Image and Likeness of God"? (I'd like to follow up on that and read more sometime soon.)
The culmination of the celebration, though, is the sending forth of the Holy Spirit who brings to life persons by joining them in faith to that new nature, so that they discover the gift of a life that does not end in union with Jesus Christ.
Fr. Weedon,
Don't you mean "so that they discover the gift of a life that ends in union with Christ"
or, alternatively, " so that they discover the gift of a life that does not end -- one in union with Christ" ?
Just checking.
Pax
There is a question about Lossky's "double dispensation" and what appears to be a separation between the second and third Persons of the Trinity (I would have to read more to understand where he is coming from).
There is agreement with what he says about the Lord saving the human nature. If sin corrupts our human nature then the restoration of that nature is necessary.
Talking of restoring human nature seems to contradict a forensic declarative approach, or so I have heard (how, I still do not understand). Rather, it seems that this is a case of both/and (ie, the Word doing what it says; the Spirit enlivening us as in baptism) that "we too may live a new life."
(Feedback on this forensic thing is appreciated.)
Thank you for passing this on. My Lossky books are on the shelve together with those of a few other theologians begging to be read!
That's like Gregory of Nyssa reflecting the mind of the Greek fathers when he says something like: "we are given the image of God in our natures as a gift, but must earn the likeness". I'll try to get the actual quote.
Another way that Lossky (paraphrasing Maximus Confessor without citation) discussed that it was Christ Who saved our natures but we must save our persons - or, at least cooperate synergistically in the salvation of our persons.
This helps to clarify some and give some openings for further questions but you have provided some clues.
How would Lossky differ, if at all, with the Western Church on this topic?
I am looking forward to the Nyssa quote. Thanks!
It's a nice elaboration on the Large Catechism II.64-66. But wouldn't it be more helpful to talk about the Son accomplishing our objective justification, while the Spirit delivering it to the person (subjective justification)?
The danger with this nature/person or image/likeness (note the parallelism in the Hebrew), as I see it, is in leaving a door open for synergy on our part (we must earn the likeness - I thought the Spirit worked that in us) or the incompleteness of the Son's work.
Just a thought.
Anastasia Theodorides had a great line about salvation and good works that gets to where some of these insights point: "Good works don't earn salvation, good works are salvation". We were created to do good works, not just to be "not damned" (saved). In Orthodoxy, salvation doesn't stop at balancing the ledger (jusification) it only ends when we are fully conformed in all that we are and do to the image of God, Jesus Christ - and enter eternity at the Last Judgement (where we are measured against the standard, the Word Himself).
This latter aspect is what Lutherans seem to get at when they speak of sanctification, which requires synergy with the HS in the Lutheran paradigm, though the phrase subjective justification may open interesting paths of discussion, too.
Or another way to say this in terms we Lutherans can understand - we are freed from the power of sin, death and the devil. This means that we are freed from those forces that keep us from God's will and doing good works which He prepared in advance that we should walk in them (in Christ). Therefore good works are the overarching work of God in Christ for our salvation. He created them and saw that they were "good" because Christ is doing them in us. This is His salvation totally accomplished on the cross but working on us in part until perfection is reached (via Word and Sacraments or means of grace). Good works are not an attack on the atonement or justification but the the natural flow of God's grace in Christ as we participate in that grace or, as Peter puts it, we participate in "the divine nature." Yes, good works are part of that salvation and cannot be detached from our justification.
"Good works don't earn salvation, good works are salvation". What a wise and beautiful saying!
Of course justification does not leave us in some state of inertia, as if the new creation God intended for us from eternity would represent some spiritual danger of falling in love with our works. Synergia, however, is a slippery word. Is it the Spirit working in us by His power, or is it that we are working with the Spirit with powers of our own that are now unrestrained since we received some sort of infused grace?
If grace requires any complement on our part to fully realize our salvation, then it is no longer pure grace, and the church no longer stands. But if our working together with the Spirit is in itself a gift of God's grace, one that comes "extra nos," then it is a genuine evangelical doctrine.
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