For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
Christ is Risen!
I’ve received several emails about a previous reflection regarding Christ dying on the cross to pay our debt for our sins. I want to revisit this topic and hopefully explain it in a clearer way. On the Prayer Team, I try to write in a way that is understandable and relatable, trying to make complex theological concepts understandable. There are still complexities to our theology that will elude me, and even the most skilled of theologians. Theology, by its very definition, means “the study of God,” and any study of God will always fall incomplete because God is incomprehensible. One of the most beautiful things about being a Christian, especially an Orthodox Christian, is that the Christian journey, and our theology pertaining to it, is like pealing back layers of an onion. There are so many of them. One could study theology for a lifetime and still not master it or get to all of it. The Prayer Team is a humble attempt to make Scripture and theology relatable to the average person, and of course, any person who does this, including me, will not hit the nail on the head each time.
The concept of original sin is NOT an Orthodox doctrine. It was not promulgated until the fifth century, one hundred years after the Creed was written. The concept of original sin is that we all inherit the sin of Adam. Rather than inheriting the sin of Adam, we inherit the state of sinfulness brought on by the Fall of Adam. Each of us will sin, because we live in a sinful world, and only Christ did not sin. Each of us will answer for our own sins, not the sins of Adam and Eve, or the sins of any of our ancestors.
Now, we might ask ourselves, “has God set us up for failure by bringing us into a world where it is impossible not to sin?” Or “because we will inevitably fall to sin, why even try avoiding it? Examining the first question, God is love, and everything done by God is out of love. The greatest desire of God is to share in a perfect union with us. He has created us out of His love, He desires us to love Him and to love one another. When He created human beings, they shared in a Paradisal state with Him—no sin, no suffering, no death. With the Fall of humanity, that Paradisal state was severed. For Adam, and for everyone who has come after. We are not born into Paradise. Rather we are born on this earth, with the potential to enter Paradise, and this is based on love—us loving God, us loving one another, and God loving us and opening a path back to Paradise, which is made possible by Christ dying on the cross and rising from the dead. Which brings us to the second question. Before we can enter Paradise, there is a judgment that will take place for each of us in front of the Throne of God, where He will decide who is worthy to enter into Paradise. This judgment will be based on our efforts to love, to love God and to love one another. So, yes, it does matter what kind of effort we put forth in this life. Just because we will inevitably sin does not mean we shouldn’t try to avoid sinful behavior, or that when we fall, we shouldn’t repent and start over again.
People frequently come to confession and ask “is there any point in confessing a sin I know I will commit again?” The way I answer this question is by comparing confession to going to the doctor for a checkup. There has never been a doctor visit where my doctor has said “You are in perfect health.” At EVERY visit, he comments that I need to lose weight, exercise more and manage stress. He offers encouragement and new perspectives on how to do each. And I leave these appointments motivated to improve my health. There are improvements, and then there are setbacks, and the cycle continues. I never totally succeed, and thankfully I never totally fail. I don’t think to myself, “well inevitably I’m going to eat bad so why try eating healthy at all.” I work to eat healthy, sometimes harder than other times, and sometimes I fall and eat unhealthy and have to try again at the next meal to get back on track. I use the doctor in order to keep track of how I’m doing over a period of years, to discuss trends in my health, and to get corrected so I will avoid major health setbacks. No matter how healthy I am, I will inevitably die. But my death is not the death of Adam, it is my own death. It is the result of the Fall that caused the death of Adam. And same thing with sin, my sin is my own sin, but the fact that I sin is the result of sin that entered the world at the Fall of Adam.
In Romans 6:23, St. Paul writes For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We all sin, and the penalty for sin is death. If my life was like a credit card bill, there would be thousands of entries listing all the sins I have committed. And the total of this bill would say “death.” Just like when we get a credit card bill for $3,000 and then it has all our expenses itemized, the bill for our lives says “death” and there will be a different list of sins for each of us. Whether these sins are few or many, whether they are minor or egregious, the bill for each of us will say “death” on it.
Our lives are supposed to be an imitation of the life of Christ. He did not die for His own sins. There were no sins to itemize on His “bill of life.” Yet, He paid the debt that we are all required to pay, even though He didn’t deserve it. He then conquered death, He rose from the dead, to show us that He has the power over life and death, and to show that there is a way back to the Paradisal state that we once enjoyed with God. The way back does include physical death, but it also includes Resurrection from the dead. Without the Cross, there would have been no Resurrection. And without our physical death, we cannot be resurrected to a Paradisal state with God. The incentive to try, and to try again even when we’ve fallen, is the judgment before God, where He will evaluate our efforts—how we’ve succeeding in loving Him and one another, and how we’ve reacted even when we have fallen—if we’ve repented or if we’ve quit.
Jesus died to show us how the debt can be paid. As St. Paul writes in Romans 6:11, we are to consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. We owe a debt that we can never fully repay. There will always be a deficit between us and God. Repentance is the way we pay down our deficit. The cross and the Resurrection, the mercy and love of God is what will ultimately pay what remains of it.
Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, Who forgives all your iniquity, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the Pit, Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, Who satisfies your with good as long as you live, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor requite us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father pities His children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, hearkening to the voice of His word! Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers that do his will! Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my Soul! Psalm 103
Death is the consequence of sin. We all sin, no one is without sin. Therefore physical death awaits us all. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, made possible for humanity through the Cross and Resurrection, made possible for each of us through our faith and works, and ultimately His grace and mercy.
0 Comments