Stalking God
The Great Effort Required in Becoming a Christian
Page 1 of 4
Essay Posted June 19, 2007 by James E. Nelson
NOTE: Because of the length of this essay it is also available as a printer-friendly 8-page paper formatted for 8 1/2 x 11 paper in PDF format, available by clicking here.
INDEX:
Page 1, State of Being and Relationship (this page)
Page 2, Muskrat Love
Page 3, The Work of Losing Myself
Page 4, Perfection
Becoming a Christian, in the fullest sense of that word, requires great effort, according to the Orthodox Church. This idea of effort is one of the great stumbling blocks among Protestants when they consider Orthodoxy. Much of the problem is semantics. John Calvin taught that one’s justification is demonstrated by the fruits of righteousness. If there are no fruits of righteousness, chances are the person was never justified in the first place. (And his emphasis led to “the Calvinist work ethic.”) By and large, no one believes that being a Christian is a free lunch. But Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant express this relationship between unmerited favor and using the gracious gift wisely in different ways.
It is also true that it is not just a semantic problem. Real differences exist between the three communions. We conceptualize our proper response to divine grace differently. There are at least two facets to our relationship with God: state of being and relationship. Protestants tend to begin with our state of being while Orthodox tend to begin with our relationship. This difference in starting point results in a different way of seeing things.
State of Being and Relationship
The starting point of the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith is that we are changed by Christ’s righteousness. It is this forensic change in our state of being that allows us to enter into relationship with God. God cannot abide sinfulness, so we must be made righteous (or receive Christ’s righteousness—the language varies among communions and theologians) in order to enter God’s presence and have relationship.
The Orthodox approach the matter from the other end. While it is true that God cannot abide sinfulness, it is also true that Jesus Christ, “very God of very God” and “of one essence with the Father” (as the Creed describes the matter) became human and dwelt among sinners. One of the miracles of the incarnation is that Holy God did the seemingly impossible and entered into relationship with sinners, and this relationship (rather than a forensic declaration of righteousness) is where the Orthodox begin. The Orthodox doctrine of salvation is that Jesus Christ entered into relationship with us and even gave us the Holy Spirit, and as a result of that relationship, we can be transformed by Christ’s righteousness into righteousness.
And so the real “work” part of salvation, from the Orthodox view, is not doing good deeds, but entering into relationship. Of course one cannot make too great a separation between the two ideas. We enter into relationship with God by entering into relationship with God. Lest you think this a tautology, let me add that we also enter into relationship with God by entering into relationship with others. Relationship with God in absence of relationship with others would probably seem an easy thing because we could easily imagine (God being spirit and all) that things were going swimmingly in the relationship. But when we enter into relationship with other flesh and blood humans, there is conflict. The other person reminds us of our faults which we so easily forget we have. Etc. Relationship with other humans, in other words, grounds our relationship with God in reality; it helps prevent us from deceiving ourselves.
But, entering into relationship with God is extremely difficult work. And this is the rub for most Protestants. Relationship (the sort that is involved in salvation) requires great effort, great diligence, and great training. Shouldn’t salvation be easier than all that? Isn’t salvation a free gift of God? Doesn’t this whole idea of “great effort, great diligence, great training” sort of turn the whole idea of grace on its head?
Ah, that’s the mystery of relationship (in contrast to state of being). Ask any married person. It’s both sublimely easy to fall in love and maddeningly difficult to stay in love. On the other hand it is devilishly easy to stop into the Clerk of Court to get a marriage license, and find a minister to listen to the “I do’s.” State of being (like getting married) is easy: “Once saved, always saved,” and all that, you know. But this staying in love stuff—the mystery of relationship—is tricky and requires constant vigilance.
next page
INDEX:
Page 1, State of Being and Relationship (this page)
Page 2, Muskrat Love
Page 3, The Work of Losing Myself
Page 4, Perfection
Copyright © 2007 James E. Nelson (Just Another Jim). All Rights Reserved.
You are free to distribute as long as attribution and web address is included.
Site support by C T E K