A Bridge between My Baptist Roots and Orthodoxy
The truth of the matter is that many Orthodox converts (from Protestantism) are often just as reactionary against sounding Protestant as the Protestants are against their perception of Orthodoxy. I am exposing some of my Baptist roots here. I know I cannot refer to Protestants as one unilateral block of people, but I also do not want to be so specific as to just say Baptists.
So, I will refine my statement: for the purposes of this topic and the quote I am about to share, I particularly have in mind the Protestants who place the utmost, if not sole, emphasis upon the cross in working our salvation...or rather, I have in mind the Orthodox converts that seem to subconsciously avoid such language as sounding too Protestant.
Hymns like "Jesus Paid It All", "At the Cross", "Nothing but the Blood"; comments of "Ask Jesus into your heart" or "Are you saved?"; all such terminology is strictly avoided. It is much more Orthodox-convert-fadish to speak of the healing of the soul, of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, or maybe just speaking of the holy sacraments as working our salvation. What, then, do we do with the multitude of passages in Scripture which do refer to Jesus's work on the cross as establishing our salvation?
There are several passages in St. Nicholas Cabasilas's book, The Life in Christ, which seem to be reaching east and west and drawing these two quarreling buddies together, but this is one of my favorites:
“Therefore, though men were triply separated from God—by nature, by sin, and by death—yet the Saviour made them to attain to Him perfectly and to be immediately united to Him by successively removing all obstacles. The first barrier He removed by partaking of manhood, the second by being put to death on the cross. As for the final barrier, the tyranny of death, He eliminated it completely from our nature by rising again."
The first, the fallen nature of man being restored through God's incarnation into our flesh, is a commonly heard theme among Orthodox. The second, Christ's death on the Cross for our sin, is a common Protestant theme. St. Nicholas Cabasilas smoothly wraps the two together, as if it were the most natural thing to him, along with a third barrier which separates all mankind from God: the tyranny of death. This tyranny is completely eliminated from our very nature (that is, from the essence of what it means to be a human) through his resurrection.
All three of these are essential elements to our salvation and we Orthodox converts should speak of all three, but more than that, St. Nicholas's approach is a hopeful beacon for me personally. He is "speaking the language" of East and West. I am no Greek scholar, nor do I know what the common Christian terminology was, East and West, back when this was written, but he seems to be strictly avoiding any of the pre-defined catch words of either side.
Few Orthodox or Protestant Christians would have any particular issue with the above quote (unless they were looking for something to disagree with from the outset), but there is a beautiful culture-crossing bridge Cabasilas has built, and I want to shamelessly mimic it.
So, I will refine my statement: for the purposes of this topic and the quote I am about to share, I particularly have in mind the Protestants who place the utmost, if not sole, emphasis upon the cross in working our salvation...or rather, I have in mind the Orthodox converts that seem to subconsciously avoid such language as sounding too Protestant.
Hymns like "Jesus Paid It All", "At the Cross", "Nothing but the Blood"; comments of "Ask Jesus into your heart" or "Are you saved?"; all such terminology is strictly avoided. It is much more Orthodox-convert-fadish to speak of the healing of the soul, of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, or maybe just speaking of the holy sacraments as working our salvation. What, then, do we do with the multitude of passages in Scripture which do refer to Jesus's work on the cross as establishing our salvation?
There are several passages in St. Nicholas Cabasilas's book, The Life in Christ, which seem to be reaching east and west and drawing these two quarreling buddies together, but this is one of my favorites:
“Therefore, though men were triply separated from God—by nature, by sin, and by death—yet the Saviour made them to attain to Him perfectly and to be immediately united to Him by successively removing all obstacles. The first barrier He removed by partaking of manhood, the second by being put to death on the cross. As for the final barrier, the tyranny of death, He eliminated it completely from our nature by rising again."
The first, the fallen nature of man being restored through God's incarnation into our flesh, is a commonly heard theme among Orthodox. The second, Christ's death on the Cross for our sin, is a common Protestant theme. St. Nicholas Cabasilas smoothly wraps the two together, as if it were the most natural thing to him, along with a third barrier which separates all mankind from God: the tyranny of death. This tyranny is completely eliminated from our very nature (that is, from the essence of what it means to be a human) through his resurrection.
All three of these are essential elements to our salvation and we Orthodox converts should speak of all three, but more than that, St. Nicholas's approach is a hopeful beacon for me personally. He is "speaking the language" of East and West. I am no Greek scholar, nor do I know what the common Christian terminology was, East and West, back when this was written, but he seems to be strictly avoiding any of the pre-defined catch words of either side.
Few Orthodox or Protestant Christians would have any particular issue with the above quote (unless they were looking for something to disagree with from the outset), but there is a beautiful culture-crossing bridge Cabasilas has built, and I want to shamelessly mimic it.
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