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| Father James Bernstein. |
Father James Bernstein: Raised in Queens, New York by formerly Orthodox Jewish parents
whose faith had been undermined by the Holocaust, Arnold Bernstein went on his
own personal quest for spiritual meaning. He was ready to accept God in
whatever form He chose to reveal Himself and that form turned out to be Christ.
But Bernstein soon perceived discrepancies in the various forms of Protestant
belief that surrounded him, and so his quest continued -- this time for the
true Church. In 1981 he and
his family were received into the canonical Orthodox Christian Church in
America. In 1997 Father James was made Dean of the Pacific Northwest Deanery of
the Antiochian Archdiocese, and in 1999 was elevated to the rank of archpriest.
In 2017 Fr. James retired as pastor of St. Paul and became priest Emeritus.
Orthodoxy introduces us to a whole spectrum of
terminology that spoke of salvation in a non-juridical manner. The Orthodox
understand that in Christ's death and Resurrection we are united with Him, not
in a legal, positional, or virtual sense, but in a very real, literal sense.
This is possible because in the Incarnation, Christ took upon Himself our human
nature and united it to His Person. In His Passion, death, Resurrection, and
Ascension, the common human nature He shares with us is now glorified.
The Scripture uses imagery that reinforces this
concept of organic participation and unity with Christ in His human nature. For
example, unity with Christ is presented as being like that between parts of a
body. St. Paul often speaks about salvation as being included within the Body
of Christ.
For as the body is one and has many members, but all
the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For
by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-whether Jews or Greeks,
whether slaves or free-and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in
fact the body is not one member but many.
... Now you are the body of Christ, and members
individually. (1 Corinthians 12:12-14,27)
He reaffirms the actuality of our unity with Christ's
humanity by employing terms including "united with,"
"with," "together with," "in," "live
in," "into," "share," "put on," and so
forth. The use of this terminology demonstrates that we are able to be united
with Christ in His Baptism and Resurrection, not figuratively but actually, as
we die to sin in the flesh and share in His Resurrection. We die with Christ
and we are raised with Christ as we participate in His life. In Holy Communion
we partake in faith of His glorified humanity, and His humanity and our
humanity become one. Our hope is that though we do not now fully experience
glorification, in the life to come we will. St. Paul continues:
“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?”. Therefore we were buried with
Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if
we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also
shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man
was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we
should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no
longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once
for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon
yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our
Lord”. (Romans 6:3-11).
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| The Crucifiction, the Tree of life. Mosaic in the apse of the church of San Clemente in Rome, c 1200. |
He also says:
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I
who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians
2:20)
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great
love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us
alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up
together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
(Ephesians 2:4-6)
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your
mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life
is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you
also will appear with Him in glory. (Colossians 3: 1-4)
During services that relate baptism the Orthodox sing,
"For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on
Christ"(Galatians 3:27).
In John 15 Jesus speaks to His disciples, telling them to "abide
in Me," and promising that He will abide in them. He repeats these
expressions numerous times. The example He gives is of a vine with branches
sharing the same life, which flows from the vine into the branches. He refers
to Himself in verse 5, saying, "I am the vine, you are the branches."
In John 17 Jesus prays to God the Father, asking that He be
"in" His disciples and that they be "in" the Son and
"in" the Father. The term "in" is a significantly more
organic term than the popularly used Protestant phrase of having a
"personal relationship with"; "being in" implies a union
or, as this Scripture states, a "oneness" at the deepest level.
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will
believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are
in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us ... that they may be one
just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in
one ... that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in
them." (John 17:20-26)
Christ is often called the Bridegroom, and the Church the Bride of
Christ. The Bridegroom leaves the Bride, but is to return at the Second Coming
for what is called the marriage supper of the Lamb (see Matthew 22:1-14;
Ephesians 5:25-32).
In the following passage, St. Paul presents marriage as reflecting the
relationship of Christ to the Church, in which Christ is presented at the same
time as both husband and head of His body the Church. He concludes by saying
that in a mystery the expression that the "two will become one flesh"
refers to "Christ and the church."
Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.
Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, these expressions numerous
times. The example He gives is of a body. Therefore, just as the church is
subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church .... For we are
members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "For this reason a man
shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall
become one flesh." This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ
and the church. (Ephesians 5:23-25, 30-32). The terminology used in the above
scriptures speaks of salvation as an organic experience that is preeminently
non-juridical. The words and phrases used include: being crucified with, dying
with, being buried, resurrected, and living with Christ and in Him, being
united with and together with Him, as well as putting on Christ. They also
include abiding in Him and He in us, being one with, married to, members of His
Body, and of one flesh with Christ.
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| "Christ made a new beginning of life for us, by giving us hope of resurrection” |
Placing the Fall, sin, and death into a legal
framework leads to viewing the Person and work of Christ as part of that same
framework. Accepting our inheritance of Adam's guilt leads to viewing judicial
guilt for sin as our main problem, which results in the belief that once divine
justice is satisfied on the Cross, redemption is complete. That is why many
expressions of Christianity had seemed shallow and simplistic: sanctification,
virtue, holiness, life in Christ, transfiguration, union and communion with God
were held to be added on to redemption and salvation, not integral to their
very essence.
It seems that for many non-Orthodox, the Crucifixion
practically exhausts the entire dogma of redemption. Some Roman Catholic
dogmaticians have even expressly said that the Resurrection of Christ is not a
contributing cause of our salvation.
The Resurrection tends to be seen as an appendix,
serving to demonstrate Christ's divinity and His reward by the Father for His
sacrifice. This helps to explain why the recent hit movie, The Passion of the
Christ, devoted 125 minutes to His Passion, including His Crucifixion, and a
total of 75 seconds to the Resurrection. During the movie's production, a
discussion took place about whether the Resurrection scene should even be
included.
In contrast, St. Paul made it abundantly clear that
there is no such thing as salvation apart from the Resurrection:
Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from
the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?.
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if
Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God
that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up-if in fact the dead do not
rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is
not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those
who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen
from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. (1 Corinthians
15:12-22).
St. Paul says that if Christ is not raised from the
dead, then "you are still in your sins." The crucifixion alone is not
enough to redeem or save us.
Orthodoxy emphasizes that we tend to sin because we
die. We die because we are born in a fallen state in which we have inherited
mortality, death, and corruption (but not guilt). Although death is not from
God, it is the inevitable result of turning from God. Sinful acts are the
rotten fruit or stench given off by death. Our actual sins sprout from the root
of death and corruption. The Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of this:
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh
and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might
destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil and release those
who through fear of death were at! Their lifetime subject to bondage. For
indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be
a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make
propitiation [expiation] for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has
suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:
14-18)
This fear of death, of being mortal, leads us to grasp
at illusions such as power, fame, fortune, and self-indulgence in its various
forms. The fear of death leads to sin. For the Orthodox, because being born
fallen is essentially about mortality, salvation is essentially about Christ
vanquishing sin, death, and the devil, enabling us to share His life. He
destroys the power of the fear of death in our lives, as well as the fear of
suffering, pain, sorrow, and abandonment. This is why the Resurrection of our
Lord Jesus Christ is of paramount importance in Orthodoxy: sin, Satan, and
death, not God's justice or wrath, are the obstacles Christ overcomes for our
salvation.
“For by the sacrifice of His own body He did two
things: He put an end to the law of death which barred our way, and He made a
new beginning of life for us, by giving us hope of resurrection”(Saint
Athanasius the great).
Reference:
Surprised
by Christ. Father James Bernstein.2011.