The Bible is in a sense a biography of God in this world. In it the Indescribable One has in a sense described Himself.

The Holy Scriptures of the New Testament are a biog­raphy of the incarnate God in this world. In them it is related how God, in order to reveal Himself to men, sent God the Logos, who took on flesh and became man–and as a man told men everything that God is, everything that God wants from this world and the people in it.

God the Logos revealed God’s plan for the world and God’s love for the world. God the Word spoke to men about God with the help of words, insofar as human words can con­tain the uncontainable God.

All that is necessary for this world and the people in it–the Lord has stated in the Bible. In it He has given the answers to all questions. There is no question which can torment the human soul, and not find its answer, either directly or in­directly in the Bible.

Men cannot devise more questions than there are answers in the Bible. If you fail to find the answer to any of your questions in the Bible, it means that you have either posed a sense-less question or did not know how to read the Bible and did not finish reading the answer in it.

In the Bible God has made known:

[1] what the world is; where it came from; why it exists; where it is heading; how it will end;

[2] what man is; where he comes from; where he is going; what he is made of; what his purpose is; how he will end;

[3] what animals and plants are; what their purpose is; what they are used for;

[4] what good is; where it comes from; what it leads to; what its purpose is; how it is attained;

[5] what evil is; where it comes from; how it came to exist; why it exists–how it will come to an end;

[6] what the righteous are and what sinners are; how a sin­ner becomes righteous and how an arrogant flghteous man becomes a sinner; how a man serves God and how he serves satan; the whole path from good to evil, and from God to satan;

[7] everything–from the beginning to the end; man’s entire path from the body to God, from his conception in the womb to his resurrection from the dead;

[8] what the history of the world is, the history of heaven and earth, the history of mankind; what their path, purpose, and end are.

In the Bible God has said absolutely everything that was necessary to be said to men. The biography of every man-­everyone without exception–is found in the Bible.

In it each of us can find himself portrayed and thoroughly described in detail: all those virtues and vices which you have and can have and cannot have.

You will find the paths on which your own soul and everyone else’s journey from sin to siniessness, and the entire path from man to God and from man to Satan. You will find the means to free yourself from sin.

In short, you will find the complete history of sin and sin­fulness, and the complete history of righteousness and the righteous.

If you are mournful, you will find consolation in the Bible; if you are sad, you will find joy; if you are angry–tranquility; if you are lustful–continence; if you are foolish–wisdom; if you are bad–goodness; if you are a criminal–mercy and righteousness; if you hate your fellow man–love.

In it you will find a remedy for all your vices and weak points, and nourishment for all your virtues and accomplishments.

If you are good, the Bible will teach you how to become better; if you are kind, it will teach you angelic tenderness; if you are intelligent, it will teach you wisdom.

If you appreciate the beauty and music of literary style, there is nothing more beautiful or more moving than what is contained in Job, Isaiah, Solomon, David, John the Theologian and the Apostle Paul. Here music–the angelic music of the eternal truth of God–is clothed in human words.

The more one reads and studies the Bible, the more he finds reasons to study it as often and as frequently as he can. According to St. John Chrysostom, it is like an aromatic root, which produces more and more aroma the more it is rubbed.

Just as important as knowing why we should read the Bible is knowing how we should read the Bible.

The best guides for this are the holy Fathers, headed by St. John Chrysostom who, in a manner of speaking, has written a fifth Gospel.

The holy Fathers recommend serious preparation before reading and studying the Bible; but of what does this preparation consist?

First of all in prayer. Pray to the Lord to illuminate your mind–so that you may understand the words of the Bible–and to fill your heart with His grace–so that you may feel the truth and life of those words.

Be aware that these are God’s words, which He is speaking and saying to you personally. Prayer, together with the other virtues found in the Gospel, is the best preparation a person can have for understanding the Bible.

How should we read the Bible? Prayerfully and reverently, for in each word there is another drop of eternal truth, and all the words together make up the boundless ocean of the Eternal Truth.

The Bible is not a book but life; because its words are “spirit and life” (John 6:63). Therefore its words can be comprehended if we study them with the spirit of its spirit, and with the life of its life.

It is a book that must be read with life–by putting it into practice. One should first live it, and then understand it.

Here the words of the Saviour apply: “Whoever is willing to do it–will understand that this teaching is from God” (John 7:17). Do it, so that you may understand it. This is the fun­damental rule of Orthodox exegesis.

At first one usually reads the Bible quickly, and then more and more slowly, until finally he will begin to read not even word by word, because in each word he is discovering an everlasting truth and an ineffable mystery.

Every day read at least one chapter from the Old and the New Testament; but side by side with this put a virtue from each into practice. Practice it until it becomes a habit to you.

Let us say, for instance, that the first virtue is forgiveness of insults. Let this be your daily obligation. And along with it pray to the Lord: “O gentle Lord, grant me love towards those who insult me!”

And when you have made this virtue into a habit, each of the other virtues after it will be easier for you, and so on until the final one.

The main thing is to read the Bible as much as possible. When the mind does not understand, the heart will feel; and if neither the mind understands nor the heart feels, read it over again, because by reading it you are sowing God’s words in your soul.

And there they will not perish, but will gradually and imperceptibly pass into the nature of your soul; and there will happen to you what the Saviour said about the man who “casts seed on the ground, and sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, while the man does not know it” (Mark 4:26-27).

The main thing is: sow, and it is God who causes and allows what is sown to grow (1 Cor. 3:6). But do not rush success, lest you become like a man who sows today, but tomorrow already wants to reap.

By reading the Bible you are adding yeast to the dough of your soul and body, which gradually expands and fills the soul until it has thoroughly permeated it and makes it rise with the truth and righteousness of the Gospel.

In every instance, the Saviour’s parable about the sower and the seed can be applied tp every one of us. The seed of Divine Truth is given to us in the Bible.

By reading it, we sow that seed in our own soul. It falls on the rocky and thorny ground of our soul, but a little also falls on the good soil of our heart–and bears fruit.

And when you catch sight of the fruit and taste it, the sweetness and joy will spur you to clear and plow the rocky and thorny areas of your soul and sow it with the seed of the word of God.

Do you know when a man is wise in the sight of Christ the Lord? –When he listens to His word and carries it out. The beginning of wisdom is to listen to God’s word (Matt. 7:24-25).

Every word of the Saviour has the power and the might to heal both physical and spiritual ailments. “Say the word and my servant will be healed” (Matt. 8:8). The Saviour said the word–and the centurion’s servant was healed.

Just as He once did, the Lord even now ceaselessly says His words to you, to me, and to all of us. But we must pause, and immerse ourselves in them and receive them–with the centurion’s faith.

And a miracle will happen to us, and our souls will be healed just as the centurion’s servant was healed. For it is related in the Gospel that they brought many possessed people to Him, and He drove out the spirits with a word, and healed all the sick (Matt. 8:16).

He still does this today, because the Lord Jesus “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8)

Those who do not listen to God’s words will be judged at the Dreadful Judgment, and it will be worse for them on the Day of Judgment than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt. 10:14-15).

Beware–at the Dreadful Judgment you will be asked to give an account for what you have done with the words of God, whether you have listened to them and kept them, whether you have rejoiced in them or been ashamed of them.

If you have been ashamed of them, the Lord will also be ashamed of you when He comes in the glory of His Father together with the holy angels (Mark 8:38).

There are few words of men that are not vain and idle. Thus there are few words for which we do not mind being judged (Matt. 12:36).

In order to avoid this, we must study and learn the words of God from the Bible and make them our own; for God proclaimed them to men so that they might accept them, and by means of them also accept the Truth of God itself. In each word of the Saviour there is more eternity and permanence than in all of heaven and earth with all their history.

Hence He said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matt. 24:35). This means that God and all that is of God is in the Saviour’s words. Therefore they cannot pass away.

If a man accepts them, he is more permanent than heaven and earth, because there is a power in them that immortalizes man and makes him eternal.

Learning and fulfilling the words of God makes a person a relative of the Lord Jesus. He Himself revealed this when He said: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and carry it out” (Luke 8:21).

This means that if you hear and read the word of God, you are a half-brother of Christ. If you carry it out, you are a full brother of Christ. And that is a joy and privilege greater than that of the angels.

In learning from the Bible, a certain blessedness floods the soul which resembles nothing on earth. The Saviour spoke about this when He said, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28).

Great is the mystery of the word–so great that the second Person of the Holy Trinity, Christ the Lord, is called “the Word” or “the Logos” in the Bible.

God is the Word (John 1:1). All those words which come from the eternal and absolute Word are full of God, Divine Truth, Eternity, and Righteousness. If you listen to them, you are listening to God. If you read them, you are reading the direct words of God.

God the Word became flesh, became man (John 1:14), and mute, stuttering man began to proclaim the words of the eternal truth and righteousness of God.

In the Saviour’s words there is a certain elixir of immortality, which drips drop by drop into the soul of the man who reads His words and brings his soul from death to life, from impermanence to permanence.

The Saviour indicated this when He said: “Truly, truly I say unto you, whoever listens to my word and believes in the One who sent me has eternal life …and has passed over from death to life” (John 5:24).

Thus the Saviour makes the crucial assertion: “Truly, truly I say unto you, whoever keeps my words will never see death” (John 8:51).

Every word of Christ is full of God. Thus, when it enters a man’s soul it cleanses it from every defilement. From each of His words comes a power that cleanses us from sin.

Hence at the Mystical Supper the Saviour told His disciples, who used to listen to His word without ceasing: “You have already been cleansed by the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).

Christ the Lord and His Apostles call everything that is written in the Bible the word of God, the word of the Lord (John 17:14; Acts 6:2, 13:46, 16:32, 19:20; II Cor. 2:17; Col. 1:15, II Thess. 3:1), and uniess you read it and receive it as such, you will remain in the mute, stuttering words of men, vain and idle.

Every word of God is full of God’s Truth, which sanctifies the soul for all eternity once it enters it.

Thus does the Saviour turn to His heaveniy Father in prayer: “Father! Sanctify them with Thy Truth; Thy word is truth” (John 17:17).

If you do not accept the word of Christ as the word of God, as the word of the Truth, then falsehood and the father of lies within you is rebelling against it.

In every word of the Saviour there is much that is supernatural and full of grace, and this is what sheds grace on the soul of man when the word of Christ visits it.

Therefore the Holy Apostle calls the whole structure of the house of salvation “the word of the grace of God” (Acts 20:32).

Like a living grace-filled power, the word of God has a wonder-working and life-giving effect on a man, so long as he hears it with faith and receives it with faith (1 Thess. 2:13).

Everything is defiled by sin, but everything is cleansed by the word of God and prayer–everything–all creation from man on down to a worm (1 Tim. 4:5).

By the Truth which it carries in itself and by the Power which it has in itself, the word of God is “sharper than any sword and pierces to the point of dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Nothing remains secret before it or for it.

Because every word of God contains the eternal Word of God–the Logos-it has the power to give birth and regenerate men. And when a man is born of the Word, he is born of the Truth.

For this reason St. James the Apostle writes to the Christians that God the Father has brought them forth “by the word of truth” (1:18); and St. Peter tells them that they “have been born anew…by the word of the living God, which abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23).

All the words of God, which God has spoken to men, come from the Eternal Word–the Logos, who is the Word of life and bestows Life eternal.

By living for the Word, a man brings himself from death to life. By filling himself with eternal life, a man becomes a conqueror of death and “a partaker of the Divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), and of his blessedness there shall be no end.

The main and most important point of all this is faith and feeling love towards Christ the Lord, because the mystery of every word of God is opened beneath the warmth of that feeling, just as the petals of a fragrant flower are opened beneath the warmth of the sun’s rays. Amen.

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/read-bible/#ixzz3RDWYAzz5

The Old Testament can be confusing.

It’s very long, and unfamiliar to most Christians. Many reading it cannot see how it points to the coming of Jesus. Most modern biblical scholarship makes this worse, as it asserts that the Old Testament is a complex of contradictory theologies that tell us more about the culture of the Near East than it tells us about Christ, if it tells us anything about Christ at all.

In what follows, I want to provide some guiding principles on reading the Old Testament, with examples that demonstrate how a fully Christian reading of the Old Testament is actually the best and most fruitful reading of the Old Testament. This article therefore serves as both a guide to reading the Bible and a critique of modern critical methods that see the Old Testament as a disunity.

1. Read It!

St. Justin Popovich instructs us to read at least one chapter of the Old Testament and one chapter of the New Testament per day. That is, he instructs us to read them equally. By contrast, many modern Christians consider the New Testament to be fundamentally different in kind than the Old Testament and therefore more important to read. While these principles are rarely made explicit, the Old Testament is thought of as a rather vague, sometimes horrifying book about God the Father, occasionally mixed in with prophecies of Christ. The Old Testament is a Jewish book that’s been adapted for Christian use. By contrast, the Fathers of the Church considered the whole Bible, every word, to be written “for our sake” (1 Corinthians 10:11) and written to reveal the second person of the Trinity, the Eternal Word of God. St. Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho, makes clear that the Old Testament is fundamentally our book, not the book of Judaism. This is not a book written out of the culture of ancient Israel which the Church has adapted and invested new meaning into. Instead, this is a book written by God through inspired prophets, often against the culture of ancient Israel. And instead of investing new meaning into the Old Testament, the Church, invested as it is with the same Spirit that “spoke by the prophets”, discerns the meaning that the Creator Himself wrote into the Old Testament.

2. Read It Christocentrically

The Old Testament is about Jesus Christ. The Church therefore invites man to “come and see” (John 1:46) that this is the one of whom Moses and the Prophets wrote. Let’s consider an example of a proper and satisfying Christocentric reading of Old Testament passages. In the book of Joshua, we read the famous story of Rahab the harlot. When Israel invades the promised land, they are commanded to “devote the people to complete destruction” (Deuteronomy 20:17). As in the days of Noah, wickedness had reached such a level that God had resolved to destroy an entire society. Yet, Merciful as God is, He would not allow a single righteous person to be destroyed in the flood. And as with St. Mary of Egypt, righteousness is sometimes found in unexpected places. When the spies come into Jericho, Rahab deceives the Canaanites and safeguards the Israelites. Because of this, Rahab and her family is protected from destruction. In order to mark her house out from the rest of the Canaanites, Rahab hangs a scarlet cord out her window. Christians have historically seen this as a profound type of Christ: the red blood of Christ saves us from destruction at the Final Judgment. Unfortunately, many modern readers dismiss this as “reading into” the text. But had moderns read carefully, they would realize the Church has always been right about this.

Let’s consider several details which reinforce a Christocentric reading of this passage. First, Rahab is a Woman. This is not trivial. In Genesis 3, the Serpent deceived the first Woman (Genesis 3:13). God punishes “eye for eye, and tooth for tooth” (Exodus 21:24). Consequently, it is now the Woman who deceives the Serpent. This typifies the eschatological Woman, the Holy Theotokos, the New Eve, as she deceives the Serpent. St. Ignatius of Antioch therefore taught that God hid the virgnity of the Theotokos from Satan. Second, Rahab is a harlot. When God called Israel, she too was a harlot, as is vividly portrayed in Hosea 1-3. Yet, through the blood of Christ, God transforms this harlot into the New Eve, the Holy Church (the Theotokos personally symbolizes the whole Church). Indeed, the harlot Israel is transformed into a virgin Bride for Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). This is precisely what happens to Rahab. Deuteronomy 22:13-15 commands that if a Woman is accused of dishonor in her virginity, the father and mother of the woman are to bring out the bloody evidence of her virginity publicly, which will be her vindication. Perhaps, then, we should see the scarlet cord which is publicly displayed out of Rahab’s window as the evidence of Rahab’s restored virginity: the harlot Eve transformed into the Virgin Bride.

There’s more. All Christians have historically recognized a connection between the blood of the Passover Lamb and the blood of Christ. On the night of Passover, every Israelite door was to be marked with blood. Throughout the Old Testament, the door symbolizes birth. Death strikes the whole land of Egypt on Passover Night, but in the morning, the firstborn Israelite sons are reborn, resurrected, through the blood on the doorpost- which points to Jesus Christ “the firstborn over all creation” (Col. 1:15) resurrected through His own blood. The whole structure of Joshua 1-6 replays the exodus in reverse. In the exodus, Egypt is first destroyed, then the Israelites cross the Red Sea, and then the Israelites celebrate Passover. In the conquest, the Israelites first celebrate Passover, then they cross the Jordan, and then Jericho is destroyed. Where the firstborn sons were resurrected through blood on their doorpost when death came to strike Egypt, so Rahab is resurrected through the scarlet cord when death comes to strike Jericho. The scarlet cord therefore plays the role of the blood of the Passover Lamb. All these threads come rushing together in the person of Christ. Rahab, the New Eve, deceives the Serpent. The blood of Christ raises Eve up from death. And she inherits the land of promise, which in the new covenant, is the whole creation: Isaiah 65-66, speaking of the promise of the new heavens and the new earth, is filled with allusions to Numbers 14, which speaks of the promise of the land of Israel.

The lesson to be learned in this is that the Church’s reading of the Old Testament is not merely one reading. It is the best and most satisfying reading.

3. Read It Typologically

The Church is big on typology. As a single God is the author of human history, the same patterns appear over and over again throughout God’s story. I provided one example above concerning how one Old Testament story points profoundly to Jesus Christ. Yet it’s not only true that the Old Testament typifies Christ. The Old Testament also typifies 1) the Old Testament and 2) Church History. Let’s consider these things one at a time. First, the Old Testament typifies itself. This is particularly observable in the life of Jacob, from whom the name Israel comes. When Esau seeks to kill Jacob, Jacob flees to Laban. While with Laban, Jacob is enslaved- Laban changes his wages ten times (Genesis 31:7) and seeks to steal everything he produces (Genesis 30:35). Nevertheless, Jacob multiplies greatly, having twelve sons and increasing his flocks. Indeed, these two things reinforce each other. Rachel means “ewe lamb”, so that the sons of Jacob are Jacob’s flock. Afterwards, Jacob makes an exodus from Laban by crossing a body of water (Genesis 31:20-21), and Laban pursues him (Genesis 31:22-23). Finally, Jacob meets God in a theophany (Genesis 32:1-2). This is all replayed in a larger scale in the great exodus out of Egypt. When there is a famine in the promised land that could kill Jacob’s family, Israel flees to Egypt. While in Egypt, the Israelites are enslaved. Nevertheless, Israel multiplies greatly. Afterwards, Israel makes an exodus by crossing a body of water and Pharaoh pursues them. Finally, Israel meets God at the great Sinai theophany. The Old Testament itself is a tightly knit book of typology.

But it’s not only the Old Testament. The God who authored Israel’s story likewise authored the story of the Church, so that events within the Old Testament typify events within the Church’s history. One example is the pattern of Satan’s attacks on the people of God. In the life of Abraham, Satan tried to subvert God’s plan three times. First, Satan attacked the Bride in Genesis 12. Abram went down to Egypt to find refuge from a famine and Pharaoh seized Sarai. Nevertheless, Abram comes out of Egypt with great spoils (note how this typifies the exodus as well) and Sarai is saved. Next, Satan tries to corrupt the Seed of Abraham. In order to do this, Satan causes Abram to “listen to the voice of his wife” (Genesis 16:2, see also Genesis 3:17) and sleep with Hagar, thus producing Ishmael as an alternative Seed. Nevertheless, God establishes His covenant through Sarah and Isaac in Genesis 17. Finally, as the birth of Isaac is one year away, Satan causes Abimelech, king of Philistia, to seize Sarah and attempt to produce children through her in Genesis 20. Nevertheless, Sarah is saved and Isaac is indeed born. The pattern is thus that Satan attacks the Bride, then attempts to corrupt the Bride, then finally attacks the Seed. This pattern is evident many times in Church History. First, in the Apostolic Age, Satan first stirred up a great persecution at Jerusalem (Acts 8:1). Then, Satan stirred up the Judaizing heresy. Finally, Satan attempted to kill Christians in the Neronic persecution, this time focusing on those who had converted in the years 30-64. Interestingly, this pattern also appears in the fourth century. First, Satan attempted to kill the Church, the Holy Bride, in the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian. After Constantine converted, Satan poured out filthy waters by stirring up the heresy of Arianism. Finally, Satan attempted to attack the Seed by raising up Julian the Apostate, who attempted to re-educate the young in paganism. If we understand the way God has worked in history, then perhaps we can better understand the ways in which He works today.

4. Read It Christotelically

I noted above that we should read the Old Testament as a book with Christ at the center. But it’s also true that the Old Testament is a story searching for an end, a goal (telos). That goal is the Messiah (Romans 10:4). Many people read the Old Testament and see the first eleven chapters as being about the whole of humanity, while the rest concerns only Israel. While this is true from one perspective, I think it misses the larger point. God’s point in the election of Israel is to cultivate a holy seed which the rest of the human race is grafted onto (Romans 11:17-24). Attentive readers of the text have noted how this progresses in the Old Testament. First, in the book of Judges, Israel keeps worshiping other gods. God had given them the books of Genesis through Joshua to remedy this problem. He raised up the judges. While they kept going back to other gods, eventually, this problem declined. By the time of the kings, the primary problem was not worshiping other gods, but worshiping the true God falsely, on high places. In order to remedy this problem, God inspires the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, and the Song of Solomon. The prophets are raised up, who call Israel back to true worship. Eventually, Israel is punished in the exile. When they come back from Babylon, Israel no longer worships at high places. They witness to the nations. Their problem is now Pharisaism and legalism. It is in this context of human maturation that Jesus Christ arrives, proclaims the gospel, and invites the nations to be grafted in.

It is important to note, however, that there is not merely an upwards maturation in the history of Israel. There is also a downwards maturation. From the very beginning, there is the “Seed of the Woman” and the “Seed of the Serpent” within Israel, and both seeds reach their climax in the first century. While the holy seed is fully ripe at the coming of the Messiah, the wicked seed is also ripe. God, who “turns all things to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11), uses both to His purpose. I’ve already described how God uses the holy seed to prepare for the mission to the Gentiles. But the unrighteous seed are also used to God’s purposes. It is through the unrighteous that Satan seeks His opportunity to accuse God’s people. We therefore see in Zechariah 3 Satan standing before Joshua the High Priest, who is clothed in filthy garments. Satan stands ready to “accuse” him. God rebukes Satan and then robes Joshua in pure vestments. This is a prophecy of Christ’s death and resurrection- Christ is Joshua (Joshua is the same name as Jesus) the Great High Priest, and He takes on our filthy garments (Genesis 3:21) of sin and death and glorifies them in His holy resurrection. We then see in Zechariah 5 that a mystery Babylon is rising up within Israel. A false Tabernacle is being set up in the “land of Shinar”, where the Tower of Babylon was constructed. In Romans 7, Paul, speaking with the voice of Israel in exile, describes how sin accumulated within Israel. Just as the Serpent deceived Eve, “Sin deceived” Israel, who died. Satan uses the wicked within Israel as a justification to accuse the Messiah and call for His death. God obliged, but used this death to destroy Satan. This is the climax of the deceit theme within the Bible. The Serpent deceived the Woman and caused her to die. But now God deceives the Serpent and the Messiah crushes his head. Mystery Babylon comes to its climax in Jerusalem-Babylon, in which God “traps” every evil spirit (Revelation 18:1). In AD 70, Jerusalem-Babylon is destroyed and the Church rides out to conquer the world for Israel’s God.

5. Read It Holistically

The Old Testament is a big book, with a lot of trees. It’s therefore easy to miss the forest for the trees. But as one God oversaw the whole history of Israel, leading up to Jesus Christ, and one Spirit inspired the whole Bible, focusing on Jesus Christ, we need to keep our eyes open for the big picture. The big picture of the Old Testament is exile and exodus. In Genesis 1, God makes the world in six days, pronouncing a triple blessing on creation. In Genesis 3, after the Fall, God pronounces a triple curse on creation. In Genesis 8-9, all the animals come out “by families”, Noah consecrates them to God, and God “blesses” them through Noah. In Genesis 12, God promises to “bless all the families of the earth” through Abraham. The story of Israel is the story of building an ark. As the flood was Noah’s exodus out of the old creation into a new creation, so also Israel’s story leads up to a great new exodus. The beginning of the Pentateuch portrays the primeval exile from Paradise. The end of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy 30-32, portrays the eschatological new exodus, back into Paradise and into new life. Deuteronomy 30:1-6 is a profoundly important passage, though it is often ignored, so it is worth quoting in full.

(Deut. 30:1–6) And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

There is a curious paradox in this passage. In order to return to the Lord and serve Him, Israel needs a circumcised heart. Yet, Israel doesn’t get a circumcised heart until after she returns to the Lord. This paradox is resolved in the person of Christ. Jesus is the personal embodiment of Israel, and it is through Him that God circumcises our hearts, cutting into it the shape of the cross. As He takes on the destiny of Israel, Israel returns to the Lord through Him. He is the Seed of Abraham, the “heir of the world” (Romans 4:12), and it is in Him that we return to Paradise. The Pentateuch begins with man exiled from Paradise and loses “life”. Its midpoint is Leviticus 16, where the High Priest (who is a figure of Adam) is disrobed and re-robed in glory, as one goat is exiled and another ascends to God. Its end is Deuteronomy 30, where Israel returns from exile and finds “life.”

Consider how the Holy Prophet Ezekiel draws on Deuteronomy 30 in Ezekiel 36-37. At the beginning of the book of Ezekiel, Israel is in idolatry. God scatters the bones of the idolaters around the altar. Yet God promises to cleanse Israel’s heart from idolatry. In Ezekiel, God says that He will bring Israel back from exile, and the “land that was desolate will be as the garden of Eden” (Ezekiel 36:35). Then in Ezekiel 37, Deuteronomy 30 is opened up and expanded. Ezekiel sees the scattered bones of the idolaters, and God asks: “Can these bones live?” The answers is evident from what happens next. Just as God breathed the Spirit into the dirt of the ground and brought Adam to life, so also God breathes into dead Israel, and flesh comes upon the bones. After God brought Adam to life, He brought Him into Paradise. Likewise, after God brings Israel back to life in a new exodus, God brings Israel into the promised land. Jesus the Messiah is the Last Adam. Because Israel is Adam, Jesus is also the personal embodiment of Israel. In His death, He takes on Israel’s exile. And in His resurrection, He brings Israel back to life. Through Holy Baptism and suffering (Romans 6:1-4, 8:17), the shape of the cross is cut into our hearts so that we can inherit the promised land, the renewed creation, the New Eden.

The history of Israel begins with the call of Abraham. In Genesis 11, Abraham is in Mesopotamia. He comes out of Mesopotamia, and in the midpoint of his journey, his father, the older generation, dies. Then he comes to the promised land, where he wanders and witnesses to the Gentiles. This is a clear type of the exodus, where Israel comes out of Egypt, the older generation dies in the wilderness, and then Israel comes into the promised land. After the patriarchal period, Israel descends into Egypt. After coming out, they finally conquer the land, led by Joshua. At Israel’s exile to Babylon in Mesopotamia, history restarts. The return from Babylon under Ezra and Nehemiah begins a new patriarchal period. Israel is in the land, and they witness to the Gentiles, but they don’t yet possess the land. Daniel prophesies a period of 1,290 days until the coming of the Messiah (Daniel 12:11). As 1,290 is three times 430, the period of years that Abraham and his family were in Egypt, we should read Daniel’s prophecy as a prophecy of a new Egyptian captivity. This time, Jerusalem itself, led by the wicked Herods and High Priests, is the locus of the Egyptian captivity. Jesus leads His people out of Egypt as the New Moses. Finally, as the New Joshua, our Lord leads the Church into the promised land.

About Seraphim Hamilton

As Protestant Christians find their way to examining the Orthodox Christian faith, they very often remark about the inconsistency of Orthodox Christianity on the matter of justification by faith, or else they even say that Orthodoxy has no such doctrine of justification. Indeed, the term justification may be a bit curious to most Orthodox Christians who were not reared in Protestant homes, for one seldom encounters the term in Orthodox liturgy or theological discussion. It is perhaps most often encountered at the liturgical reading of the epistles of St. Paul or St. James, or perhaps one might recognize it from the service of baptism or chrismation. Yet these occurrences may pass notice and thus understanding.
But what of this notion of justification, and why should we pay heed to such criticisms made by Protestant observers of our Orthodox faith? A simple answer to this question might be that justification is a biblical doctrine, and it is one that has had a very significant impact in the history of Christianity. Nevertheless, the term justification has largely disappeared from Orthodox theological vocabulary, and this I would argue is for good reason.

A Changing Consensus

Critical scholarship over the last 50 years or so has begun to reassess the issue of justification in the epistles of St. Paul in conjunction with our ever-growing understanding of 1st century Judaism and its own understanding of what we could describe as “justification.” In the various sectarian theologies of Second Temple Judaism leading up to the time of Christ and the Apostles, Jews were very much concerned with who was in and who was out, i.e., who were the righteous before God and who were the wicked objects of His wrath. In order to maintain a position of being righteous before God, a pious Jew was expected to live in complete fidelity to Torah, the Law of Moses. The only question was, by whose interpretation of Torah should one live? The Jewish sect responsible for writing many of the Dead Sea Scrolls believed that they alone had received the correct interpretation of Torah, given to them by a man they called the Teacher of Righteousness, and all others were under the sway of the Wicked Priest or Man of the Lie, who had led them astray.

As the Gospel of Jesus Christ reached various Jewish communities throughout the Roman world, the question naturally rose as to what they should do about the Torah. Having believed in Messiah Jesus, should they still keep Torah? Furthermore, what should they do about Gentiles who came to believe in Messiah Jesus – should they become circumcised and follow Torah?

Paul and James, Two Valid Perspectives

St. Paul’s answer to this question was decisive as well as ingenious, for he categorically denied that Jews or Gentiles were obligated to keep Torah, for they had been justified by faith apart from the works of Torah, such as circumcision and kosher dietary regulations. Furthermore, all had been baptized into one body, the Body of Jesus the Messiah, and had been given the gift of the Holy Spirit who would enable them to do what the Torah could not – to keep the righteous requirement of the Torah and live in obedience to God. To be baptized into the Messiah was to be baptized into His death and thus die to Torah to which they had previously been bound and to live unto Messiah Jesus by faith and the power of the Spirit.

St. James, on the other hand, likely felt that Paul had gone a bit too far in his jettisoning of the Torah, for he maintained that the Torah was still useful for instructing in righteousness, and that the works of Torah were to be understood simply as putting one’s faith into action. While Paul focused upon Torah as the means by which the Jews sought to establish their own imperfect righteousness before God, James saw the Torah as an efficient means by which one might live in obedience to God through faith. In spite of an apparent disagreement (which it was not in actuality, but only a difference in the use of terminology), it seems quite clear from both Paul and James that they agreed that both faith and obedience to God were necessary components of salvation, though they went about describing it in different ways.

The importance of all of this is to emphasize that justification is foremost an issue regarding the place of the Jewish Torah in the life of early Christian communities. For this reason, it is perhaps rightly de-emphasized in Orthodoxy, for we no longer have to deal with the same issues that the new Christian communities, composed of Jews and Gentiles seated at the same table, had to deal with.

Justification and Salvation

Justification is only one aspect of our salvation in Christ, which is manifold and comprehensive. Various aspects of this salvation have been emphasized in different eras or different geographic regions (i.e., East and West), but none can be exclusively claimed as the sole understanding of salvation. Let’s look at a few of these terms and ideas in order that we may parse out their connection and how they comprise a more comprehensive look at our salvation:

Justification – This term deals with how a person comes into and maintains a right relationship with God. Ultimately, this is made possible by the cross of Christ, by which He made expiation for our sins, granting us forgiveness and bringing us into a right relationship with God. Justification is accomplished at baptism and maintained through a life of obedience to God and confession of sins.

Sanctification – Sanctification is the process of separating a person or thing for exclusive use by God or for God. Holiness, the result of sanctification, is the state of being exclusively devoted to God. This ultimately requires purification from sin and detachment from the world and material things. This is usually seen as an ongoing process that one undergoes throughout one’s life. Sanctification is accomplished through ascetic struggle.

Glorification – The final state of Christians perfected in Christ after His Second Coming. While this term (as a participle) was used in Romans 8:29, Orthodoxy normally understands this idea to be the culmination of theosis (see below).

Adoption – The result of being engrafted into the Body of Christ through Baptism. We are adopted by God the Father as sons and co-heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:15-17). Adoption is the state by which we may partake of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) through theosis (c.f. the series on theosis and adoption by Fr. Matthew Baker).

Faith – This term can be understood biblically in two senses: (Paul) trust, fidelity, or loyalty to Christ that includes obedience and good works, or (James) simple cognitive belief (James 2:19) that must be complemented with good works.

Works – Also, this term is used biblically in two senses: (Paul) the “works of the Torah” such as circumcision, kosher regulations, and the myriad of other ordinances of the Law of Moses that are incapable of establishing one as righteous before God, or (James) good works (in an ethical sense) and obedience before God which accompany genuine faith.

Theosis/Deification – Both the result of being adopted as sons and daughters of God through baptism into Christ and the process of attaining to the fulness of the divine nature and conformity to the image of Christ. The concept of theosis has the potential to be wildly misunderstood when it is taken away from its moorings in the concept of adoption and the sacramental life of the Church. If it is understood in a “mystical” or gnostic way as a spiritualized state of elite initiates or recipients of some special grace withheld from other baptized members of Christ’s Church, then we err from Patristic teaching on the matter.

Christus Victor – Literally “Christ the Victor” (IC XC NIKA), this concept is perhaps the most common expression of our salvation in Orthodox Christianity. It is most aptly characterized by the Paschal apolytikion: “Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” We are saved, because Christ has destroyed sin and death by His own death, and given life to us by His resurrection.

But what of this notion of justification, and why should we pay heed to such criticisms made by Protestant observers of our Orthodox faith? A simple answer to this question might be that justification is a biblical doctrine, and it is one that has had a very significant impact in the history of Christianity. Nevertheless, the term justification has largely disappeared from Orthodox theological vocabulary, and this I would argue is for good reason.

A Changing Consensus

Critical scholarship over the last 50 years or so has begun to reassess the issue of justification in the epistles of St. Paul in conjunction with our ever-growing understanding of 1st century Judaism and its own understanding of what we could describe as “justification.” In the various sectarian theologies of Second Temple Judaism leading up to the time of Christ and the Apostles, Jews were very much concerned with who was in and who was out, i.e., who were the righteous before God and who were the wicked objects of His wrath. In order to maintain a position of being righteous before God, a pious Jew was expected to live in complete fidelity to Torah, the Law of Moses. The only question was, by whose interpretation of Torah should one live? The Jewish sect responsible for writing many of the Dead Sea Scrolls believed that they alone had received the correct interpretation of Torah, given to them by a man they called the Teacher of Righteousness, and all others were under the sway of the Wicked Priest or Man of the Lie, who had led them astray.

As the Gospel of Jesus Christ reached various Jewish communities throughout the Roman world, the question naturally rose as to what they should do about the Torah. Having believed in Messiah Jesus, should they still keep Torah? Furthermore, what should they do about Gentiles who came to believe in Messiah Jesus – should they become circumcised and follow Torah?

Paul and James, Two Valid Perspectives

St. Paul’s answer to this question was decisive as well as ingenious, for he categorically denied that Jews or Gentiles were obligated to keep Torah, for they had been justified by faith apart from the works of Torah, such as circumcision and kosher dietary regulations. Furthermore, all had been baptized into one body, the Body of Jesus the Messiah, and had been given the gift of the Holy Spirit who would enable them to do what the Torah could not – to keep the righteous requirement of the Torah and live in obedience to God. To be baptized into the Messiah was to be baptized into His death and thus die to Torah to which they had previously been bound and to live unto Messiah Jesus by faith and the power of the Spirit.

St. James, on the other hand, likely felt that Paul had gone a bit too far in his jettisoning of the Torah, for he maintained that the Torah was still useful for instructing in righteousness, and that the works of Torah were to be understood simply as putting one’s faith into action. While Paul focused upon Torah as the means by which the Jews sought to establish their own imperfect righteousness before God, James saw the Torah as an efficient means by which one might live in obedience to God through faith. In spite of an apparent disagreement (which it was not in actuality, but only a difference in the use of terminology), it seems quite clear from both Paul and James that they agreed that both faith and obedience to God were necessary components of salvation, though they went about describing it in different ways.

The importance of all of this is to emphasize that justification is foremost an issue regarding the place of the Jewish Torah in the life of early Christian communities. For this reason, it is perhaps rightly de-emphasized in Orthodoxy, for we no longer have to deal with the same issues that the new Christian communities, composed of Jews and Gentiles seated at the same table, had to deal with.

Justification and Salvation

Justification is only one aspect of our salvation in Christ, which is manifold and comprehensive. Various aspects of this salvation have been emphasized in different eras or different geographic regions (i.e., East and West), but none can be exclusively claimed as the sole understanding of salvation. Let’s look at a few of these terms and ideas in order that we may parse out their connection and how they comprise a more comprehensive look at our salvation:

Justification – This term deals with how a person comes into and maintains a right relationship with God. Ultimately, this is made possible by the cross of Christ, by which He made expiation for our sins, granting us forgiveness and bringing us into a right relationship with God. Justification is accomplished at baptism and maintained through a life of obedience to God and confession of sins.

Sanctification – Sanctification is the process of separating a person or thing for exclusive use by God or for God. Holiness, the result of sanctification, is the state of being exclusively devoted to God. This ultimately requires purification from sin and detachment from the world and material things. This is usually seen as an ongoing process that one undergoes throughout one’s life. Sanctification is accomplished through ascetic struggle.

Glorification – The final state of Christians perfected in Christ after His Second Coming. While this term (as a participle) was used in Romans 8:29, Orthodoxy normally understands this idea to be the culmination of theosis (see below).

Adoption – The result of being engrafted into the Body of Christ through Baptism. We are adopted by God the Father as sons and co-heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:15-17). Adoption is the state by which we may partake of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) through theosis (c.f. theseries on theosis and adoption by Fr. Matthew Baker).

Faith – This term can be understood biblically in two senses: (Paul) trust, fidelity, or loyalty to Christ that includes obedience and good works, or (James) simple cognitive belief (James 2:19) that must be complemented with good works.

Works – Also, this term is used biblically in two senses: (Paul) the “works of the Torah” such as circumcision, kosher regulations, and the myriad of other ordinances of the Law of Moses that are incapable of establishing one as righteous before God, or (James) good works (in an ethical sense) and obedience before God which accompany genuine faith.

Theosis/Deification – Both the result of being adopted as sons and daughters of God through baptism into Christ and the process of attaining to the fulness of the divine nature and conformity to the image of Christ. The concept of theosis has the potential to be wildly misunderstood when it is taken away from its moorings in the concept of adoption and the sacramental life of the Church. If it is understood in a “mystical” or gnostic way as a spiritualized state of elite initiates or recipients of some special grace withheld from other baptized members of Christ’s Church, then we err from Patristic teaching on the matter.

Christus Victor – Literally “Christ the Victor” (IC XC NIKA), this concept is perhaps the most common expression of our salvation in Orthodox Christianity. It is most aptly characterized by the Paschal apolytikion: “Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” We are saved, because Christ has destroyed sin and death by His own death, and given life to us by His resurrection.