Archpriest Vladimir Dolgikh answers.
I think that many have encountered a situation where people who call themselves Christians claim that it is enough to believe in God, but going to church is too much.
In such cases, questions are constantly on the tip of my tongue: “What God do you believe in? Who is Christ? Why did He come to earth, suffer, die and Resurrect? Why is Jesus Christ called Savior? etc. So it turns out that, without having the opportunity, at least for themselves, to answer these questions, “Christians” generally believe in someone unknown, and in this case there is really no need to go to church. Faith is not some kind of abstraction, not a matter of tastes or aesthetic preferences, it must be concrete, definite. One of the most important questions directly related to the eternal destiny of man is the question: “Why is Christ the Savior? Why is Jesus Christ revered as Savior? What did He save us from? The answer to them shapes our worldview and directly affects the transformation from “Christians” to Christians.
Briefly about Christ as Savior
It’s probably worth starting with the “standard” definitions that can be found in many textbooks on dogmatics. Why is Christ called the Savior? Because He saved us from:
- sin;
- curses;
- of death.
The disclosure of each of these points can be found in the Holy Scriptures, because the Bible is one of the main sources of Christian dogmas. In his Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul points out that in Christ, through the abundance of grace, we find redemption and forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7). In the letter to the Galatians we read that Jesus “has redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Gal. 3:13). Holy Gregory the Theologian explains here that the Lord experienced the curse of humanity on Himself, bearing our sufferings and illnesses that arose as a result of lawlessness. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we find an indication that the Son of God takes on our flesh and blood, in order by His Death to abolish the one who owns death, i.e. the devil, and also to deliver us from his power, as subject to the fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15). It turns out that the devil and death are connected, and in salvation from death we also mean salvation from the power of the “prince of this world.” At St. Ephraim the Syrian, like many other fathers, can be found, so to speak, expanding this thought to an understanding of eternal death, extending far beyond the boundaries of a person’s earthly path.
Meaning of the Lord's name
Jesus is the modern church interpretation of the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yeshua, which combines two concepts - the name of God in the Old Testament and salvation.
The best article for you, go to: Canon of repentance to our Lord Jesus Christ
The name Yeshua was mainly given to boys in memory of the conqueror of the Earth, Moses' disciple Joshua.
The title “Christ” is an epithet that indicates the character of Jesus from a Christian perspective. The word itself means “anointed one.” This artistic trope was used back in ancient Israel and was related only to priests and kings. What is there reliable evidence for in the Bible?
Often in Orthodoxy one can come across the question of why Christ was named Jesus and not Emmanuel, if such information is known to a wide circle of believers.
Emmanuel is translated from Hebrew as “God with us.” This is one of the names of Jesus, which in general terms explains the meaning of the descent of the Son of God into the world. The second meaning is the iconographic image of the Lord, which represents Him at the age of a Youth, already marked with the seal of the ruler, filled with perfection in everything and the greatest spiritual maturity, hitherto unknown.
For the first time, the prophetic name Emmanuel was used in the prophecy of Isaiah, from where it began its journey.
About Christ as Savior in more depth
So, we briefly found out why Jesus Christ is called the Savior, now it’s worth saying a little more about this.
In the above passages of Holy Scripture we encounter the concept of atonement, without which talk about the salvation of mankind is impossible. In general, Christians often talk about redemption. The meaning of this word for us is not just scholasticism, it is literally imbued with living faith in the Savior, especially in the days of Holy Week, when we empathize with the Suffering of Christ. That is, most Orthodox Christians, on an intuitive level, feel what redemption is, but it is still worth giving it more clear outlines. I think it will not come as a surprise to note that the word atonement appears many times in Scripture. Its literal translation from Greek means “release for a certain ransom.” The famous theologian Vladimir Nikolaevich Lossky points out that the abstract concept of atonement is of a legal nature, which is difficult to disagree with. However, in Christianity it takes on a deeper meaning. The Son of God will save us, because it was He who made the “ransom” that frees us from the consequences of the Fall. Let us remember that sin, curse and death became the enslavers of man, but a slave can pay for himself and remains imprisoned until someone redeems him.
Why is Jesus called Christ? Origin of the name
During his lifetime, Jesus' name was Yeshua ha-Nozri. Yeshua of Nazareth (in Hebrew ישוע הנוצרי). The name Yeshua translated from ancient Hebrew means “God is our salvation.”
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John provide accounts of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ. These works are written in Greek, therefore.
Christ "Anointed" translated from ancient Greek
Subsequently, Christians translated the Gospel into different languages of the world, and the name Jesus became firmly entrenched in Christianity.
Why is Jesus called Christ? Christ from the ancient Greek Χριστός means “Anointed One.”
Thus, Jesus Christ: “Savior”, “Anointed One”, “Messiah”.
The image shows a papyrus with handwritten text of the Gospel of Matthew, it is written in ancient Greek
The Positive and Negative Sides of the Atonement
The indicated understanding of atonement is, one might say, its negative side, but not in the sense that it is of some kind of negative nature, but in the fact that it only points to the replenishment of what was lost, the removal of obstacles. The positive side of redemption, according to many holy fathers and modern theologians, is that, in addition to the ransom, the Lord also reconciles a person with Himself, adopts us. This is an act of God's boundless love for man. At St. John Chrysostom has wonderful words on this matter. He says that thanks to the saving feat of Christ, the Lord will not only not punish us for the fall, but will also reward us with such gifts as if we had done a large number of good deeds.
How God Sent Jesus Christ to Earth
Mary was orphaned early and was raised at the Jerusalem Temple. At the age of 14, she was married to an elderly widower, Joseph, who lived in the city of Nazareth.
One day the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary. He brought her the news that the Lord had chosen her to become the mother of God's son.
Gabriel also told her that the virgin birth will occur from the Holy Spirit, and the born child will save humanity from sins.
Icon of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It depicts the Archangel Gabriel, who brought Mary the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ
On the way to the city of Bethlehem, where Joseph and Mary went to the census, they were caught by night. They chose a barn for the night.
That night, Mary gave birth to a boy. Before this event, a bright star lit up in the sky, which the sages of the east were eagerly awaiting.
Smyrna
One of the gifts of the Magi. She then embalmed the dead
The guiding star of Bethlehem indicated the birthplace of Jesus. The Magi brought gifts to the newborn: incense, gold and myrrh.
Gold for Jesus the King, frankincense for Jesus the God and myrrh. At that time, the bodies of the dead were embalmed with myrrh.
King Herod knew in advance about the arrival of the Mission, and ordered to kill all newborn babies.
Joseph and Mary hastily went to Egypt, where the family lived for three years. After the death of Herod, he and the child returned to Nazareth, where Jesus Christ spent his childhood and youth.
The event of the birth of Christ in 5 BC turned the entire course of earthly history upside down.
The painting by L. Lotto depicts the birth of Christ
Objective and subjective sides of salvation
However, as we understand, not everyone will be saved and rewarded. The Apostle Paul, in his rather famous words (1 Cor. 2:9), indicates that the Lord has prepared incredible gifts for “those who love Him.” And the problem here is not that God will not reward someone of his own free will, but that Divine love still needs to be accepted in a reciprocal action of love. It is impossible to love forcibly, therefore those who do not love the Lord will themselves refuse the gifts and will simply be unable to let them into themselves. Therefore, in the matter of saving a person, it is necessary to distinguish between the objective and subjective sides. The objective one is that God has already done everything possible for our salvation, which is what I am trying to reveal in this article. The subjective side depends on the person himself, on desires, aspirations and, as a consequence, certain actions that pave the path either to eternal life or to eternal destruction.
God believes in man
...God appeared before us because He wanted to become one of us, so that not a single person on earth would be ashamed of his God: as if God was so great, so far away that there was no approach to Him. He became one of us in our humiliation and in our deprivation; <...> through His love, through His understanding, through His forgiveness and mercy, He became close to those whom others rejected because they were sinners. He did not come to the righteous, He came to love and seek sinners. He came so that not a single person who has lost respect for himself could think that God has lost respect for him, that God no longer sees him as someone worthy of His love.
You can read these and other materials in the special issues “Christmas Nativity Scene” - a joint project of the magazine “Foma” and the campaign group “Kardos”.
Theories of the atonement
The conversation about why Jesus Christ is called the Savior would be incomplete without referring to the existing theories of atonement, which indicate the most systematic attempts to interpret the feat He accomplished. So, traditionally there are three theories:
- legal;
- moral;
- organic.
The author of the legal theory of atonement is the Western Christian scholastic Anselm of Canterbury. He was born in 1033, so technically even before the Great Schism of 1054. In principle, the legal approach to issues of faith among the Latins has been traced since the 4th century, therefore Anselm’s ideas here did not become something out of the ordinary. The essence of his theory boils down to the following provisions: by his fall, man committed a crime, thereby violating the just order established by God and offending the Lord. The degree of insult is determined by the rank of the offended party. The greatness of God is infinite, and accordingly, the guilt of the criminal is infinite. Man, being a created being, is unable to satisfy God’s infinite justice and bring satisfaction for what he has done, which is why the Incarnation and Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity was necessary in order to bring a proper ransom for man through the act of redemption. I think that even those who were not familiar with this theory before understand its “dryness” and in some provisions its inconsistency with Holy Scripture. However, its positive side is the clear emphasis on the idea that a person is unable to be saved by his own efforts alone.
The moral theory of the atonement was created as a reaction to the extremes of the legal theory. It finds its completion in the works of Metropolitan. Anthony (Khrapovitsky). The emphasis of this theory is on Christ's overcoming all temptations, by which He demonstrates complete obedience to the Father, thereby setting us the greatest example. According to Bishop Anthony, salvation was accomplished during the Gethsemane struggle, and the Cross was needed to reveal and demonstrate the strength and depth of the Savior’s spiritual torment. The negative aspects of this theory also lie on the surface; at a minimum, it downplays the significance of the Suffering and Death of Christ. Moral theory is good for its criticism of legal theory, which reduces the relationship between man and God to lifeless legal categories.
The main supporters of the organic theory of atonement were such emigration theologians as Fr. Georgy Florovsky and V.N. Lossky, etc. Here it must be said that Christian soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) is one of the least dogmatically developed sections. So, in the person of Russian emigration theologians, in this topic, an attempt was made to synthesize patristic thought. For them, redemption, first of all, lies in the healing and deification of sick human nature. The emphasis here is not only on Calvary, Gethsemane or the Sepulcher, but on the entire life of Christ. Of course, the Passion, the Cross and the Resurrection remain the most important actions of the incarnate Son of God in the matter of salvation, but they are preceded by His incarnation and the passage of all stages of human development, the acquisition of a certain fullness of human ages. Therefore, everything that Christ said and did (teachings, prophecies, miracles, etc.) is relevant to our salvation.
The theory is called organic not because everything in it is organically (harmoniously) put together, but because it is revealed in the categories of nature, both Divine and human. Sin here is perceived not only as a violation of the law, not only as an immoral act, but above all, as a disease. Therefore, salvation is healing from illness, liberation from slavery, transformation of a person and ultimately deification. Through man, salvation is given to the world as it was created for his sake. Therefore, Christ is not only the Savior of man, but also the Savior of the world.
