Free-will and Justification

[joasia]

I don't have this book. But, I'm still interested to know the passage you referred to, in Romans.

God initiates and accomplish justification through Christ on the Cross

This is still vague. What justification?

Sorry, I'm not so well versed in the terminology.

[sosthenes001]

Dear Joanna,

I would recommand to buy this study Bible. It is a goog investment. I many bible with comments (one catholic, one lutheran and this) and I find always to the point. One the other hand, I do not how to explain that justification is Good redeeming us freely. Look at Hebrew 9.15, for instance. I hope other members will join the dicussion. Meanwhile, if you dowmload a PDF of St John Damascus from the link Father Mark kindly provided us, you can read Book, chapter 1 which is related to our subject plus those Father Mark provided.

Book III. Chapter I.— Concerning the Divine OEconomy and God’s care over us, and concerning our salvation.

Man, then, was thus snared by the assault of the arch-fiend, and broke his Creator’s command, and was stripped of grace and put off his confidence with God, and covered himself with the asperities of a toilsome life (for this is the meaning of the fig-leaves); and was clothed about with death, that is, mortality and the grossness of flesh (for this is what the garment of skins signifies); and was banished from Paradise by God’s just judgment, and condemned to death, and made subject to corruption. Yet, notwithstanding all this, in His pity, God, Who gave him his being, and Who in His graciousness bestowed on him a life of happiness, did not disregard man. But He first trained him in many ways and called him back, by groans and trembling, by the deluge of water, and the utter destruction of almost the whole race, by confusion and diversity of tongues, by the rule of angels, by the burning of cities, by figurative manifestations of God, by wars and victories and defeats, by signs and wonders, by manifold faculties, by the law and the prophets: for by all these means God earnestly strove to emancipate man from the wide-spread and enslaving bonds of sin, which had made life such a mass of iniquity, and to effect man’s return to a life of happiness. For it was sin that brought death like a wild and savage beast into the world to the ruin of the human life. But it behoved the Redeemer to be without sin, and not made liable through sin to death, and further, that His nature should be strengthened and renewed, and trained by labour and taught the way of virtue which leads away from corruption to the life eternal and, in the end, is revealed the mighty ocean of love to man that is about Him. For the very Creator and Lord Himself undertakes a struggle in behalf of the work of His own hands, and learns by toil to become Master. And since the enemy snares man by the hope of Godhead, he himself is snared in turn by the screen of flesh, and so are shown at once the goodness and wisdom, the justice and might of God. God’s goodness is revealed in that He did not disregard the frailty of His own handiwork, but was moved with compassion for him in his fall, and stretched forth His hand to him: and His justice in that when man was overcome He did not make another victorious over the tyrant, nor did He snatch man by might from death, but in His goodness and justice He made him, who had become through his sins the slave of death, himself once more conqueror and rescued like by like, most difficult though it seemed: and His wisdom is seen in His devising the most fitting solution of the difficulty. For by the good pleasure of our God and Father, the Only-begotten Son and Word of God and God, Who is in the bosom of the God and Father, of like essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Who was before the ages, Who is without beginning and was in the beginning, Who is in the presence of the God and Father, and is God and made in the form of God, bent the heavens and descended to earth: that is to say, He humbled without humiliation His lofty station which yet could not be humbled, and condescends to His servants, with a condescension ineffable and incomprehensible: (for that is what the descent signifies). And God being perfect becomes perfect man, and brings to perfection the newest of all new things, the only new thing under the Sun, through which the boundless might of God is manifested. For what greater thing is there, than that God should become Man? And the Word became flesh without being changed, of the Holy Spirit, and Mary the holy and ever-virgin one, the mother of God. And He acts as mediator between God and man, He the only lover of man conceived in the Virgin’s chaste womb without will or desire, or any connection with man or pleasurable generation, but through the Holy Spirit and the first offspring of Adam. And He becomes obedient to the Father Who is like unto us, and finds a remedy for our disobedience in what He had assumed from us, and became a pattern of obedience to us without which it is not possible to obtain salvation.

[joasia]

From what I have read and was explained, the free will that we exercise is just the beginning, but the salvation we attain is by the Grace of God. Our free will opens our hearts (souls) to receive Christ through acceptance of Him, but especially through partaking of Holy Communion. The justification is the fact that we are given the passage to His Holy Kingdom because Christ offered Himself for our sins. The justification is really God's love for us because we can never justify ourselves to God, but we can offer ourselves as a sacrifce to God; we can sacrifice our will and that becomes the union we acheive with God. The goal is to unite our will with God's will.

[Matthew]

Hello everyone,
... Can someone provide me some commentary in OSB I can read and understand where stands free-will?
Thank you and best regards,
François

Hello François! You ask if there is some commentary in the Orthodox Study Bible, which I believe means you are using the one published by Thomas Nelson Publishers. While the bible is beautifully produced, and has some useful content, no doubt, it is not a very good text to look to for Truly Orthodox perspectives on theology and Scripture. This point has been well established by Archimandrite Ephrem. You can read his shortish review here:

http://orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/review_osb.aspx

Also, if you want a few short reviews (some positive but mostly negative) by Orthodox people, one of whom is a Greek Bible translator then you can check out their comments here:

http://orthodoxstudybible.blogspot.com/

If you would like to read the most thorough examination of the OSB from a Traditional Orthodox point of view, Archimandrite Haralambos has gone through the text with a fine toothed comb and brings all the concerns into focus in his review. I have read it all and found it excellent reading. In fact, it was the review that really settled the issue for me. I cannot recommend it more highly if you want to get a deep understanding of the problems with the OSB. It can be read here:

http://www.homb.org/Orthodox%20Study%20 ... Review.pdf

The general consensus is that the Orthodox Study Bible is very poorly done and does not deserve the name Orthodox. Sorry to bring you bad news on that score, but that is better than not knowing the full story. I also had the OSB and was unaware of the many problems with the text and was sad to learn of how compromised the text really is. Nevertheless I am happier to have been made aware of this. I prefer now either a KJV or for study purposes in English versions there is the excellent Orthodox New Testament in two large volumes available from Dormition Skete in Buena Vista CO. It is absolutely filled with explanations on every page from the Holy Fathers as they give commentary on all the troublesome passages and concepts.

Hope that helps.
Symeon

[Maria]

Hello everyone,
... Can someone provide me some commentary in OSB I can read and understand where stands free-will?
Thank you and best regards,
François

Hello François! You ask if there is some commentary in the Orthodox Study Bible, which I believe means you are using the one published by Thomas Nelson Publishers. While the bible is beautifully produced, and has some useful content, no doubt, it is not a very good text to look to for Truly Orthodox perspectives on theology and Scripture. This point has been well established by Archimandrite Ephrem. You can read his shortish review here:

http://orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/review_osb.aspx

Also, if you want a few short reviews (some positive but mostly negative) by Orthodox people, one of whom is a Greek Bible translator then you can check out their comments here:

http://orthodoxstudybible.blogspot.com/

If you would like to read the most thorough examination of the OSB from a Traditional Orthodox point of view, Archimandrite Haralambos has gone through the text with a fine toothed comb and brings all the concerns into focus in his review. I have read it all and found it excellent reading. In fact, it was the review that really settled the issue for me. I cannot recommend it more highly if you want to get a deep understanding of the problems with the OSB. It can be read here:

http://www.homb.org/Orthodox%20Study%20 ... Review.pdf

The general consensus is that the Orthodox Study Bible is very poorly done and does not deserve the name Orthodox. Sorry to bring you bad news on that score, but that is better than not knowing the full story. I also had the OSB and was unaware of the many problems with the text and was sad to learn of how compromised the text really is. Nevertheless I am happier to have been made aware of this. I prefer now either a KJV or for study purposes in English versions there is the excellent Orthodox New Testament in two large volumes available from Dormition Skete in Buena Vista CO. It is absolutely filled with explanations on every page from the Holy Fathers as they give commentary on all the troublesome passages and concepts.

Hope that helps.
Symeon

Thanks, Symeon, for providing those links. I really appreciate this post.

I too have the Orthodox New Testament from Dormition Skete.