18: The Beginning and End of Salvation

Pride was the first sin to enter the world through man. Adam and the woman desired to “be like God,” and consumed, without a blessing, the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

St. James tells us, God is neither tempted nor does He tempt, but “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown brings forth death.” James 1:14-15

The words of the serpent, according to St. Athanasius, averted man’s attention from the contemplation of the Divine Word and lowered it to the contemplation of the self. Mankind considered what it could obtain for itself by ingesting then forbidden knowledge.

Adam, with his earthen body enlivened by the breath of God, brought a curse upon the earth bringing death instead of life into the world. According to the Fathers, this was not by disobeying the commandment not to eat, but by refusing to repent when confronted.

Fr. Spyridon Bailey says that “suffering, accepted in the right way, will lead us to humility. It will strip us of the false belief that we are in control or the idea that peace may come through comfort…"

And St. Paul affirms, “for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Hebrews 12:6-7

After pronouncing the curse in the garden, God said to Adam, “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 3:19.

St. Ephrem The Syrian observes that God is intimating that “Since you originate from dust and you forgot yourself, "you shall return to "your "dust " and your true being shall be recognized through your low estate."

Thus, St. John Chrysostom says that “Salvation begins and ends with humility.”

We might ask, what is the nature of salvific humility? St. Mark the Ascetic teaches us that “humility consists, not in condemning our conscience, but in recognizing God’s grace and compassion.”

Adam, being chastised by God, did not despair of his plight, he did not “kick against the goads” (Acts 9:5), or fall into a state of despondency (Genesis 4:5). Instead, He humbled himself, and he remembered his proper place, and immediately resumed his initial vocation.

“And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all the living.” - Genesis 3:20

St. Porphyrios instructs us that holy humility is “Complete trust in God.”

Adam, having endured his chastening, and finding himself, although subject to corruption, yet not destroyed by sin, trusted that God would bring about the restoration of his life, not through him, but through his wife, whereby God would bring new life.

Adam chose death. But God in His great love, chose to send the Son to show us true humility, by which death is transformed into life.

St. Paul says in Hebrews 12:10 that God chastises us “that we may be partakers of His holiness.” Cyril of Alexandria says that “He became like us that we might become like him. The work of the Spirit seeks to transform us by grace into a perfect copy of his humbling.”

True humility is transformative. It is, according to St. Paisios, “the only thing God is asking of us.” If we will humble ourselves, we can, by the grace of God, ascend far above the garden of Eden to “Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels.” Hebrews 12:22

St. John Climacus says that “humility is the chariot by which we ascend to God.”

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