My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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KNOW THE FAITH
Salvation
"For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18)
By grace and through faith, Cornelius and his family have now embarked upon the path of salvation. The eyes of their souls have been enlightened, and they understand that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), the "Alpha and the Omega" (Revelation 18; 22:13). He is indeed the "savior of the world" (John 4:42), and "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (COL. 2:9).
Cornelius rejoices and ruminates on how this gift of God was imparted to him and his loved ones, even his children, "not by works" (Titus 3:5), but by grace through "water and the Spirit" (John 3:5). They have received forgiveness of their sins. They have "put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27) and have been joined to His Body. Cornelius, whose heart is now aflame with God's unspeakable love, is overwhelmed with God's presence and full of thanksgiving. He remembers the words of the psalmist--"How marvelous are Thy works, O Lord, and there is no word which is sufficient to hymn Thy wonders!" (Psalm 92:5).
By being grafted into the glorified flesh of the Resurrected Christ, Who is both God and Man, Cornelius and his household have become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). "This is salvation!" he spontaneously declares aloud to himself, "This is the purpose for which the Messiah Jesus, God's own Son, came down from heaven and was born of the Virgin--to enable us to share in God's own life and in His Kingdom. For God has united 'all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth" (Ephesians 1:10).
The teaching of the holy Apostle Peter, who instructed and exhorted the newly baptized Gentile converts with many words after their baptism, still resounds in his ears: "And if you call on the Father, Who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things...but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:17-19).
Cornelius remembers the holy Apostle's admonition that the grace he and his family have received this day is a seed, not a full-grown tree. They have begun the life of faith, Peter told them, but "the end of your faith" is "the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:9). They should not consider their salvation as something past and accomplished but as their "living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).
The new convert realizes he is not "already perfected" (Phil. 3:12); he has not yet "come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). Rather his call is to continue on the path of salvation: "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you as the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:13-16).
Be on guard, the holy Apostle told them, "because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). "Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10), he warned, for "God did not spare the angels who sinned" (2 Peter 2:4). When the Lord comes again they should "be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless" (2 Peter 3:14).
Cornelius understands from all of this that salvation is not confined to the moment he believed but is a way of life and grace to maintain, nurture, and grow. He has not only "been saved" (Ephesians 2:5) by God's mercy "through the washing of regeneration" (Titus 3:5); he is also "being saved" (1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15) and must hold on to the "hope of salvation" (1 Thess. 5:8), lest he "neglected so great a salvation" (Hebrews 2:3) and "drift away" (Hebrews 2:1). He cannot only look backward but must "stand" in the present in the grace of salvation (Romans 5:2; 1 Peter 5:12), "work out [his] own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12), and "press toward the goal" to "lay hold" of this salvation (Phil. 3:14; 1 Tim. 6:12), now and always.
Before his departure from them, Saint Peter counseled them not to turn back from the way of salvation: "For," he said, "it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered to them" (2 Peter 2:20-21). Again, he exhorted them not to be "led away with the error of the wicked; but [to] grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:17-18).
The holy Apostle Peter then repeated the words he heard from the lips of Jesus Christ Himself: "if you love Me, keep My Commandments" (John 14:15). And so Cornelius encouraged his family to "commit their souls to him in doing good, as to a faithful creator" (1 Peter 4:19). And in imitation of Noah and his family at the time of the Great Flood (1 Peter 3:20), they encouraged one another to remain in God's grace in His Holy Church, the ark of salvation. (Know the Faith. A Handbook for Orthodox Christians and Inquirers by Rev. Michael Shanbour)
(to be continued)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George