On the attainment of salvation (historical insights from a Coptic clergyman)

Born again in Baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, and works in us (and with us) through grace and helps us in the lifelong struggle to restore our nature to the likeness of God once more.

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Thus tells us the Lord in Matt 5:48. Having renewed us through Baptism, and sanctified us through the Holy Spirit, the Lord encourages us to seek perfection, even the perfection of our Father which is in heaven. This is the true meaning of regaining our likeness to God, and the ultimate goal of the restoration of our nature; Christian perfection. The reward for this is our return to Paradise, out of which we were driven out when we lost this God-like perfection.

The Bible tells us, in so many words, what we need to do to reach this perfection. When a young man came to our Lord asking Him, “What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” (Matt 19:16) The Lord answered him, “Keep the commandments ... Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matt 19:17-19) When the man told the Lord that he has already kept all of these, the Lord told him, “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” (Matt 19:21) By this, the Lord was telling this young man, that the perfection of the Law, or those who think that they are fulfilling the Law (of Moses), like the Pharisees, cannot attain to the Heavenly Kingdom that our Lord has promised those who attain to the true Christian perfection, a level of perfection the young man was unwilling to reach for.

Although the Bible tells us WHAT we need to do to reach perfection (and earn Eternal Life,) it does not tell us HOW to reach perfection. It leaves it up to each one of us. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” is what St Paul tells us in. (Phil 2:12)

It is quite obvious from this, that “work” is an essential part of this process of salvation, according to the Bible. But, in this work we are not alone, we have a very strong ally in the grace of God, which works in us and with us through the Holy Spirit which dwells in us. 

In the early years of the Church, Christians sought to work out their own salvation through offering the ultimate sacrifice; martyrdom. During the first three centuries, ten major persecutions gave millions of Christians their chance to strive for perfection. Shedding one’s blood for the sake of Christ became the ideal of working out one’s own salvation.

When Constantine became emperor and published his edict of toleration of Christianity (313 A.D.), Christians had to find another way of working out their own salvation. Many sought their own salvation in the wilderness. Unable to shed their blood for Christ’s sake, they sought to offer Him their bodies as “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.” (Rom 12:1) They took their clues from verses like, “And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” (Gal 5:24) and “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (1 Cor 9:27) Other verses speak of this road to perfection as an athletic contest, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” (1 Cor 9:24) and, “let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” (Heb 12:1)

Other verses still speak of this quest for perfection as a war, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” (Heb 12:4) and, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” (2 Tim 2:3-4)

Other images of this strife likened it to wrestling with beasts, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Pet 5:8)

But the image that really fired their imagination was the image of a fight with the demons, the princes of darkness, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph 6:12)

Those athletes of Christ went into the wilderness, to wrestle with the demons, in order to attain Christian perfection. Soon enough, monasticism took the place of martyrdom as the ideal of Christian perfection.

In trying to work out their own salvation, those athletes of Christ did the rest of us a great favour. They left us a huge body of writings about how to attain Christian perfection.

The desert of Egypt became a university of this quest for spiritual perfection. The Desert Fathers made a science out of this quest for perfection that we now call spirituality. In this university research was done and experiments conducted, with either success or failure. Results of these experiments, whether they ended in success or failure, were published by many who came to seek the wisdom of the Desert Fathers. The Fathers themselves never wrote their sayings, and spoke to others about their experiences only when they were constrained to do so.

The Desert Fathers catalogued the sins, and the factors that predisposed them, and spoke in great detail on how to fight against them. They identified the various virtues, and classified them, giving exact techniques for attaining them.

The amazing thing about the sayings of the Desert Fathers is their agreement. While some lived in the Eastern desert, others in the Western desert (Scetis) and yet others in Upper Egypt, they reached the same conclusions. It is this unanimity of opinion that is most striking about these sayings. The differences are only in technique.

 

- Fr. Athanasius Iskander, Practical Spirituality.