What is original sin?
At first glance, this looks absurd: in the Christian tradition it is believed that a child is born with an already damaged human nature. How can this happen if he has not yet committed sins, if only because he has not yet reached conscious age? In fact, the problem is different: the essence of original sin is that every person is born into the world initially damaged (primarily in the spiritual sense, but not only) due to the act of the first ancestor Adam. It was through him, as we know, that a spiritual illness entered the world, which all his descendants will inherit.
Many people make the mistake of trying to explain what original sin is. We should not assume that in this case we are responsible for the fact that Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Everything is not so literal, and if you read the holy fathers, this will become clear. Adam's sin is no longer our sin, the fact is that for us it lies in human mortality. As follows from the Bible, the Lord God told Adam that he would die if he ate the forbidden fruit, and the serpent that he and Eve would become equal to God. The tempting serpent did not deceive the first people, but together with the knowledge of the world they became mortal - this is the main consequence of original sin. Thus, this sin was not transmitted to other people, but had disastrous results for them.
God's commandments
Moses receives the Tablets of the Covenant, Sinai, St. Catherine's Monastery
People who are far from the Church and have no experience of spiritual life often see only prohibitions and restrictions in Christianity. This is a very primitive view.
In Orthodoxy everything is harmonious and natural. The spiritual world, as well as the physical world, has its own laws, which, like the laws of nature, cannot be violated; this will lead to great damage and even disaster. Both physical and spiritual laws are given by God Himself. We constantly encounter warnings, restrictions and prohibitions in our daily lives, and not a single normal person would say that all these regulations are unnecessary and unreasonable. The laws of physics contain many dire warnings, as do the laws of chemistry. There is a well-known school saying: “First water, then acid, otherwise big trouble will happen!” We go to work - they have their own safety rules, you need to know and follow them. We go out into the street, get behind the wheel - we must follow the rules of the road, which contain a lot of prohibitions. And so it is everywhere, in every area of life.
Freedom is not permissiveness, but the right to choose: a person can make the wrong choice and suffer greatly. The Lord gives us great freedom, but at the same time warns us about the dangers on the path of life. As the Apostle Paul says: All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable (1 Cor 10:23). If a person ignores spiritual laws, lives as he wants, regardless of moral standards or the people around him, he loses his freedom, damages his soul and causes great harm to himself and others. Sin is a violation of very subtle and strict laws of spiritual nature; it primarily harms the sinner himself.
God wants people to be happy, to love Him, to love each other and not to harm themselves or others, so He gave us commandments . They express spiritual laws, they teach how to live and build relationships with God and people. Just as parents warn their children about danger and teach them about life, so our Heavenly Father gives us the necessary instructions. The commandments were given to people back in the Old Testament, we talked about this in the section on Old Testament biblical history. New Testament people, Christians, are required to keep the Ten Commandments. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill (Matthew 5:17), says the Lord Jesus Christ.
The main law of the spiritual world is the law of love for God and people.
All ten commandments say this. They were given to Moses in the form of two stone slabs - tablets , on one of which the first four commandments were written, speaking about love for the Lord, and on the second - the remaining six. They talk about attitude towards neighbors. When our Lord Jesus Christ was asked: What is the greatest commandment in the law? “He answered: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself; All the law and the prophets are based on these two commandments (Matthew 22:36-40).
What does it mean? The fact is that if a person has truly achieved true love for God and others, he cannot break any of the Ten Commandments, because they all talk about love for God and people. And we must strive for this perfect love.
Let's look at the ten commandments of God's law :
- I am the Lord your God; Let you have no other gods before Me.
- You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth; do not worship them or serve them.
- Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; Six days you shall work and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
- Honor your father and your mother, so that your days on earth may be long.
- Dont kill.
- Don't commit adultery.
- Don't steal.
- Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
First commandment
I am the Lord your God; Let you have no other gods before Me.
The Lord is the Creator of the Universe and the spiritual world. He is the First Cause of everything that exists. Our entire beautiful, harmonious and very complex world could not have arisen by itself. Behind all this beauty and harmony is the Creative Mind. To believe that everything that exists arose on its own, without God, is nothing less than madness. The fool said in his heart: “There is no God” (Ps 13:1), says the prophet David. God is not only the Creator, but also our Father. He cares and provides for people and everything created by Him; without His care the world could not exist.
Creation of Eve
God is the Source of all good things, and man must strive for Him, for only in God does he receive life. We need to conform all our actions and actions to the will of God: whether they will be pleasing to God or not. So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). The main means of communication with God are prayer and the Holy Sacraments, in which we receive the grace of God, Divine energy.
Let us repeat: God wants people to glorify Him correctly, that is, Orthodoxy.
For us there can be only one God, glorified in the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we, Orthodox Christians, cannot have other gods.
Sins against the first commandment are:
- atheism (denial of God);
- lack of faith, doubt, superstition, when people mix faith with unbelief or all kinds of signs and other remnants of paganism; those who say: “I have God in my soul” also sin against the first commandment, but do not go to church and do not approach the Sacraments or do so rarely;
- paganism (polytheism), belief in false gods, Satanism, occultism and esotericism; this includes magic, witchcraft, healing, extrasensory perception, astrology, fortune telling and turning to people involved in all this for help;
- false opinions contrary to the Orthodox faith, and falling away from the Church into schism, false teachings and sects;
- renunciation of faith, relying on one’s own strength and on people more than on God; this sin is also associated with lack of faith.
Second Commandment
You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth; do not worship them or serve them.
The second commandment prohibits worshiping a creature instead of the Creator. We know what paganism and idolatry are. This is what the Apostle Paul writes about the Gentiles: calling themselves wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed creatures, and creeping things... They exchanged the truth of God for a lie... and served the creature instead of the Creator (Rom 1, 22–23, 25). The Old Testament people of Israel, to whom these commandments were originally given, were the custodians of faith in the True God. It was surrounded on all sides by pagan peoples and tribes, and in order to warn the Jews not to adopt pagan customs and beliefs under any circumstances, the Lord establishes this commandment. Nowadays there are few pagans and idolaters among us, although polytheism and the worship of idols exist, for example, in India, Africa, South America, and some other countries. Even here in Russia, where Christianity has been around for over a thousand years, some are trying to revive paganism.
Statue of the goddess Athena in the Vatican
Sometimes you can hear accusations against the Orthodox: they say, veneration of icons is idolatry. The veneration of holy icons cannot in any way be called idolatry. Firstly, we offer prayers of worship not to the icon itself, but to the Person who is depicted on the icon - God. Looking at the image, we ascend with our minds to the Prototype. Also, through the icon, we ascend in mind and heart to the Mother of God and the saints.
Sacred images were made back in the Old Testament at the command of God Himself. The Lord commanded Moses to place golden images of Cherubim in the first mobile Old Testament temple (tabernacle). Already in the first centuries of Christianity, in the Roman catacombs (meeting places of the first Christians) there were wall images of Christ in the form of the Good Shepherd, the Mother of God with raised hands and other sacred images. All these frescoes were found during excavations.
Although there are few direct idolaters left in the modern world, many people create idols for themselves, worship them and make sacrifices. For many, their passions and vices became such idols, requiring constant sacrifices. Some people have fallen into their captivity and can no longer do without them; they serve them as their masters, for whoever is conquered by someone is his slave (2 Pet 2:19). Let us recall these idols of passion: gluttony, fornication, love of money, anger, sadness, despondency, vanity, pride. The Apostle Paul compares serving the passions with idolatry: covetousness... is idolatry (Col 3:5). Indulging in passion, a person stops thinking about God and serving Him. He also forgets about love for his neighbors.
Sins against the second commandment also include passionate attachment to any business, when this hobby becomes a passion. Idolatry is also the worship of any person. Many people in modern society treat popular artists, singers, and athletes as idols.
Third Commandment
Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Venerable John the Silent
To take the name of God in vain means in vain, that is, not in prayer, not in spiritual conversations, but during idle conversations or out of habit. It is an even greater sin to pronounce the name of God in jest. And it is a very serious sin to pronounce the name of God with the desire to blaspheme God. Also a sin against the third commandment is blasphemy, when holy objects become the subject of ridicule and reproach. Failure to fulfill vows made to God and frivolous oaths invoking the name of God are also violations of this commandment.
The name of God is holy. It must be treated with reverence.
Saint Nicholas of Serbia. Parable
One goldsmith sat in his shop at his workbench and, while working, constantly took the name of God in vain: sometimes as an oath, sometimes as a favorite word. A certain pilgrim, returning from holy places, passing by the shop, heard this, and his soul was indignant. Then he called out to the jeweler to go outside. And when the master left, the pilgrim hid. The jeweler, not seeing anyone, returned to the shop and continued working. The pilgrim called out to him again, and when the jeweler came out, he pretended to know nothing. The master, angry, returned to his room and began to work again. The pilgrim called out to him for the third time and, when the master came out again, he stood silently again, pretending that he had nothing to do with it. The jeweler furiously attacked the pilgrim:
- Why are you calling me in vain? What a joke! I'm full of work!
The pilgrim answered peacefully:
“Truly, the Lord God has even more work to do, but you call on Him much more often than I call on you.” Who has the right to be angry more: you or the Lord God?
The jeweler, ashamed, returned to the workshop and from then on kept his mouth shut.
Fourth Commandment
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; Six days you shall work and do all your work, and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
The Lord created this world in six days and, having completed creation, blessed the seventh day as a day of rest: he sanctified it; for in it he rested from all His works, which God created and created (Gen. 2:3).
In the Old Testament, the day of rest was the Sabbath. In New Testament times, the holy day of rest became Sunday, when the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead is remembered. This day is the seventh and most important day for Christians. Sunday is also called Little Easter. The custom of honoring Sunday comes from the times of the holy apostles. On Sunday, Christians must attend the Divine Liturgy. On this day it is very good to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. We dedicate Sunday to prayer, spiritual reading, and pious activities. On Sunday, as a day free from ordinary work, you can help your neighbors or visit the sick, provide assistance to the infirm and elderly. It is customary on this day to thank God for the past week and prayerfully ask for blessings on the work of the coming week.
You can often hear from people who are far from the Church or have little church life that they do not have time for home prayer and visiting church. Yes, modern people are sometimes very busy, but even busy people still have a lot of free time to often and for a long time talk on the phone with friends and relatives, read newspapers, and sit for hours in front of the TV and computer. Spending their evenings like this, they do not want to devote even a very short time to the evening prayer rule and read the Gospel.
People who honor Sundays and church holidays, pray in church, and regularly read morning and evening prayers, as a rule, manage to do much more than those who spend this time in idleness. The Lord blesses their labors, increases their strength and gives them His help.
Fifth Commandment
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days on earth may be long.
Artist L. Baranov
Those who love and honor their parents are promised not only a reward in the Kingdom of Heaven, but even blessings, prosperity and many years in earthly life. To honor parents means to respect them, to show obedience to them, to help them, to take care of them in old age, to pray for their health and salvation, and after their death - for the repose of their souls.
People often ask: how can you love and honor parents who do not care for their children, neglect their responsibilities, or fall into serious sins? We don’t choose our parents; the fact that we have them like this and not some others is God’s will. Why did God give us such parents? In order for us to show the best Christian qualities: patience, love, humility, the ability to forgive.
Through our parents, God gave us life. Thus, no amount of caring for our parents can compare with what we received from them. Here is what St. John Chrysostom writes about this: “Just as they gave birth to you, you cannot give birth to them. Therefore, if in this we are inferior to them, then we will surpass them in another respect through respect for them, not only according to the law of nature, but also primarily before nature, according to the feeling of the fear of God. The will of God decisively demands that parents be revered by their children, and rewards those who do this with great blessings and gifts, and punishes those who violate this law with great and grave misfortunes.” By honoring our father and mother, we learn to honor God Himself, our Heavenly Father. Parents can be called co-workers with the Lord. They gave us a body, and God put an immortal soul in us.
If a person does not honor his parents, he can very easily come to disrespect and deny God. At first he does not respect his parents, then he stops loving his Motherland, then he denies his mother Church and gradually comes to denying God. All this is interconnected. It is not without reason that when they want to shake the state, to destroy its foundations from within, they first of all take up arms against the Church - faith in God - and the family. Family, respect for elders, customs and traditions (translated from Latin - transmission) hold society together and make the people strong.
Sixth Commandment
Dont kill.
Murder, taking the life of another person, and suicide are among the most serious sins.
Suicide is a terrible spiritual crime. This is rebellion against God, who gave us the precious gift of life. Committing suicide, a person leaves life in a terrible darkness of spirit, mind, in a state of despair and despondency. He can no longer repent of this sin; there is no repentance beyond the grave.
A person who takes the life of another through negligence is also guilty of murder, but his guilt is less than that of one who deliberately encroaches on the life of another. Also guilty of murder is the one who contributed to this: for example, a husband who did not dissuade his wife from having an abortion or even contributed to it himself.
People who shorten their lives and harm their health through bad habits, vices and sins also sin against the sixth commandment.
Any harm caused to one's neighbor is also a violation of this commandment. Hatred, malice, beatings, mockery, insults, curses, anger, gloating, rancor, ill-will, unforgiveness of offenses - all these are sins against the commandment “thou shalt not kill,” because everyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15) , says the word of God.
In addition to bodily murder, there is an equally terrible murder - spiritual, when someone seduces, seduces a neighbor into unbelief or pushes him to commit a sin and thereby destroys his soul.
Saint Philaret of Moscow writes that “not every taking of life is a criminal murder. Murder is not unlawful when life is taken by office, such as: when a criminal is punished with death by justice; when they kill the enemy in the war for the Fatherland.”
Seventh Commandment
Don't commit adultery.
This commandment prohibits sins against the family, adultery, all carnal relations between a man and a woman outside of legal marriage, carnal perversions, as well as unclean desires and thoughts.
The Lord established the marriage union and blessed carnal communication in it, which serves childbearing. Husband and wife are no longer two, but one flesh (Gen. 2:24). The presence of marriage is another (though not the most important) difference between us and animals. Animals do not have marriage. People have marriage, mutual responsibility, duties to each other and to children.
What is blessed in marriage, outside of marriage is a sin, a violation of the commandment. The conjugal union unites a man and a woman into one flesh for mutual love, bearing and raising children. Any attempt to steal the joys of marriage without mutual trust and the responsibility that a marriage implies is a serious sin, which, according to the testimony of Holy Scripture, deprives a person of the Kingdom of God (see: 1 Cor 6:9).
An even more serious sin is the violation of marital fidelity or the destruction of someone else's marriage. Cheating not only destroys a marriage, but also defiles the soul of the one who cheats. You can’t build happiness on someone else’s grief. There is a law of spiritual balance: having sowed evil, sin, we will reap evil, and our sin will return to us. Shameless talking and failure to guard one's feelings are also violations of the seventh commandment.
Eighth Commandment
Don't steal.
A violation of this commandment is the appropriation of someone else's property - both public and private. Types of theft can be varied: robbery, theft, deception in trade matters, bribery, bribery, tax evasion, parasitism, sacrilege (that is, appropriation of church property), all kinds of scams, fraud and fraud. In addition, sins against the eighth commandment include all dishonesty: lies, deception, hypocrisy, flattery, sycophancy, people-pleasing, since by doing this people are trying to acquire something (for example, the favor of their neighbor) dishonestly.
“You can’t build a house with stolen goods,” says a Russian proverb. And again: “No matter how tight the rope is, the end will come.” By profiting from the appropriation of someone else's property, a person will sooner or later pay for it. A sin committed, no matter how insignificant it may seem, is sure to return. A man familiar to the authors of this book accidentally hit and scratched the fender of his neighbor's car in the yard. But he didn’t tell him anything and didn’t compensate him for the damage. After some time, in a completely different place, far from his home, his own car was also scratched and they fled the scene. The blow was struck on the same wing that he damaged his neighbor.
The passion of love of money leads to violation of the commandment “Thou shalt not steal.” It was she who led Judas to betrayal. The Evangelist John directly calls him a thief (see: John 12:6).
The passion of covetousness is overcome by cultivating non-covetousness, charity towards the poor, hard work, honesty and growth in spiritual life, for attachment to money and other material values always stems from lack of spirituality.
Ninth Commandment
Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
With this commandment, the Lord prohibits not only direct false testimony against one’s neighbor, for example in court, but also all lies spoken about other people, such as slander, false denunciations. The sin of idle talk, so common and everyday for modern man, is also very often associated with sins against the ninth commandment. In idle conversations, gossip, gossip, and sometimes slander and slander are constantly born. During an idle conversation, it is very easy to say unnecessary things, to divulge other people’s secrets and secrets entrusted to you, and to put your neighbor in a difficult position. “My tongue is my enemy,” people say, and indeed our language can bring great benefit to us and our neighbors, or it can do great harm. The Apostle James says that with our tongue we sometimes bless God and the Father, and with it we curse men, created in the likeness of God (James 3:9). We sin against the ninth commandment not only when we slander our neighbor, but also when we agree with what others say, thereby participating in the sin of condemnation.
Judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1), the Savior warns. To condemn means to judge, to boldly admire a right that belongs only to God. Only the Lord, who knows the past, present and future of man, can judge His creation.
Trial of the Hieromartyrs
The story of St. John of Savvaitsky
One day a monk from a neighboring monastery came to me, and I asked him how the fathers lived. He answered: “Okay, according to your prayers.” Then I asked about the monk who did not enjoy good fame, and the guest told me: “He has not changed at all, father!” Hearing this, I exclaimed: “Bad!” And as soon as I said this, I immediately felt as if in delight and saw Jesus Christ crucified between two thieves. I was about to worship the Savior, when suddenly He turned to the approaching Angels and said to them: “Cast him out, - this is the Antichrist, for he condemned his brother before My Judgment.” And when, according to the word of the Lord, I was driven out, my robe was left at the door, and then I woke up. “Woe is me,” I then said to the brother who came, “I am angry this day!” "Why is that?" - he asked. Then I told him about the vision and noticed that the mantle I left behind meant that I was deprived of God’s protection and help. And from that time I spent seven years wandering through the deserts, not eating bread, not going under shelter, not talking to people, until I saw my Lord, who returned my mantle to me.
That's how scary it is to make a judgment about a person.
Tenth Commandment
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
This commandment prohibits envy and grumbling. It is impossible not only to do evil to people, but even to have sinful, envious thoughts against them. Any sin begins with a thought, with a thought about something. A person begins to envy the property and money of his neighbors, then the thought arises in his heart to steal this property from his brother, and soon he puts sinful dreams into action.
Envy of the wealth, talents, and health of our neighbors kills our love for them; envy, like acid, eats away at the soul. An envious person has difficulty communicating with others. He is delighted by the sorrow and grief that befell those whom he envied. This is why the sin of envy is so dangerous: it is the seed of other sins. An envious person also sins against God, he does not want to be content with what the Lord sends him, he blames his neighbors and God for all his troubles. Such a person will never be happy and satisfied with life, because happiness depends not on earthly goods, but on the state of a person’s soul. The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). It begins here on earth, with the correct spiritual structure of man. The ability to see the gifts of God in every day of your life, to appreciate them and thank God for them is the key to human happiness.
Consequences of Adam and Eve's sin
Theologians believe that the results were so severe and painful precisely because God's original commandment was not difficult to fulfill. If Adam and Eve really wanted to fulfill it, they could have calmly refused the tempter’s offer and remained in paradise forever - pure, holy, sinless and, of course, immortal. What is original sin? Like any sin, this is disobedience to the Creator. In fact, Adam created death with his own hands by alienating himself from God and subsequently wallowing in it.
His act not only brought death into his life, but also clouded the initially crystal clear human nature. She became distorted, more prone to other sins, love for the Creator was replaced by fear of him and his punishment. John Chrysostom pointed out that previously the animals bowed before Adam and saw him as a master, but after being expelled from paradise they ceased to recognize him.
Thus, man, from the highest creation of God, pure and beautiful, turned himself into dust and dust, which his body will become after inevitable death. But, as follows from the Bible, after the first ancestors ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge, they hid from the Lord not only because they began to fear his wrath, but also because they felt guilty before him.
The sandbox is mined
But why did God plant such a dangerous tree in paradise? Just hang a sign on him with a skull and crossbones: “Don’t interfere, he’ll kill you.” What a strange idea - in the middle of the most beautiful place on the planet, to hang deadly fruits on the branches? It’s as if a modern architect, when planning a kindergarten, suddenly for some reason designed a small minefield on the playground, and the teacher then said: “Children, you can play everywhere - on the slide, on the carousel, and in the sandbox. But don’t even think about coming here, otherwise there will be a big bang-badabum and a lot of trouble for all of us.”
Here it is immediately necessary to clarify: the prohibition on eating the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did not mean at all that a person without these fruits knew nothing about good and evil. Otherwise, what was the point of giving him such a commandment?
Chrysostom writes: “Only those who by nature do not have reason do not know good and evil, but Adam possessed great wisdom and could recognize both. That he was filled with spiritual wisdom, see its discovery. “ Brought
“, it is said, the God of beasts came to him, “
to see what he would call them, and so that whatever a man calls every living soul, that shall be its name”
(Genesis
2:19
).
Think of the wisdom of the one who could give names to the various breeds of cattle, reptiles and birds. God himself accepted this naming of names so much that he did not change them and even after the Fall did not want to abolish the names of animals. It is said: Whatever a man calls every living soul, that is its name
... So, he who knew so much, did you really, tell me, not know what was good and what was evil? What will this be consistent with?”
So, the tree was not a source of knowledge about good and evil. And its fruits were not poisonous either, otherwise God would have turned out to be like the alternatively gifted architect of a kindergarten already mentioned here. And it was called that for one simple reason: a person had ideas about good and evil, but only theoretical ones. He knew that good was in obedience and trust in the God who created him, and evil was in violating His commands. However, in practice, he could know what good is only by fulfilling the commandment and not touching the forbidden fruits. After all, even today, any of us understands: knowing about good and doing good is very much not the same thing. Just like knowing about evil and not doing evil. And in order to translate your knowledge about good and evil into a practical plane, you need to make some effort. For example, in a situation where a loved one in the heat of the moment said something offensive to you, the good thing, of course, would be to remain silent in response, wait until he cools down, and only then calmly and lovingly find out what made him so angry. And the evil in this situation, just as certainly, would be to say all sorts of nasty things to him in response and quarrel for long painful hours, or even days. Each of us knows about this. But, alas, it is not always possible to use this knowledge in a real conflict.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is named so in the Bible because it was an opportunity for the first people to experimentally demonstrate their desire for good and aversion from evil.
But man was not created as a robot, rigidly programmed for only goodness. God gave him freedom of choice, and the tree of knowledge became for the first people exactly the point where this choice could be put into practice. Without it, the Garden of Eden, and indeed the entire beautiful world created by God, would have turned out to be just a golden cage with ideal conditions for man. And the essence of God’s prohibition boiled down to a caring warning addressed to people who were free in their decision, as if they were being told: “You may not listen to Me and do it your own way. But know that such disobedience is death for you, who were created by Me from the dust of the earth. Behold, I also leave open to you the path of evil, on which inevitable destruction awaits you. But this is not why I created you. Strengthen yourself in goodness through the renunciation of evil. This will be your knowledge of both.”
But - alas! - people did not heed this warning and decided to learn evil through the rejection of good.
What happened before original sin
Before the Fall, Adam and Eve had a very close relationship with the Lord. In a sense, they were one with him, so deeply were their souls united with God. Even saints do not have such a connection, much less other Christians who are not so sinless. Therefore, it seems extremely difficult for us to understand it. However, this does not mean that this union should not be sought.
Man was a reflection of God's image, and his heart was pure. The original sin of the first ancestors is called original because before it they knew no other sins and were absolutely pure.
Did original sin have power over Christ?
According to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, expressed by the IV Ecumenical Council, our Lord Jesus Christ is “perfect in humanity... like us in everything, except sin” (Acts of the Ecumenical Councils. Vol. 3, p. 48). The Lord Jesus Christ accepted human nature and “blameless passions,” that is, natural infirmities. At the same time, His humanity was not involved in any sin; sinful disorder and inclination to sin were alien to Him. The New Testament repeatedly emphasizes the complete non-involvement of the incarnate Son of God with any sin. The Holy Apostle Paul teaches that “God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3), and “He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus Christ “has been tempted in all respects as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15), “holy, free from evil, blameless, separated from sinners” (Heb. 7:26), He “offered Himself blameless to God by the Holy Spirit” ( Heb.9:14). The Holy Apostle John the Theologian says about the Savior that “there is no sin in Him” (1 John 3:5).
And Christ did not have original sin from the very moment of his incarnation. The Savior, being omnipotent and all-perfect, voluntarily, for the sake of saving people, accepted in the incarnation such consequences of ancestral sin as corruption (blameless passions: fatigue, hunger, the need for sleep) and mortality. After the Resurrection, Christ became incorruptible and immortal (according to human nature).
How to escape the consequences
Baptism does not eliminate original sin, as is commonly believed. It only gives a person the opportunity to become a different, true Christian. After baptism, a person remains mortal, imprisoned in a mortal body, and at the same time possesses an immortal soul. It is important not to destroy it, because, according to the Orthodox tradition, at the end of time the Last Judgment will come, at which it will become clear what fate is destined for each soul.
Thus, baptism helps restore the lost connection with God, although not fully. In any case, original sin made the essence of man more prone to evil than to good, as it was originally, and therefore it is extremely difficult to reunite with the Creator in this world. However, judging by the examples of the saints, it is apparently possible.
In essence, this is why baptism is mandatory for those who consider themselves Christians - only in this way, and in no other way, can they be together with God and be saved from the death of their soul.
How to return God's grace?
Photo: Stihi.ru
The Savior gave the human race a chance to return God’s Grace, who set an example of spiritual struggle against sin, heroism and self-sacrifice. He opened up the opportunity for people to fill their souls again with the Holy Spirit, to resurrect them to a blessed life. This opportunity requires a feat, thanks to which God inhabits a person and returns his Grace to him.
This feat - prayerful, merciful, love for one's neighbor, repentance - is within the power of every person. You just need to decide on it, seeing the main goal in front of you - the eternal blissful life of your immortal soul.
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Original sin in Protestantism
It is worth understanding what original sin is in the understanding of Protestants, namely Calvinists. They, unlike the Orthodox, believe that the consequences of Adam’s sin are not only the death of all his descendants, but also their inevitable bearing of guilt for the sin of their ancestor. For this, every person, in their opinion, deserves punishment. Human nature in Calvinism is thoroughly corrupted and saturated with sinfulness.
This view is most consistent with the Bible, although it is puzzling.
We are not to blame!
The Bible goes on to describe the events in the Garden of Eden as follows: The serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God had created. And the serpent said to the woman: Did God truly say: You shall not eat from any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent: We can eat fruit from the trees, only from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, do not eat it or touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman: No, you will not die, but God knows that on the day that you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil. And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes and desirable because it gave knowledge; and she took of its fruit and ate; and she gave it also to her husband, and he ate
(Life
3
:1–6).
The serpent here refers to Satan - the head of the angels who fell away from God and turned into demons. One of the most powerful and beautiful spirits, he decided that he did not need God, and turned into Satan - the irreconcilable enemy of God and all of His creation. But Satan, of course, could not cope with God. And therefore he directed all his hatred at the crown of God’s creation - at man.
In the Bible, Satan is called the father of lies and a murderer. We can see both in the passage from Genesis quoted above. Satan created a false story that made God look like an envious deceiver afraid of human competition. And people, who had already received so many gifts and blessings from God, who knew Him, communicated with Him and were convinced from the experience of this communication that He was good, suddenly believed this dirty lie. And they decided to taste the fruits from the forbidden tree in order to become “like the gods.”
But instead, they just discovered that they were naked, and began to urgently build themselves primitive clothes from tree leaves. And when they heard God’s voice calling them, they were afraid and began to hide between the trees of paradise from the One who planted this paradise for them.
Traitors are always afraid of meeting those they betrayed. And what the first people did was a real betrayal towards God. Satan subtly hinted to them that by eating the forbidden fruits, they could become like God, become equal to their Creator. Which means living without Him. And people believed this lie. They believed Satan and stopped believing God.
This terrible changeling was the main tragedy of what happened in paradise. People refused to obey God and voluntarily gave themselves over to the devil.
God forgave them for this first betrayal and gave them a chance to return to Himself, but people did not want to take advantage of it. The wife began to justify herself by saying that the snake had seduced her. And Adam completely blamed his wife and... God, who gave him such a “wrong” companion, for his crime of the commandments. Here it is, the last conversation of people with God in paradise: ... have you not eaten from the tree from which I forbade you to eat? Adam said: The wife whom You gave me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman: Why have you done this? The woman said: The serpent deceived me, and I ate
(Life
3
:11–13).
So the first man betrayed God, his wife and himself in paradise. Created to reign over the material world, he turned into a pitiful creature, hiding in the bushes from his Creator and reproaching Him for the wife ... which You gave me
. This is what made him so poisoned by the lies he received from Satan. Once having fulfilled the will of God's enemy, man himself became God's enemy.
Saint Theophan the Recluse writes: “The falling away from God was accomplished completely with disgust by a certain hostile rebellion against Him. That is why God retreated from such criminals - and the living union was interrupted. God is everywhere and contains everything, but He enters into free creatures when they surrender themselves to Him. When they are contained within themselves, then He does not violate their autocracy, but, preserving and containing them, does not enter inside. So our ancestors were left alone. If they had repented sooner, perhaps God would have returned to them, but they persisted, and despite obvious accusations, neither Adam nor Eve admitted that they were guilty.”
