WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY?

     Christianity is completely inscribed in one word – Christ. But what does this mean? This is the sacrifice that Christ made for the sake of the human race. It is the taking upon oneself of all human nature, of all our damage, of all the distortion that befell Adam and then of all his descendants by virtue of falling away from God. Christ became a curse and a sin for us (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21). This is the most essential thing that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions.      In other religions, the founder was nothing more than a preacher of the doctrine of the new or the old and long forgotten. Therefore, in all other religions, the founder does not have the same exceptional importance as the Lord Jesus Christ has in Christianity. There the founder is a teacher, a herald of God, proclaiming the way of salvation. And no more. The teacher is only the trumpet of God, and the main thing is the teaching that he transmits from God. Therefore, the founder in other religions is always in the background in relation to the teaching he proclaims, the religion he founds. The essence of religion does not depend on it, it is, so to speak, replaceable. Religion would not have suffered in the least if it had been proclaimed by another teacher or prophet. For example, Buddhism could exist peacefully if it were proved that the Buddha never existed, but that there was another founder. Islam could have existed peacefully if someone else had appeared instead of Muhammad. This applies to all religions, because the functions of the founders of these religions were in their teachings, which they offered to people. Teaching was the essence of their ministry.      Could Christianity have been founded, for example, by St. John the Baptist? He could have spoken about moral teaching, about some truths of faith, but there would have been no most important thing – the Sacrifice! Without the Sacrifice of the Cross of the God-Man Jesus Christ, there is no Christianity! One can now understand why all the fire of negative criticism was directed at the abolition of Christ as a real person! If He wasn't there, if there wasn't One Who suffered for us. Whoever accepted death on the cross – Christianity crumbles immediately. The ideologists of atheism understood this very well.      Thus, if we want to express the essence of Christianity not just in one word – Christ, then let us put it this way: it consists in the Cross of Christ and His Resurrection, through which humanity finally received the possibility of a new birth, the possibility of rebirth, the restoration of the fallen image of God, of which we are the bearers. Since, according to the so-called natural nature, we are incapable of union with God, since nothing damaged can be partaker of God, then for unity with God, for the realization of God-manhood, a corresponding recreation of human nature is necessary. Christ restored it in Himself and made it possible for each of us to do the same.

 Another important aspect that makes up the essence of Christianity is the correct spiritual structure of man. And here Christianity offers something that fundamentally distinguishes it from the teachings of all other religions. Firstly, the teaching about God, secondly, the understanding of the essence and purpose of man's spiritual life, then the teaching about the Resurrection and much more.      So, the first thing that is inherent only in Christianity, and not in other religions, is the assertion that God is love. In other religions, the highest attainment of religious consciousness in the natural order is the conception of God as a righteous, merciful judge, just, but no more. Christianity asserts something special: that God is love and love alone. Unfortunately, this Christian understanding of God finds it difficult to find its way to the consciousness and heart of man. God-love is not perceived by the "old" human consciousness in any way. Moreover, the image of God the Judge is found in the Gospel, and in the Epistles of the Apostles, and in the works of the Holy Fathers. But what is the specificity of the use of this image? It has an exclusively edifying and pastoral character and relates, in the words of St. John Chrysostom, "to the understanding of coarser people." As soon as the question concerns the exposition of the essence of the understanding of God, we see a completely different picture. It is stated with complete certainty: God is love and only love. It is not subject to any feelings: anger, suffering, punishment, revenge, etc. This thought is inherent in the entire Tradition of our Church. Here are at least three authoritative statements. St. Anthony the Great: "God is good and impassible and unchangeable. If anyone, acknowledging as benevolent and true that God does not change, nevertheless wonders how He, being such, rejoices over the good, turns away from the evil, is angry with sinners, and when they repent, is merciful to them, then it must be said that God does not rejoice or be angry, for joy and anger are passions. It is absurd to think that the Divinity is good or bad because of human deeds. God is good and only does good. To harm no one harms anyone, always remaining the same.      And when we are good, we enter into communion with God by similarity to Him, and when we become evil, we are separated from God by dissimilarity to Him. By living virtuously, we are God's, and when we become evil, we become rejected from Him. And this does not mean that He had wrath against us, but that our sins do not allow God to shine in us, but unite us with the demons, tormentors. If later by prayers and benefactions we obtain absolution from our sins, this does not mean that we have blessed or changed God, but that by means of such actions and our conversion to God, having healed the evil that exists in us, we are again made capable of tasting God's goodness. So to say, "God turns away from the wicked," is the same as to say, "The sun hides itself from those who are blind."      St. Gregory of Nyssa: "For that it is impious to consider the nature of God to be subject to any passion of pleasure, or mercy, or wrath, no one will deny this, even those who are not attentive in the knowledge of the truth of the Eternal. But although it is said that God rejoices over His servants and is angry with wrath against the fallen people, because He has mercy (Exodus 33:19), yet in each of these sayings, I think, the generally recognized word loudly teaches us that by means of our qualities the providence of God adapts itself to our weakness, so that those who are inclined to sin for fear of punishment may restrain themselves from evil, those who were formerly carried away by sin did not despair of returning through repentance, looking to His mercy."      St. John Chrysostom: "When you hear the words 'rage' and 'wrath' in relation to God, do not understand anything human by them: these are words of condescension. The Divinity is alien to all such things, and it is said so in order to bring the subject closer to the understanding of coarser people."      You can cite as many such quotes as you like. All of them say the same thing as the Apostle James: "In temptation, let no one say, God tempts me; for God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself tempts no one, but every one is tempted, being carried away and deceived by his own lust" (James 1:13-14).      This is a completely new understanding of God, unique in the history of mankind. Truly, only the Revelation of God could give such a teaching about God, for nowhere in the natural religions do we find such a thing. In natural religions, this was unthinkable. And although Christianity has existed for two thousand years, even among Christians it is unacceptable. The old, passionate man who dominates our soul seeks earthly truth, which punishes evildoers and rewards the righteous, and therefore God's greatest revelation that God is love and only love is not accepted by human consciousness in any way. Out of love and only out of love, and not for the "satisfaction" of the so-called Truth of God, not for "ransom," God sent His Only-begotten Son.      The second feature of Christianity (at present, it is more correct to say Orthodoxy) concerns the essence of the spiritual life of man. Christianity is entirely aimed at the healing of the soul, and not at earning bliss and paradise. St. Symeon the New Theologian points out: "Careful fulfillment of the commandments of Christ teaches a person (i.e. reveals to a person) his weaknesses." Let us pay attention to what St. Simeon emphasizes: the fulfillment of the commandments makes a person not a miracle worker, a prophet, a teacher, not worthy of any rewards, gifts, supernatural powers – which is the main consequence of the "fulfillment" of the commandments in all religions and even the goal. No. The Christian path leads a person to something completely different – to a person to see the deepest damage of the human being, for the sake of healing of which God the Word was incarnate, and without the knowledge of which a person is in principle incapable of either a correct spiritual life or the acceptance of Christ the Savior.      How different Christianity is from other religions! How short-sighted are those who speak of a common religious consciousness, that all religions lead to one and the same goal, that they all have a single essence. How naïve all this sounds! Only a person who does not understand Christianity at all can talk about this.      In Christianity, "deeds" reveal to a person his true state – the state of the deepest damage and fall: no matter from which side you touch me, I am completely sick. Only in the consciousness of this weakness does a person have the right spiritual strength. Then man becomes strong when God enters him. How strong did the Apostle Peter feel? So what? What does the Apostle Paul write about himself? "I prayed to God for the Three Times." Result: "My strength is made perfect in weakness." It turns out that it is only through the knowledge of oneself as I really am that the Lord enters into a person, and then a person truly acquires strength: "Even if heaven falls on me, my soul will not tremble," said Abba Agathon. And what is promised to man? St. John Chrysostom says: "God promises to lead us not into paradise, but into heaven itself, and He does not proclaim the Kingdom of Paradise, but the Kingdom of Heaven." St. Macarius of Egypt writes: "The crowns and diadems that Christians will receive are not creations." It is not something created that the renewed man receives, he receives God Himself! Deification is the name of our ideal. It is the closest unity of man with God, it is the fullness of the revelation of the human personality, it is the state of man when he truly becomes a son of God, God by grace. What a colossal difference between Christianity and other religions!      Perhaps the most important thing that Christianity speaks of and what distinguishes it from other religions and without which Christianity cannot exist, is its greatest dogma, expressed in the most important Christian holiday, Easter, the dogma of the Resurrection. Christianity does not simply say that the Christian soul unites with God, that the soul will experience certain states. No, it asserts that man is a soul and a body, a single spiritual-bodily being, and deification is inherent not only in the soul, but also in the soul and the body. In a renewed person, everything changes, not only the soul, mind, feelings, but also the body itself.      Christianity speaks of the resurrection as a fact that will follow as a consequence of the Resurrection of Christ. Every Christ cannot but be resurrected! Remember how provocative the Apostle Paul's sermon in the Areopagus about the Resurrection sounded. The wise men perceived it as a fairy tale, a fantasy. But Christianity affirms this as one of its central dogmas. The news of the Resurrection has permeated the entire Christian consciousness for all 2000 years. The greatest saints, who attained the illumination of God and the enlightenment of the mind, affirmed this truth with all force and categoricality. It is unique in the history of the religious consciousness of mankind.      Christianity is a religion that is not outside of us, and which we can contemplate as a speculative object, considering the similarities and differences between it and other objects. Christianity is inherent in man by nature. But a person becomes a Christian only when he sees that he cannot get rid of the passions and sins that torment him. Remember, in Dante's "Inferno": "My blood burned with envy so much, that if it were good for another, you would see how green I am." Here it is, torment. Any passion brings suffering to a person. And only when he begins to live a Christian life, then he begins to see what sin is, what passion is, what horror it is, he begins to see the necessity of God the Savior.      In human consciousness there is a constant struggle between the old and the new man. Which God will man choose: the God of Christ or the god of the Antichrist? God alone will save and heal me, give me the opportunity to become a true son of God in unity with the Son the Word incarnate. The other falsely promises me all earthly blessings for a moment of time. What will you choose, man?      But in any case, remember that it is not rose-colored glasses and not the "wisdom" of an ostrich that buries its head in the sand in imminent danger that will save you from the world of passions (i.e. sufferings) living in your soul, but only a courageous and honest look at yourself, at your so-called powers and awareness of your deep spiritual poverty will reveal to you true salvation and the true Savior – Christ. in which is contained all your good of eternal life.

Alexei Ilyich OSIPOV, Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy

The article was published in the journal "Orthodox Conversation" No 4, 1998.

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 Here and further in parentheses are indicated: the first digit is the volume, the second is a page of the Works of Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) according to the edition: St. Petersburg, 1905.

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