Chapter V

Man's Personal Participation in the Work of Salvation

1. Faith

The Christian faith is the conscious and free acceptance and assimilation by man of the Gospel teaching about God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, about the Divine love for fallen humanity, manifested in the redemptive feat of the incarnate Son of God. The source of saving faith is Divine grace, which draws human hearts to God. According to the Holy Scriptures, a person cannot come to the Heavenly Father by himself and believe in His Only-begotten Son. "No man can come to Me," says Christ to His disciples, "except the Father who sent Me draw him" (John 6:44).

According to Divine Revelation, St. Tikhon teaches that "faith... is a gift of the Holy Spirit" (3:11). The Lord gives people faith as a means of perceiving Divine truths that are incomprehensible to the human mind. In this regard, the Holy Father gives the following definition of faith: "Faith is that which we do not see or do not comprehend with our minds, but we believe to be so. Thus we do not see God (although we know Him from the creation of the world, but faith completes this knowledge, as imperfect, and so we know it more from faith than from reason), but we believe that there is God, there is one. We do not comprehend with our minds how God is one in nature, but is triune in Persons, but we believe, we are instructed by the word of God" (3:11).

Faith reveals to man the entire order of God's economy of our salvation, in which he clearly sees his place and purpose. The light of Christ's truth penetrates the depths of human self-consciousness, exposing the sinful wounds of man, showing the depth of his fall and the abnormality of his condition. That is why St. Tikhon calls faith "the eye of the soul," contemplating the true, joyless state of fallen man (5:57). However, the action of saving faith does not end there, nor can it end. Having exposed the sinfulness and self-deception of a person who has withdrawn from God, faith shows the way of salvation and reveals the author of deliverance from sin (1:196).

The faith of the Gospel is, first of all, faith in Christ as the Son of God: God the Father revealed Himself to the world through His Only-begotten Son, Who descended to earth for the salvation of all mankind. Therefore, no one can be saved and justified before God without the Advocate of our salvation – Christ. Only by living faith in Him can man fulfill his destiny. "For there is no other name under heaven, given among men, in whom it behooves us to be saved" (Acts 4:12). "No one can be delivered from the devil, from sin, from the lawful oath, and from hell without Christ, which is contained in this brief word of Christ: if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (3:13).

The Gospel calls upon man to believe in the truth of Christ's teaching, calls upon him to follow the teaching and life of the Savior of the world as the true criterion of goodness, the ideal of spiritual perfection. The Gospel invites all those who thirst for salvation to know the truth in Christ, and the Lord gives them His grace to help them for this. Faith, therefore, in the initial stage of its development, is the knowledge of the truth in Christ; "God and Christ, the Son of God, is revealed and known" in the word of God given to people. From the true knowledge of God, a living faith is kindled in the soul of man, without which it is impossible to be saved (3:205).

From the above-quoted statement of the saint we can conclude that the word "knowledge" must be understood as the very perception by the mind of things that are not subject to direct human observation, the rational acceptance of the Gospel truths on the basis of the testimonies of the word of God. This "knowledge" is the beginning of true faith, so that faith necessarily presupposes knowledge, and knowledge passes into faith. "True faith and true knowledge of God are inseparable, that is, where there is true knowledge of God, there is also true faith; and where there is true faith, there is also true knowledge of God" (3:76). Faith must necessarily be combined with rational knowledge of its object, but such a combination of faith and knowledge is possible only up to certain limits, which are determined by the capabilities of human reason. Descending from heaven as a gift of divine grace, faith communicates truths so high that the limited mind of man is unable to comprehend them. At this stage of comprehension of the Divine Mysteries, faith subordinates reason, for "faith... where our mind does not comprehend" (3:11). It is impossible to comprehend with the mind, for example, such dogmatic truths as the transubstantiation in the Holy Eucharist by the grace of the Holy Spirit of bread into the Body and wine into the Blood of Christ, the act of the universal resurrection of the dead, the presence in eternity of the grace-filled life of the righteous and the torments of condemned sinners, and others. All of them do not belong to the realm of reason, but to living, active faith, which is based on the truths of the word of God (3:11). "Without faith," says St. Tikhon, "we can neither understand nor speak of things to come and things invisible" (5:49). Such faith, in its essence and origin, is a divine gift to fallen man, which he must carefully preserve and develop.

However, knowledge of Christian doctrine and faith in the truth of Divine dogmas cannot in themselves grant salvation to a person. "By faith alone the knowledge of the Holy Mysteries and the dogmas of the Orthodox," writes the saint, "does not lead to salvation" (3:11). It is not enough to know about God and His providential actions in the world. He who believes must accept the gospel of Christ with all the strength of his soul, the truths of faith must be imprinted not only in his mind, but also in his heart, because "faith... the saint has her place not in outward appearance, but in the heart" (3:24). Such faith spiritualizes all the movements of the heart of a person, prompts him to personal participation in the matter of assimilating the fruits of Christ's saving sacrifice. Penetrating through heartfelt faith into the meaning of the salvific Divine Mysteries, the Christian begins to understand more deeply and realize the boundlessness of the Podvig of the Son of God, which He undertook for the salvation of fallen man, as well as His love and blessings, which are poured out to this day upon all mankind (5:12). That is why heartfelt conviction and assurance are the foundation of true and living faith, which draws man into the mysterious spheres of heavenly life. Therefore, in order for the truths of faith to be effective and perceptible to the mind, they must first of all find a response in the soul of a person, be imprinted in his heart, and evoke a desire to live in Christ and with Christ. Only in this case will a Christian be able to properly steer the ship of his soul to the quiet haven of salvation.

Without a living faith in God, which is able to renew the spirit of man and encourage him to wage a struggle against sin, a Christian becomes an old man and is no longer capable of a God-pleasing life (3:181). Faith is the foundation of man's activity, the beginning and motive force of his spiritual life. St. Tikhon compares faith to the root of a plant: just as a small plant, strengthened by its root, begins to rise above the ground and finally turns into a large tree that bears abundant fruit, so a Christian who has faith in his soul is able to grow spiritually, to subdue the flesh to the spirit, and to ascend from strength to strength along the path that leads to eternal life (3:28).

As the driving force of the moral growth of a Christian, faith is unfailingly manifested in all his external actions and deeds, and especially in good deeds, which the saint calls the fruits of living faith (3:237). By its outward expression, true faith embraces, as it were, the entire personality of man, the entire essence of his inner life and external behavior.

The perfection of faith has the closest connection with the inner, spiritual progress of the Christian. Perfect faith moves the whole being of man to strive to live according to the principles of the Divine commandments, directs all his strength to Christ and complete obedience to His all-holy will. Therefore, the spiritual perfection of a Christian, his salvation is inconceivable without perfect faith. In the words of St. Tikhon, "the more faith in a person deepens and multiplies, the more a person grows spiritually, ascends, and the more spiritual fruits grow" (1:68). And in another place he says: "The more faith grows, the more the faithful succeed. As the tree has branches, leaves, and fruit, so does the faithful man have works, words, and thoughts" (3:28). Good works, therefore, are not important in themselves, they cannot be an end in themselves, but must have an indissoluble and living connection with faith, be spiritualized by its influence. According to the laws of spiritual life, good works reveal and strengthen faith, making it more and more effective and perfect (3:28-29).

Such perfect faith unites the soul of the faithful with Christ, as the bride with the bridegroom (3:19); it attracts to him the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit (5:286), creates joy and consolation in the heart (1:108). Directing the whole being of man to God, to eternal and eternal life, grace-filled faith reveals to the Christian the depth of the truths of Divine Revelation, for it "understands everything in the holy word of God of the revelation of the mystery" (1:155).