Love Wins (Transcript)

Love Wins - An Orthodox View

uploaded by YouTube User: sevpr on Feb 19, 2011

A comparison of the mainstream substitutionary atonement views and the Orthodox view of salvation illustrated with chairs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WosgwLekgn8

Two views...

The Substitutionary Atonement View

In the Beginning God created man, and man had perfect fellowship with God

But then in the Garden, man sin and he turned away from God

And then because God is so Holy and Righteous, He cannot look upon man any longer because man is sinful

No matter what man does, no matter how hard man tries, no matter how righteous man is after he has sinned, God does not look upon man be cause man is still sinful

And no amount of Good works can repay God for the offence man has given

And so man is in a constant state of separation from God

But God in His love for man, sends His Son Jesus Christ, who becomes Man, and lives as we should have lived, in perfect communion and sinlessness before God, and at the end of His life, Jesus Christ is crucified. And when He's crucified, God does the unthinkable, He lays all of the sin of the human race on His Son.

And when He does that, because He is Holy and Righteous, and the Son experiences the fullness of the Wrath of God against us in our stead.

Now we sinners, if we believe Jesus Christ has done this, if we believe that Jesus Christ has died for our sins, we too can have this perfect fellowship with God once again, because when God looks at us sinners, He no longer sees us and He no longer sees our sins, He sees Jesus Christ in His blood, we covered in the Blood of the Lamb, we are as Martin Luther said "snow covered dung" or as RC Sproul put it "Jesus Christ is our asbestos suit against the white hot wrath of God against sinners"

But if the human being who is sinful does not believe in Jesus Christ and His righteousness and accepts the righteousness of Christ in his stead, then God cannot look upon him, and in the end, the sinner will be cast into hell in eternal separation from God, suffering the full punishment he deserves for his sins because he has not accepted the sacrifice of Christ.

The Orthodox View

In the beginning God creates man in His image, and in perfect communion with him, and then in the Garden man sins, and in his sin, man subjects all of creation and himself to futility, corruption and death.

But God, because He is life and because He is love, cannot bear to see His creation subjected to futility and death

So God becomes Man.

And when the woman in her brokenness and her corruption, goes from relationship to relationship, seeking and thirsting after true love, God sits beside her at the well and He says "I am the Water of Life...I love you"

And when the man uses his fellow country men for career and for money, and is ostracized daily from his own countrymen and is outcast from his own people, God says "Come down from the tree...I will eat with you"

And when the woman is caught in adultery and is cast before God, God says "I do not condemn you...go your way and sin no more"

And when the man experiences the corruption of fallen creation, futility of random illness, the death of innocence, and the despair of loneliness, God says "take up your pallet and walk," God says "Tabitha arise!" God says, "Go in peace"

And when man, in fear, in cowardice, in envy, in jealously, in greed, in political ambition, take God and betray Him and spit on Him and beat Him and crucify Him, God says "I forgive you."

And when man experiences the final separation and utter disillusion, the separation from God, and dies, God says "Love is stronger than death...even if you make your bed in Sheol...I am there."

And God dies.

But God says, "I am life...and in the power of My Life and My Resurrection...All will be raised with Me"

And now there is no place where God is not, there's no place to escape the love of God, there no place where we can hide from His love for us which flows from His heart like a river of fire.

And God says  "For those who love Me, my love is like light and warmth, but for those who hate me, my love is like a consuming fire."

And so that's the Orthodox view of salvation, in a nutshell, it's not perfect...but that's how we view the love of God.

In our Paschal Hymn we sing "Christ is Risen from the Death, trampling down death by death. And to those in the tomb, restoring life!" That's the core of the Gospel of our salvation.