GOD’S GIFT OF LIFE TO MAN

Our Almighty God formed Adasm’s body "out of dust from the ground." The "breath of life" is the grace of the Holy Spir, the Giver of Life (the Creed). God breathed the breath of life into man’s body, and he became "a living soul." Therefore, Adam was A LIVING SOUL because he possessed A BODY and SOUL, and the GRACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

After Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus breathed on His Disciples, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" [John 20:22). For man failed to keep the grace of the Holy Spirit. A disciple’s responsibility IS TO LIVE BY THIS GRACE. In the Orthodox hymn chanted repeatedly at All-Holy Pascha celebrating His Glorious Resurrection states: "Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling upon Death, and to those in the tombs bestowing life."

Having raised man above all the earthly world, having given him reason and freedom, having adorned him with His own image, the Creator thus indicated to man his especially high purpose. God and the spiritual world lie before man’s spiritual gaze; before his bodily gaze lies the material world.

a) Tke first purpose of man is the glory of God. Man is called to remain faithful to his body with God, to strive towards Him with his soul, to acknowledge Him as his Creator, to glorify Him, to rejoice in union with Him, TO LIVE IN Him. "He filled them with knowledge and understanding," says the most wise son of Sirach with regard to the gifts God has GIVEN TO MAN’ "He set His eye upon their hearts to show them the majesty of His works. And they will praise His Holy Name, to proclaim the grandeur of His works" (Sirach 17:6-10). For if all of creation is called, according to its ability, to glorify the Creator (as stated, for example, in Psalm 148), then of course man, as the VERY CROWN OF CREATION, is all the more intended to be the conscious, rational, constant, and most perfect instrument of the glory of God on earth.

b) For this purpose, man should be worthy of his Prototype. In other words, he is called TO PERFECT HIMSELF, TO GUARD HIS LIKENESS TO GOD, TO RESTORE AND STRENGTHEN IT; HE IS CALLED TO DEVELOP AND PERFECT HIS MORAL POWERS BY MEANS OF GOOD WORKS. This requires that a man take care for his own good, and his true good lies in blessedness in God. Therefore one must say that "BLESSEDNESS" in God is the aim of man’s existence.

Ultimately, this means UNION WITH GOD or DEIFICATION (THEOSIS) through participation in the Uncreated Energies. Archimandrite George of Grigoriou Monastery, Mount Athos, observes concerning this: "Man must not only better himself, become more moral, more just, more chaste, more careful. Of course, all his must happen, but it is not the most important purpose, THE FINAL PURPOSE, FOR WHICH OUR CREATOR AND MAKER CREATED MAN. What is that purpose? DEIFICATION (THEOSIS) — TO UNITE MAN WITH GOD, NOR EXTERNALLY OR SENTIMENTALLY, BUT TRULY" (Deification as the Purpose of Man’s Life, p. 13 –3rd Ed.)

c) Man’s immediate physical gaze is directed to the world Man has been placed as the crown of earthly creation and the king of nature, as is shown in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. In what way should this be manifested? Metropolitan Macarius speaks of it thus in his Orthodox Dogmatic Theology: "AS THE IMAGE OF GOD, the son and inheritor in teh house of the Heavenly Father, man has been placed as a kind of intermediary between the Creator and the earthly creation: in particular je jas beem foreordained to be A PROPHET for it, PROCLAIMING THE WILL OF GOD IN THE WORLD IN WORD AND DEED; HE IS TO BE ITS CHIEF PRIEST, IN ORDER TO OFFER A SACRIFICE OF PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING TO GOD ON BEHALF OF ALL THOSE BORN OF EARTH, THUS BRINGING DOWN UPON EARTH THE BLESSINGS OF HEAVEN; HE IS TO BE HEAD AND KING, SO THAT BY CONCENTRATING THE AIMS OF ALL EXISTING VISIBLE CREATURES IN HIMSELF, HE MIGHT THROUGH HIMSELF UNITE ALL THINGS WITH GOD, AND THUS KEEP THE WHOLE CHAIN OF EARTHLY CREATURES IN A HARMONIOUS BOND AND ORDER."

Thus was the first man created, capable of fulfilling his purpose and of doing so freely, colunatrily, joyfully, according to the attraction of his soul, and not by compulsion.

Saint Athanasios stated: "The Son of God became man that we might become god." The quote emphasizes the purpose of the Incarnation and the ultimate goal of human life: to share in the divine nature." Another great Holy Father of the Church, Saint Irenaeus said, "The Logos/Word became flesh to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature.’ ‘For this is why the Logos/Word became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Logos/Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God’." Saint Irenaus highlights the Incarnation as the means by which humanity is united with God. Saint John Chrysostomos explains further: "Christ becomes ours; the life of Christ becomes ours; His blood becomes our blood. Saint John says that God has nothing more to give man than what He gives him in Holy Communion. Man cannot ask anything more of God than what he receives from Christ in Holy Communion."

The idea of man’s royal position on earth causes the Psalmist to praise the Creator ecstatically: "O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Thy name in all the earth! For Thy magnificence is lifted high above the heavens… For I will behold the heavens, the works of Thy fingers, the moon, and the stars, which Thou hast founded. What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels, with glory and honor hast Thou crowned him, and Thou hast set him over the works of Thy hands… O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Thy name in all the earth! [Psalm 8:1, 3-5, 8).

The Patristic teaching finds its fullest expression in the writings of Saint Maximos the Confessor. Vladimir Lossky writes: "It was the Divinely appointed function of the first man, according to Saint Maximos, TO UNITE IN HIMSELF THE WHOLE OF CREATED BEING; AND AT THE SAME TIME TO REACH HIS PERFECT UNION WITH GOD AND THUS GRANT THE STATE OF THEOSIS (DEIFICATION) TO THE WHOLE CREATION…SINCE THIS TASK WHICH WAS GIVEN TO MAN WAS NOT FULFILLED BY ADAM, IT IS THE WORK OF CHRIST, THE SECOND ADAM, THAT WE CAN SEE WHAT IT WAS MEANT TO BE’ (Mystical Theology). [Resources: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology)

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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Glorious, Divine and Redeeming Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George