Beginnings

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Cross, Old Testament, Sacrifice, St. Ambrose, The Law

While at seminary, my Old Testament professor made what I thought at the time was an audacious claim — we know more about Christ from the Old Testament than the New. Given that the NT specifically deals with the life, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, it seemed unlikely to me that there is any way that the OT could have more information on Him. Then I began to read the Fathers of the Church.

One might be surprised to find that the Fathers, especially those that lived during the great Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries, spend an awful lot of their time dealing with the OT and what we know about Christ from the OT. St. Ambrose, being one of those 4th century Fathers who had to fight Arianism, is no different.

He begins his treatise on the Holy Spirit meditating upon the story of Gideon from the sixth chapter of Judges. Ambrose focuses on the sacrifices Gideon makes to God:

[Gideon], instructed and foreknowing what was to be, observes the heavenly mysteries, and therefore, according to the warning, slew the bullock destined by his father to idols, and himself offered to God another bullock seven years old. By doing which he most plainly showed that after the coming of the Lord all Gentile sacrifices should be done away, and that only the sacrifice of the Lord’s passion should be offered for the redemption of the people. For that bullock was, in a type, Christ, in Whom, as Esaias said, dwelt the fulness of the seven gifts of the Spirit. This bullock Abraham also offered when he saw the day of the Lord and was glad. He it is Who was offered at one time in the type of a kid, at another in that of a sheep, at another in that of a bullock. Of a kid, because He is a sacrifice for sin; of a sheep, because He is an unresisting victim; of a bullock, because He is a victim without blemish.

Thus, the sacrificial cult of the OT was in preparation for the coming sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Each type of sacrifice speaks to the purpose of Christ in His suffering and how He fulfills the Law.

I find it fascinating that Ambrose not only begins his treatise on the Holy Spirit with the OT, but with Christ on the Cross. It is a reminder for all of us that Christmas is meaningless outside the context of the OT and Cross. We cannot have or experience the resurrection without either.

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Bible Study Notes: The Three Hierarchs

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Arianism, Baptism, Old Calendarists, Resurrection, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. John Chrysostom, The Law

This coming Sunday is the Synaxis of the Three Hierarchs. Around the year AD 1100 there was a raging argument plaguing the Orthodox Church — who was the greatest, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian or St. John Chrysostom? This strife was so contentious that the three saints appeared to St. John Mauropous, Bishop of Euchita (celebrated on October 5) who was a great hymnographer. Explaining that the glory they have at the throne of God is equal, they asked him to compose a common service for them in order to end the disputes. We have celebrated this service on January 30 since.

Thus, while reading the Epistle (Hebrews 13:7-16) and the Gospel Reading (Mathew 5:14-19) we tried to place them in context of this feast as well as the events of the readings themselves and our own lives.

The verse we spent the most time on was Hebrews 13:9:

Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings; for it is well that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited their adherents.

We asked the question, “What are diverse and strange teachings?” To understand this, we need to look at verse 8:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.

In other words, the truth that was taught to the Apostles is the same that was passed down from generation to generation down to us. The means by which Christ saves us has not changed. The reality of Christ Incarnate — both God and man — the crucifixion, and the resurrection has not changed. So, what we know about God, Christ and how we are saved has not changed throughout the ages. We might have clarified these truths, depending upon the context that the Church found Herself, but these basic truths have not changed.

Diverse and strange teachings call into question either what we know about God (and therefore Christ) or about how we are saved:

• In St. Paul’s time, there were those who insisted that fasting laws and getting circumcised were necessary for salvation. This calls into question how we are saved. If fasting laws and circumcision are necessary, then Christ’s saving passion is somehow incomplete.
• In the time of the Three Hierarchs, there was a teacher named Arius who taught that there was a time when the Son was not. He called into question what we know about Christ, God and the Trinity. If there was a time when the Son was not, then He is part of creation and of a fundamentally different essence than God the Father. As such, uniting ourselves to Christ would do us little good, since we are already part of creation. Only in being of one essence with the Father does uniting ourselves to Christ save.
• In our own time, there is the phenomenon of the Old-Calendarists. When various Orthodox Churches (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria) started to switch to the revised Julian Calendar (which uses the Gregorian Calendar for fixed feasts) in 1924 (the last in 1963), there were those who refused to make the switch. These Old Calendarists broke communion with the Orthodox Church in order to form their own communion. In other words, they follow in the footsteps of the Judaizers of St. Paul’s time. They see the use of the Julian Calendar as necessary to salvation, calling into question the completeness of Christ’s passion.

The verse from the Gospel that we focused on was verse 18:

For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

The iota and the dot are the smallest of letters and strokes in the Greek alphabet. Thus, Christ is claiming that the law must be fulfilled completely. If we read some of the hymns from January 1 we see the Church declaring that Christ fulfills the Law:

The supremely good God was not ashamed to be circumcised in the flesh; but for our salvation He offered Himself as a type and example to all. For the Author of the Law fulfills the precepts of the Law and the things the prophets preached of Him — Stichera of Vespers for the Circumcision in the Flesh of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ

The Law reveals our sin, because fallen humanity is incapable of fulfilling the Law. Christ, being both God and man, is sinless. Therefore He is capable of perfectly fulfilling the Law — abolishing that which separates humanity from God. This He accomplishes for our sake. When we are baptized we are said to put on Christ (cf. Ga;. 3:27). Thus, the Law is fulfilled in us by Christ Himself. The Law is not the means of our salvation, Christ is.