Письмо 38
The Simplicity of Salvation
The author dismisses overly complex questions about salvation, pointing instead to the established, simple path of life within the Church.
Who kept bothering you so with the question of how to be saved? — as if it were not already settled, and we are the first ones who have to address this issue! What is Christianity? The way of salvation for the fallen.1 The Lord Jesus Christ "came into the world to save sinners.✦ . ." (1 Tim. 1:15).✦ The matter is clear. So why even puzzle over it? How many of the saved do we already know? And how were they saved? In the Church of Christ. If a person lives as the Church commands, they will be saved. They only need to believe everything with the simplicity of an undemanding heart, cast off refined subtlety and captious questioning, and not disturb the quiet domain of faith with them.2
Living the Life of the Church
Practical instruction on how to attain salvation through faith, sacraments, and obedience to the Church's ordinances.
If anyone is not entirely clear about how and by what means salvation is accomplished in God's Church, this is what must be said: “Believe everything that the Holy Church commands you to believe, and, receiving the powers of grace through the sacraments and stirring them up through participation in all the other sacred rites and through keeping all the other ordinances of the Holy✦3 Church, walk unswervingly along the path of the commandments prescribed for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of lawful pastors, and you will be saved.” If we look around, we will see that all this is already at work around us. So let us humbly put our hope in the grace brought to us by the revelation of Jesus Christ, without being shaken by perplexities and doubts.✦4
Read the original Russian
Кто это так докучал вам вопросом, как спастись? – будто он не решен, и нам первым приходится приступить к сему делу! Христианство что есть? Образ спасения падшаго. Господь Иисус Христос «прииде в мир грешные спасти. . .» (1Тим.
1:15). Дело ясное. Что ж и задумываться? Сколько уж знаем мы спасенных? А как они спаслись? В Церкви Христовой. Пусть живет, как велит Церковь, и спасется. Да верует только всему в простоте невзыскательнаго сердца, а изыскательность и совопросничество пусть бросит и не возмущает ими тихой области веры.
Кому не совсем ясно, чем и как совершается в Церкви Божией спасение, тому вот что надо сказать:
«Веруй во все, во что веровать повелевает Св. Церковь, и, приемля благодатные силы чрез таинства и возгревая их чрез участие во всех других священнодействиях и чрез исполнение всех других постановлений Св. Церкви, иди неуклонно путем заповедей, Господом Иисусом Христом нам прописанных, под руководством законных пастырей, и спасешься.» – Если осмотримся кругом, то увидим, что все сие уже действуется окрест нас! Смиренно убо да уповаем на принесенную нам благодать откровением Иисус-Христовым, не колеблясь недоумениями и сомнениями.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Tim.1.15 — The saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
- ↩1Tim.1.15 — The saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
- ↩2Tim.1.6 — For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
- ↩Gal.1.12;Titus.2.11 — For I did not receive it from any human source, nor was I taught it, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Titus.2.11 — For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.
Notes
- 1 ↩Russian образ can mean form, image, pattern, or way; rendered here as way of salvation for fallen humanity (падшаго).
- 2 ↩«невзыскательнаго сердца» rendered as undemanding heart (unexacting, not hypercritical). «изыскательность» as refined subtlety (over-sophistication). «совопросничество» as captious questioning (disputatious quibbling).
- 3 ↩«благодатные силы» rendered as 'powers of grace' (grace-bearing powers conferred in the sacraments), not generic 'spiritual energy'.
- 4 ↩Church-Slavonic «убо» rendered as 'So' (inferential 'therefore'); «откровением Иисус-Христовым» as 'by the revelation of Jesus Christ' (instrumental).
Letters on the Christian Life companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit