Meditations on Grace

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

Differing Definitions 

The East and West have differed historically on what "Charis" and "Charisma" really are, and this difference of definition has effected systematic theological understanding for the last one thousand years, dividing the Eastern Churches from the Western Churches. In the Anglo-Orthodoxy, as a bridge between East and West, we do a lot of thinking about how terms and concepts are translated, used and developed differently, in order that we can be faithfully Orthodox in the Anglican Patrimony. 

In the East, God's grace has been defined as "Uncreated Energy", with the metaphor of the Sun and Sunlight being applied to the mystery of God's involvement in our lives - the Sun continues to be the Sun, separate from us and undiminished, but yet we are warmed by the Sun's rays, and while these rays are a part of the Sun, they are not the Sun (or even "a part of the Sun"). Therefore, we can be warmed by the Sun, touched by the Sun, without becoming the Sun in essence. To be warmed by the Sun does not obliterate our identities, or confuse the nature of the Sun Itself. This understanding allows for our direct involvement with God, His presence in our lives, and the origin of all good in our lives, without confusing the "God filled" for God. This presence of God in a believer's life is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. For this reason, Eastern Soteriology would never say, as Luther did, "Christ Alone Saves Us", because Christ saves us by sending His Holy Spirit, which is the Third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit, being God, fills us. Our relationship, our work as a result of this presence, is grace... Grace is the name by which we call the indwelling and outworking of God in us. 

On the other hand, God's grace was defined by the West as an intermediary, bridging category, in which God, through His Spirit excites a reaction in the human person. It was seen as a created response, or an energy manifested in the life of the baptized, that empowered one to DO the work of God. By making grace a created category, the origin and action of God's work in the lives of Christians was associated with human action, not with God's Presence! In other words, Grace was not the name of God's presence, but a tool God used in the lives of Christians! 

This way of thinking can be seen in the many theological definitions of grace since Thomas Aquinas. Grace is called...

“The ACTION of the Holy Spirit manifest in the life of the baptized (thus, something other than the Spirit Himself)...”

“The unmerited favor of God...”

“The desire and power to do God's will...”

Merit - When Grace is Not God

When grace is not God in us, then works of grace must be our response to God, and work that we literally do on our own (since God is not there, but only in a secondary sense). Then it is the work that pleases God and is used by God to glorify Himself and accomplish His work... This work, upon which God in the world depends, then is the basis of our standing with God. This standing is merit, and merit only exists if God "holds our good works to our account." 

"Merit" is a concept alien to the Biblical worldview - it is a "point" in an accumulative game of obedience, in which more merits equals higher status, influence, and power. Merits are disembodied virtues that can be bought and traded, the result of a conscious decision to do right, which can be then "traded in" to God by the righteous to obtain favors. The only problem is that good originates in God and returns to God, therefore the "good" cannot use good to request anything of God, other than to be Who God already IS, which is good! This reliance on God to be good is good, because it is not motivated by pride, fear, or a desire for reward. This reliance, however, is not merit. 

Christ also uses merit to procure mankind's salvation, in the Roman Catholic view. By His suffering, Christ accumulates more merit (points of honor) than all the sin of the world, therefore making His merit available for the salvation of the world. Sharing merit before God to obtain our salvation is the Anselmian view of Christ's Sacrifice. Therefore, it makes sense that Catholics see the good works of the saints as procuring favor! The official Roman Dogma is that Christ merit erased original sin by counterbalancing it, and that it is our own merit that maintains it! Quiet literally, Christ saves us, and then we keep it! "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? That which was begun in the Spirit cannot be continued in the flesh!" 

Life Application

In contemporary theology, it is commonly believed that there are two attitudes about Grace 1) "Free gift" grace, and, 2) Legalism/"Works". The "Free gift" variety doesn't require any outward actions, because it is a legal attribution of righteousness through a soteriogical loophole, and therefore implies "comfort" rather than "presence". Being comforted has thereby been mistaken by contemporary theological trends as implying the presence of God! It is little wonder why repentance, fasting, and prayer have become marginalized in contemporary Christianity. The "Works" that are often contrasted to this view is equally based on the idea that grace is a created, human oriented response to the Will of God. Action originates in man, in response to a human desire to follow God. This human desire and proceeding action is believed to be the way in which salvation is "earned". 

Both of these views, however, lead to pride and complacency, and are both eschewed by the Fathers in the Early Church. The view that was held for a thousand years, in both the East and the West was one of "synergy", in which man submits his will to God, and God manifests Himself through the Presence of the Holy Spirit in the works of a man's life. Man's work was "ceasing to work (his own will)", and God's work was manifesting Himself in the life of the believer. So, man could not mistake his own work for "earning salvation", because the works were of God, and were therefore a part of his salvation (we believe that the Presence of God and our hope of resurrection and eternity with Christ are really the same thing in different proportions of blessedness or stages of fulfillment). With this paradigm, Man could also not mistake being comforted or other emotional responses for the Presence of God, or find excuses to be alleviated from the clear necessity of good works in his life. 

Good works were, and still are, evidence of the Uncreated Energy of God, present and filling the life of man. Man cannot lay claim to the Light that comes from God, that IS God, but man must strive to be a mirror of that Light, and that takes "dusting" and "polishing", which is the process of repentance and prayer, which, again, is powered by the light! We turn away from the darkness and towards the Light, like how a solar powered generator panel turns toward the Sun. We are moving, turning, repenting, but we only do it in the power of the Origin of All Good, in the energy of the Holy Spirit! In this there is no contradiction between the teachings of the Orthodox Church and our Anglocatholic, Non-Juror and Caroline Divine Fathers!

A Contemporary Greek Icon, Based on the Famous "Hospitality of Abraham" by Rublev