Saint Theophan the Recluse writes in The Spiritual Life, Chapter 51:
Of course, you need labor and effort, both mental and from the heart. Do not spare yourself. If you do, you will ruin yourself. Do not spare yourself, and you will have salvation. Abandon a certain wrongful activity that often strikes and afflicts almost everyone: That is, the fact that we spare no labor on any matter except when it comes to that of salvation. We want to think that we have only to contemplate salvation and desire it, and everything is all set. That is not how it happens in reality. The matter of salvation is the most important thing. Consequently it is the most difficult. This is by virtue of its importance and by the labor required. Labor then, for the Lord's sake! Very soon you will see the fruit. If you do not set to work however, you will be left without anything and be unworthy. Deliver us, Lord, from this!
I was raised in the Restoration Movement (to which I owe much indeed), with a pentecostal model of salvation – the pattern established by St. Peter in Acts 2.
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him” (Acts 2:37-39, NRSV).
This model presents salvation – like Pentecost itself – as an event, or a series of events, all one-off occurrences: repentance, baptism, forgiveness, chrismation (the gift of the Spirit) – salvation. And, some of these are singular events. We believe in one baptism, for instance, not to be repeated. But, surely, not all are. Repentance, for instance, is the ongoing life of discipleship. Repentance – metanoia – is not merely a one time changing of the mind – a realization of one’s lost estate and a turning to Christ – but rather a continual transformation (meta) of the heart/mind (nous), until one is conformed to the image of Christ. I need repentance no less this day than on that day some forty-five years ago when I repented and was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And such repentance is most serious and most difficult business, worthy of the best effort of an entire lifetime. Our salvation – not just the forensic eradication of guilt, but the healing of the soul – depends upon it. As St. Theophan reminds us all:
The matter of salvation is the most important thing. Consequently it is the most difficult. This is by virtue of its importance and by the labor required. Labor then, for the Lord’s sake. Very soon you will see the fruit.
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him” (Acts 2:37-39, NRSV).
This model presents salvation – like Pentecost itself – as an event, or a series of events, all one-off occurrences: repentance, baptism, forgiveness, chrismation (the gift of the Spirit) – salvation. And, some of these are singular events. We believe in one baptism, for instance, not to be repeated. But, surely, not all are. Repentance, for instance, is the ongoing life of discipleship. Repentance – metanoia – is not merely a one time changing of the mind – a realization of one’s lost estate and a turning to Christ – but rather a continual transformation (meta) of the heart/mind (nous), until one is conformed to the image of Christ. I need repentance no less this day than on that day some forty-five years ago when I repented and was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And such repentance is most serious and most difficult business, worthy of the best effort of an entire lifetime. Our salvation – not just the forensic eradication of guilt, but the healing of the soul – depends upon it. As St. Theophan reminds us all:
The matter of salvation is the most important thing. Consequently it is the most difficult. This is by virtue of its importance and by the labor required. Labor then, for the Lord’s sake. Very soon you will see the fruit.
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