In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light.”
Genesis 1:1-3
Now that we have defined what faith is, the next challenge is understanding what we believe. Most Orthodox Christians were baptized as infants. For those who were, there was never a requirement to take a class, read a book, take a test, or even agree to be baptized. And so what happens with many people is that they go through life, with the faith of their parents, and many fall away because they never acquire faith of their own. I’ve written before about a conversation I had with my dad shortly before he passed away. He was scared of dying. And he wanted to talk about it. I asked him “Do you believe in God?” He said, “Yes, I believe in God.” Then I asked him, “What do you believe about God?” And he said, “I’m not sure.” That was a light bulb moment for me. My dad was very faithful in praying. He prayed every morning in front of our icons. He was very faithful about reading the Scriptures. He had memorized entire pieces of the Bible, and I have his old Bible in Greek and many of the pages have faded ink because he read them so often. He went to church every Sunday. You might say he was the model Greek Orthodox Christian, and yet, at the end of the day, he had a hard time articulating exactly what it was that he believed. I would venture to say many of us are the same. Today’s reflection is a reminder of what we believe, and what one needs to believe in order to be a Christian. Orthodoxy is how we practice our Christianity. There is a basic set of Christian beliefs (that sadly do not go across all Christian denominations). We will examine several verses that highlight the basics.
The verses at the beginning of this reflection come from Genesis 1, the account of the creation of the world. The first thing we need to believe in order to be a Christian is that God created the world. Someone greater than us made us. We didn’t make ourselves, we certainly were not created by a lesser being. To believe in God is to first establish God as the source and center of everything, the Creator of all, who created from nothing. Even as scientific theories go back to the beginning to try to establish what happened first in the creation of the world, there is only so far that science can go. It might identify the first thing that happened, but it cannot establish what happened to cause the first thing—that would be God.
I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness. John 12:46
The second thing we need to believe is that the world is fallen, and thus is in need of redemption. Not only is the world fallen, but as part of the fallen world, we are in need of redemption. We hear from so many politicians about how they are right and how everyone else is wrong. No one, besides the Lord, is omniscient or perfect. We all live in a state of fallenness. And yet we never hear world leaders acknowledge that they are anything but perfect. Perhaps in certain lines of work, admitting any weakness is detrimental. The problem is, when we come out publicly as perfect, they we start to believe that within ourselves. And once one believes that he or she is perfect, then there is no understanding of a need for redemption. The fall of mankind is chronicled in Genesis 3. However, the words of John 12:46 highlight the purpose of Christ was to come into a fallen/darkened world.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. John 1:1-3
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
The third thing we need to believe is that the world is redeemed through Jesus Christ, and that He is the Incarnate, uncreated, co-eternal Son of God. One of the “names” of Christ is the “Word” or “Logos” of God. In John 1:1-3 and 1:14, if you substitute “Christ” for “Word,” it is easier to understand that He is uncreated and co-eternal with God, and that the Incarnation was not the “creation” of Christ, but when He took on human flesh and dwelt among us.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
John 3:16-17
His purpose is revealed in John 3:16-17, that Christ came to the world to die for our sins, and through His death and Resurrection opened the path to salvation for all of us. Everything we do in our church has its basis in these truths—God created the world, the world needs redemption, and redemption is found in Jesus Christ. Salvation is the goal, the destination, and then the Church becomes the vessel on which we travel to that goal. Salvation is in Christ, and it is aided by the Church—because it is through the Church that we learn what we believe, put that into practice, receive encouragement, and where we can also work through repentance when we’ve fallen away.
Lord, before I can serve You, I must understand You. Before I can have faith in Your message, I must understand the message. My prayer today is for understanding. Help me to know You—who You are, what You did, why that is important, and where I fit in Your plan for salvation. Help me to strengthen my faith, but even more so today, help me to strengthen my knowledge of You. Help me to identify and realize the resources around me that will lead me to a greater understanding of You. Amen.
There are three essential truths the comprise the Christian message—God created the world and everything in it, including us; the world and everything in it, including us, is in need of redemption because the world fell through sin; and redemption is possible because of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
