Why We Cannot Just Have "God Within" Ourselves?
Popular New Age thought postulates that everyone
has a “god within.” It’s a pleasant way
of saying that we’re all special while making “god” to be rather banal. But
there is a clear teaching of classical Christianity regarding Christ within us,
and it is essential to the Orthodox way of life.
We should not understand our relationship with
God to be an “external” matter, as if we were one individual and God another. Our union with God, birthed in us at Holy Baptism, is
far more profound.
He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (1 Cor 6:17)
God does not “help” us in the manner of
encouraging us or simply arranging for things to work out. Rather, He is in us, working in union with our work. The
mystery of ascesis (the practice of prayer, fasting, self-denial, etc.) only
makes true sense in this context. Those who look at Orthodoxy
from the outside often accuse us of practicing “works-righteousness,” meaning
that we believe we can earn favor with God by doing good works. This is utterly
false. God’s good favor is His gift and cannot be earned.
However, the Orthodox life is similar to the
life of Christ Himself.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing
of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also
does in like manner. (Joh
5:19)
and
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me,
the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do,
because I go to My Father. (Joh
14:12)
The “works” that a
Christian does, are properly done in union with Christ, such that the works are
not those of an individual, but of our common life with and in Christ. When we
fast, it is Christ who fasts in us. When we pray, it is Christ who prays in us.
When we give alms it is Christ who gives alms in us.
And we should
understand that Christ-in-us longs to fast. Christ-in-us longs to pray. Christ-in-us longs to show
mercy. The disciplines of the Church are not a prescription for behaving
ourselves or a map of moral perfection. Rather, the commandments of Christ (as
manifest in the life of the Church) are themselves a description, an icon of
Christ Himself.
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me,
he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and
make Our home with him.” (Joh
14:23)
Dumitru Staniloae notes:
At the beginning Christ is, so to speak, buried
in the commandments and in us, in the measure in which we are committed to
them, by His power which is in us. By this collaboration we gain the virtues as
living traits; they reflect the image of the Lord, and Christ is raised even
brighter from under these veils. (Orthodox
Spirituality)
This way of “union” is the very heart of
Orthodox faith and practice. Sadly, much of Christianity has created an
“extrinsic” view of our relationship with God and the path of salvation. In
this, God is seen as exterior to our life, our relationship with Him being
analogous to the individualized contractual relationships of modern culture. As
such the Christian relationship with God is reduced to psychology and morality.
It is reduced to psychology in that the concern
is shifted to God’s “attitude” towards us. The psychologized atonement concerns
itself with God’s wrath. It is reduced to morality in that our behavior is no
more than our private efforts to conform to an external set of rules and norms.
We are considered “good” or “bad” based on our performance, but without regard
to the nature of that performance. St. Paul says that “whatsoever is not of
faith is sin.” Only our lives-lived-in-union-with-Christ have the nature of true
salvation, true humanity. This is the proper meaning of being “saved by grace.”
…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do
for His good pleasure. (Phi
2:13)
and
You are
of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is
greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)
and
To them
God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among
the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col 1:27)
There is a second part of this mystery (Christ
in us) that presses its importance upon us. This is the suffering of Christ within us. Fr.
Staniloae writes:
Jesus
takes part in all our sufferings, making them easier. He helps us with our
struggle against temptations and sin; He strives with us in our quest for
virtues: He uncovers our true nature from under the leaves of sin. St.
Maximus comments: Until the end of the world He always suffers with us,
secretly, because of His goodness according to [and in proportion to] the
suffering found in each one.
The Cross
recapitulates the suffering and sin of humanity, but it extends throughout the
life and experience of all people. It is the foundation of
Christ’s statement: “Inasmuch as you did it [did it not] unto the least of
these my brethren, you did it [did it not] unto me.
The hypostatic
union of the person of Christ extends into the life of every person. There is
something of a perichoresis or coinherence in our daily relationship with
Christ.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with
it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (1 Cor 12:26)
This must be given the
strongest possible reading. If any one of us suffers, Christ suffers.
There is no specific human suffering to which Christ is alien.
It is the moment-by-moment pressing into this
commonality (koinonia) that is the foundation of Christian existence. It is the
point of Baptism (buried with Him). It is the point of the Eucharist
(“whosoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him”). It
is the point of every action and thought.
It is the life of grace.
By Fr.
Stephen Freeman
Source: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2014/04/04/finding-the-god-within/
