Separation from God

I’m currently in North Carolina for a couple weeks. Posting will be sporadic. More Camp St Raphael pics to come. In the meantime, the following is taken from DYNAMIS (6/15/06) — a sort of daily meds for the soul. Subscription info follows.

Separation from God: Romans 1:28-2:9, especially vs. 3:

“And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?” Let us ponder each verse of this passage from the Epistle to the Romans, for the Apostle begins an argument here that will conclude with the blunt truth that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). He reveals sin as insidious, prompting us to gloss over our own misdeeds and to focus instead on others’ wrongs. However, to God, Who s “no respecter of persons”(Acts 10:34), no sin is excusable. Sin in all forms cuts one off from God, the Source of life, and consigns to death. Apart from Life, there is only death.

Observe: St. Paul begins a list of sins with the most glaring, obvious wrongs: sexual immorality, covetousness, malice, envy, murder and the like (vs. 29); but as the list continues, he speaks of wrongs we deem so common as not to be serious – disobeying, being unloving, unforgiving, or unmerciful (vs. 31), and these are not always visible. Often they are hidden in the mind or heart; yet when we do “not…retain God in…knowledge” (vs. 28), we cut ourselves off from Him just as surely as the murderer, the prostitute, the perjurer, or the one who cheats unwary customers. Worst of all, when sins are not visible, we may more easily rationalize and deny their presence. Who among us, Beloved, does not have sinful thoughts and feelings?

When we consciously suppress our inner sins, Joanna Manley observes, we have “the boldness, the audacity, the arrogance, the gracelessness to judge and blame others rather than ourselves.” Originally, the deep place of the heart reflects the image of God, being “luminous” with His uncreated Light. Then, as Metropolitan Hierotheos notes, “…when it withdraws from God and loses its natural state, it is blackened, darkened….So we can speak of the blindness and inability of the nous [the center of the heart] to see things clearly. And…we do not have a pure and open passage to our neighbor.” By closing off from others, we may then blame them while excusing ourselves. Worst of all, being corrupted inwardly, we delude ourselves and remake God in our own image. To this God replies: “Thou didst think an iniquity, that I should be like unto thee; I will reprove thee, and bring thy sins before thy face” (Ps. 49:22 LXX).

As sinners, we fall into a terrible fixation which the Apostle describes in today’s reading: “knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, [we] not only do the same but also approve those who practice them” (Rom. 1:32). Remaining in this state, we garner to ourselves that which the disobedient shall receive for indulging in unrighteousness – “indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish….” (vss. 2:8,9).

The Apostle longs to impress us with the invariable consequence of sin: separation from God. He does not teach that God is an infinitely wicked Being who looks only for some Divine vengeance totally devoid of love, but in St. Isaac the Syrian’s words, “God punishes with love, not defending Himself – far be it – but He wants to heal His image, and He does not keep His wrath for long.” The Apostle desires our correction and calls us to the healing God (vs. 2:4).

Foremost, we ought to hasten to consider the Apostles’s question: “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (vs. 2:4). Then Alexandre Kalomiros reminds us, “God is a loving fire, and He is a loving fire for all: good or bad….The same loving fire brings the day to those who respond to love with love, and burns those who respond to love with hatred.”

O God our Father, Who desirest each one to enter into Thy truth, release us from the bondage of sin, for Thou alone canst unbind what has been bound. In Thee alone is our hope.

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