Redemption and the Creed

It's been a while since my last post. So sorry. I promise to be more regular from now on...

These notes are from about a month ago. This class really blew my mind. I feel as though my eyes are being opened to the true reality that exists in Christ. I have been a believer for about 9 years and so many things that didn't seem to fit are piecing together.

The one thing that stood out most to me this week (if I had to choose one) is the difference in the East and West in regards to who or what is the great enemy. The west would say (traditionally) that the great enemy is Satan. While he is the deceiver and liar, the enemy Christ came to defeat was death! He has entered into it and conquered it for us.

Here are the notes:

…And was crucified fro us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;
And the third day He rose again, according to the scriptures.

Redemption
• Dictionary: To compensate for the bad faults of something. To gain or regain possession of something in exchange for payment.
• Comes from middle English. Means to buy back
• Who did Christ pay the price to?

Why did He do it? Why did He come to earth?
• 4 Descents of Christ (4 icons)
o First descent is in the form of a person. Icon of the Nativity.
• It is a theological statement
• Notice the cave appears to be in the heart of the mountain. Somehow it is central. There is darkness in the cave.
• He is sort of wrapped as a mummy and his manger is as a coffin. Jesus, Who did not have to die, came in order to die. It is seen even from His birth.
• He was not under the sentence of death, but came into it.
o Second Descent is into the waters of the Jordan. Icon of the Theophany
• Crucial turning point in His life. He is about the age of 30
• Not much known or recorded prior to this time.
• Prior to this time He did not publicly appear as Christ.
• John the Baptist baptizes him in the water of baptism in a sinner’s baptism. John’s baptism was for repentance.
• John then points Him out as the Lamb of God. The One Who’s throat needs to be slit to spill his blood.
• Orthodox teach that it is at His baptism that He takes on the sins of the world.
o Third descent is into Death. Icon of Extreme Humility
• This is about the condition of death and our own death
• Christ is standing in a tomb. Our tomb. He has been there already and is in a sense waiting there for us.
• He takes upon Himself our death.
• John 11: raising of Lazarus shows us that death is not how it is supposed to be. We are here seeing our Lord’s response to death and its unnaturalness. In His death, Jesus Christ enters into that cursedness and death and descends into our condition.
o Fourth descent into the dead (or place of the dead) Icon of the Resurrection
• Christ descended to the dead (Hades or Sheol). This is where Christ went.
• We see his victory after his descent to the dead.
• In the icon, He is pulling up Adam and Eve out of the grave. He is Radiant.
• Death is transformed from emptiness into the means by which those who belong to Christ pass into eternal communion with Christ and the Father, for which they were created.

1 Cor 15:3
• I delivered to you that which I have also received.

On another note, Ashley made Amish Friendship Bread and it is delicious! I love her so (I promise it's not just because of her culinary skills)!

Holy God. Holy Mighty. Holy Immortal. Have mercy on us!