PLEASE READ FOR IMPORTANT SUMMARY: This video is an argument that the classical Christian doctrine (shared by Orthodox and Catholic Christians) of justification by faith provides the real basis of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. As Orthodox and Catholic Christians, we really can have assurance that we are under grace, children of God, and destined for the eternal kingdom of God. We are not guaranteed perseverance. But the severance of that relationship is not a hidden mystery inside of us only accessible by extreme introspection. No, it is what St. Paul described in Hebrews 10: willful, callous rebellion. It is like a spouse who goes on committing adultery and says "yeah, whatever" if a call to reconciliation is made. We are justified by faith working through love. We are not justified by dead faith. Dead faith, however, is real faith in the sense that it can be given life through bringing forth works of charity by the grace of the Spirit- it is not "fake faith" which needs total replacement anymore than a body without a spirit was "never a body." So, taking the relationship in marital terms, these are the two ways, having been adopted as children of God, that we might be eternally condemned:
1. Apostasy. This is like divorce. A renunciation, God-forbid, of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2. Rebellion. This is like adultery. This is essentially the category of "mortal sin", but it seems to me that the way in which the teaching on mortal sin has been utilized fails to really capture the dynamic of sin and repentance in the Christian life. What constitutes a sin as a mortal sin is its grave matter and willful nature. A peaceful, good marriage- where one is assured that one is in good standing with one's spouse- can be severed by a willful act of adultery. Likewise for our relationship with God. The son or daughter of God who simply goes on in fornication, robbery, slander, and has no interest in repenting when it becomes evident to him (whether by church discipline or the conviction of the Spirit, the former being a means of the latter) has killed his or her faith, severed the relationship which is itself the natural purpose of the human creature and constitutive of eternal beatitude.
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