By saying this, I mean that He cursed the earth, which had done no wrong, saying, "Cursed is the ground in your works." Yet the one who had apostatized from Him and surrendered himself to the God-hated demon He not only left unpunished, but also showed great providence and care for him and his descendants from generation to generation. He appointed His guardian angels over him and his descendants, as it is written in the second song: "Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will say to you. When the Most High divided the nations, He set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And the Lord's portion was His people, Jacob," and so forth (Deut 32:7, 9).
That the Creator would not have spared him, had He known that he willingly signed himself into slavery to the God-fighting demon, is clear from what Divine Scripture says: "You have despised all who depart from Your judgments." For what reason? "For their thought," it says, "is unjust" (Ps 118:118). And again: "You have hated all who work iniquity; You will destroy all who speak falsehood" (Ps 5:6, 7).
From these sayings of Holy Scripture it is clear that the first-formed man would then certainly have been hated by Him who created him, as one who departed from the commandment of his Creator. He would have been put to shame as one who committed great iniquity. The Creator would immediately have destroyed him completely, as one who showed impiety against such great goodness from Him who created him.
Yet the Creator not only did not annihilate him or hate him, and not only did not immediately destroy him. On the contrary, He showed longsuffering and love for mankind toward him. As though grieving over him, He said to him, "Adam, where are you?" He asked this not because He did not know the place where he had hidden, for He knows all things. Rather, He was as though saying to him: "Do you understand, senseless one, from what glory and honor into what dishonor and disgrace you have fallen?"
This clearly proves the falsehood of those who slander him and say that he gave the demon who deceived him a written bond, by which he delivered himself to him in eternal slavery. Besides, what good could he have hoped to receive from the evil demon, by whom he had been deprived of his glory equal to the angels? Or how could he have feared the one whose head he had received authority from the Master of all to crush, so as to give a written bond against himself? This is especially so since he heard from his Creator: "I will put enmity between him and the human race."
Having heard from his Creator and Master that enmity had been set, how could the first-formed man have given his enemy a written bond against himself? All this reasoning is deception and blasphemy from certain senseless people. They did not receive it from Divine Scripture, but invented it with their impoverished mind and spread it everywhere, handing it on to ignorant people like themselves. They do not in the least fear the divine saying: "You will destroy all who speak falsehood."
Having shown the falsehood of the opinion set forth, since it has no proof or confirmation, we must explain the meaning of the written bond mentioned in Divine Scripture, and how it is to be understood. It is known that the divine Apostle Paul mentions a written bond taken out of the midst and nailed to the Savior's Cross (Col 2:14), that is, one that had already become ineffective. From the Epistle to the Ephesians we learn that this written bond is the law of the commandments and traditions of Moses. It is also what is written in the book of Deuteronomy concerning sacrifices and whole burnt offerings, the Old Testament Passover, circumcision, prohibitions concerning food, and the various purifications and washings of the body. The Apostle usually calls this book the middle wall of partition and enmity, saying plainly in the Epistle to the Ephesians: "For He is our peace, who has made both one," that is, united into one the Jewish people and the believing Gentiles, "and has broken down the middle wall of partition. The enmity, in His flesh, abolishing the law of commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile them both to God in one body through the Cross, having slain the enmity upon it" (Eph 2:14, 16). Likewise in the Epistle to the Colossians he says: "Having forgiven us our trespasses, blotting out the written bond against us in ordinances, which was contrary to us, and He took it out of the midst, nailing it to the Cross" (Col 2:13, 14).
He calls this Scripture, written by hand and ink, enmity and the middle wall of partition because of the heaviness of the Mosaic commandments contained in it. This he also calls the written bond, which the Jews could not fulfill. For this reason it proved to be enmity against God and a middle wall of partition for them, separating us and cutting us off from the love of God.
That the commandments of the law were difficult for the Jews to fulfill, the Apostle Peter clearly taught us in Acts. He said to the believing Pharisees, who maintained that the Gentiles turning to God ought to be circumcised and required to fulfill the whole law of Moses: "Now therefore why do you test God, by wishing to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we believe that we shall be saved" (Acts 15:10, 11).
This written bond, that is, the book of the Mosaic ordinances, is called enmity and the middle wall of partition. This yoke, as a burden and as a cause of curse rather than blessing, the Only-begotten Son and Word of the unoriginate God the Father nailed to His Cross. He did this when He was clothed in flesh and came under the law, that He might redeem those under the law. That is, He made it void and removed it from the midst, as the holy Apostle Paul cries out in the Epistle to the Galatians, saying: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" (Gal 3:13).
To free us from the curse written in the book of the Old Testament, where it says, "Cursed is every man who does not continue in all the words of this law, to do them" (Deut 27:26), and to deliver us from such a fearful and terrible curse, our Lord and God Jesus Christ. In His ineffable goodness and love for mankind, was pleased to accept such a shameful death, "that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal 3:14).
Since this written bond has been destroyed by the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are now no longer under the law of the Mosaic commandments, but under grace and under the light of the perfect Gospel legislation. Therefore we have no need of circumcision, for by divine Baptism we are cleansed from every defilement of flesh and spirit. Circumcision cleansed only the outside of the dish, but Holy Baptism cleanses and sanctifies both its inside and outside, as it is written: "You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; You shall wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Ps 50:9).
We are no longer commanded to sacrifice the lawful Passover in one city alone, ancient Jerusalem. Rather, in every city and every country we are permitted to offer to the Lord the pure and acceptable sacrifice, the Lamb of God Himself, who takes away the sin of the world. As it is written: "Then You will be pleased with a sacrifice of righteousness, with offering and whole burnt offerings" (Ps 50:21). And in another place it says: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me" (Ps 39:7), that is, the very Body of the Lord, offered to God and the Father for our salvation in place of every other Old Testament sacrifice.
To speak briefly, the whole ancient written bond in general has ceased through the Cross of Christ, as it is written: "Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor 5:17). Such is the meaning of the written bond found in the Apostle.
Now let us hear the explanation of the written bond of sins, and what it means. In the prayer of the sixth hour it is written: "and by His precious Cross tearing asunder the written bond of our sins." This written bond has the same meaning as what was said in the Gospel according to John to the disobedient Jews: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin" (Jn 8:34). Likewise the blessed Apostle Peter writes: "By whatever a man is overcome, to this he is enslaved" (2 Pet 2:19).
Each of us is bound by the cords of his own transgressions. By them, like an irrational animal, he is always dragged toward the commission of sin and serves the desires of his flesh without restraint, as though they were masters. Therefore this enslavement of ours to the passions is fittingly called the written bond of our sins. By it we became enslaved, like slaves who give their masters a written deed of bondage from themselves, promising that they will serve them until their very death.
This most destructive enslavement of ours to the passions, allegorically called a written bond, our Savior tore asunder by His Cross. He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit, in whom we cry, "Abba, Father." By Him we are enlightened and strengthened, and through Him the written bond is torn asunder, which we gave from ourselves to the evil desires of our flesh.
Having been freed by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit from such evil enslavement to sinful passions, we become beloved children of God. Therefore let us stand in the freedom by which the Cross of the Savior has freed us. Let us not give ourselves again to the yoke of slavery, lest we be turned into a pillar of salt, and lest the wise proverb apply also to us, that the pig, after washing, returned to filthy mire, and the dog returned to its own vomit.
THEOSIS