“The Salvation of the Christian People”

A number of Evangelical inquirers have asked exactly what we Orthodox mean in our prayer describing the Theotokos as “the salvation of the Christian people”.  They also wonder what we can mean when we pray that we “may obtain paradise through you, O Virgin Theotokos”.  These queries are perhaps reinforced every Matins and Vespers which conclude with the priest saying, “Most holy Theotokos, save us!” 

Their Evangelical background has trained them to affirm emphatically that it is Christ who is the salvation of the Christian people, not His Mother, and that we will obtain paradise through Christ in the age to come, not through the Theotokos or anyone else.  Christ alone is the One who saves us and He will brook no rivals.  The notion of the most holy Theotokos saving us seems to deny this basic Christian doctrine and so our liturgical references to salvation coming through Christ’s Mother seems to them intensely problematic.  How should we respond to all this?

The first part of our response is an explanation of what we mean by “salvation” and “being saved”.  The very words “salvation” and “saved” in the Evangelical glossary refer almost exclusively to the spiritual transaction whereby the guilty sinner becomes a forgiven saint by saying a prayer and “asking Jesus into his heart” or by “receiving Christ” or by “saying the sinner’s prayer” or whatever way one commits oneself to Christ.  It is through this commitment that one becomes born again, forgiven, a member of the heavenly Church, and assured of a place in heaven after death. 

In other words, salvation/ being saved is a primarily a juridical term wherein the guilty sinner is forgiven.  The issue is essentially a legal one—the transition from being guilty and hell-bound to being forgiven and heaven-bound. Obviously after this change and transaction the forgiven Christian must strive to be holy and become sanctified, but such behavioural changes have nothing whatsoever to do with their justification and salvation and their new status as forgiven sinners now bound for heaven.

This is not the view of the Scriptures or of the early Church. In the Bible and the early Church the change was not simply juridical but existential—that is, it consisted of a change of behaviour as well as interior commitment to Christ (a notion not denied by Reformed teachers).  Faith (Greek πίστις/ pistis) was also “faithfulness” (thus translated in Galatians 5:22) and consisted of a life of devotion to God so that when one sinned one immediately repented and strove to serve God better.  That is why St. James could talk about being saved by “works” and why the Lord said that one entered into life by “keeping the commandments” (James 2:24, Matthew 19:17).  Faith meant loving God with its corollary of loving one’s neighbour.

Salvation therefore consists not simply of being forgiven, but of the healing of the heart—indeed, the Greek word “save” (σώζω/ sozo) means not only forgiveness, but also healing (see Luke 8:48).  The final goal of salvation is not simply being forgiven, but of being conformed to Christ so that He becomes the firstborn of many brothers (Romans 8:29). 

This final goal is not finished until it is accomplished at the Last Day and until then it is an ongoing process.  That is why St. Paul urged the Philippians to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12) for salvation is a life-long journey.  Obviously if a devout Christian is struck down or hit by a bus he will go to be with the Lord, but our final salvation involves not only our initial forgiveness and justification, but also our final transformation and healing.

It is in this journey that the prayers of the Theotokos find their place—along with the prayers of all who love us and pray for us including those in our local church family.  The Church consists of one large fellowship of mutual intercession, wherein everyone prays for everyone else and it is in this universal fellowship of prayer that the prayers of the Theotokos have a preeminent place.  We are saved as we journey through life as members of the Body of Christ, those who receive the life-giving Eucharistic mysteries, those who pray for daily forgiveness of our trespasses, those who forgive those who trespass against us, those who benefit by the intercession of all the saints who pray for us.  In other words, we are saved by being members of this Body.

That is why we pray to the Theotokos to save us—i.e. to help us as we journey through this life and receive the constant flow of God’s forgiveness for our sins when we repent of them.  Every day we sin and every day we repent (hopefully) and are forgiven and strive to gain victory over our sins and overcome the passions. 

It is in this process and journey that we rely upon the Mother of God and all the saints.  Obviously forgiveness and healing come from Christ but in His mercy He forgives and heals us as we are members of His Body and beneficiaries of the intercessions of His Mother and His saints.

       But what about those descriptions of the Theotokos as the salvation of the Christian people and the statements that we have no other hope but her?  Isn’t Christ the salvation of the Christian people?  Isn’t our hope in Christ?  Here we need to look more closely at the characteristics of devotional language and poetry.

       Let us begin by looking not at church hymns, but at human love poetry, such as the love poetry that a man may write to his sweetheart or beloved wife.  In such poetry it is common for a man to say to his beloved things like “You are everything to me.” “You are my life.”  “There is no one who is more important to me than you.”  Here the comparison is between the woman addressed and other women—not between the woman addressed and God.  It would be perverse for someone to object to the poetic statement “There is no one who is more important to me than you!” by saying, “What?  No one is more important?  Isn’t Christ more important?” The context makes it clear that the poet is not comparing the woman to Christ but to other human beings and other women.  Writing poetry or love letters and saying, “You are everything to me—apart from Christ.  There is no one more important to me than you—except God.  Christ is my life, but you are important too” might be good theology, but it is not love poetry.  The praises of the beloved in poetry and love letters are not mathematical equations, but hyperbole.  That is how one speaks when one is in love and how poetry works. 

It is also how liturgy works and liturgical hymns.  When praising the Mother of God in devotional poetry, one compares her not to her Son but to others.  The point of the poetry is that she is blameless and holy, especially compared to sinners like us.  She alone will not let you down or disappoint, especially compared to the aid given by princes or sons of men in whom there is no salvation but who loudly proclaim their power (see Psalm 146:3).  She is the rescue and help of all the Christian people, not just the Greek Christian people or the Russian Christian people—all of her Son’s disciples who turn to her for help, rescue and salvation will find the help they need.

The Reformation has trained its children to be afraid of rivals to Christ and His salvation—whether the rival be His Mother or the saints or the sacrifice of the Mass or a life of righteous devotion and good works.  There is in classic Protestantism a devotional hermeneutic of suspicion so that when the Church describes Mary as “the salvation of the Christian people” the Protestant will instantly compare Mary with Christ as if she were a rival.  In fact, the poetry is not comparing Mary with her Son, but with fallen sinners, princes and sons of men in whom there is no salvation.  The poetry asserts that such saving power is not with such men, but with her—and with the saints. 

All the power and rescue that comes from Mary and the saints come ultimately from Christ.  The early Church and its hymnographers knew this, and their hymns and prayers to Mary presuppose it.  In praying those prayers we must first locate them in their original spiritual context.  We must leave suspicion behind and approach Mary and the saints with love, knowing that their lives are entirely wrapped around the Saviour.  He is our life, He is our salvation, and He is our eternal joy.  Mary and the saints manifest His power and love and bring us home to Him.