In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

The notion of Salvation is a recurring theme throughout the Bible.  What does this word mean exactly?  When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, death and corruption entered our world as a result.  St. Athanasius explains in his classic treatise “On the Incarnation” the purpose why the Lord took our humanity:

The Word perceived that corruption could not be got rid of otherwise than through death; yet He Himself, as the Word, being immortal and the Father’s Son, was such as could not die.  For this reason, therefore, He assumed a body capable of death, in order that it, through belonging to the Word Who is above all, might become in dying a sufficient exchange for all, and, itself remaining incorruptible through His indwelling, might thereafter put an end to corruption for all others as well, by the grace of the resurrection.  It was by surrendering to death the body which He had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from every stain, that He forthwith abolished death for His human brethren by the offering of the equivalent.

This then explains the reason the Logos assumed our humanity.  This is also what we affirm in our Creed, where we describe our Lord Jesus Christ as He “who for us men and for our salvation came down fro heaven…”

Before His birth, the angel said to Joseph: “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21) Jesus means “God saves,” thus His very name bears out the mission of the incarnate Logos. God wants to save us from our sins, but we must share that desire.  While many of us pray to be saved from a variety of problems and difficulties such as sickness, loneliness, insecurity, poverty or lack of confidence, how many of us remember to be thankful to our Lord for having saved us from our sins and granting us salvation and eternal life?  Today we must give thanks for this greatest gift of all.  I wish you all a Blessed Nativity feast filled with every spiritual gift from the Father of light.

Bishop David

Click to Download the Greetings of His Grace Bishop David Upon the Glorious Feast of the Nativity 2015