Today is when Eastern Orthodox celebrate Easter. One of the main reasons it falls differently than our Western Easter is that they use the Lunar calendar like The Jews do, while we adopted the Solar calendar. On this day Greek Christians particularly say Christos Anesti! (Χριστός Ανέστη) which means “Christ Has Risen!” And the response is Alithos Anesti (Aληθώς ανέστη!) which means “Truly, He is Risen.” I think this is a charming tradition of greeting on Easter. To proclaim that our Lord Jesus Christ is Risen is powerful! For indeed Hs is not in the grave, “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” (Matthew 28:6).
There is much I contend with in the Eastern churches, their failure to abide by the truth that salvation is certain is a major issue, “if you confess* with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10), “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life,” (John 3:16), “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”” (John 10:25-30), and “They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” (Acts 16:31). I pity that those descended from the Greek churches mentioned in The New Testament have been seduced by another gospel, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8-9) and “I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ. 4For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it way too easily.” (2 Corinthians 11:3-4). That Constantine and Eastern Mysticism has clouded them as much as the Law blinds the Jew, “But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:14-17). That there rich beauty is marred by deviating from the apostle’s teachings, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer,” (Acts :422) to follow the traditions of men, “Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’
For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”
Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others” (Mark 7:6-13).
I wish that they truly believed Chrisfos Anesti! They say they do do, but Christ is buried in a tomb if their traditions that keeps them from a close relationship with Him. Jesus I think would say, “they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” (Mark 7:6) and what is tragic is this is not entirely their fault, they have bad teachers in the Orthodox churches, hence why James warns, “Not many of you should be teachers my brothers, knowing that we will receive greater (stricter) judgment.” (James 3:1). Because if you mislead people from pure and simple devotion Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3) you will be judged for it!
Those who mislead people into thinking they must do works to merit heaven and appease God are saying Jesus died to no purpose, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose,” (Galatians 2:21), “Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”,” (Galatians 2:16), “For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes,” (Romans 10:4); those same bad teachers are trampling on the blood, “How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29), and are preaching another gospel, “not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:7-9). Jesus paid it all at the cross and we celebrate He is Risen, that He did not stay dead, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades,” (Revelation 1:18), and “he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone.. Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.“ (Hebrews 2:9, 14-15, NLT).
What a shame that for many Christos Anesti! Bears little difference Than being under the yoke of the law. As their false teachers have robbed the potency of Jesus’ Sacrifice and by extension His Resurrection with their man made religion, “These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 2:22-23-Colossians 3:1). We should be shouting Christos Anesti! With a jubilant voice because “It is Finished!,” (John 19:30) and Jesus has made is clean by His blood, not our works, “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago,” (Ephesians 2:4-9). It is by the Blood that we are cleansed, “Jesus, the Christ, who isthe faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins with his own blood,” (Revelation 1:5), it is by the blood that we enter the holiest place, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus,” (Hebrews 10:19) and defeat Satan, “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death,” (Revelation 12:11), not good works of our own!, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.” (Philippians 3:8-9). It is Jesus alone who has made propitiation for our sins!, “Our sins deserved God's wrath, but he gave Jesus as a propitiation, a sacrifice turning away his wrath and appeasing his just indignation.” (Romans 3:24-25), and “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2). Faith in Jesus alone is sufficient to save us! For Christ Alone has accomplished the forgiveness for all our sins, “the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin,” (1 John 1:7), “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world,” (1 John 2:1-2). Amen.
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