At the moment we’ve committed ourselves to a life in Christ, change takes place. We begin walking the path of repentance, putting off the ‘old man’ and putting on Christ. The waters of baptism began this change, and the life-giving waters of regeneration make us new creatures. This moment of conversion has as it’s beginning, a sort of negative, the turning away from the worldly passions that dominated our previous lives. There is a denial of our old self. We turn away from our old ways, and commit ourselves to allowing Christ to change us.
We do not remain static, but move forward in a dynamic way, moving into a Life in Christ, and availing ourselves to God’s grace. At this point we are no longer in the negative mode, fighting off the old man, but entering into a positive state. The joy that an encounter with the Living God is ours. The old man is to be avoided, and we remember our old ways only in order to avoid the things that kept us separated from God. We move forward, away from everything that was a source of death.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: These two families from Portland, Oregon, attended the Sunday Liturgy.
About the author
Fr. Tryphon is the Abbot of the Monastery of the All-Merciful Saviour, which was established in 1986 by Archimandrite Dimitry (Egoroff) of blessed memory. The Monastery is under the omophore of His Eminence Kyrill, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western America, of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
