"[Blogger to Kosta:] Oh, and I have a feeling that Luther's "Sin Boldly" which you all love to quote is somewhat akin to Athanasius' "Jesus died so we can be God."
That is an outstanding comparison, Blogger. :) Fair is fair. I'm going to remember it. :)"
The difference, of course, being that Luther's comment can lead to damnation while +Athanasius' states theosis, FK.
"A person is perfect in this life when as a pledge of what is to come he receives the grace to assimilate himself to the various stages of Christ's life. In the life to come perfection is made manifest through the power of deification." +Gregory of Sinai
"But we also know that the fulfillment of the commandments of God gives true knowledge, since it is through this that the soul gains health. How could a rational soul be healthy, if it is sick in its cognitive faculty? So we know that the commandments of God also grant knowledge, and not that alone, but deification also" +Gregory Palamas
"The grace of deification thus transcends nature, virtue and knowledge, and (as St. Maximus says) `all these things are inferior to it.' Every virtue and imitation of God on our part indeed prepares those who practice them for divine union, but the mysterious union itself is effected by grace. It is through grace that `the entire Divinity comes to dwell in fullness in those deemed worth,' and all the saints in their entire being dwell in God, receiving God in His wholeness, and gaining no other reward for their ascent to Him than "God Himself." +Gregory Palamas
"Three realities pertain to God: essence, energy, and the triad of divine hypostases. As we have seen, those privileged to be united to God so as to become one spirit with Him - as St. Paul said, 'He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him' (I Cor. 6:17) - are not united to God with respect to His essence, since all theologians testify that with respect to His essence God suffers no participation.
Moreover, the hypostatic union is fulfilled only in the case of the Logos, the God-man.
Thus those privileged to attain union with God are united to Him with respect to His energy; and the 'spirit', according to which they who cleave to God are one with Him, is and is called the uncreated energy of the Holy Spirit, but not the essence of God..." +Gregory Palamas
Orthodoxy 101, FK. Simple. :)
No, Luther's statement won't lead to damnation for a Christian and it won't make a non-Christian any worse off than before. I mean how much worse off can one get than going to Hell? You can't be "more" going to Hell. Luther's point was made during a sermon and I'm sure the true meaning was not lost on his congregation. Knowing Luther and what he went through before coming to Christ, it makes perfect sense - though he was being just a tad awnry (sp???) when saying it as the "meek and never controversial" :) Luther could be.
Hey, you just told me Orthodoxy takes years of studying and there is no succinct doctrinal analysis of it. Now I find an "Orthodoxy 101"? What gives?