Kosta: “The use of “recreated” is a western concept; the idea of restoriation is more in line with Orthodox doctrine what Christ came for:”
BD: No, what Christ said was “Ye must be born again” not restored. Paul says “If any man is in Christ he is a new creation, old things have passed away, all things are become new”, not restored.”
You are misunderstanding what kosta is saying, BD. The Fathers taught in accord with +Paul, that baptism is a death and resurrection through which we share Christ’s Death and Resurrection and rising out of the waters of baptism we are indeed raised into a new life as a new creation. For example:
“Are we only dying with the Master and are we only sharing in His sadness? Most of all, let me say that sharing the Master’s death is no sadness. Only wait a little and you shall see yourself sharing in His benefits. ‘For if we have died with Him,’ says St. Paul, `we believe that we shall also live together with Him.’ For in baptism there are both burial and resurrection together at the same time. He who is baptized puts off the old man, takes the new and rises up, `just as Christ has arisen through the glory of the Father.’ Do you see how, again, St. Paul calls baptism a resurrection?” +John Chrysostomos.
But then the process of theosis starts. When Kosta or I or any Orthodox person speaks of “restoration” rather than “re-creation”, we do so because the theology of The Church is that Christ’s Death and Resurrection restored to humanity the potential which Adam and Eve were created with and lost in the Fall, that potential being that they would become both the image and the likeness of God, divinized through theosis which is a process, or so we are taught by the Fathers. The “re-creation” through baptism is part of the “restoration” of that potential.
“The Fathers taught in accord with +Paul, that baptism is a death and resurrection through which we share Christ’s Death and Resurrection and rising out of the waters of baptism we are indeed raised into a new life as a new creation.”
Is salvific grace imparted at baptism? If so, is it permanent or can one lose it on sinning?
What happens to the “new creation” on sinning or falling away?