St.

Justin Popovich
The God-Man:
The Foundation of the Truth of Orthodoxy
All the truths of Orthodoxy emerge from one calling is to incarnate them in ourselves and in the
truth and converge on one truth, infinite and eternal. world around us.
That truth is the God-man Christ. If you experience Consider the best of the best people in the human
any truth of Orthodoxy to its limit, you will inevitably race. In all of them it is the God-man that is best, most
discover that its kernel is the God-man Christ. In fact, important and most eternal. For He is the holiness of
all the truths of Orthodoxy are nothing other than the Saints, the martyrdom of the Martyrs, the
different aspects of the one Truth — the God-man righteousness of the Righteous, the apostleship of the
Christ. Apostles, the goodness of the Good, the mercy of the
Orthodoxy is Orthodoxy by reason of the God- Merciful, the love of the Loving. Why is the God-man
man, and not by reason of anything else or anyone each and every aspect of Orthodoxy? Because He, as
else. Hence another name for Orthodoxy is God- One of the Holy Trinity, the incarnate Son of God, is
manhood. In it nothing exists through man or by distinct as God, as Comforter, as Defender, as
man, but everything comes from the God-man and Teacher, and as Saviour. Only in Him, in the all-
exists through the God-man. This means that man merciful Lord Jesus, does man, tormented by earthly
experiences and finds out about the fundamental tragedies, find the God who can truly give meaning to
eternal truth of life and the world only with the help suffering, the Comforter who can truly give comfort in
of the God-man, in the God-man. And it means every misfortune and sorrow, the Defender who can
something else: man learns the complete truth about truly defend from every evil, the Saviour who can truly
man, about the purpose and meaning of his existence save from death and sin, the Teacher who can truly
only through the God-man. Outside of Him a man teach eternal Truth and Justice.
turns into an apparition, into a scarecrow, into The God-man is each and every aspect of
nonsense. Instead of a man you find the dregs of a Orthodoxy, for He infinitely magnifies man. He
man, the fragments of a man, the scraps of a man. elevates him to God; He makes him a god by grace.
Therefore, true manhood lies only in God-manhood; And He did this without reckoning man less than
and no other manhood exists under heaven. God, but filled man with all divine perfections. The
Why is the God-man the fundamental truth of God-man has glorified man as no other has. He has
Orthodoxy? Because He answered all the questions given him life eternal, Truth eternal, Love eternal,
that torture and torment the human spirit: the Justice eternal, Joy eternal, Goodness eternal,
question of life and death, the question of good and Blessedness eternal. Man has become divine majesty
evil, the question of earth and heaven, the question of through the God-man.
truth and falsehood, the question of love and hate, the While the God-man is the fundamental truth of
question of justice and injustice. In brief: the question Orthodoxy, the fundamental truth of every heterodoxy
of man and God. is man, or fragments of his being — reason, the will,
Why is the God-man the fundamental truth of the senses, the soul, the body, expertise.
Orthodoxy? Because He proved in the most obvious Integral man does not exist in heterodoxy; the
way by His own earthly life that He is the incarnate, whole man is divided into atoms, into particles. And it
humanized, and personified eternal Truth, eternal is all for the glory of man's greatness. But just as art for
Justice, eternal Love, eternal Joy, eternal Power: Total- the sake of art is nonsense, so also is it nonsense to say
Truth, Total-Justice, Total-Love, Total-Joy, Total- man for the sake of man. That path leads to a most
Power. pitiful pandemonium, where man is the supreme idol
He brought down all the divine perfections from — and nowhere is there a more pitiful idol than he.
heaven to earth. And He did not just bring them The first truth of Orthodoxy is that man does not
down, but also taught them to us and gave us grace- exist for the sake of man, but for the sake of God or,
filled power to transform them into our life, into our more fully, for the sake of the God-man. Therefore, we
thoughts, into our feelings, into our deeds. Hence, our stay with the God-man in the name of man. In Him
alone is an understanding of man's being possible; in
St. Justin of Cheliye The God-man

Him alone is a justification for man's existence Orthodoxy as well; for He alone saves man from
possible. All the mysteries of heaven and earth are death, sin, and the devil.
attained in this truth, all the values of all the worlds No man whatsoever, nor even mankind as a whole
that man can contemplate, all the joys of all the ever could, can, or will be able to do that. The
perfections that man can attain. outcome of man's struggle with death, sin, and the
Indirectly and directly, the God-man is everything devil is always defeat, unless he is led by the God-man.
in Orthodoxy, and thus man is in Him, but in Only through the God-man Christ can man conquer
heterodoxy there is merely man. death, sin, and the devil.
In its very essence, Orthodoxy is nothing other Hence, the purpose of man is: to fill himself with
than the Personality of the God-man Christ extended the God-man, in His body — the Orthodox Church; to
across all ages, extended as the Church. Orthodoxy be transfigured in Him through grace-filled feats; to
has its own seal and sign by which it distinguishes become omnipotent. Even while he walks prayerfully
itself. It is the radiant Person of the God-man Jesus. through the gloomy earthly anthill in the body, in his
Everything that does not have that Person is not soul he lives above, where Christ Sits at the right hand
Orthodox. Everything that does not have the God- of God, for his life is constantly stretched out between
man's Justice, Truth, Love, and Eternity is not earth and heaven by prayers, like a rainbow that
Orthodox. Everything that wants to carry out the God- connects the summit of heaven with the abyss of
man's Gospel in this world through the methods of earth.
this world and through the methods of the kingdoms To become immortal in Him by the power of the
of this world is not Orthodox, but implies Holy Spirit, to become God, to become the God-man
enslavement to the third temptation of the devil. — this is the purpose, the true purpose of the whole
To be Orthodox means to have the God-man human race. It is also the joy, the only joy in this
constantly in your soul, to live in Him, think in Him, world of boundless sorrow and toxic bitterness.
feel in Him, act in Him. In other words, to be Orthodoxy is Orthodoxy through the God-man.
Orthodox means to be a Christ-bearer and a Spirit- And we Orthodox, by confessing the God-man,
bearer. indirectly confess the Christ-image of man, the divine
A man attains this when, in the body of Christ — origin of man, the divine exaltation of man, and thus
the Church, his whole being is filled with the God- also the divine value and sacredness of the human
man Christ from top to bottom. For this reason the personality.
Orthodox man is hidden with Christ in God (Col. In fact, the struggle for the God-man is the
3:1-3). struggle for man. Not the humanists, but the people of
The God-man is the axis of all worlds, from the the Orthodox faith and life of the God-man are
world of the atom to the world of the cherubim. struggling for true man, man in the image of God and
Whatever being breaks off from that axis, tumbles into the image of Christ.
terror, into tortures, into agony. Lucifer broke off —
and became Satan; angels broke off — and became
demons; man broke off in large part — and became
inhuman (non-man).
Anything created that breaks off from it inevitably
plunges into chaos and grief. And when a people, as a
group, deny the God-man, their history turns into a
journey through hell and its horrors.
The God-man is not just the fundamental truth of
Orthodoxy, but the power and omnipotence of