The Slavery of Death

by Richard Beck

And what is this distinction? The presence of a fearless love: “The salvation of man is dependent upon how much, under the guidance of God, he is capable of exercising himself in the cultivation of a genuine, unselfish, and unconstrained love for God and his fellow man.”17 The struggle here—the distinction between life and death—is the battle between love and self-interest, a selfishness that is only natural given our mortal nature and the inevitability of death. Romanides writes, Love that is free of self-interest and necessity fears nothing. . . . Any perceived threat automatically triggers fear and uneasiness. Fear does not allow a man to be perfected in love. . . . Being under the sway of death and not having real and correct faith in God, man is anxious over everything and is ruled by selfish bodily and psychological motives and, thus, he is unable to love unselfishly and freely. He loves and has faith according to what he perceives to be to his own advantage. . . . Thus, he is deprived of his original destiny and is off the mark spiritually. In biblical language, these failures and deviations are called sins. The fountain of man’s personal sin is the power of death that is in the hands of the devil and in man’s own willing submission to him.18 Salvation, then, is being