by Fr. Jonathan H. Cholcher
The Orthodox Faith teaches that salvation is a process, that is, a continuous operation, or activity, advancing toward a certain end. The end of the process is unbroken communion with God the Holy Trinity in the uncreated and eternal Kingdom of God. The beginning of the process is our restoration to the divine life in Jesus Christ the Savior in faith, hope, and love. The middle of the process is the gradual and ever-increasing separation from what is contrary to God (i.e., sins, evil passions, and death) and the gradual and ever-increasing incorporation of the things of God (i.e., keeping God’s commandments, virtues, prayer, and discernment of the truth).
In the Scriptures, salvation is described as a past, a present, and a future reality. In other words, salvation has a beginning, an accomplished reality in the past: “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared…He saved us” (Titus 3:4, 5). Salvation has a middle, being accomplished as a present course of action: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). And salvation has an end, a final, future accomplishment: “But he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13).
The Definition of Salvation
Before detailing the process of salvation, the concept of salvation itself must be defined. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in Kis kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-7).
Simply put, salvation is the action of God’s grace wherein persons dead in sin are made alive in Christ, and having been made alive now share in the heavenly life of God. Saint Peter writes the same: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time…Though now you do not see [Jesus Christ], yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1:3-5, 8-9).
The term salvation denotes every aspect of how we are made alive in Christ: the Incarnation of the Son of God (Matt. 1:20-23; Jn. 3:13-17); Christ’s earthly ministry, death, and resurrection whereby the power of death and Satan is overcome (redemption; Heb. 2:10-11, 14-15; 1 Pet. 1:18-21); the preaching of the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins (justification, reconciliation; Rom. 5:8-11; 1 Cor. 15:1-5); Holy Baptism and incorporation into the Body of Christ (regeneration, communion; Acts 2:38-42; Titus 3:4-7; 1 Pet. 3:21-22); restoration to the life and worship of God (sanctification, perfection; 2 Cor. 6:1-2; 7:1; Heb. 2:1-4, 10-11).
The Dynamics of Salvation
The generic question asked in American evangelical Protestantism is: “(When)Were/are you saved?” reducing salvation to a one-time, all-inclusive event, usually a moment of conscious acknowledgement/acceptance of Jesus as Lord of one’s life. The corresponding affirmative notion is often expressed in some form of assurance, ranging from the concept of forensic justification (God simply declares you righteous, despite your total depravity in sin and complete inability to respond positively to God) to the concept of “Once saved, always saved.” The idea is: I now believe; I’m fixed; mission accomplished.
Without knowing why (i.e., historical Protestantism’s anti-Roman Catholic bias), most Protestant theologies divorce salvation from any human involvement or contribution (by definition sinful and unsure), including sacraments and/or works of faith, making the act of salvation a static, unchangeable pronouncement of God’s sovereign grace. As seen above, this view is contrary to the Word of God.
The Orthodox answer to the question, “Were/are you saved” is: “I am being saved,” or, using the title of a well-known work by St. Theophan the Recluse (mid-19th century Russian bishop), “I’m on the path to salvation.” Salvation is not static, but dynamic. Salvation begins by God’s loving grace and mercy, and then involves all the powers of the human person – body, and soul, and spirit – in an ever-increasing cooperative venture toward the goal of perfection in the faith, all within the one true “place” of salvation where people have attained it, God’s holy Church.
- The Dynamic Beginning of Salvation
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power (Gk., dynamis) of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just (or, righteous) shall live by faith’” (Rom. 1:16-17; Hab. 2:4; cf. Gen. 15:6). Three crucial truths about salvation are interwoven in this short passage. One, the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – provides the power to save all who believe in Him. Two, this saving faith is dynamic and grows in righteousness (“from faith to faith”). Three, by faith people truly live; they are alive in righteousness.
Even at the precise “moment” of salvation, when a person is converted and comes to saving faith in Christ, the beginning of salvation is a dynamic process, not just a snapshot fixed in time and for all eternity. The person now saved comes to life and lives on. Faith is a growing relationship with Christ Himself, who “is our righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:30; Jer. 23:6), not just a one-time choice or intellectual moment of clarity. The Gospel, which is Jesus Christ, is implanted in that person causing him or her to progress in what is right with God. This is true of all persons regardless of age, race, or culture.
Thus salvation is described as being “born again,” specifically in Holy Baptism, a concrete triple washing in water in the name of the Holy Trinity (Matt. 28:18-20). “He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit…” (Titus 3:5); “There is also an antitype (Gk., “exact copy”) which now saves us – baptism” (1 Pet. 3:21). “[U]nless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3, 5).
Our Lord says, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk. 16:16; Acts 16:30-33). Christ does not separate baptism from faith, but He joins the two together because this is the beginning of salvation defined by both, the living relationship of a newly born child of God who now exists as a living member of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13), a living stone in the Temple of the Spirit (Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:2-5), a son or daughter in the family of God the Father (Gal. 3:26-27; Eph. 3:14-19). Baptism engenders faith as the beginning of a whole new life in the everlasting kingdom of God (Acts 2:38-42; Rom. 6).
- Salvation is Personal Transformation
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure…I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me…For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Phil. 2:12-13; 3:12, 20-21).
Are there any proofs of salvation? How does one know if one is (being) saved? The affirmative answer is revealed in the real change taking place in a person in Christ. Salvation is manifested in personal transformation: from unbelief to faith, from the death of sin to life in righteousness, from exercising the will of the flesh to enacting the will of God, from the darkness of evil to the light of goodness and truth (see Eph. 5:8-16).
Salvation given by God in Christ through faith becomes a cooperative effort in the person who desires to be saved. “Work out your own salvation…for it is God who works in you…” (Phil. 2:12, 13). Our Lord talks of some “who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away” (Lk. 8:13; see also Heb. 6:4-6); then later, “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly…Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Lk. 21:34, 36). The Gospels are filled with exhortations from our Lord to disciples who have begun to follow Him but must cooperate with Him to complete the process of salvation. Once given, it is possible to lose salvation through laziness, negligence, and unbelief (Gal. 3:3; 5:3; Heb. 2:3; 3:16-4:2).
“We then, as workers together with Him (Gk., synergountes) also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain…Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:1, 2). “[B]y glory and virtue have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature (Gk., theias koinonoi physeos), having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust…Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble…” (2 Pet. 1:4, 10).
In the Orthodox Faith, the whole process of salvation can be summarized with one word, theosis (Gk.), literally, to become like God. What God is by nature – and He alone is the uncreated God – we seek to become by grace in Christ the God-Man and the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus salvation, theosis, is personal transformation “being conformed to the image of His Son, that [the Son, Jesus Christ] might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). The Son of God in the flesh is the very Image of the Father, and in Him we are restored to that “image and likeness” in which we were originally created (Col. 1:15; Gen. 1:26-27).
Truly to be saved necessarily requires the cooperation of our restored spiritual and bodily powers which characterizes the longer middle passage of the process of salvation. As both Apostles Paul and James emphasize, our faith must be proven genuine through the patient experience of various trials (see Rom. 5:1-5; 2 Tim. 3:10-15; Jam. 1:2-4, 12). The Savior Himself exemplifies this genuine endurance of which we are called to imitate (Matt. 4:1-17; Jn. 12:27-28; Eph. 5:1-2; Heb. 5:7-9). In this we actually become agents of salvation (part of God’s plan) not only for ourselves, but in the process of the salvation of others (1 Cor. 9:22; 1 Tim. 4:16; Jam. 5:20).
- Salvation’s Goal of Perfection
The Apostle Paul’s great “faith chapter” begins with this definition: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:1, 6). Then, after recounting many persons and their personal deeds of faith, we have this exhortation: “[L]et us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher (Gk., teleioten; “perfecter”) of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:1-2).
To repeat, faith is a living relationship with Jesus Christ, always growing toward perfection. The goal of salvation is perfection in Christ, and those who have been and are being saved are always moving in that direction. “Therefore you shall be perfect (Gk., teleios), just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). “For Christ is the end (Gk., telos; “goal”) of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). “…till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man (Gk., andra teleion), to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).
The Orthodox understanding of theosis (the process of salvation, becoming like God by grace) is expressed in two complementary ways. The first and most conventional expression of theosis unfolds in three overlapping stages, or aspects: purification, illumination, and glorification (union with God). Our Lord broadly explains this in His discourse to the Apostles before His arrest and crucifixion (John 13-17). Persons being saved must be purified from sin, illumined by the truth of God (the keeping of His commandments), and finally come to the unity in love of the Holy Trinity Himself (the uncreated glory of God). Another way of stating this reality is that the Christian life consists of repentance and obedience (practical theology), and prayer and the worship of God (contemplative theology), seeking unbroken communion in faith with the Holy Trinity.
A second expression of theosis describes the subjective experience of salvation, once again in three stages, or aspects. First, the believer experiences the saving grace of God in Christ as an overwhelming, palpable reality, in which there is no doubt God and His love are real. The person knows: “I am saved!” This conversion experience may persist for some time, weeks or months, etc. Second, the believer enters the longest stage of salvation in which God seems to withdraw from the believer. This is the time of testing, of trial, during which the Christian seems to be left to his or her own strength because the initial effect of God’s saving grace must be proven genuine through personal struggle and application (see Deut. 8; 2 Cor. 12:1-10). Third, after persistence in faith, hope, and love, slowly dying to self and living in Christ, the believer comes once again to that initial experience of grace which never diminishes. The Christian comes to perfection, an unwavering experience given to very few still in this life, although many are reassured through brief flashes of this brilliance.
Finally, a caveat: none of the process of salvation happens apart from the life of God in the Church, that is, through baptism into Christ, the preaching and teaching of the Gospel, and the communion of the Holy Spirit resting in Christ and His Body, the saints. In fact, the saints (persons “sanctified by faith” in Christ; Acts 26:18; Rom. 1:1-7), who are baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit and assemble together for Holy Communion, are the greatest proof of both God’s existence and the gift of salvation as a process whereby they are truly made alive. Despite the sin and death with which we all still contend, the saints are living proof that sin and death can be overcome and the goal of salvation can be achieved for those who endure (Rom. 8).
