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Orthodox soteriology, from an Evangelical perspective

Four talks, 2 hours 32 minutes: the problem salvation answers, the meaning of the Cross, theosis, and how, then, we are saved.

What does salvation mean in Orthodox theology — and how does it look from an Evangelical perspective? This four-part teaching series, produced by the Training Committee of the Greek Evangelical Church, takes up that question talk by talk: first the problem salvation answers, then the meaning of the Cross, then theosis — the purpose of salvation — and finally how, then, we are saved.

The speaker is Rev. Giotis Kantartzis, pastor of the 1st Evangelical Church of Athens. Each talk is in Greek; the main points below are given in English here, and in Greek on the Greek page. Each point carries a timestamp linking to that moment in the video.

1. The problem with the problem (The need for salvation) — 39:52

Το πρόβλημα με το πρόβλημα (Η ανάγκη της σωτηρίας)

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Main points

1. 02:57 — The basic, generative difference between East and West is a different understanding of what happened in the Fall; if we disagree about the problem, we will also disagree about what salvation is and how it is experienced.
2. 04:27 — Luther, answering Erasmus with "On the Bondage of the Will" (De servo arbitrio), credited him alone with identifying the hinge of the dispute: how we understand the consequences of the Fall — for Erasmus man remains free, for Luther the Fall is total corruption and the only hope is the intervention of divine grace.
3. 08:50 — The Evangelical position, as stated in the Confession of Faith of the Greek Evangelical Church: man was created innocent, chose evil, his relationship with God was broken and he came under the dominion of sin, whose punishment is eternal death; all are born with an evil nature and, as transgressors, cannot be saved except by the grace of God.
4. 11:27 — The difference shows in the terminology: the West speaks of "original sin" — what happened in Eden concerns us directly, it is ours; the East speaks of the "ancestral sin" (προπατορικό αμάρτημα), which separates the forefathers' sin from us — we inherit only the consequences: corruption, death, mortality.
5. 16:07 — Nikos Matsoukas ("The Problem of Evil"): in Orthodox theology sin is not interpreted morally or legally; it arises from man's rebellion, a hubristic self-will seeking equality with God — rupture of relations, loss of the deifying energy, darkening of the mind, frustration of the dynamic course from image to likeness.
6. 19:28 — The Fall is not a fall from a position, but the failure to fulfil man's calling: he possesses the image, while likeness — theosis — is a goal to be achieved; man "stumbled" and lost a future good, a kind of desertion. Death is not a punishment God imposes, but an "invasion", the natural consequence of distancing from God who is life — as in Irenaeus' image, man is an immature child and God the father who nurses his sick child rather than punishing him.
7. 22:41 — Two models of salvation (from Harnack): the West has three stages — creation, fall, redemption — while the East has two — creation and elevation toward theosis. Kallistos Ware: the image denotes free will, reason and moral responsibility, while likeness is not a gift possessed from the start but a goal achieved gradually — a distinction, the speaker notes, that cannot be supported exegetically from Genesis.
8. 31:57 — In closing, the speaker keeps two positives from the dialogue — the central significance of the image of God and the emphasis on God's philanthropy (John 3:16: God "so loved", not "was so angered") — but objects that if death were the automatic consequence of distancing from God, the devil, distanced 100%, would not still be alive; and the biblical witness (Romans 5:15, 16, 18: transgression, judgment, condemnation) cannot be bypassed, while theology must start from the cross — if man had merely stumbled, the incarnation would have sufficed, yet the cross is a death of condemnation.

Scripture: Genesis 3 · John 3:16 · Romans 5:15, 16, 18

2. Sacrifice or Triumph (The meaning of the Cross) — 41:46

Θυσία ή Θρίαμβος (Το νόημα του Σταυρού)

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Main points

1. 00:30 — Recap: in the West (Protestants and Roman Catholics, heirs of Augustine) sin is understood as guilt — a burden, a penalty, a debt to be paid; in the East the central problem is mortality, the natural consequence of distancing from God who is life. Hence the cross is understood differently, because the problem it is called to solve is different.
2. 03:57 — The Protestant position, as seen in the hymnody (love and compassion, propitiation, the penalty Christ paid in our place) and in article 10 of the Confession of Faith: Christ fulfilled all righteousness, offered himself a complete sacrifice on the cross, satisfied divine justice, made propitiation for the sins of the whole world and reconciled us to the Father — the cross offers forgiveness and reconciliation.
3. 09:18 — The Orthodox position: the cross as triumph and victory over death — the resurrection troparion "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life". Kallistos Ware: crucifixion and resurrection are not separated, they are one single act; Golgotha is always seen in the light of the empty tomb; the cross is the emblem of victory and Christ the victorious King who triumphs precisely through his crucifixion.
4. 13:26 — John Meyendorff ("Byzantine Theology"): Byzantine theology produced no significant treatment of Paul's doctrine of justification (Romans, Galatians); the Greek Fathers did not consider the idea of redemption through substitution central, but understand the cross within the broader framework of victory over death and sanctification — in Gregory of Nazianzus' words, "we needed a God who took flesh and died, so that we might live."
5. 16:01 — The Evangelical objection is not to what Orthodoxy affirms — the victory over death is real — but to what it leaves out: the substitutionary sacrifice, the penalty paid, the debt settled. If the problem were only mortality, any death would do — why then this specific death, with its penal and legal dimension — and indeed, for many Orthodox theologians the central saving event is the incarnation, since in Matsoukas' book on evil (~300 pages) the cross is mentioned only once or twice, in passing.
6. 19:21 — Love comes first: John 3:16 — "God so loved the world"; if the first thing that comes to mind about the cross is wrath, something is lost. But love contains holiness, and holiness is expressed in wrath (John 3:36: "the wrath of God remains on him"); the cup of Gethsemane is the Old Testament cup of God's judgment, which Christ drinks on the cross (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21).
7. 24:57 — Romans 3:25–26: God appointed Christ as the propitiation through faith, showing that he is both just and the justifier of the one who believes — justice is part of God's character, not an impersonal principle. 1 Peter 3:18 ("the righteous for the unrighteous") and John 11 (Caiaphas: it is better for one man to die for the people — the evangelist notes he prophesied) state substitution plainly.
8. 33:57 — Both, not either/or: Colossians 2:13–15 — God forgave our trespasses, cancelled the record of debt, nailing it to the cross, and disarmed the rulers and authorities, making a public spectacle of them in his triumph. Hebrews 2:14–18 — through death Christ destroyed the one who holds the power of death, the devil, and freed those whom fear of death held in slavery; the cross is both triumph (Christus Victor) and sacrifice — and it is the triune God who acts, not a passive Father who must be appeased (John Stott).

Scripture: Galatians 3:13 · John 3:16 · John 3:36 · 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21 · Romans 3:25–26 · 1 Peter 3:18 · John 11:49–52 · Isaiah 53 · Colossians 2:13–15 · Hebrews 2:14–18 · Matthew 26:39

3. Theosis (The purpose of salvation) — 30:17

Η θέωση (Ο Σκοπός της Σωτηρίας)

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Main points

1. 01:27 — For Orthodox theology the central term describing the experience of salvation is theosis — as justification is central for Protestant theology. Norman Russell shows that not everyone means the same thing by the term — Orthodox and Fathers alike — so we need to clarify which theosis we are talking about.
2. 03:52 — Theosis as moral perfection: becoming increasingly like God; the key concept here is imitation.
3. 04:26 — Theosis as ontological change: "to exist in the manner of the uncreated" (Christos Yannaras) — a "good alteration" in Matsoukas' phrase. Along with it, the realism of participation: man participates in God in a real way — here the key concept is participation (μέθεξη), not imitation.
4. 07:27 — The distinction between God's essence and energies (chiefly with Gregory Palamas, 14th century) makes participation possible: man never participates in God's essence — so this is not pantheism — but in his uncreated energies, which are the real manifestation of God. The hesychastic way: in the 14th-century hesychast controversies on Mount Athos, monks testified to seeing a light in prayer — if it is uncreated light, there is real participation, a theotic experience.
5. 09:52 — Are we perhaps talking about the same things with different words? The answer is yes and no: some elements Evangelicals affirm 100%, with different terminology; but there are points of disagreement, above all the question of how one arrives at these experiences. Theosis belongs to a wider theological mosaic — it cannot be cut out and used on its own.
6. 12:11 — The "yes": theosis as moral perfection is almost synonymous with what Evangelicals call sanctification — a continuous journey of becoming like God; with the caveat that in Orthodox theology theosis/sanctification is synonymous with salvation. Union with Christ is central for Calvin too (and Luther): Philippians 3:8–10 — "to be found in him", to know Christ and the power of his resurrection — justification and union stand side by side.
7. 16:57 — Ontological change is an experience that belongs to the biblical understanding of salvation — Romans 8:30 ("those he justified, he also glorified") and Philippians 3:20–21 (Christ will transform our lowly body to be conformed to his glorious body) — but we differ on how and when it happens. The hardest point is the hesychastic vision of the uncreated light: is that what Scripture presents as the believer's experience? In the Transfiguration the Word of God is central (Moses, Elijah, the voice from heaven) — not something to bypass, but the very path; and Paul did not seek his Damascus experience — it came to him.
8. 24:57 — At a lecture by Russell in Athens, a bishop asked how an ordinary person — married, with three children, a job and debts — could live the ascetic path to theosis, and the answer was an embarrassed smile; Ware gives a simpler answer to "how can I become God?": "go to church, receive the sacraments, pray to God, read the Gospels, follow the commandments" — "do what you can, and God will do the rest". The speaker closes positively: justification is the necessary means, the bridge — but the goal is the enjoyment of our union with Christ, which is the essence of salvation.

Scripture: Matthew 5:48 · 1 Peter 1:15–16 · Philippians 3:8–10 · Romans 8:30 · Philippians 3:20–21 · Galatians 2:20 · Matthew 17 · Acts 9

4. How, then, are we saved? — 40:08

Πώς, λοιπόν, σωζόμαστε;

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Main points

1. 00:02 — The question of the final lesson: how are we saved? — guided by Kallistos Ware's booklet "How Are We Saved?". Asked "are you saved?", Ware answered: "I hope, by God's grace, to be saved; I am in the process of salvation" — in Orthodox theology salvation is a process, completed only at the end of the journey (the two-stage model).
2. 05:31 — Three basic points of difference from the Protestant understanding: (a) the logic of synergy versus the paradox of grace; (b) the high realism of sacramental life; (c) the lack of assurance.
3. 06:34 — Synergy: Nicholas Cabasilas (14th c.) in his Marian homilies presents the Virgin realising in herself and offering to God the things that attracted the Creator — a spotless life, purity — so that it was only just she become the Lord's mother; Lossky denies merit (salvation remains a gift), but in the speaker's view the lines get blurred. By contrast, Luther (commentary on the Magnificat, Luke 1) sees Mary as a vessel of election precisely because of her unworthiness: God "does not discover, but creates what is pleasing to him in us" (Heidelberg Disputation).
4. 13:27 — Sacramental realism: in Cabasilas ("On the Life in Christ") union with Christ is realised through the mysteries — baptism gives existence in Christ (regeneration), chrismation with myrrh perfects the newborn by imparting the energy for this life, the Eucharist sustains this life. What is missing is the existential dimension of faith — the mysteries nourish faith and are means of grace, but do not by themselves insert us into God's life; and the exclusive ecclesiology implies there is no salvation outside the Orthodox Church.
5. 21:56 — Lack of assurance: for Evangelicals assurance is central (distinct from security — whether one can lose salvation, on which they disagree); in Orthodoxy salvation as process means no one can say "I am saved" — Ware writes that few have been deified in this life. Justification is peripheral in Orthodox theology: in Ware's "The Orthodox Church" there is not a single reference to justification.
6. 27:23 — Luther's discovery reading Romans: the righteousness of God is not the righteousness God demands, but righteousness as a gift received by faith — "as if the gates of heaven had opened"; without this language the experience of assurance is lost. What is missing is the distinction between justification and sanctification: "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me" (Philippians 3:12) — like the prodigal son, who is a son from the moment his father embraces him, though he must relearn how to live as a son.
7. 33:27 — Ware: "I remain between hope and fear until the last moment of death" — the order differs: for Ware Christ's work is perfect, but I am imperfect, so I cannot have assurance; in Protestant theology I am imperfect, but God's work is perfect, so grounded in it I can have assurance. Philippians 2:12–13: "work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you" — I work because God is already working in me.
8. 36:27 — In closing: the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner") expresses repentance and contrition — but the moment is missing when we say "thank you, for I have been shown mercy". Paul (1 Timothy 1:12–16): "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord... though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy... Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy" — at some point the believer must be able to say: "Lord, have mercy — but glory to your name, for I have been shown mercy."

Scripture: Luke 1:46–55 · Philippians 3:12 · Philippians 2:12–13 · 1 Timothy 1:12–16 · Romans 1:17 · Luke 15:11–32 · Acts 17:28

The series on YouTube

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