'Believe and Receive' - the Christian Salvation?
Recently in a couple of threads (especially the 'Orthodox Christianity' thread) we touched upon the interesting subject of salvation within Christianity. Since it's such a fascinating and broad subject, I thought that it deserved a discussion thread of its own. There are, very broadly speaking, four models of salvation within Christianity - there is the Orthodox model, the Roman Catholic model (not a million miles away from Orthodoxy, but different nonetheless), the Calvinistic Protestant model and the Arminian Protestant model. This opening post will set forth the Orthodox view of Christian salvation.
As the title suggests, I'd like to particularly deal with the distinctly Protestant concept of 'believe and receive'. Basically, if you've ever heard anyone ask you, "Have you been saved?" you can tell that they follow this 'believe and receive' doctrine. It's a peculiarly Western, hyper-legalistic concept - you sign a contract with God on the day that you become a Christian, and then you are saved, no matter what should transpire afterwards. It often goes hand in hand with the Calvinistic theme of predesination - you have been chosen before time either to be saved or not to be saved.
However, this is a novelty of the late Middle Ages, the unwitting resurrection of an early, minor heresy, and development into Protestant terms. Protestants often sum this up with the term sola fide, sola gratia ('only by faith, only by grace'). The irony of course is that Orthodox also believe in salvation only by faith and only by grace, yet their traditional concept is much different.
Salvation is nothing more than the development of a loving relationship with God.
I shall give the basic outline. Through his own free choice, Adam chose to disobey God, and caused the fall of man. Through his disobedience death was created in the world. However, it would be through another man that death would be destroyed. Jesus Christ, the person who is at once fully God and fully man, was crucified for our sakes. He went down to Hades (the Jewish Sheol, the place where the dead souls go to rest), tore down the gates and trampled down death by His own death.
So what now? A Christian believes in Christ, but then what? Is that it? No, not quite. But we believe in salvation by faith and grace alone, surely? Yes. God offers grace to everybody on Earth, however, unlike Calvin's God, God does not force a person to be a Christian or not to be. Neither the Devil nor God can force a Christian to do something, the Devil because he does not have the power, and God because He wishes us to worship him out of our own volition. Afterall, what sort of love is it that is not given freely?
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me." [Revelation 3:20]
God therefore offers us grace - it is only the grace that saves us. However, we as humans must make the free choice to accept that grace. What then? The Christian is baptised, for:
...don't you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. [Romans 6:3-4]
We are renewed, born again, indeed, through baptism. So then, is that it? No. Why should it be? We still have free will. If I were married, and someone asked me if I were still going to be married to the same woman in ten years, and I said yes, why ought I to be confident of that 'yes'? Because I'd signed a marital contract? No - because I believe that I shall continue to love my wife. It is no different with God - the only reason that I ought to have for believing that I shall continue in God's grace is that I shall continue to accept it. Moreover, we should not just cling to what has gone before, but we should strive to love God more and more every day, to seek His grace every moment of our lives. Sin will lead us away from God, and therefore we should seek to counter sin. That is why it is written:
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. [James 1:23-25]
It is also why we hear the famous line 'faith without good works is dead', also from James. This does not mean that faith + good works = salvation. No. Just as sin reduces our love for God, so good works help to maintain our love of God. They do not in themselves earn us spiritual points, but rather serve to strengthen our faith. That is why, furthermore, it is written:
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected: but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. [Philippians 3:12-14]
It's true that I haven't gone overboard in Scripture here. Anyone who wants further quotations from Scripture, or for those who who have been enlightened as to the value of Sacred Tradition as a whole, from the Church Fathers, can ask me for them. However, I've tried to basically set out the Orthodox belief in salvation. I've left out a few points here and there - I haven't touched on theosis, for example. Other points haven't been developed as much as they might have been. But the key thing to remember is:
Salvation is nothing more than the development of a loving relationship with God.
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). It reminds me somewhat of this passage:
Originally Posted by GershomPatmos
) j/k. Anyways...the "believe and receive" doctrine is something which quite a few of us protestants are actually a bit upset with. A lot of this problem has come from "
