Salvation is justification and sanctification in Orthodoxy. This is because salvation is Theosis, an eternal and real union with God. And so, there is real righteousness in justification because there is really the presence of God. Hence, this righteousness is there the moment one believes, it is there years later, it exists as long as faith and good works exists, though it may exist where there are no good works because the time did not exist yet to do them. In short, it exists when God indwells the Christian, which is by grace, through faith, and not of works as a perquisite. However, the subsequent good works that flow from this indwelling are done by God's grace/energies and are a manifestation of the indwelling of God, co-operating with His operating, and thereby are justifying because justice merely = God's presence/grace.
@abacabb3 ,
From the links:
1) Salvation is viewed strictly is a gift for being judged as righteous by virtue of having faith in Christ.
Lutheran view: we are not judged as righteous by virtue of having faith, but by virtue of Christ alone, whom faith runs to and clings to.
2) one is not saved, then one has faith which justifies an individual and after that point in time one is sanctified after that specific incident of justification.
Lutheran: we are not justified in a single once for all moment but neither is justification a process. We are justified through baptism and confession (we can fall into mortal sin). In baptism and confession, we are declared not guilty, cleansed of our sin and regenerated. Apart from the sacraments, Lutheran justification makes no sense.
3) because of this, Christians are simultaneously just yet sinners merely imputed as righteous but in fact not yet righteous.
Lutheran response: we are in fact righteous. The declaration actually does what it declares, it is creative. So when God declares us worthy we are truly worthy. A forgiven sinner is no longer a sinner.
All this however relies on a Western notion of propitiation. If someone has a theology where God's wrath or honor is not in view, then there is no need for most of this.
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