Adapted from the Greek of Andreas Theodorou, Απαντήσεις σε ερωτήματα συμβολικά (Answers to Questions in Comparative Theology), published by Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece. This English presentation has been edited for parish reading.
The Justification of the Human Person
What Do We Mean by “Justification”?
By justification we mean the liberation of the human person from sin and from the guilt that comes from sin, together with the regeneration, renewal, and deification of human nature—all of which are fruits of the saving work of Christ.
Just as sin, through the deception of the evil one, brought corruption to the spiritual nature of the human person and weakened his spiritual powers, continually turning them away from God and toward evil, so the grace of God, which flowed abundantly from the Passion and saving sacrifice of Christ, restored the divine image in the human person to its original splendor, strengthening his moral and spiritual powers toward goodness and virtue.
Although justification is entirely the work of the love and goodness of God, its realization requires the free cooperation and synergy of the human person with the grace of Christ.
The human person is capable of this cooperation because his nature was not completely destroyed by sin.
Though wounded, it still preserves its freedom and its longing for spiritual and heavenly things.
Justification, in other words, is not a passive process.
It comes from God, but for it to be actively received and made fruitful there is required, as an indispensable subjective condition, the free cooperation of the human person.
Through What Means Is Justification Received?
The means through which justification is received is the sacred Mystery of Baptism.
In Baptism, the person being baptized puts off the old man of sin, is spiritually regenerated, and is recreated into a new existence and life filled with God.
The human person becomes truly righteous in holy Baptism.
If someone should die immediately after receiving this Mystery of regeneration, it is certain that he will inherit eternal life.
This is what occurs, for example, with sick infants who are baptized shortly before death.
What Is the Preparatory Stage of Justification?
The preparatory stage is the period of time that precedes Baptism.
Naturally, this does not apply to infants, who do not yet possess rational understanding and conscious awareness, but only to adults.
Within the souls of adults, preliminary divine grace produces what is called general faith—that is, the acceptance of the truths of divine Revelation.
At the same time, grace inspires in them an aversion to sin, reverence before God and awareness of our accountability to Him, and a desire to receive the justification granted through Baptism.
All these things constitute necessary conditions for the successful reception of justification.
According to the testimony of Scripture, regeneration was always preceded by an awareness of sin and by repentance or compunction of heart.¹⁶⁵
In the ancient Church there existed the institution of the catechumens, who lived in repentance and were instructed in the truths of the Gospel before being baptized and formally becoming members of the Church.
It must be noted that this preparation is not the cause that produces justification.
It is simply a condition for receiving it.
Nor is this preparation a meritorious work that God is obliged to reward by forgiving and renewing the human person.
Are There Other Stages of Justification?
Yes.
Justification itself, as an action and gift of the grace of Christ, is one: cleansing from sin and spiritual regeneration.
Nevertheless, justification is not a magical or passive act.
A rational human being does not remain static and inactive before the gift of God.
Just as during the preparatory stage a person who receives the call of grace must himself respond and work in order to receive justification, so after receiving justification he must continue to cooperate with the grace of God in order personally to make fruitful the blessing of the Holy Spirit.
The stage into which the regenerated human person now enters is called sanctification.
Sanctification is the good disposition, the holy orientation, formed by the grace of God within the justified soul.
It expresses itself in joy and in an irresistible desire to do what is good and to put to death the carnal mentality, which remains present in the human person and is always inclined and susceptible to sin.
Through the grace of God, the human person advances from strength to strength and from glory to glory, growing in goodness and being spiritually perfected.¹⁶⁶
Are There Degrees of Justification?
Certainly.
Since justification is not something external to the human person, but is directly connected with the innermost depths of his spiritual nature and with the free cooperation of the rational being, it is natural that it should not be identical in all who are justified.
It differs from one person to another.
This depends upon the degree to which each person makes justification his own and upon the measure of his cooperation with the grace of God.
Since human beings cooperate with the power of God in different ways—some to a lesser degree and others to a greater degree—the degree of their sanctification will likewise differ, as will the glory given to them in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The good of sanctification itself—that is, union with God and the blessedness of the righteous—will be the same for all.
But the degree of glory of the righteous, their participation in the brightness of God, and the radiance of their spiritual nature will not be identical.
It will differ according to the degree to which each personally appropriated the good of salvation.
According to the words of the Lord, the spiritual stars in the Kingdom of Heaven will not all be the same and will not all give off the same light:
“One star differs from another star in glory.”¹⁶⁷
Likewise, there will be many dwelling places “in My Father’s house” in which the saints will dwell.¹⁶⁸
The glory of the Theotokos, for example, and of the other great saints will not be identical to the glory possessed by an ordinary justified believer.
Can a Human Person Fall Away from Justification?
Certainly.
Just as a believer who cooperates with the grace of God can advance in sanctification, in union with God and in His glory, finally inheriting eternal life, the same person can also fall away from the gift of the Holy Spirit and be lost if he becomes indifferent toward spiritual good, is overcome by the sinful inclination of his nature, violates the law of God, and commits works of shame and corruption.
Sin is the measure of a person’s falling away from the good of justification.
Although distinguishing between sins is not always easy or without danger, it is generally accepted that sins can be divided into two groups:
forgivable sins and deadly sins.
The first are common to all believers.
Only Christ—and, at a certain stage, the Theotokos in the sense of her relative sinlessness—were exempt from them.
According to Saint James:
“We all stumble in many things.”¹⁶⁹
And according to Saint John:
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
The Lord’s own words are also significant:
“And forgive us our debts.”
Deadly sins, on the other hand, are serious violations of the law of God.
If they are not forgiven through repentance, they lead to spiritual death, that is, the eternal separation of the soul from the life of God.
Scripture presents as examples the sins of David, Solomon, and Peter.
These sins, however, were wiped away through repentance.
By contrast, the transgression of Judas—of whom the Lord said that it would have been better for him if he had never been born¹⁷⁰—led him to the noose and to eternal destruction.
Also significant are the words of Saint Paul.
He distinguishes between those who build upon the temple with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, and those who actually destroy the temple of God.
The person who builds with wood, hay, and straw will be saved only with difficulty, “as through fire,” whereas the one who destroys the temple of God will himself be destroyed.¹⁷¹
Just as there are different degrees of sanctification and glory in the Kingdom of Heaven, so there are also different degrees of darkness and punishment in the kingdom of darkness, corresponding to the degree to which a person becomes hardened in sin and falls away from the grace of God.
Satan and the notorious sinners will not experience punishment in exactly the same way as ordinary transgressors of God’s law.
Someone might reasonably ask:
What difference does it make whether those who are condemned are in a greater or a lesser fire?
Can these states really differ?
The reasoning is understandable.
But it appears that these experiences are completely personal states that we, being outside them, cannot know.
If we ever enter such a condition, we will naturally learn what it is—may that never happen!
One final observation should be added.
The distinction between different kinds of transgression made by the moral law is also found in human law, which distinguishes violations as lesser and more serious crimes and punishes them accordingly.
Faith and Good Works
What Are the Conditions of Justification?
There are two:
faith and good works.
The faith that justifies the human person is not merely a simple intellectual agreement with the truth of God—that is, a mental acceptance of the theoretical content of the dogmatic truths of the faith as contained in divine Revelation.
Such a faith by itself is useless to the human person.
Even the demons possess this kind of faith: they believe and tremble,¹⁷² yet this does not benefit them.
Alongside intellectual acceptance, faith is also the devotion of the soul to the saving good, a fervent confidence in the providence of God,¹⁷³ and the turning of the will toward goodness and the law of God.
In other words, faith must also be a moral act of the heart.
Good works are the fruit of faith made alive by love for God and for one’s neighbor.
Works are the living confirmation of the truth of faith,¹⁷⁴ and as such they have their place in justification.
The formula that summarizes the Orthodox understanding of the conditions of justification is:
The human person is justified—that is, saved—through faith “working through love.”¹⁷⁵
Both faith and love, expressed in good works, are indispensable conditions of salvation.
Because the concepts of faith, love, and good works interpenetrate one another, whether we say that faith saves, or love saves, or good works save, we are speaking of one and the same living reality.
The Confession of Dositheus expresses the Orthodox understanding of the conditions of justification in these words:
“We believe that no one is saved without faith. By faith we mean the most correct conviction within us concerning God and divine things; and this faith, working through love—that is, through the divine commandments—justifies us in Christ, and without it it is impossible to please God.”¹⁷⁶
The conditions of justification are also expressed clearly in Holy Scripture.
Saint John writes that the commandment of God is:
“that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another.”¹⁷⁷
Here faith and love are joined together.
Saint James writes:
“A man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”¹⁷⁸
And Saint Paul emphasizes that:
“in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.”¹⁷⁹
Among these sacred writers, Saint James, in keeping with the practical purpose of his epistle, emphasizes good works as a condition of justification.
These are the fruits of living faith, which he contrasts with the dead and useless faith confessed even by demons.
Saint Paul, on the other hand, expresses the conditions of justification in their organic connection and mutual relationship: faith and love.
It is true that in other passages of his epistles Saint Paul emphasizes faith alone as the condition of justification and excludes works:
“We conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”¹⁸⁰
And:
“A man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith.”¹⁸¹
But the works excluded from justification here are not the good works that spring, through grace, from the heart of the regenerated person.
They are the works of the law that produce in the soul a feeling of self-justification and egotistical boasting, such as the hypocritical works of the Pharisees, which the Lord condemned so strongly.¹⁸²
According to everything stated above, therefore, the human person is saved within the life of sanctification when he possesses fiery and living faith, wholehearted devotion to the saving work of Christ, and at the same time sincere and unhypocritical love for God and for other people.
This love expresses itself outwardly in works of charity toward one’s neighbor—works that may even reach the point of self-sacrifice in the service of others.
The Protestant Understanding of Justification
What Is the Protestant Teaching About Justification?
The source compares Orthodox teaching with the forensic language prominent in some Reformation accounts of justification: God pardons and receives the sinner through Christ. These accounts differ among Protestant traditions, and they do not all describe sanctification in the same way.
Orthodox teaching emphasizes that God’s forgiveness and the renewal of the person belong together. Salvation includes reconciliation with God, healing from sin, and participation in His life through grace. It cannot be reduced to an external declaration that leaves the person unchanged.
What Are the Conditions of Justification According to Protestants?
Reformation traditions commonly speak of justification by faith, while understanding good works as the fruit of faith rather than a way to purchase salvation. Their formulations differ, and should be read in their own historical and confessional context.
The Orthodox Church confesses the necessity of a living faith that works through love. Repentance, obedience, and works of mercy express our response to grace; they do not make God indebted to us.
The Value of Good Works
Are Good Works Meritorious?
The Orthodox Church teaches that faith bears fruit in love and good works. Such works have no saving power apart from God’s grace; they are our lived response to His gift.
This does not refer to works performed during the preparatory stage of justification, when the human soul has not yet been regenerated.
It refers to works performed under the breath of grace within regenerated souls.
To these works Orthodoxy attributes a relative merit.
Good works, as the fruits and evidence of living faith, constitute an indispensable subjective condition of human salvation.
Only worthy believers are saved—that is, those who, through the grace of God, make fruitful in their lives the good received in justification.
We call this merit relative in order to distinguish it from absolute merit, which is not appropriate to created beings.
It is certainly true, as already seen, that in many passages of Holy Scripture justification and salvation are presented as the work of divine grace.
But these passages do not explicitly exclude the relative merit of good works.
Thus, in the classic passage on which Protestants place great emphasis:
“By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast,”¹⁸⁶
nothing is said about justification taking place without works, nor is it said that the moral life has no influence upon the salvation of Christians.
The Apostle is speaking generally to the Ephesians, telling them that they who had lived in the darkness of idolatry were saved by the gift of the grace of God and therefore could not boast in whatever good works they had done.
The broader teaching of Scripture, however, supports the relative merit of good works.
In many passages,¹⁸⁷ eternal life is presented as a reward, and salvation is placed in an essential relationship with good works.
We need only mention 2 Corinthians 5:10:
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
Likewise, in Matthew 25:31–46, all people are gathered before the judgment seat of Christ to be judged according to their works, whether good or evil, and accordingly to inherit either eternal life or eternal punishment.
The language of merit must not suggest that human effort earns salvation independently of God or gives grounds for pride. Good works are the fruit of grace received and lived.
Saint Paul calls believers to “work out their salvation with fear and trembling.”¹⁸⁸
It is the works of the Old Law, so severely criticized by Saint Paul, that nourish egoism and self-confidence.
Good works, as already noted, possess only relative merit.
They do not have saving power independently of God.
They are products of the grace of God.
When God rewards them, He crowns His own works.
Are There Two Justifications?
The theory of two justifications was formulated by Protestant theologians and was also adopted by certain Orthodox theologians—Antonius, Macarius, and Damalas—in an attempt to reconcile the teaching of Scripture, which in some places speaks of justification and salvation through faith and in other places through faith working in love.
According to this theory, justification through faith occurs here on earth, while a second justification through faith and good works will take place at the universal Judgment.
In other words, those whom Christ justified in Baptism through faith will be justified a second time at the Judgment on the basis of their faith and good works.
In this second case, justification coincides with salvation.
Schematically speaking, this theory is correct.
Since not everyone who is justified in Baptism develops that justification through a God-pleasing and virtuous life, advancing with the help of grace in sanctification, it is reasonable that God should save only those who both believed and at the same time produced good works.
In substance, however, dividing the one justification into two—an earthly justification and a heavenly one—appears unnecessary and without real content.
The so-called second justification is nothing other than the final Judgment of God.
At that Judgment, God will judge and save the world by considering the state of justification in which each person arrived at the moment of death:
whether he made Christ’s saving work his own,
whether he lived in faith in the Savior,
and whether he produced good and virtuous works.
Thus the one faith working through love, which constitutes the essence of justification, will simply be rewarded by God as salvation itself and as entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Source: Andreas Theodorou, Απαντήσεις σε ερωτήματα συμβολικά, Basic Dogmatic Teaching, vol. 5, 2nd edition (Athens: Apostoliki Diakonia, 2006), chapter X, “The Justification of the Human Person,” questions 122–132, pp. 175–190. Reference numbers below follow the Greek source; Scripture-reference errors have been corrected. Comparative passages are presented as historical theological discussion, not as a description of every contemporary Christian community.
References in the Original Text
165. Acts 2:37: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart.”
166. 2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
167. 1 Corinthians 15:41.
168. John 14:2.
169. James 3:2.
170. Matthew 26:24: “It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”
171. 1 Corinthians 3:12–13.
172. James 2:19.
173. The original note gives Abraham as an example of perfect faith, demonstrated by his willingness to sacrifice his son.
174. James 2:20: “Faith without works is dead.”
175. Galatians 5:6.
176. Confession of Dositheus, Definition IX.
177. 1 John 3:23.
178. James 2:24.
179. Galatians 5:6.
180. Romans 3:28.
181. Galatians 2:16.
182. Matthew 23:13ff.
183. See Christos Androutsos, Symbolics, p. 247.
184. Romans 2:13.
185. 1 Peter 1:5.
186. Ephesians 2:9.
187. The original note cites Matthew 5:12; 16:27; 25:34ff.; Hebrews 6:10; 2 Timothy 4:8; 2 Thessalonians 1:5; and James 1:12 as passages presenting reward in relation to a person’s works and perseverance.
188. Philippians 2:12.
