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What Do Orthodox
Christians Believe about
Justification? A Response
to Protestant Criticisms
January 22, 2015 · Eric Jobe
The Harrowing of Hell, Fra Angelico (ca. 1437-1446)
(From Wikimedia Commons)

As Protestant Christians find their way to examining the Orthodox Christian faith,
they very often remark about the inconsistency of Orthodox Christianity on the
matter of justification by faith, or else they even say that Orthodoxy has no such
doctrine of justification. Indeed, the term justification may be a bit curious to most
Orthodox Christians who were not reared in Protestant homes, for one seldom
encounters the term in Orthodox liturgy or theological discussion. It is perhaps most
often encountered at the liturgical reading of the epistles of St. Paul or St. James, or
perhaps one might recognize it from the service of baptism or chrismation. Yet these
occurrences may pass notice and thus understanding.

But what of this notion of justification, and why should we pay heed to such
criticisms made by Protestant observers of our Orthodox faith? A simple answer
to this question might be that justification is a biblical doctrine, and it is one
that has had a very significant impact in the history of Christianity.
Nevertheless, the term justification has largely disappeared from Orthodox
theological vocabulary, and this I would argue is for good reason.

A changing consensus
Critical scholarship over the last 50 years or so has begun to reassess the issue
of justification in the epistles of St. Paul in conjunction with our ever-growing
understanding of 1st century Judaism and its own understanding of what we
could describe as “justification.” In the various sectarian theologies of Second

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 Temple Judaism leading up to the time of Christ and the Apostles, Jews were
very much concerned with who was in and who was out, i.e., who were
the righteous before God and who were the wicked objects of His wrath. In
order to maintain a position of being righteous before God, a pious Jew was
expected to live in complete fidelity to Torah, the Law of Moses. The only
question was, by whose interpretation of Torah should one live? The Jewish sect
responsible for writing many of the Dead Sea Scrolls believed that they alone
had received the correct interpretation of Torah, given to them by a man they
called the Teacher of Righteousness, and all others were under the sway of the
Wicked Priest or Man of the Lie, who had led them astray.

As the Gospel of Jesus Christ reached various Jewish communities throughout

the Roman world, the question naturally rose as to what they should do about
the Torah. Having believed in Messiah Jesus, should they still keep Torah?
Furthermore, what should they do about Gentiles who came to believe in
Messiah Jesus – should they become circumcised and follow Torah?

Paul and James, two valid perspectives

St. Paul’s answer to this question was decisive as well as ingenious, for he
categorically denied that Jews or Gentiles were obligated to keep Torah, for they
had been justified by faith apart from the works of Torah, such as circumcision
and kosher dietary regulations. Furthermore, all had been baptized into one
body, the Body of Jesus the Messiah, and had been given the gift of the Holy
Spirit who would enable them to do what the Torah could not – to keep the
righteous requirement of the Torah and live in obedience to God. To be baptized
into the Messiah was to be baptized into His death and thus die to Torah to
which they had previously been bound and to live unto Messiah Jesus by faith
and the power of the Spirit.

St. James, on the other hand, likely felt that Paul had gone a bit too far in his
jettisoning of the Torah, for he maintained that the Torah was still useful for
instructing in righteousness, and that the works of Torah were to be understood
simply as putting one’s faith into action. While Paul focused upon Torah as the
means by which the Jews sought to establish their own imperfect righteousness
before God, James saw the Torah as an efficient means by which one might live
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 in obedience to God through faith. In spite of an apparent disagreement (which
it was not in actuality, but only a difference in the use of terminology), it seems
quite clear from both Paul and James that they agreed that both faith and
obedience to God were necessary components of salvation, though they went
about describing it in different ways.

The importance of all of this is to emphasize that justification is foremost an

issue regarding the place of the Jewish Torah in the life of early Christian
communities. For this reason, it is perhaps rightly de-emphasized in Orthodoxy,
for we no longer have to deal with the same issues that the new Christian
communities, composed of Jews and Gentiles seated at the same table, had to
deal with.

Justification and salvation

Justification is only one aspect of our salvation in Christ, which is manifold and
comprehensive. Various aspects of this salvation have been emphasized in
different eras or different geographic regions (i.e., East and West), but none can
be exclusively claimed as the sole understanding of salvation. Let’s look at a few
of these terms and ideas in order that we may parse out their connection and
how they comprise a more comprehensive look at our salvation:

Justification – This term deals with how a person comes into and maintains
a right relationship with God. Ultimately, this is made possible by the cross
of Christ, by which He made expiation for our sins, granting us forgiveness and
bringing us into a right relationship with God. Justification is accomplished at
baptism and maintained through a life of obedience to God and confession of
sins.

Sanctification – Sanctification is the process of separating a person or thing

for exclusive use by God or for God. Holiness, the result of sanctification, is the
state of being exclusively devoted to God. This ultimately requires purification
from sin and detachment from the world and material things. This is usually
seen as an ongoing process that one undergoes throughout one’s life.
Sanctification is accomplished through ascetic struggle.

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Glorification – The final state of Christians perfected in Christ after His
Second Coming. While this term (as a participle) was used in Romans 8:29,
Orthodoxy normally understands this idea to be the culmination of theosis (see
below).

Adoption – The result of being engrafted into the Body of Christ through
Baptism. We are adopted by God the Father as sons and co-heirs with Jesus
Christ (Romans 8:15-17). Adoption is the state by which we may partake of the
divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) through theosis (c.f. the series on theosis and
adoption by Fr. Matthew Baker).

Faith – This term can be understood biblically in two senses: (Paul) trust,
fidelity, or loyalty to Christ that includes obedience and good works, or (James)
simple cognitive belief (James 2:19) that must be complemented with good
works.

Works – Also, this term is used biblically in two senses: (Paul) the “works of
the Torah” such as circumcision, kosher regulations, and the myriad of other
ordinances of the Law of Moses that are incapable of establishing one as
righteous before God, or (James) good works (in an ethical sense) and
obedience before God which accompany genuine faith.

Theosis/Deification – Both the result of being adopted as sons and daughters

of God through baptism into Christ and the process of attaining to the fulness of
the divine nature and conformity to the image of Christ. The concept
of theosis has the potential to be wildly misunderstood when it is taken away
from its moorings in the concept of adoption and the sacramental life of the
Church. If it is understood in a “mystical” or gnostic way as a spiritualized state
of elite initiates or recipients of some special grace withheld from other baptized
members of Christ’s Church, then we err from Patristic teaching on the matter.

Christus Victor – Literally “Christ the Victor” (IC XC NIKA), this concept is
perhaps the most common expression of our salvation in Orthodox Christianity.
It is most aptly characterized by the Paschal apolytikion: “Christ is risen from
the dead trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing

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 life.” We are saved, because Christ has destroyed sin and death by His own
death, and given life to us by His resurrection.

What to take away

 All of the above concepts are woven together to form the complete tapestry that is
our salvation in Christ, and none of them alone can be exclusively made to be real
essence of salvation to the virtual exclusion of the others.
 Justification is an important aspect of our salvation in Christ, though it is perhaps
overemphasized in certain corners of Christianity. Justification is something that is
inherently experienced and lived by every baptized Orthodox Christian, though it
may be taken for granted.
 We should not allow early Christian disputes about the Law of Moses to cause us to
stumble by creating false dichotomies between faith and works that do not take into
account the various nuances given to these terms by biblical writers.
 Justification is wrongly set up as a singular touchstone of right doctrine, because it is
only a part, not the whole of our salvation in Christ. As such, it cannot be considered
the definitive aspect of soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) to the exclusion of
other aspects of it.
 Justification is accomplished at baptism, the point where a person is granted
forgiveness of sins and placed in a right relationship with God, and it is maintained
through a life of obedience to God and confession of sins.

As such, Orthodoxy does have a doctrine of justification, though it may not be

explicitly referred to as such or emphasized as much as it is in certain Protestant
communions. Orthodox Christians can confidently state that Orthodoxy does
properly regard the biblical teaching of justification as being by faith apart from
the works of the Torah, though faith is rightly understood as a life lived in
faithful obedience to God. It is accomplished at baptism, the sacramental
instrument by which sins are forgiven, and is maintained by confession of sins.
Justification is integral to the life of every Orthodox Christian, and while we
may not use the term quite so prominently as Protestant Christians, we
nevertheless take it very seriously.