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Salvation

The Common Confession

We confess that the salvation of sinners is accomplished by the grace of God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, who suffered and died on the cross for our sins and rose again for our justification. No one is saved apart from this grace; no one merits salvation by natural human effort unaided by God. Faith in Christ is necessary for salvation — a living faith, wrought by the Holy Spirit, by which sinners receive the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work. Those whom God saves He regenerates by the Holy Spirit, granting them new life so that they are no longer slaves to sin but children of God, walking in newness of life. And those who are finally saved are those who persevere in Christ to the end; the crown of life is given to those who endure.

This much is confessed in every historic branch: Rome and Wittenberg, Geneva and Canterbury, Constantinople and Moscow. The mechanism by which grace justifies, the precise relation of faith and works, the order of salvation, and the doctrine of predestination are matters of genuine and serious disagreement. But the common ground — that salvation is by grace, through faith, in Christ, unto new life, and unto final glory — is not a diplomatic fiction. It is the substance of the apostolic gospel.

Scriptural Warrant

The necessity of Christ’s atoning death:

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3)
“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24)
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7)
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5-6)
“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22)

Salvation by grace, not unaided human merit:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
“He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5)
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24)

The necessity of faith:

“Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18)
“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6)
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31)

Regeneration and new life in the Spirit:

“Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God’” (John 3:3)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2)
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23)

Final perseverance required:

“But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13)
“Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10)
“Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election” (2 Peter 1:10)
“For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Hebrews 3:14)

Creedal and Conciliar Anchor

The Nicene Creed (325/381)

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried.

The Creed anchors salvation in the person and work of Christ: the incarnation, the crucifixion, the suffering, and the burial are all “for us” — pro nobis. The soteriological purpose is woven into the Christological confession itself.

The Council of Ephesus (431)

Affirmed the unity of Christ’s person as salvifically necessary: if the one who died on the cross is not truly God, then His death cannot save. The Theotokos is a soteriological title as much as a Christological one.

The Second Council of Orange (529)

The grace of God is not granted in response to prayer, but grace itself causes prayer to be offered for us… The beginning of faith, the disposition of credulity… is not natural to us but is a gift of grace.

Canon 5: “If anyone says that not only the increase of faith but also its beginning and the very desire for faith… belongs to us by nature and not by a gift of grace… he contradicts the apostolic teaching.” Canon 7: “If anyone asserts that we can, by our natural strength, think as we ought, or choose any good pertaining to the salvation of eternal life… without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit… he is misled by a heretical spirit.”

This council, received by Rome, decisively affirmed the priority of grace against semi-Pelagianism. Its canons represent genuine common ground: no branch of magisterial Christianity teaches that salvation can be initiated or achieved by unaided human effort.

The Council of Trent (1547), Session VI

While Trent’s articulation of justification is contested by Protestants, its opening affirmations establish common soteriological ground:

“None of those things which precede justification — whether faith or works — merit the grace itself of justification. For, if it be by grace, it is not now by works; otherwise, as the Apostle says, grace is no more grace” (Chapter 8, citing Romans 11:6).

Trent affirms that the initiative belongs entirely to God’s prevenient grace and that faith is the “beginning, foundation, and root” of justification (Chapter 8).

Patristic Witness

Clement of Rome (fl. c. 96)

“And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men.” — First Epistle to the Corinthians 32.4

Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373)

“He, indeed, assumed humanity that we might become God. He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality.” — De Incarnatione 54.3

Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

“What merit of man is there before grace, by which merit he might receive grace, since our every good merit is produced in us only by grace, and when God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing other than His own gifts?” — Epistola 194.5.19

Augustine’s anti-Pelagian writings established for the entire Western tradition — Catholic and Protestant alike — that grace precedes merit, that faith is a gift, and that the human will requires divine healing before it can turn to God.

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444)

“For we have been justified not by works of the law but by faith in Christ, since the Father set Him forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood.” — Commentary on Romans 3.24

John of Damascus (c. 675-749)

“Being good and supremely good, He was not content to contemplate Himself, but by a superabundance of goodness saw fit that there should be some things to benefit by and participate in His goodness… He brought all things from nothing into being… and saved us by grace.” — Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2.29

Cross-Tradition Attestation

Roman Catholic

CCC §1987: “The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and to communicate to us ‘the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.’” CCC §1989: “The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion… Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high.” CCC §2005: “Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith.” CCC §1992: “Justification… is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of His mercy.” The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ, 1999), to which Rome gave qualified assent, affirms in paragraph 15: “Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.”

Eastern Orthodox

The Orthodox confess salvation as theosis — deification, participation in the divine life — accomplished by Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection and communicated by the Holy Spirit through the sacraments and the life of the Church. The Confession of Dositheus (1672), Decree 13: “Man is justified not by works alone, nor by faith alone, but by both together, the faith preceding not temporally but in nature.” The liturgy of St. John Chrysostom prays: “Thou hast not left anything undone until Thou hadst brought us up to heaven and hadst endowed us with Thy kingdom which is to come.” Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua 7: “God made us so that we might become partakers of the divine nature and sharers in His eternity.” The emphasis falls on grace as divine life communicated, not merely forensic status conferred — but the priority of grace over human effort is affirmed no less firmly.

Lutheran

Augsburg Confession, Article IV: “Our churches teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by His death made satisfaction for our sins.” AC, Article V: “To obtain such faith God instituted the office of preaching, giving the Gospel and the sacraments. Through these, as through means, He gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith, when and where He pleases, in those who hear the Gospel.” The Formula of Concord, Epitome III.7: “We believe, teach, and confess that the faith which justifies is not a mere knowledge of the history, but the firm acceptance of God’s promise of grace and the forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake.” The JDDJ (1999), paragraphs 25-27, represents the Lutheran-Catholic convergence: justification is by grace through faith, and good works necessarily follow from living faith.

Reformed

WCF 11.1: “Those whom God effectually calleth, He also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone.” WCF 13.1: “They who are effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them.” HC Q&A 60: “How are you righteous before God? Only by true faith in Jesus Christ… God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ.” BC Art. 22: “We believe that, to attain the true knowledge of this great mystery, the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts an upright faith, which embraces Jesus Christ with all His merits.”

Anglican

Article XI of the Thirty-Nine Articles: “We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings: Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine.” Article XIII: “Works done before the grace of Christ, and the Inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God… yea rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.” The BCP Collect for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity: “Almighty and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises.”

Where the Accent Differs

The soteriological common ground is real but narrow. The differences of accent shade quickly into genuine disagreements that belong in Layer 3 and Layer 4:

Forensic imputation vs. transformative infusion. The Reformation traditions (Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican) teach that justification is a forensic act: God declares the sinner righteous on account of Christ’s righteousness imputed to the believer. Rome teaches that justification involves an interior transformation: God makes the sinner actually righteous by the infusion of grace. Orthodoxy speaks of theosis — participation in the divine nature — which maps neatly onto neither Western category. The JDDJ (1999) achieved genuine convergence by affirming that justification involves both a divine declaration and a divine renewal, but the precise relationship between these remains controverted. Layer 3/4.
The role of works in salvation. All traditions affirm that living faith produces good works. The question is whether those works are constitutive of justification (Rome: faith formed by love justifies), evidential of justification (Reformed: works are the fruit and evidence of saving faith), or consequent upon justification (Lutheran: works follow necessarily but are excluded from the article of justification). Layer 3/4.
Predestination and election. All traditions affirm that God elects, but the nature and extent of election are fiercely debated: unconditional election (Reformed), single predestination with resistible grace (Rome), divine foreknowledge of faith (some Orthodox and Arminian readings), the mystery of election held in tension with universal salvific will (Lutheranism). Layer 4.
The ordo salutis. The sequence of calling, regeneration, faith, justification, sanctification, and glorification — and their causal relationships — is ordered differently in every tradition. Layer 3.
The sacraments and salvation. The role of baptism and the Eucharist in the economy of salvation — whether they are instrumental causes of grace (Rome, Orthodoxy, Lutheranism) or means ordinarily but not absolutely necessary (Reformed, Anglican) — generates substantial disagreement. Layer 3/4.
The possibility of losing salvation. All affirm that final perseverance is required. Whether the truly regenerate can fall away finally (Rome, Orthodoxy, Arminianism) or cannot (Reformed, many Lutherans [∗]) is a genuine dispute. Layer 3/4.

For Further Study

Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter and On Grace and Free Will — the fountainhead of Western soteriology
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I-II, qq. 109-114 — the scholastic synthesis of grace
Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520) — the Reformation breakthrough
The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999) — the most significant modern ecumenical convergence on soteriology
Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, ch. 9 — the Orthodox theology of deification