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<blockquote data-quote="MichaelWitcoff" data-source="post: 1306228" data-attributes="member: 16038">No Orthodox Christian believes that we earn salvation by doing good works, and those accusing us of doing so haven’t bothered to learn what we believe. We believe exactly what the Bible says: that we are saved by a faith that expresses itself in good works, because faith without works is just lip service (“dead”). As we grow in faith and the works it produces we become more like Christ over time, which is a process we call theosis, “becoming by grace what He is by nature.”&nbsp;That’s not the same thing as believing we are saved by our own works apart from God’s grace, which the Church anathematized as the heresy of Pelagianism. The Bible makes explicit lists of what kind of behavior gets you on God’s good or bad side in eternity, but simply doing those good behaviors doesn’t win you some kind of brownie points if you think you’re using them to buy salvation tokens from God.Also, we do believe in the “priesthood of all believers” because everything the Scriptures say is true. They also separate that priesthood from the sacerdotal priesthood that can serve the Eucharist and excommunicate (“bind and loosen”), because the priests that give sacraments have a different role in that priesthood than the non-ordained.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MichaelWitcoff, post: 1306228, member: 16038"] No Orthodox Christian believes that we earn salvation by doing good works, and those accusing us of doing so haven’t bothered to learn what we believe. We believe exactly what the Bible says: that we are saved by a faith that expresses itself in good works, because faith without works is just lip service (“dead”). As we grow in faith and the works it produces we become more like Christ over time, which is a process we call theosis, “becoming by grace what He is by nature.” That’s not the same thing as believing we are saved by our own works apart from God’s grace, which the Church anathematized as the heresy of Pelagianism. The Bible makes explicit lists of what kind of behavior gets you on God’s good or bad side in eternity, but simply doing those good behaviors doesn’t win you some kind of brownie points if you think you’re using them to buy salvation tokens from God. Also, we do believe in the “priesthood of all believers” because everything the Scriptures say is true. They also separate that priesthood from the sacerdotal priesthood that can serve the Eucharist and excommunicate (“bind and loosen”), because the priests that give sacraments have a different role in that priesthood than the non-ordained. [/QUOTE]

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