In order to acquire the mind of Christ, a person must begin to embrace His attitudes of mind and ways of thinking. These are found, as I am sure all of my readers already know, in the Gospels and the Tradition of the Church. I cannot believe that any person who professes to be Christian is unaware of the attitudes that Jesus had about God, life and others.

It must be admitted, however, that some of the attitudes of Jesus are not as explicit as others. For example, did Jesus have an attitude about human salvation? He did but not, probably, as explicit as we would like.

Unfortunately, modern Christians tend to think of salvation in terms of a life to come after death. In truth, Jesus thought of salvation as a way of living in this present world – a way of becoming an authentic human being who lives like God intended humans to live. Salvation is not a goal to be reached – an end-point that people work towards. Rather, salvation is a process.

Eastern theology preserves the truth that salvation is the process of sanctification: personal growth toward the image of God, following Christ’s example (Theosis). It is an ongoing process made possible by God’s help (grace) and is fueled by faith and continues through and beyond our last breath on earth. We are saved by grace, through faith.

St. John Chrysostom writes that we are the ones who determine the measure of God’s help. The less we believe, hope and trust, the less of God’s help we can receive. The process of salvation is synergistic. It is a cooperative effort between man and God, “which is simultaneously past, present and future. The Eastern Church says: I WAS SAVED when Jesus Christ died on the Cross (Past). He indeed made my salvation possible. Before He did this, the only path to Heaven was perfection through the Law, an impossible feat. That the Lord “paid” the penalty of death for our sins is not to be taken in the literal sense as a price exacted by and given in remuneration to someone but as the Savior accepting the painful consequences for the wrongful actions of others. When God took on flesh, the Son of God subjected Himself to death. Under the terms of the Blood Covenant death cannot hold anyone who is united with Christ through Baptism and Eucharist as part of a life of faith.

God created humankind with a singular purpose, namely to use the opportunities present by life to grow in the likeness of Jesus.