Justification, man’s participation in

The question of the degree to which we ourselves are involved in our salvation following God’s initial gift to us; the degree to which we can, and indeed must act and live by the new power we have received, or to which we are “merely passive”; and thus the degree to which our own actions factor into our judgment and to which we bear responsibility for our own perdition, but likewise our salvation (i.e., to which it is the wage of mercy) is perhaps the most disputed aspect of the doctrine of salvation, taking its concrete form in the doctrine of justification.

I think it is first of all very important to think about God’s greatness in this matter and listen to how he speaks to us in Scripture. Although everything that we are and all that we can do comes from him and is from him, and although our meager actions are necessarily always and forever completely incommensurable to what he gives us, he still wished to be, and to remain, a true God of relationship. He did not want to act solely with himself, so to speak, but to make us true bearers of relationship, genuine partners with himself. We are not God’s puppets, who would in no way be called, in no way be enabled to act responsibly in his sight. Giving up our responsibility, our ability to be accountable before God could only ever appear to be salvation. In reality it degrades us, and would thereby degrade God as well. Who we are and what we do matters to him in very real terms. He honors himself by calling us to cooperate with him despite our incommensurability.

In thinking about this matter, I think it is important to broaden our horizon and include the tradition of the Eastern Church in our dialogue, so that we do not end up talking in circles. Coincidentally, I have recently been dealing somewhat with the writings of Maximus the Confessor [...] and Nicholas Kabasilas [...], the very beginning of Byzantine theology and its later culmination. Reading these two, I have been struck by the tremendous emphasis they place on the will as the locus of our salvation, in a way that, though it initially appears strange from the point of view of the Augustinian tradition, still carries weight and should compel us to think. The will, as they show us, is the locus of love, and it drawn up by God through Christ into being loved by him. And this is salvation. But the will, thus elevated by God, must itself hold fast in love and become love.