Editing Christianity (section)

=== Salvation ===
{{Main|Salvation in Christianity}}
{{quote box
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| quote="For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life".
| source = — John 3:16, NIV<ref>{{cite web |title=John 3:16 New International Version |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A16&version=NIV |website=Bible Gateway |access-date=21 October 2022}}</ref>
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[[File:Lucas Cranach (I) - The Law and the Gospel.jpg|thumb|''[[Law and Gospel (Cranach)|The Law and the Gospel]]'' by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1529); Moses and Elijah point the sinner to Jesus for salvation.]]
[[Paul the Apostle]], like Jews and Roman [[pagan]]s of his time, believed that sacrifice can bring about new kinship ties, purity, and eternal life.<ref name="remedy">{{cite journal |last=Eisenbaum |first=Pamela |date=Winter 2004 |title=A Remedy for Having Been Born of Woman: Jesus, Gentiles, and Genealogy in Romans |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=123 |issue=4 |pages=671–702 |doi=10.2307/3268465 |url=https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/JBL1234.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/JBL1234.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=3 April 2009 |jstor=3268465 |url-access=subscription |issn=0021-9231}}</ref> For Paul, the necessary sacrifice was the death of Jesus: Gentiles who are "Christ's" are, like Israel, descendants of Abraham and "heirs according to the promise"<ref>{{bibleverse|Gal.|3:29}}</ref><ref>Wright, N.T. ''What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?'' (Oxford, 1997), p. 121.</ref> The God who raised Jesus from the dead would also give new life to the "mortal bodies" of Gentile Christians, who had become with Israel, the "children of God", and were therefore no longer "in the flesh".<ref>{{bibleverse|Rom.|8:9,11,16}}</ref><ref name="remedy" />

Modern Christian churches tend to be much more concerned with how humanity can be [[eternal salvation|saved]] from a universal condition of sin and death than the question of how both Jews and Gentiles can be in God's family. According to [[Eastern Orthodox]] theology, based upon their understanding of the atonement as put forward by Irenaeus' [[Recapitulation (Irenaeus)|recapitulation theory]], Jesus' death is a [[Ransom theory of atonement|ransom]]. This restores the relation with God, who is loving and reaches out to humanity, and offers the possibility of ''[[Theosis (Eastern Orthodox theology)|theosis]]'' c.q. [[Divinization (Christian)|divinization]], becoming the kind of humans God wants humanity to be. According to Catholic doctrine, Jesus' death [[Satisfaction theory of atonement|satisfies]] the wrath of God, aroused by the offense to God's honor caused by human's sinfulness. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation does not occur without faithfulness on the part of Christians; converts must live in accordance with principles of love and ordinarily must be baptized.<ref>{{Cite CCC|2.1|846}}</ref> In Protestant theology, Jesus' death is regarded as a [[Penal substitution|substitutionary penalty]] carried by Jesus, for the debt that has to be paid by humankind when it broke God's moral law.<ref>[[L. W. Grensted]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PUW8AAAAIAAJ A Short History of the Doctrine of the Atonement]'' (Manchester: [[Manchester University Press]], 1920), p. 191: 'Before the Reformation only a few hints of a Penal theory can be found.'</ref>

Christians differ in their views on the extent to which individuals' salvation is pre-ordained by God. Reformed theology places distinctive emphasis on grace by teaching that individuals are [[total depravity|completely incapable of self-redemption]], but that [[irresistible grace|sanctifying grace is irresistible]].<ref>Westminster Confession, [https://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/wcf.htm#chap10 Chapter X] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528062341/https://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/wcf.htm#chap10 |date=28 May 2014 }};<br />Spurgeon, ''[https://www.spurgeon.org/calvinis.htm A Defense of Calvinism] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410133140/https://www.spurgeon.org/calvinis.htm |date=10 April 2008 }}''.</ref> In contrast [[Catholics]], Orthodox Christians, and [[Arminianism|Arminian]] Protestants believe that the exercise of [[free will]] is necessary to have faith in Jesus.<ref>{{cite web|website=[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]|title=Grace and Justification|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s1c3a2.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100815001751/https://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s1c3a2.htm|archive-date=15 August 2010}}</ref>