atonement?

For example, when asked, “What did Jesus do to save you?” many Christians will immediately answer something like, “He died on the Cross to pay the price for my sins.” Yet the idea that God the Father required repayment from Jesus to satisfy humanity’s debt to God has not always been a Christian teaching. It is also not the only way to think about salvation in Jesus Christ. This atonement model developed in the West on a trajectory from the teachings of Anselm, an eleventh-century Roman Catholic bishop. The so-called satisfaction model of Anselm has not held sway in the Orthodox Church for several reasons, including that Orthodox theology is not transactional in nature (e.g., there are not even “vows” or promises in the Orthodox Sacrament of Holy Matrimony). The main reason, however, is that a sharp and narrow focus on the Cross obscures all that the Son of God has accomplished for His fallen creation. In an Orthodox worldview, the full scope of what Jesus Christ has done must also include His Incarnation, His Resurrection, and even Pentecost.

A Basic Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology, 29