Jesus' Death Didn't Save Us

His life did. When we think of our salvation, we usually think of Jesus' death and resurrection. We celebrate Easter and sometimes Good Friday and thank God that his agony made our five-second prayer meaningful. We don't usually think of Christmas. Christmas is great for talking about the deity of Christ or, for some, the historicity of his coming, but we rarely associate it with our salvation. As miraculous as his birth was, Jesus' incarnation was only necessary so he could get here and die for us. Though many western Christians (Protestants and Catholics) disregard the incarnation, eastern Christians certainly do not. Eastern Orthodox churches believe that we're saved through a process called theosis which means that we become like God. Unfortunately, whenever westerners hear "become like God", they immediately flashback to Genesis and accuse our eastern sisters and brothers of sinning like Eve and Adam . They probably don't recall Peter