"The East, along with many in the West, understands salvation as a sharing in God's life, a participation in the Divine. One way of saying this would be to say that the East holds both justification (restoration of a right relationship with God) and sanctification (growth in holiness) as two sides of the coin of salvation. But more must be said about how the East understands sanctification, for it has never shied away from the bold language of deification. The Eastern writers, of course, look to the language of the New Testament, particularly 2 Peter 1:4 wherein Peter declares that we are to become 'partakers of the divine nature.' "
