We think the Church depends on the works and faithfulness of God. That might be an important difference.
Now Mad Dawg. You know me well enough than to think that is what I was saying. I am a Calvinist. Calvinists are 100% about giving God the credit.
Go back and reread my post. I'm trying to get into the head of an Orthodox or Catholic Christian in regards to the sacraments and concluding that the church is not that Institution in Rome but the people of God whatever stream they flow from. A true Christian will be known by the works he performs. Performing the sacraments with regularity isn't what makes one a Christian. What? Alexander VI can go out and father bastard children and have orgies but as long as he says mass the right way, by golly gum, he is a Christian! Such a thought is foreign to Scripture.
So what does the church look like? Is it folks that repeat the right formulas and perform the right rituals but live like sinners the rest of the time? Or, is it people who trust Christ with their very lives? I would say that in Luther's day that people were saved in spite of the Church but not because of it. The same is today since all human institutions be they Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Presybterian, Methodist or whatever are human institutions are just that- human. Christ works through them in various ways - but He draws men unto Himself in spite of human failings.
There was nothing sacred in the Roman Church of Luther's day that he should have clinged to it. Rather, Christ alone would become his banner since all others were but cheap imitations.