Theology of Holiness: Part 5: Salvation

Frankly, everything else in this series hinges upon this one concept, salvation. I believe that salvation is both a process and a crisis. It is a process in that when you live for Christ, you should continue to grow and become more Christ-like. It is a crisis in that you come to a point when a decision MUST be made. Am I going to live for Christ or am I going to live for myself? It is a choice that all of us make, in one form or another. Have you made that decision? Once again, I use Thomas C. Oden's "Life in the Spirit" and a lot of other sources. I pray that this is clear and will help you all. Salvation is a wonderful gift from the God to humanity, made possible by the atoning sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ and manifested in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Salvation
Salvation as a concept "has become widely used in Christian theology to express the provision of God for our human situation of need and sin" (Marshall as cited in Reid, 2004, p.998). Salvation is then connected to the "extravagant gift of God's grace" (Erickson, 2006, p.321). To Wesley, the word "salvation" wasn't about "deliverance from hell, or going to heaven; but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health… the renewal of our souls… in righteousness and true holiness" (Wesley as cited in Lindstrom, 1980, p.100). Once again, an element of the ordo salutis is more about our conduct in this life rather than the determination of our eternal destination. This is an extraordinary finding for me, as I had always focused on the eternal aspects of this doctrine. As for my personal ordo salutis, I would place salvation as an overall concept rather than as an individual step.
"Salvation is seen as a process by which man passes through a series of successive stages, each stage representing a different and higher level" (Lindstrom, 1980, p.105). Salvation as a process and action would best be described as emanating from God. However, as also described with the previous aspects of the ordo salutis, there is a synergy that exists between the human and the divine. We are participants in this process. "God's choosing is based upon our choice, we cooperate with God" (Bounds, 2005, MIN541 lecture).
Salvation may also be defined as "what is needed to restore the broken relationship between God and the creature" (Erickson, 2006, p.903). God is the giver of the grace that is necessary for the human to accept their need for God in the first place. "We cannot call ourselves sane nor Christian if we foolishly believe we may accept Christ… whenever we want. We can't" (DeNeff, 2004, p.59). In other words, God extends the free gift of salvation at his discretion. This leads to a definition of salvation being "the act of God whereby He rescues the souls of repentant humans from the dire circumstances of punishment we are due because of our guilt and the pollution of our sin" (Thomas, 2000, p.181). "The salvation prepared for the world can only become subjectively appropriated when one repents, trusts in God's pardoning grace, and follows the narrow way" (Oden, 1994, p.81).
The English word, "salvation" is "derived from the Greek "soteria" and from the Latin "salvus", which meant safe (Oden, 1994). The accompanying verb, "sozo", means to save "as a continuous process with distinguishable components (Oden, 1994, p.85) and "to cause someone to experience divine salvation" (Marshall as cited in Reid, 2004, p.998). Yet, for all of the individualistic meanings given to salvation, the word "is best not employed in (that sense), for it includes the whole history of God's saving activity and the history of human reception of it" (Oden, 1994, p.81). This seems to be evidenced by the fact that the Hebrew word for salvation is "yeshuah", which was of course the Hebrew rendering of the name Joshua and later, Jesus. In both cases, "the word salvation evokes the rescue of persons caught in a hopeless situation" (Bilezikian, 1993, p.145). First, it was Joshua who led the Israelites into the Promised Land and then Jesus who gave deliverance for all who would accept it.
The discussion of patron and client relationships in ancient times is apropos in a discussion of salvation. This is due to the fact that we, as humans, stand in the position of client to that of the ultimate patron, God. As was expressed in lecture, "clients could never earn the patronage. Early Christians would have understood this" (Schenck, 2006, MIN543 lecture). As the process worked, a patron was one who was "asked to provide money, grain, employment or land. A person who received such a benefit became a client to the patron, accepting the obligation to publicize the favor and his gratitude for it, thus contributing to the patron's reputation" (DeSilva, 2004, p.130). The obvious ties to Christianity from this passage demonstrate the level of debt that all Christians owe to the author of their salvation, Jesus Christ. An interesting component of the patron/client relationship was the mention that the client owed public gratitude to the patron. The one intention of life, then, is to live all the time to please and honor God in our lives, both privately and publicly.
"The salvation that comes by faith is a salvation from both the power and the guilt of sin" (Lindstrom, 1980, p.99). An essential component of our salvation is faith. Without faith, we cannot be saved. Therefore, we know by faith that we have been set free, saved, from a life that weighed us down both presently and eternally. Coupled with faith is a concept that is unique to Wesley. The "new birth (is) accompanied by assurance" (Lindstrom, 1980, p.115). The concept of assurance of salvation, accepted by faith takes a dual path. "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see" (Heb. 11:1, NLT). When the witness of our spirit is combined with the indirect witness of the Holy Spirit, they work together to "establish the assurance of salvation" (Wiley, 1946, p.295). This belief of assurance finds a basis in Romans 8:16, "It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (NRSV). "It is by two corroboratory witnesses that this confirmation is received: God's Spirit and our own spirit together bearing the same testimony (summartureo). Together they convince and assure" (Oden, 1994, p.204). I believe that these thoughts are the key thoughts in dealing with salvation. The implications of accepting the offer of grace through faith are so grand in scope that they exceed the limits of human imagination.
In regards to Paul, salvation is "primarily future oriented" (Schenck, 2006, MIN543 lecture). It is about future deliverance as much as it is about present deliverance. However, this is not Paul's exclusive view, as evidenced in Titus 2:11-13. "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly while we wait for the blessed hope" (NRSV). To reiterate, "God's design to save humanity includes all time, not just part of history. " In the Greek language (sozo) may depict an action as either punctiliar or durative, or it may make no specification whatsoever as to the kind of time involved" (Erickson, 2006, p.903). "The fulfillment of God's purpose in creation is awaiting a final consummation in the end of days" (Oden, 1994, p.85).