What does it mean to be "saved"?

No, I haven't read John Stackhouse's edited collection of essays with the same title (yet) but this question is something I've been ruminating on for a long time - and not just for professional reasons. If salvation is the heart of the Christian message (and I believe it is) then our understanding of it has tremendous consequences on the way we view God, ourselves and the world around us. It will also shape every attempt to communicate to others whom and what we've found in Christ.

Rather than going on a long theological rant, I want to try and sum up as concisely as possible what I've come to believe regarding salvation:

1. The term only makes sense if there is something we are in need of being rescued from and if the rescue brings about a significant and observable change.

2. The biblical metaphor of "being lost" describes the mindset and the resulting lifestyle of a person (including all the damage and repercussions for himself and the world around him!) who is essentially self-centered rather than God-centered. The lost person has lost his way because he has internally lost sight of God (and communion with God!) as his creator, father and friend. Consequently, trust has been replaced with fear, shame and rebellion and a perceived need to hide and cover up one's true self. The original purpose of humanity to reflect God's love and glory throughout the earth and in faithful stewardship over the rest of creation has also been lost and perverted into lives marked by idolatrous pride, violence, moral corruption and abuse of power, leading us astray and away from loving God with our whole being and our neighbors as ourselves. We all still are created and destined to bear God's image but the image itself has been broken and shattered.

3. Out of the motive of unconditional and boundless love rooted in His unchangeable nature, God reveals Himself and reaches out to a lost world, culminating in the incredible act of completely immersing Himself in our humanity in and through the person of Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, the living Word, God has revealed in a supreme and final manner His character and nature - through Jesus' words and interactions with people, and also through his death and resurrection.

4. The cross of Christ is God's act of self-sacrifice, not only to show us the depth of His love, grace and forgiveness, but also to effectively remove all hindrances to full reconciliation with Him. It enables us to transition from a disposition of being rebellious and unacceptable enemies of God to joyfully embracing our inheritance as His beloved children, and able once again to become true image-bearers of God by the power and continuing work of the indwelling Holy Spirit. That same Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, vindicating Him and His death as God's chosen tool of salvation - in fully bearing God's just judgment of all sin and evil in our place, and at the same time declaring all those holy and righteous who would receive him by faith. Having defeated sin and death through His shed blood on the cross and his resurrection, Jesus has also disarmed all powers of evil who held us captive through deceit, accusation and condemnation.

5. Salvation is both an act and a process. It is an act insofar as God's rescue initiative through Christ - in taking our place of condemnation and atoning for all our transgressions - is accomplished and finished and becomes effective for everyone whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit to see and enter into this reconciled relationship with God. It is a continuing process regarding the gradual nature of healing and change from brokenness to wholeness that needs to take place as this new way of relating to God, our neighbours and creation is learned, practiced and applied, and becomes part of our spiritual formation.

6. Salvation can only be communicated effectively if the framework of God's story and God's love and universal grace is told and understood through word and deed.

7. Salvation will only be recognized as salvation and as good news and trustworthy news to the degree that the change we profess is authentically reflected in our daily lives, as the upside down world is being turned right side up. Salvation will have reached its ultimate goal when we will obtain complete wholeness in body, soul and spirit in untarnished communion with God in the new heaven and earth, seeing the imago Dei and the fulfilment of our original purpose fully restored at that time.