The Salvation to Which We Are Called

The Salvation to which we are called and by which we are delivered is the Way of the Cross, the Way of Dying to ourselves and Living unto God.

We see this in the Sacrament of Baptism. St. Paul teaches that in baptism we are immersed into the death of Christ and buried with him, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have become one with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be one with him in his resurrection (Romans 6:3-5). The early Church understood this as the New Birth. Paul continues:

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:8-11)

Salvation is not an abstract thing, some other where and other when. It is tangible, livable, even edible. It is the life we live now in the body as we yield to the life Christ now lives in us. This is the paradox Paul declares in Galatians 2:20.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Salvation is the faithfulness of Christ in us, the life of Christ energizing us, transforming us. It is participating in the divine nature, being conformed to the image and likeness of Christ. So it is always giving up all we have and are, and following Christ. The extent that we have not yet done so is the extent the we have yet to be saved and that our faith is still lacking.