I Peter 1:8-9 – ⁸Though you have not seen him [Jesus], you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with and inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

What amazes me here is that this whole process is accomplished purely on the power and strength of faith. This might explain why, though I have never completely lost my faith (only faltered), I have not grown as much spiritually over the last year or two as I would have liked. I have not had the sort of faith that draws me to my Saviour, that instills within me the joy of my salvation and a renewal of my spirit, let alone an inexpressible and glorious joy.

And something else that stands out to me is that salvation seems to carry with it two separate processes — one that is carried out once with eternal implications, and one that is continually being carried out. The one-time action is the initial acceptance of God’s gift of salvation. The continual process is the working of my faith to constantly reshape me into a child of God, the throwing off of the ‘old man’. So, salvation is both a one-time act and a continual process of transformation.