Salvation

"Barth's crucial emphasis here is on our participation within the heilsgeschichtlich [salvation historical) occurrence of Jesus' death and resurrection. Through the Spirit we are inserted into Jesus' history, so that the history of Jesus becomes our "own Heilsgeschichte". This is how Barth understands baptism with the Spirit; we are plunged into the history of Jesus, incorporated in his death and resurrection. Through the Spirit, we participate in Jesus' own faithfulness to God, with the result that we also "turn to faithfulness in God".

"Barth thus insists that participation in Christ is not merely the production of new "religious and moral impulses", nor an infusion of supernatural capacities, nor again a mere forensic declaration that leaves us essentially unaltered. Such conceptions, Barth observes, all share one thing in common: they fail to explain "how the Christian comes into existence, the person who responds to God's faithfulness with faithfulness". In contrast, the reality of Christian existence is to be explained by the Spirit as the power of participation.""—The Faith of Jesus Christ:, pages 300-301

<idle musing>
That is refreshingly God-centered and Trinitarian. So often salvation is made into a man-centered, Jesus-only thing. Here, we have the whole Trinity moving together to save us from ourselves.
</idle musing>