[[Biblical Theology]] / Salvation ![[assets/covers/salvation.jpg]] Salvation is God’s redemptive work through Christ, offering humanity reconciliation and a place of belonging. It rests on Christ alone as the ground of hope, not on the cultural or institutional traditions that have accumulated around Christian faith over twenty centuries. ## Christ Alone as the Ground of Hope The liturgical tradition of the Church has long recognised that salvation depends entirely on Christ’s person and work, not on human theological competence. A person does not have to know all the technicalities of the Athanasian Creed in order to be saved; the thief on the cross did not have to memorise this creed before Jesus could say to him, ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise’.[^bray-common-prayer-p55] The obsecrations of the Litany reinforce this conviction: these ancient prayers, begging God for the sake of something sacred, remind us that Christ alone is the ground of our hope.[^bray-common-prayer-p56] Salvation is secured not by doctrinal mastery but by the one to whom doctrine points. ## The Gospel as Place of Belonging It is tempting to defend and preserve the specific cultural forms that Christianity has taken, particularly in Western contexts. Yet salvation is not reducible to those traditions. The gospel is Jesus Christ and the place of belongingness that he offers; everything else is wrapping.[^jabbour-crescent-p99] This insight separates the essence of the gospel from its cultural expressions, allowing the gospel to be understood and received across cultures without requiring the abandonment of identity or tradition. ## Salvation Across Cultures The accessibility of salvation across cultural and religious contexts means that those from other faiths need not reshape their fundamental identity to enter God’s kingdom. A Muslim does not have to change his cultural identity or pass through twenty centuries of Western Christian institutional development in order to enter the kingdom of God; he can enter directly into relationship with Christ.[^jabbour-crescent-p252] This understanding of salvation as direct access to Christ, rather than as passage through any particular cultural or ecclesiastical gateway, opens the possibility of redemption that respects the dignity and integrity of the person called by God. > [!example]- Changelog > - **2026-03-28** Resynthesised with annotations from both sources > - **2026-03-26** Created from *The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross* ## Selected passages > ![[assets/covers/bray-common-prayer.jpg|28]] ‘To be sure, ==a person doesn’t have to know all the technicalities of the Athanasian Creed in order to be saved-== the thief on the cross did not have to memorize this creed before Jesus could say to him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43 RSV).’ > > *How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - A Guide to the Anglican Liturgy*, p. 55 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 65.jpg|🖼️]]) ## Cross-book resonance > ![[assets/covers/bray-common-prayer.jpg|28]] ‘To be sure, ==a person doesn’t have to know all the technicalities of the Athanasian Creed in order to be saved-== the thief on the cross did not have to memorize this creed before Jesus could say to him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43 RSV).’ > > *How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - A Guide to the Anglican Liturgy*, p. 55 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 65.jpg|🖼️]]) > ![[assets/covers/jabbour-crescent.jpg|28]] ‘I was tempted to defend, but then ==I reminded myself that the gospel is not our Western or our Christian wrappings, but the gospel is Jesus Christ and the place of belongingness that he offers.==’ > > *The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross*, p. 99 ([[assets/pages/jabbour-crescent/fulltext-p81.jpg|📖]] [[assets/pages/jabbour-crescent/notebook-p12.jpg|📓]] [[assets/pages/jabbour-crescent/notebook-p13.jpg|📓]]) ## Appearances - *How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - A Guide to the Anglican Liturgy*, Samuel L. Bray and Drew Nathaniel Keane - 4 Further Up and Further In, pp. 55–56 - *The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross*, Nabeel T. Jabbour - Chapter 7 The Core and the Wrappings, p. 99 - Chapter 17 Remaining in Context, p. 252 ## Related [[Gospel Proclamation]] . [[Kingdom of God]] . [[Incarnation]] . [[Adoption into God's Family]] . [[Union with Christ]] [^bray-common-prayer-p55]: [[How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - A Guide to the Anglican Liturgy]], p. 55 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 65.jpg|🖼️]]) . ‘To be sure, **a person doesn’t have to know all the technicalities of the Athanasian Creed in order to be saved-** the thief on the cross did not have to memorize this creed before Jesus could say to him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43 RSV).’ [^bray-common-prayer-p56]: Ibid., p. 56 ([[sources/scans/bray-common-prayer/How to Use the Book of Common Prayer - 66.jpg|🖼️]]) . ‘These prayers, **tradi- tionally called the “obsecrations”** (from the Latin obsecrare, meaning “to beg for the sake of something sacred”), remind us that **Christ alone is the ground of our hope.**’ [^jabbour-crescent-p99]: [[The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross]], p. 99 ([[assets/pages/jabbour-crescent/fulltext-p81.jpg|📖]] [[assets/pages/jabbour-crescent/notebook-p12.jpg|📓]] [[assets/pages/jabbour-crescent/notebook-p13.jpg|📓]]) . ‘I was tempted to defend, but then **I reminded myself that the gospel is not our Western or our Christian wrappings, but the gospel is Jesus Christ and the place of belongingness that he offers.**’ [^jabbour-crescent-p252]: Ibid., p. 252 ([[assets/pages/jabbour-crescent/fulltext-p207.jpg|📖]] [[assets/pages/jabbour-crescent/notebook-p19.jpg|📓]]) . ‘**The Muslim does not have to change his shape and his first birth identity in order to enter the kingdom of God. He can enter directly into the kingdom, rather than through the door of twenty centuries of Christian traditions.**’