When does Salvation happen?

[1689owen]

Justification, adoption, etc. ("already aspects" of Salvation) happen WHEN we begin to believe.

Sanctification, glorification, etc. ("not-(fully)-yet aspects") happen AFTER we started believing.

However, new birth (logically) precedes believing. (I would say, it is the same moment, in which God grants us the new birth through his word, that we believe.)

And, the more important part of the question:
Christ saved all his elect at the cross. Right? So, we were saved BEFORE having faith? We had salvation before we believed?

Can anyone explain this to me? When happens salvation? I do not mean "acommplished" vs "applied", I mean, when was I, as a elect, saved?

(PS: This question should be standing on its own. Amongst other uses, I especially am trying to sort out some arguments of John Owen in The Death of Death, where he says that the elect "are" saved.)

 

[SeanPatrickCornell]

Salvation is the entire process from Justification to Glorification. In one sense you can say that you were saved when you were first Justified and Regenerated, because your status in God through Christ is cemented and sealed irrevocably. But in another sense you are still being saved now though your ongoing sanctification, and in another sense you will be saved when you are finally glorified.

Although your salvation began (from God's point of view) at your election in eternity past, from your point of view your salvation "happened" or "began" when you were first justified and regenerated.

 

[1689owen]

"Salvation" is a macro-category. It is all-encompassing. We break it down in what we call "the Ordo Salutis" or the order of salvation. Salvation begins in election and is complete in glorification.

We have faith because it is granted to us to believe; we are enabled both to see spiritually and to look upon Christ as the object of our hope. We receive this ability to have saving faith in the divine act of regeneration, the impartation of spiritual life. Faith is opposed to works because instead of doing for salvation, it trusts what someone else has done. But without that trust, salvation isn't possible.

From Thread "Is faith required for Salvation".

I understand all this. But we have a reason to call it "saving" faith. And, people are said to be "unsaved", if they are unbelievers even if they might be believers in the future (of course, since nobody knows who is elect and thus will someday have a saving faith).

(a) One core component of the question is:
If faith is the instrumental cause of our salvation, how can one be saved before having faith? If one cannot be saved before having faith, why do some people talk like this sometimes?

Part of the answer seems to be this:

Although your salvation began (from God's point of view) at your election in eternity past, from your point of view your salvation "happened" or "began" when you were first justified and regenerated.

(b) Another part of the question seems to be, What did Christ accomplish on the cross? It is the cause of the salvation of the elect (even those who lived before Christ, due to it being planned from eternity in the pactum salutis), yes. It ratified the new covenant (covenant of grace). But, in some sense, it did not accomplish the salvation of the elect in that moment, even if it is the cause of it, because the elect are only then saved when they believe.

Some things like union with Christ etc. seem to factor in here. My question seems to also be a quest for a well-ordered view of what God did, does, will do and how I am benefiting from it though faith. Maybe, I want too much. What should I read on this, and what is the answer in short?

 

[1689owen]

New Covenant Union as Mystical Union in Owen

Throughout church history, whenever justification by belief alone is proclaimed the charge of “legal fiction” is heard. God cannot declare someone righteous who has nothing righteous wi…

contrast2.wordpress.com

Am looking into this right now. Any other directions that might help, are welcomed.