ABSTRACT
Augustine and Luther often spoke of sin as the state of being incurvatus in se, turned in on oneself, dominated by one's own inner workings, striving always to earn through one's behaviour acceptance by God and by one's fellows. Salvation is not earned by people's goodness. It is not a reward for moral achievement. But it is offered to us out of God's love despite people's ethical failures and inadequacies. Salvation is for Christians something that has happened in the past, something that is happening now, and something that will reach its culmination in the future. Achieved historically on the cross, it is being worked out in the present, and is a blessing which will be fully enjoyed at the end of time. Salvation is also an ongoing reality. People are being saved; they are constantly, as it were, appropriating the fruits of what has been accomplished in the past, inheriting and enjoying the benefits of what has happened.
