Yesterday, in my final sermon at Christ the King Presbyterian Church here in Austin, I preached on Rom 1:16-17 (the lectionary’s epistle lesson for the day).

Paul in those passages says that the Gospel is “the power of God for salvation….” All day yesterday and this morning I have been asking, “OK, now, just what does Paul mean by ‘salvation’ again?”

I find NT Wright’s answer to this question, laid out in his Romans commentary, quite compelling. Wright suggests that what Paul has in mind, especially evident in chapters 5 -8, includes:

- “new exodus” (ie, Israel’s liberation from bondage / captivity),

- sonship or adoption,

- inheritance (the land now including the whole world),

- the glory of God which means his presence in the form of the Holy Spirit, and bodily resurrection.

These are weighty matters, and hopefully I can come back to each one of them soon.