Salvation is by God's call. We are invited to participate in the gift of life that saves us. Our participation in this saving process involves us ever more deeply in the life of Christ, and transforms us ever more fully into union with God.

We may understand the meaning of the church, and our lives as members of it, as participation in Christ's life that saves us. We touch and are touched by Christ's life through the visible, tangible and historical realities of the church.

The saving role of participation has been an important theme for Anglican theologians. Here we consider the views of three of them: Richard Hooker, William Porcher DuBose and Michael Ramsey.Richard Hooker

In the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Richard Hooker (c. 1554-1600) identified different degrees of participation in Christ. All creation, humanity included, does so in Christ as creator. But our participation can and is meant to exceed the general participation of all creation. The participation of Christ in the faithful and the faithful in Christ means that "by virtue of this mystical conjunction wee are of him and in him even as though our verie flesh and bones should be made continuate with his."

For Hooker, participation is always dependent on the gift of Christ's presence. The sacraments of baptism and Eucharist "are founde to be most necessarie." We participate in the saving life of Christ by sharing in the life of his body. We do this through participation in the life of the church, and especially in the sacraments. Hooker explains that "Wee receive Christ Jesus in baptisme once as the first beginner, in the Eucharist often as beinge by continewall degress the finisher of our life." For Hooker, sacramental participation begins and tends toward the completing of salvation.William Porcher DuBose

William Porcher DuBose (1836-1918), a seminary professor and dean at Sewanee for many years, emphasized that Christ's presence in our church and in our lives is real. The salvation we may know through Christ's presence is also real. We may actually participate in the process of salvation as we share in the life and sacraments of the church. Baptism signifies participation in Christ's death and life. Through participation in the sacraments we may be effectively included in Christ's victory for our salvation.

DuBose emphasizes that Christ's saving Incarnation is to include us through our personal participation in it. Salvation is not just "done" to us. And the sacraments are not magic. We are included and sustained in Christ's salvation through the life and sacraments of the church.

But our encounter with Christ's objective gift of salvation is to be completed subjectively in our lives by faith, which is at the heart of our saving participation in Christ. Through faith we may share the "real relation" between Christ and ourselves that will be our salvation.

In this relationship the first objective gift and the initiative are his. Objectively, baptism expresses and is our life in Christ. It is our inclusion in the Incarnation. But we may deny ourselves this great gift by our subjective refusal of it. If we do not limit baptism by our lack of faith, if we do not subjectively refuse it, baptism will be our salvation. Michael Ramsey

Michael Ramsey (1904-1988), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1961 to 1974, also identified the need for participation in the death of Christ. Jesus' prediction of his death "bewildered" his disciples, Ramsey said, "and in answer to their bewilderment he taught them that they would not understand the death except by sharing in it." Death is definitive for the mortal condition. And Jesus' death was the ultimate sign of the extent of God's participation in humanity. Sharing in Jesus' life, death and Resurrection is also the ultimate extent of the Christian's saving participation in the body of Christ. Ramsey explained that "while it is true that the church is founded upon the Word-made-flesh, it is true only because the word was identified with men right down to the point of death, and enabled men to find unity through a veritable death to self."

The perspective of "Christ crucified and risen" is determinative for Ramsey's understanding of humanity. Ramsey drew on various Pauline texts (Gal. 2:20, Rom. 6:4, and 2 Cor. 5:14-17) to describe the saving participation of Christ in the believer and the believer in Christ. He explained that the Christian's death to self is not only "a response to the death of Christ as a past event; it is a present sharing in his dying and rising again."

As "one died for all, therefore all died," Ramsey urged. "Men are now found to be identified with Christ's death in such a way that they think of themselves no longer as separate and self-sufficient units, but as centered in Christ who died and rose again." This participation in the experience of Christ crucified and risen is formative for understanding ourselves as members of the body of Christ where salvation is known. For Ramsey, our participation in the body of Christ pointed away from the wrong kind of self-sufficiency. We must die to self, and selfish isolation. We must be faithful unto death with Christ, as we discover our life in him and his life in us.

God's gift of salvation is freely offered, and it is to be freely received. God never strips us of our free will, and never reduces us to robots or puppets on a string. Our participation in the love of God draws us beyond the limitations and delusions of the self in isolation. We may participate in the love of God wherever God's love is found, which is everywhere. Most especially, we may find and be found by God's life for our salvation in the life and sacraments of the church. In outward, visible and sacramental ways, the church makes Christ's victory available to us and our perceptions.

The Rev. Robert Slocum is the rector of the Church of the Holy Communion, Lake Geneva, Wis.