An abstract notion of saving faith, based on an abstract, or even undefined doctrine of election, always must attempt to make itself concrete. It must seek a way to fill in the 
gap created by a notion of faith wherein the believer believes out of an idea of faith that is seemingly inherent to them, or individually gifted to THEM.
The antidote to this abstract notion of faith is to come to understand that people believe or trust out of Christ’s vicarious faith for us. It is by His poverty for us that we have become rich; that we can become rich; by saying Yes and Amen in echo of his Yes and Amen that He is for us in the bosom of the Father. In this scenario the believer doesn’t have to figure out a way to make “their salvation” concrete; they don’t have to figure out a way for salvation to be a more sure word for them. The fact that God incarnated for all of humanity by assuming our humanity for Himself reveals the fact that God has already decided to save humanity in His humanity for us in Jesus Christ. This isn’t to suggest that there are a bunch of anonymous Christians running around out there, we must still acknowledge that He alone is salvation for us; but the way that has been forged is through Christ’s humanity penetrating into the depths of our humanity; putting it to death; raising anew as the new humanity before God, with God. When He raised, He raised us with Him. He provided humanity with the possibility to say Yes to God, whereas prior to His Self-penetration into our lives through incarnation, we had no capacity to say Yes to God. We were born dead in our trespasses and sins. Those sins only allowed for us to love ourselves; to have an inward curvature of the heart; to operate in a sphere of competing loves that all are cored by a basket of self-loves. We were trapped with no way out of our feckless statuses as sinners. But Christ, God’s Good News for the world has made a way for us; indeed, as He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for the world, for us.
Emet⦠and amen.
And yet, tragically, this sin that allows us to only love ourselves, ultimately ends in a person finding his/her self in the desperate condition of isolationβ¦ βall by myselfββ¦ on a completely solitary journey and without any final connection.
Moreover, that character of isolation is found in death to be the substantive consequence of a life given over only to the inwardly curved heart that holds no place neither does it yield to the capacity of holding place for another. First and foremost, it finds no place for Godβs assumption of us as individuals in the humanity of Jesus Christ, and then neither does it find any place for the outward curvature of the heart for one another. It is only in the context of relationship with anotherβ more specifically with Christ in his humanity and life for usβ that we find our lives justified by and in the truth of Christβs own life lived for us, that thereby we might live in relationship with and also for one anotherβ¦ no longer bound to the sin of self-reflected self-concern that is lived out in and ultimately consumed by a horrific eternal damned isolation.
@Richard,
“The devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” Early on the Lord ministered to me bringing to mind how lions hunt. They go for the isolate and/or weak animal. This is indeed why it is so important to be in fellowship with the saints, however possible (even online). I agree with your insights.