Salvation is the condition or state of being saved. To be saved is to be freed from a danger of some sort. This could be a punishment or a consequence of some action. It could be a natural physical or mental consequence. It could be a consequence in a spiritual or abstract realm.
Although I am entirely serious in the words I chose to write in the paragraph above it may raise a question. Salvation is usually used as a noun and treated as an object. I want to suggest that salvation is more than a mere object that you can pass back and forth between you and God. Salvation from the consequences of sin is a divine gift of God. It exists in the spiritual dimension.
To a Christian salvation is being saved from sin or being saved from the consequences of sin. It has a more spiritual or abstract meaning than to be saved from a fire or from drowning.
Is salvation somehow imaginary or unreal? The picture of salvation in the Bible is painted in very real terms. It is pictured in graphically real terms comparing it with being saved from fire or a flood.
Thoughtful people want a deeper understanding of a subject before they take a firm position on it. Here is my view and I think it is correct. In my view salvation involves a number of steps or elements to be grappled with and accepted.
Once you are convinced or persuaded that God really exists and the Bible teachings are serious and consequential you will have a sense of your need for salvation. If you reject these feelings, if you reject the impressions and messages that God is placing before you, you are, in fact, rejecting and rebelling against God.
In invite you to submit to what God is telling you. I beg you, I plead with you, please allow God in your life. According to the Bible, God will help you do this. Please keep reading!
What SDAs Believe About the Experience of Salvation
The Experience of Salvation (WCC)
Soteriology and the Christian Life (Michael Beck)