Discipleship - Salvation Now?

I'm reading The Great Omission by Dallas Willard. It's about discipleship - a role not just for super Christians, but defining of what it means to be a Christian. These thoughts flow out of those readings...

Adam and Eve lived in communion with God, under His provision, care, and authority. The fall marks their rejection of Him. The fall marks their decision to live by their own provisions and own authority. Such a life is marked by death.

Today Christians present the gospel as good news of escape from that inevitable future death - life eternal. We say, "believe and be saved," as if a verbal word now is a guarantee of future escape. But, salvation is not just a future escape from hell - it is, as it ever was, life in Him - for now and for as long as we are living under His authority and provision.

Most "Christians" believe (give a verbal nod), but continue to live under their own authority - that's not salvation. They may become saved in the future when true belief expresses itself as life under God's authority - but in the present its just empty words.

Non-Christians are a little more honest perhaps - they are not saved and they know it. They say, "I'll live under my own authority for now, and submit to God's authority when death comes-a-knockin'". I kind of think that will work (though I'd never bet on it) - I think (I hope) that He'll make room under His umbrella when judgment pours down.

But thats not the point! The point is that Adam and Eve royally messed up - it wasn't better to live under their own authority. They were stripped naked. They suffered and toiled. They died. That's why "heaven" (eternity under God's authority) is HEAVEN - a desirable place to be - because God, who is good, is in charge there.

The good news of the gospel is that heaven is here - Christ has come. It is not "believe and you'll go to heaven when you die". We can live under His authority now. That is not oppression - that is salvation. But we are Adam and Eve all over again - asserting ourselves, making provisions for ourselves, and rejecting God's authority.