All reality is infused with language. Language mediates everything. We do not need “substance-altering” models of soteriology in order to avoid nominalism. The very nature of speech itself demonstrates this. Sound echoes in vibrations in the air. These are real. God speaks and creation happens. That is real. Why is it less real when God speaks “not guilty” in our justification?
God speaks and it echoes throughout both soul and body. Call this the beginning of theosis, if you will.
The Lecture Hall of Tyrannus 