Salvation word studySalvation
Synonyms: Deliverance, rescue, preservation in peril
Greek References: soteeria 4991, cf 4990-4992 and 4982
Scripture: Mrk 16:15-16, Rom 1:16, Php 2:12, Tit 2:11, Heb 2:3
Related ideas: Wrath, lost, way, escape
Synopsis: Christians talk about salvation, the Saviour, and being saved. However, the meaning and doctrine behind these terms is not aways well understood.
Christians commonly talk about "salvation", their "Saviour", and the need to be "saved". But these Bible terms are meaningless to many people. Even some Christians are vague about what doctrine lies behind these terms.
What Salvation Means
At the height of the storm on Lake Galilee the disciples cried out, "Lord save us! We are perishing!" (Mtt 8:23-27). You know what they meant. To be "saved" means to be rescued and spared, to escape death and ruin, to be preserved from perishing.
The "sheep that was lost" would certainly have perished if it had not been found by the shepherd. To find it was to save its life (Lke 15:3-7). It's appropriate speak in terms of being lost as the opposite of being saved.
To say a soul is lost is to say it is going to perish. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (Jhn 3:16). Having sent his Son to die on the cross, God is able to "save" all who were perishing. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save" them (1Tm 1:15).
What Are We Saved From?
Now let's ask, "What are we saved from?" A child rescued after it has fallen into a swimming pool, or someone pulled back who was about to walk in front of a bus, has experienced salvation. But what is it that we are saved from in the salvation Paul had in mind? The answer is, we are saved from the wrath of God in the day of judgment (Rom 2:5-11). Everyone (including you) has the need of that salvation (Rom 3:23).
This meaning (as we said before) is generally not well understood. Some folk wrongly imagine that on judgment day God will put their good deeds in one side of his scales of justice, and their evil deeds on the other side of his scales, and their righteousness will balance their wickedness. But when they are "weighed in the balances" they will be "found wanting" because God will put all their deeds together in one side of his scales. In the other side of his scales he will put his perfect and holy law. They will fall short of this perfect standard, even if they are guilty of offending God's law in but one point. They will not stand justified before God (Rom 7:12, 3:19-20).
That problem has a solution (Rom 3:23, 7:22-25). We can be justified (made right) and thus saved from God's wrath. We cannot accomplish this by ourselves, but through Jesus Christ, by virtue of his death (in which he shed his blood), his resurrection, ascension, and his intercession for us (Rom 5:6-11, 8:32-34). That is the means, the only possible means, by which we can be saved.
God, in making it possible for the "lost" to be "saved" showed his love for the world. But God's love has its complement and this is what God "saves" us from.
1. Saved by God's love
2. Saved from God's wrath
If you ask people, "From what does God save us?" you will get various answers involving hell, sin, the Devil, and so forth. Often these answers are adequate, but not well understood. People say something like, "We are saved from our sins" without being sure of what they mean.
We need to be clear about the two sides of God's nature. These are not dichotomous or contradictory, but complementary. God does not have a split personality which changes whimsically. But God's nature does have two sides, each of which is necessary to the other and consistent with the other.
Paul expressed this very simply, when he said, "Consider the goodness and severity of God" (Rom 11:22). The goodness of God is his love. The severity of God is his wrath.
In a sense, when you boil salvation down to its essence, God saves us from himself! The love of God saves us from the wrath of God (Rom 5:8-9). If God's love is noble and good, does it not move God to wrath against all that is evil? Yes, of course: If anything opposes and threatens love, the God of love must destroy that opposition. The goodness of his love demands severity in his wrath.
How Love Covers Sin
The proverb, "Love will cover a multitude of sins" (1Pe 4:8) is taken by some to mean that God is so loving that he winks at sin and makes excuses for us unless we really go over the top and do something awful. But the proverb's true meaning is given by James: "If anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins" (Ja 5:20).
Even when one has only "wandered" from the truth, God doesn't cover the sin by ignoring it. He covers the sin by correcting it.
When we say that the love of God saves us from his wrath, we do not mean that the kindness of God diminishes his wrath to the point that our sins are tolerable to him. Remember, God's love insisted that his only begotten Son should be crucified. That's a very severe thing to insist upon, isn't it?
Looking at the cross of Christ is a bit like looking at one of those optical illusions that keep flip-flopping. They appear as one thing, and then suddenly they appear as something else. When we look at the cross which saves us, whilst it is no illusion, one moment we are seeing God's love, and the next moment (if we are not blind and stupid) we see God's severity.
1. Broad: salvation for all
2. Narrow: one Saviour, one way
To understand "salvation" we must understand not only the two sides of God's nature, but the two sides of the plan which he provided to make that salvation possible for us. This "way of salvation" may be viewed in two different, but mutually consistent, modes.
We are used to hearing of the broad scope of God's love and plan of salvation. The Bible says, "God so loved the world..."bringing salvation to the ends of the earth" (Acts 13:47) and "salvation to everyone who believes" in any and every nation (Rom 1:16). "God is... not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2Pe 3:9). In that view, God's plan of salvation is very broad. And that is a correct view.
But there is another correct view of salvation, narrow in the extreme. This is reflected in the very name given to God's Son, "Jesus", which means "Saviour" (Mtt 1:21). He is presented in the Bible as the one and only Saviour. That is about as narrow as you can get, but it is true: "There is salvation in no other name" (Acts 4:12).
One Way for All
All mankind can be saved from the wrath of God by the love of God, but only on very narrow terms: "one sacrifice for sin". Nothing else will do (Heb 10:12,14).
The "way of salvation" is open to anyone, but it is the only way, and irrevocably laid down by God in law. It isn't subject to negotiation, or a matter in which one has a number of options. You either comply with this law and obtain "salvation", or else you remain "lost". We refer to this law as "the new covenant" of Jesus Christ. We also refer to this covenant as "the gospel", which means "the good message", and is a most appropriate term for that covenant which tells the "lost" how to be "saved".
In offering up the one sacrifice on which the salvation of the whole world depends, Jesus shed his blood as "the blood of the everlasting covenant" (Heb 13:20).
This "covenant" is essentially a statement of the arrangements, benefits, responsibilities, terms, and conditions under which a person can be saved from God's wrath. As we said before, it is the law about what God requires in order for a person to be saved from severe and terrible punishment.
When we look into this covenant, we find that it has two sides to it as well:
1. God's part: sacrifice
2. Man's part: submission
The covenant tells us on one hand what God deems necessary himself to provide, and on the other hand what God deems necessary for the person being saved to contribute. In other words there are two parts to God's covenant, God's part and our part, what God had to do and what we have to.
Some people will almost jump in a startle on hearing me say that, because they have been led to believe that salvation is entirely one-sided, it is all of God and none of self, in other words man has no part in his own salvation. But you only have to read the new covenant to see that it is not a unilateral message about what God has done, but in addition lays down what God requires us to do.
Jesus told the story of the wise man who built his house upon a rock and likened to this man anyone "who hears these sayings of mine and does them" (Mtt 7:24-27). In his covenant there are things for us to hear and do --without which we cannot be saved.
God, for his part, has lovingly provided you with what you could not provide for yourself --an acceptable sacrifice for sin. He has also provided, under the terms of his covenant, all kinds of generous help and encouragement which you may draw upon freely to the full. But God nevertheless demands that you "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" in those things which God requires of you (Php 2:12). In this way, Jesus becomes "the author of eternal salvation to all those who obey him". He "learned obedience by the things which he suffered". That was his part. Your part, and your choice, is to obey him.
The theme of Paul's letter to Rome is simple: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom 1:16). Paul, in his letter, makes it very clear what the meaning, the means, and the method of salvation is.
What is opposite to being saved?
Mtt 8:23-27 Disciples in boat: "we perish!"
Lke 15:3-7 The lost sheep
Jhn 3:16 "should not perish but..."
What does God save people from?
Rom 11:22 "goodness and severity of God"
Rom 5:8-9 Saved from wrath
Note that in the cross of Christ we see both sides of God's nature
How many can be saved?
Jhn 3:16 The world
1Jn 2:1-2 The whole world
2Pe 3:9 Any...all
How many ways of salvation are there?
Act 4:12 "No other name..."
Jhn 14:6 "I am the way..."
Mtt 1:21 Name "Jesus" means "Saviour"
What do we contribute to our own salvation?
Mtt 7:24-27 Like wise builder -- hear and do
Heb 5:9 Author (source) of eternal salvation to all who obey him
Php 2:12 Work out your own salvation...
What is expected from us, and what should we do?
In God's method of salvation, there are six things for us to do so that we can take advantage of the means of salvation. Paul tells us to:
1. Hear the gospel of Christ
2. Have faith (belief) in Christ
3. Confess faith in Christ
4. Repent of sin
5. Be baptised into Christ
6. Continue in his way