"Immanuel - God with us."

Salvation

“Soteriology” is the study of salvation. It seems every religion and philosophy that believes in a future has an ultimate goal that may be summed up with the word “salvation”. Even the non-believers who wrote Humanist Manifesto II say, “No deity will save us, we must save ourselves.”

There are four issues we will consider in this chapter: 1) From what are we saved? 2) To what are we saved? 3) By what means are we saved? and 4) I will discuss some of the metaphors the Bible uses to make clear the concept of salvation.

1. From what are we saved? “The soul that sins will die.” (Ezekiel 18:4) The penalty for sin is death. Sin is the reason the penalty of execution was administered in the Garden of Eden and under the Laws of Moses.

Revelation 21:7-8 describes the fate of the lost. “The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Some of the words and phrases Jesus used to describe the fate of the damned are: “hell”, “second death” “where the fire never goes out”, “where the worm does not die and the fire in not quenched”, “the eternal fire”, “the fiery furnace”, and “outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. In Revelation 20:3, John describes hell as a “bottomless pit”.

Fire, darkness, falling, death. These are the ways the Bible describes the fate that awaits those who sin against God.

But then everyone has sinned and everyone, including believers, continue to sin. The apostle John, writing to Christians, said that anyone who says he does not sin is a liar. (I John 1:8-10) The apostle Paul (the apostle of Christ!) expressed his struggle with sin in Romans 7. He said what he should do, he doesn’t; and what he shouldn’t do, he does. Admitting that he continued to sin even after becoming a Christian and an apostle, Paul concluded, “What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24)

From what are we saved? The answer is that we are saved from the penalty of our sins, which the Bible calls the second death and describes as fire, outer darkness, and a bottomless pit.

2) “To what are we saved?” The answer is we are saved to everlasting life. In what is known among many believers as “The Golden Text of the Bible” Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

I confess that I do not know what everlasting life means. The Bible says that the saved will be caught up into the heavens to be with the Lord. Jesus said He was going “away to prepare a place for us”. Revelation tells about a new heaven and a new earth in which are the river of water of life and the tree of life. We are told that we will live forever and that there will be no more sickness, pain or death. (Revelation 21:1-4 and Revelation 22:1-5)

But will everlasting life be physical or spiritual? I tend to believe the next life will be physical, except everything (including the earth and our bodies) will become new.

Will we see our family and friends? I think so.

Will we just sit around all day on a cloud and eat and drink and play golf, or tend flowers, or fish, or sit by the ocean on a beach? I doubt it. I think we will have plenty to do.

Many years ago a friend of mine preached a sermon about the second coming of Christ. He talked about the different interpretations of the passages of Scripture related to the study of end times (“eschatology”). He talked about the mysterious “thousand year” reign of Christ known as the “millennium” (Revelation 20:2) and asked would that reign be before (premillennialist) or after (postmillennialist) the rapture of the church, or was the millennium a figurative way (amillennialist) of describing the duration of the church age.

And then he concluded that he himself was a “panmillennialist”. He said he believed that everything will “pan out” just the way God wants the end to happen. I think he is right.

Just remember, we are saved to everlasting life. That’s enough.

3) And now to the most important question about salvation: By what means are we saved? A discussion of New Testament doctrine must include all the passages in the New Testament that address the question, “By what means are we saved?”

I once suggested to a minister who was a pastor of a large denominational church that he consider a few other passages in addition to the “saved by faith” verses in Romans and Ephesians. He wrote back and said he did not want to debate the issue. He had his mind made up. Obviously, he was not concerned about everything the Bible has to say about the means of salvation.

I am.

Perhaps the beginning point would be to quote Ephesians 2:8 where Paul wrote: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.”

When I was in college in eastern Kentucky I used to go spelunking – cave exploring – with my friends. “Farmer’s Cave” was just an eight-foot diameter hole in the ground beside a tree. But when we descended into that hole we found a cave of rooms and formations and tunnels and walkways and streams and animals. I had no idea what a wonderful world awaited me when I climbed down into that hole. And a wonderful world awaits us when we delve deeply in the study the Scriptures.

“Saved by grace through faith”. Those five words are an entrance into the world of the theology of salvation (soteriology) that has yet to be completely explored. And yet we can understand the elementary message of what it means to be “saved by grace through faith”.

Here is the message.

Grace, as it relates to being saved from the second death to everlasting life, describes what Jesus did when He gave His life on the cross as payment for the penalty of our sins. I deserved to be put to death for my sins against God. But Jesus was put to death for me – and you. That’s grace – God’s offer to give me everlasting life when I deserve to suffer the second death.

I do not deserve the grace of God. I cannot earn the grace of God. Grace is God’s offer of forgiveness when I deserve the exact opposite – God’s wrath. A simple definition of God’s grace is, “favor bestowed when wrath is owed.”

How do I receive God’s grace, God’s forgiveness of my sins and the promise of everlasting life? The Biblical answer is, “through faith”.

And what is faith? When it comes to a definition of faith theologians and preachers are all over the spectrum. Some define faith as merely “believing” that Jesus is the Son of God. But James wrote that even the demons believe in Jesus, and they are damned. (James 2:19)

On the other hand, the belief that Jesus is the Son of the Living God is the beginning point of faith.

To understand how the grace of God was received by the first converts to Christianity we have to read the book of Acts. And there is more information about faith in the letters of Paul, Hebrews, James, Peter and John. As one reads these books and letters, one fact becomes clear, there is much more to faith than merely believing.

A daredevil stretched a cable across Niagara Falls and intended to push a wheelbarrow across the cable. As the crowd gathered to watch no one thought he could accomplish the feat. But then one on-looker expressed his confidence in the daredevil and said, “I have faith in you. I really believe you can make it.” And the daredevil responded, “If you really have faith in me, climb in the wheelbarrow for the ride!”

Saying you believe and actually getting in the wheelbarrow and riding is the difference between belief and faith.

James (2:20-26) said, “Faith without works is dead.” Logically then, this means that belief coupled with some action is faith. In the New Testament those who believed did something. And what they did was to repent of their sins and submitted to being buried with Christ in water (Acts 2:38). That is saving faith.

In the next chapter we will look at the meaning of baptism. For now, however, I want to say a word about repentance.

Repentance includes two actions: 1) sorrow for one’s sins against God (II Corinthians 7:10a), and 2) committing one’s life to obeying or loving Jesus. Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

Just before the crucifixion of Jesus, Peter denied Him three times. After His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Jesus did not asked Peter three times if he was sorry for denying Him. Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him.

In reality, repentance is a change of affection. At one point in our lives our first motivation was to either please ourselves or someone else. But in repentance we make the choice to love Jesus, that is to satisfy Jesus first of all.

Repentance is not so much a matter of a change of mind as it is a change of heart. Jesus compares our new relationship to Him as a marriage. His passion for us is met by our passion for Him and as He gave His life for us on the cross we decide (in repentance) to live the rest of our lives for Him.

Faith in Christ means that we believe Jesus is the Son of God, that we love Jesus and that we submit to being buried with Christ in baptism. It is then that God works (notice it is God who is working through our baptism, not us) to forgive us, to give us new life and to save us. This is the reason Peter answered those on Pentecost who ask, “Brethren, what shall we do?” with the command to “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” (Acts 2:37-38)

When we believe that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, repent of our sins, and are buried with Christ in baptism, the Holy Spirit gives us new life. This is sometimes called “being born again” or “regenerated” or “saved”.

“Saved by grace through faith”. Grace is God’s offer to save us. Faith is believing, repenting and being baptized. It is left up to each one of us to choose to accept God’s grace and to choose to obey to the commands of Jesus and the apostles as those in the New Testament obeyed.

4) The New Testament uses several words and phrases to describe salvation. These words all describe the very same process of being saved. These words and phrases were drawn from the culture and religious life at the time of the New Testament.

Here is a list of some of the word pictures of salvation from the New Testament: new creature, forgiveness, justification, redemption, sanctification, reconciliation, regeneration, remission of sins, adoption, election, the new birth, born again, ransom, freed from sin.

All of these comparisons are like facets of a single diamond. Each is significant in the context in which it is used. But all of these comparisons describe the very same event; that is, they describe what happens when a person is saved by the grace of God through their faith in Christ from the death penalty of their sins to everlasting life.

To give you an idea of how these metaphors are used we will look at just two of them briefly.

First, the word “redemption”.

The process of redemption was familiar to the Jews. In Exodus 13 the Jews were required to “redeem”, or “buy back”, from God the first born of their male children. The redemption price was either a spotless lamb or, if the parents were poor (as in the case of Mary and Joseph), two young doves or pigeons (Luke 2:22-24). The lamb, or the birds, was slain as the payment of the redemption price for the life of the child. And then the child belonged to the parents.

Similarly, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was sacrificed on the cross. The blood of the Lamb, the blood of Jesus, redeemed us from the wrath of God. God sacrificed His own Son to redeem us from the penalty of our sins against Him (1 Peter 1:18-19). Now that we have been redeemed we belong to God.

Secondly, the word “forgiveness”.

Forgiveness means that the penalty for any sins committed against God has been completely eliminated and that we have been completely restored to God.

Forgiveness is a word that is used too casually and, I think, too carelessly. Often we use the word “forgiveness” to mean that we will not take revenge for the wrongs committed against us. But we still refuse to restore the relationship with the offender. This is not forgiveness. This is simply obeying another command of the New Testement that we are not to take vengeance on those who offend us (Romans 12:19).

When God forgives a person, the sin is gone, as the Bible says, “As far as the east if from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) And: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” (Hebrew 10:17)

When a person is saved, his sins are gone and the offender is completely restored to God because he is forgiven.

And just as a side note in conclusion: Do you remember that part of the Lord’s Prayer that goes, “Forgive us our sins and we forgive those who sin against us”? Forgiveness is serious business. We are to forgive as God has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32).

To sum up: we are saved from the wrath of God to everlasting life by the grace of God, which we receive through faith in Christ, repentance and by being buried in water in the name of Jesus Christ.