Salvation, part 2

Salvation From

When the Bible speaks of salvation it is describing the transition we go through from need to fulfillment, from problem to solution. An illustration in see in Deuteronomy 26:5-9 where we have both aspects—the picture of salvation from Egypt and heading for the Promised Land.

Before we can discuss salvation, we have to realize that we need to be saved from something. It can be an external threat, either physical or spiritual. God saves us from all sorts of things:

• Natural catastrophes
  
• National catastrophes
  
• From energies or enemies
  
• From being defeated by enemies
  
• From the waves that are about to swamp the boat in Matthew 8:25
  
• Saved from disease and physical defects—Mark 5:28, 34
  
• Songs of deliverance in the Psalms which attribute salvation to God (Ps. 18; 30; 31; 34; 46; 91).
  

Salvation from Spiritual dangers

• From Satan(Mk 3:23–27; Lk 8:36).
  
• From the wrath of God(Rom 5:9–10) Rom 2:5; 1 Thess 2:16;
  
• From sin Mt 1:21 Lk 7:48, 50 from the power of sin (Rom 6:12–14) and from the practice of sin as a way of life (1 Jn 3:9–10; 5:18).
  
• From demonic possession and the dominion of Satan
  

Salvation to:

• Liberation
  
  • The exodus Exodus 20:2
    
  • Jesus came to set at liberty the oppressed Luke 4:18
    
  • Paul—Christ has set us free Galatians 5:1, 13-14
    
• To health and wholeness
  
  • Soteria, the common word for salvation "carries connotations of health, wholeness and soundness."
    
  • Mark 2:17 shows Jesus as a "physician."
    
  • Part of Jesus' ministry was to make people well
    
  • Physical and spiritual healing are often linked together.
    
  • Healing is done to demonstrate the saving power of Jesus and to give a clue as to what salvation is about.
    
• Salvation is shown as shalom, or peace primarily in the prophetic literature.
  
  • A harmonious community of God—Isaiah 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-4; Zechariah 2:6-12.
    

Salvation In

Another aspect of our salvation is union with Christ.

• 2 Corinthians 5:17—"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature."
  
• Ephesians 2:21-22 speaks of Jesus as the cornerstone and foundation of our faith, "in whom the whole structure is joined together … in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Colossians 2:7; 1 Peter 2:4-5)
  
• The image of husband and wife (Ephesians 5:31-32; Revelation 19:7)
  
• Vine and branches (John 15:1-10; Colossians 2:6-7)
  
• The relationship of the head and the body (1 Corinthians 6:15, 19; Ephesians 1:22-23)
  
• Not only are we in Christ but Christ is in the saved person (Galatians 2:20; John 14:20; Ephesians 3:17; 1 John 4:16).
  

 

The Benefits of Salvation

• New Situation—salvation seen as an objective change.
  
  • One's legal status has changed
    
  • One has acquired new rights and responsibilities
    
  • Redemption—the picture of the marketplace where a family member is set free from slavery by a friend or family member who pays the ransom or buys them out of slavery.
    
    • Redemption signifies a transaction too place where someone or something was exchanged to complete the transaction
      
      • Yahweh was the redeemer of Israel in the Old Testament
        
      • The ministry of Jesus is a picture of his sacrificial death to pay the price for our sin.
        
      • Luke uses redemption as a general term for salvation (Luke 1:68; 2:38; 21:28; 24:21).
        
      • Paul—Romans 3:24; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 1:14; Galatians 4:5. That redemption was the blood of Christ which represented the divine life
        
      • Peter and Hebrews—1 Peter 1:18-19; Hebrews 9:12-15
        
      • Bought with a price—1 Corinthians 6:20
        
  • Justification—an image from the law courts
    
    • To be justified is to be declared innocent by the presiding judge
      
    • Isaiah 43:25
      
    • We are also moving into a new situation which is like the criminal who has been declared "not guilty."
      
    • We are declared not guilty not on the basis of our own merits or success, but rather due to our standing "in Christ." Romans 8:1; 3:21-31; Galatians 3:11; Ephesians 2:8-9
      
    • Dependent on the shed blood of Christ Romans 4:25; 5:8-9
      
    • We who are in Christ Jesus are formally pardoned
      
  • Adopted
    
    • Adoption is linked to the work of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:15)
      
    • The Saved are members of God's kingdom and God family at the same time.
      
    • Not a child of God by nature, but by adoption
      
    • Emphasis on the graciousness of God
      
    • We now enjoy all the blessings of the legal status as a child of God—Romans 8;17; Ephesians 1:13-14)
      
  • Reconciliation—from the realm of personal relationships
    
    • Assumption of previous estrangement that has been overcome or healed
      
    • All people are by nature enemies of God (Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21)
      
    • God is alienated because of his righteous anger (Romans 1:18)
      
    • The death of Christ overcomes sin and allows us to avoid the divine wrath (2 Corinthians 5:19; Ephesians 2:6)
      
    • We may now be called the "friend of God" (James 2:23)
      
• New self: salvation as inner change
  
  • When we are in Christ we undergo inner renewal (2 Corinthians 5:17)
    
  • This is a subjective as well as an objective condition
    
  • "Rebirth" (John 3:3-7; 1 Peter 1:23)
    
  • David recognized this need for inner renewal (Psalm 51:10)
    
  • Prophets visualized a time of national renewal and spiritual cleansing (Ezekiel 36:25-28)
    
    • The covenant of God would be written on the hearts of the people rather than on tables of stone (Jeremiah 31:31)
      
    • Baptism is a sign of rebirth (Romans 6)
      
  • Jesus' resurrection signals the beginning of the new order in which believers share
    
  • Designates a new power and a new orientation
    
    
  • "To be born anew means to join in the new humanity of the Second Adam, to be made more Christlike through the renewal of one's inner nature by the Holy Spirit (Jn 1:13; Tit 3:5)."
    
• New Steps: Salvation as Behavioral Change
  
  • Christians are expected to live differently (Galatians 5:25;
    
  • James goes even further and tells us that "works" are an evidence of salvation (James 2:24).
    
  • Paul--"Salvation is received in faith but expressed in good works (2 Timothy 2:21-22)
    
  • Moral and spiritual implications: 1 John 2:6; 3:9.
    
  • Walking according to the Spirit
    

The Agent of Salvation

• Humans incapable of bringing about their legal standing before God.
  
• Humans cannot save themselves
  
• Salvation has to come from God alone
  
• Jesus is called Savior 16 times in the NT while God is referred to as Savior eight times.
  
• Jesus' name means Yahweh is salvation and in Isaiah he is called Emmanuel—"God with us."
  
• Jesus' ministry demonstrates this salvation role
  
• Peter said, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
  

 

The Scope of Salvation—who or what can be saved?

• Anyone who responds to the preaching of the Gospel
  
  • Faith
    
  • Confession of Christ as Savior
    
  • Repentance
    
  • Baptism
    
• Salvation is available to all races and classes—Acts 2:38; Galatians 3:28; Titus 2:11
  
• Not merely rescuing people out of a doomed world
  
• A transformation of the whole cultural and cosmic created order
  
• Principalities and powers (in the spiritual realm) have been reconciled through Christ
  
• The created order longs for the final exodus event (Romans 8:19-29)
  

 

The Time of Salvation

• Past, present, and future
  
• An ongoing process—"being saved" see Acts 2:47; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15.
  
• Not to be neglected (Hebrews 2:3; actually the entire book of Hebrews)
  
• To be held fast (1 Corinthians 15:2)
  
• "Worked out" (Philippians 2:12)
  
• Full meaning known only on the last day when the renewal process is complete
  
  • New Jerusalem, new heavens and earth (Isaiah 65:17-25; 2 Peter 3:13)
    
  • Believers spared from the wrath of God (1 Thessalonians 5:8-9)
    
• The eternal life does not begin when we die or when Christ returns, but rather the moment we become believers (John 3:16-19; 5:25; 11:25-26; 14:18-20; 17:24-26)
  
• The inheritance is guaranteed by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives (1Peter 1:4-5; Ephesians 1:13-14)
  

 

The Economy of Salvation

• Salvation is a significant part of God's plan or oikonomia to unite all things to Christ (Ephesians 1:10; 3:9; 1 Peter 1:20; Matthew 25:34)
  
• Salvation is the work of the Trinity
  
  • The will of the Father
    
  • The sending of the Son
    
  • The application of salvation to believers by the Holy Spirit
    
• Salvation is totally unmerited—"For by grace you have been saved. . . " (Ephesians 2:8)
  

 

Summary

• Three-dimensional salvation
  
  • A new situation—the truth of Christ in our lives
    
  • New hope
    
  • New way of life—the way of righteousness defined by Jesus
    
• Salvation is
  
  • Past fact
    
  • Present experience
    
  • Future hope
    
    

All the information in this article came from Ryken, Leland, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney, and Daniel G. Reid. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. electronic ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000, c1998. P. 754