Salvation Defined

Intro

I’ve mentioned several times the concept of salvation. Especially in my last two posts about Heaven and Hell. At the time I said that I wasn’t going to get into the details about salvation and what it means, etc. However, since I teased it so many times and since it is a foundational concept in Christianity, I think now is the time to address it.

The Basics

When it comes to the word, salvation. What does that mean? According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word salvation means “preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss”. To be saved from drowning is deliverance from death and the preservation of your life. And when it comes to Christianity and Biblical salvation, it is deliverance from sin, Hell, and oppression from Satan. And it is an eternal preservation of your spirit to dwell with God in Heaven. Now if that were all, this would be a very short post. But there is so much more to salvation. Especially the questions of “Who’s saved?”, “How are you saved?”, etc. So let’s get started.

Why Do I Need Salvation?

The first question to answer is why. Why does mankind need salvation? I hinted at it before in my definition of salvation from a Biblical perspective. But I’ll expand upon that here.

To put it simply, we have sinned. Mankind lives in open (and closed) rebellion to God and His commandments. The Bible teaches that all have sinned. Nobody can make the claim that they have not sinned.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8 (NIV)

And being a holy and just God, He cannot allow sin to go unpunished. The punishment for sin is death and eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NIV)

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20: 14-15 (NIV)

Can’t Save Ourselves

In addition to pointing out the main problem, I also need to point out that we are wholly unable to save ourselves. No amount of good works or money or whatever can save us. The Bible declares that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) and all “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). It doesn’t matter what we do, we can never measure up to the holiness of God – which is the only standard that can get us into Heaven. Only perfection gets us into Heaven. And I think we all can agree that none of us are perfect.

Now that I’ve established the problem, let’s take a look at God’s solution.

The Plan of Salvation

The Bible says that before the foundations of the world were laid, Jesus was chosen to die (1 Peter 1:19-20). That means that God knew that mankind would sin and reject Him and He still created us. All because of His great love. That alone is mind boggling. But God also planned out how to buy us back from the devil.

The What

God’s plan entailed coming to Earth as a human being (Jesus) (John 1:1), living a perfect life (2 Corinthians 5:21), and sacrificing Himself to satisfy the righteous requirements of God to cover all sin for all humans for all time – past, present, and future (Hebrews 10:10). The fact that He lived a perfect life is key. Because of that, Jesus did not deserve to die. He deserved to live forever. However, because He died a willing, sacrificial death, God could place upon Jesus the sins of all people from the past, the present, and the future and consider all of them atoned for. And God demonstrated His acceptance of the sacrifice by raising Jesus from the grave. Furthermore, His sacrifice and resurrection defeated death, Hell, the grave, sin, and Satan.

The How

“That’s all well and good, but what do I have to do to ‘get saved’?” The process is very simple. While Jesus did all the heavy lifting, He does ask you to do one thing. Believe. Yep, that’s it. In Acts 16, a man asked Paul what he must do to be saved, and Paul responded with “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31 NIV).

Many religions have lists of things to do in order to get to their version of paradise. Biblical Christianity says, “God already did it, just believe.” God only requires that you have faith in Him and His sacrifice. After you’ve prayed a prayer of faith to receive salvation, the righteousness of Jesus covers all your sin and brings your spirit back to life and places Holy Spirit within you. After that, you are a new creation, and you will find yourself living a new life. A life pleasing to God.

And before you ask, God offers salvation as a gift. He doesn’t force it upon anyone who doesn’t want it and won’t receive it. Think about a gift for a minute. If you give someone a gift, they have to open their hand and accept it in order to benefit from it. That’s why Jesus’ sacrifice didn’t automatically make everyone saved for all time. Everyone can still choose for themself whether they want to accept the gift or not.

This actually leads into a heresy that I wish to briefly address.

Universalism

I don’t intend on spending a lot of time on this topic, but I do feel like I need to address it. And that’s this idea of Universalism. Universalism claims that all people will go to Heaven. No matter which religion you subscribe to, you end up going to Heaven. People come to this belief usually through one of two ways. To some, the thought of people being tormented for all of eternity makes them uncomfortable and search for an alternative. Or they emphasize God’s love and goodness while downplaying His righteousness and justice. But the Bible clearly teaches that people go to Hell when they die. And they will ultimately be thrown into the lake of fire for all of eternity (see my post on Hell for Biblical evidence of that).

I agree that God is full of love and compassion. In fact, 2 Peter 3:9 reveals that God doesn’t want anyone to perish. But God cannot allow sin into His presence so the sin must be covered. And that’s where Jesus’ sacrifice come into play. For that love and compassion drove God to send Jesus (and made Jesus willing to go along with it) to Earth to die so that we may live. Jesus declares in John 14:6 that “no one comes to the Father except through me.” Time and again, the Bible reveals the exclusivity of the road to Heaven. It’s a narrow path and few find it. The way to Hell is broad and many more walk that path.

From this, we can conclude that Universalism doesn’t exist as a Biblical truth. It’s a dangerous heresy that we must not fall for and must be ready to demonstrate – in love – the truth of the gospel.

Wrapping Up

I did my best to explain in simple terms what salvation is. I hope you find it useful as you explain to others the wonderful news of the gospel. It’s especially important to understand salvation when talking to the lost. A lack of understanding leads to people not actually being saved but believing they are. That’s a bit scary to think about.

One last note, the Bible doesn’t talk about a “salvation prayer”. The Bible says to “declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead” (Romans 10:9) in order to be saved. So, we do need to open our mouths and profess to God that we believe and accept His sacrifice. How that prayer looks varies. The specific words don’t matter so much as the heart behind them.