“Salvation” – the act of being saved, is a big word in terms of what it encompasses in both the dictionary definition and what it represents in the Bible. It is defined in the dictionary as the state or experience of being rescued from peril or danger, protected from harm or kept from calamity, loss or ruin – deliverance from destruction. It includes the preservation of something of value or the restoration of something that has been damaged or destroyed.
We talk of people being saved from drowning or from a burning building where they would certainly perish if someone had not intervened to save them. We speak of a dentist saving a tooth that has been knocked out by restoring it through oral surgery to its original healthy condition or a doctor surgically repairing and restoring an injured infected leg that was at risk to be amputated. We save animals by adopting them from a shelter where they would otherwise be put to sleep.
In the Bible the term salvation or the concept of being saved refers to God’s merciful rescue and restoration of members of our fallen, sin-corrupted race, who in their rejection of God’s purpose for and rule over their lives and their opposition to God’s design and order for human flourishing and individual happiness in Him, have come under His wrath and judgement, cut off from the glorious life with God for which man was created and destined for Hell (Romans 1:18) (Psalm 9:17).
And the Bible makes it clear that this salvation is all of grace – a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9), given out of love (John 3:16) in which God Himself, in the person and work of the LORD Jesus Christ, through His sinless life, sacrificial death on the cross and miraculous resurrection, accomplishes everything necessary to rescue men from the Hell we deserve and to qualify us for Heaven, which in our sin corrupted condition we could never deserve. This is referred to in Romans 1:16 as the gospel, which means good news. (Acts 20:24).
I have outlined mankind’s desperate and helpless condition in previous posts and will emphasize it again here, so we understand that there is absolutely nothing we contribute to our salvation except our need for it. Salvation in its totality, beginning with God’s eternal plan for it, is a gracious gift of God, designed to magnify the glory of His grace and demonstrate the expansiveness of His love, while upholding the righteousness of His justice (Ephesians 1:6) (1 Peter 5:10) (John 3:16) (Isaiah 5:16).
We are told in Hebrews 4:12, that the word of God, the Bible, is the means by which we have authoritatively revealed to us the thoughts and intents of our heart, which Genesis 6:5 reveals are “only evil continually”. In Romans 8:17 we are told of the hostility found in our sin-corrupted mind toward God.
Thus, as we read through the word of God, we see such terms as vile, unholy, ungodly, unrighteous, perverse, depraved, wicked and ignoble applied to mankind as a whole. Jesus, the living WORD, reveals that we are slaves to sin, having the rebellious and prideful nature of the devil, who Jesus identifies as our spiritual father, whose lies we choose to believe over the truth of God (John 1:1-3) (John 1:14) (John 8:34) (John 8:44).
The Apostle Paul reveals the universality and totality of our depraved and helpless condition as evidence of our desperate need for the gospel of grace in Romans 1:18-31, and Romans 3:9-18. He tells us in the Romans 3 passage that there are none who are righteous, that there is no one who does good (as defined by God), that no one seeks after the one true God, and in verse 18, no one truly fears the judgement of God, nor stands in awe and wonder of His infinite greatness. These all are part of God’s just indictment against the sin of the whole of the human race (Romans 3:23).
Paul then, in his letter to the fledgling church in the city of Ephesus, summarizes the helpless, depraved, sinful condition of all mankind and the dire consequences of it. In Ephesians 2:1-3, he reveals that we are dead (spiritually) in our trespasses and sins, under the devil’s rebellious influence, controlled by our sinful lusts – our disordered desires and vile passions, and thus justly subject to the wrath of God. This is the bad news, the very bad news.
Paul however, in Ephesians 2:4, follows this up with the good news – the very best news a sinful man or women could hope to receive, and that is the revelation of the gospel of grace wherein he joyfully writes, “BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love toward us even when we were dead in trespasses, made us (spiritually) alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”
Paul, in Ephesians 2:4-10, provides a summary exposition of God’s gracious work of salvation which begins, and must begin with a supernatural, miraculous work of making a spiritually dead person, who the Bible refers to as the “natural man”, who has no interest in knowing God nor doing the will of God spiritually alive, such that knowing, loving and being loved by God as He has revealed Himself in the person and work of the LORD Jesus Christ, and knowing and doing His will becomes more important to us than anything else in this world (Psalm 10:4) (1 Peter 1:3-9) .
This event of restoration to spiritual life is essential to our salvation and ultimate inclusion in God’s eternal kingdom, as Jesus makes clear in John 3:1-8, where He refers to this supernatural spiritual transformation as being “born again”, or “born from above” or” born of the (Holy) Spirit.”
It is referred to in Titus 3:4-5 as regeneration, a sovereign act of God the Holy Spirit, that enables us to both see our need for and receive all of the other gifts and blessings God has provided for our salvation in the person and work of our LORD Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
All that God has done and will do in the lives of those who receive His salvation is by grace, and upon regeneration, received by faith, which as we will see is in itself a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). And God willing, I will look more closely at this truth in my next post.
Grace and Peace ×