“SALVATION IS OF THE LORD” (Jonah 2:9) (Psalm 3:8) (Psalm 62:1). This is a magnificent, marvelous, majestic truth proclaimed and demonstrated by God throughout the Bible, revealing to us His greatness and goodness, displayed most prominently in the glory of His grace (Ephesians 1:6).
Salvation is a big word in terms of what it encompasses in both the dictionary definition and what it represents in the Bible. Salvation – the act of being saved – 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 also includes the preservation of something of value or the restoration of something that has been damaged or destroyed.
When the Bible speaks of our salvation, or our being saved, it is referring to our being rescued from God’s wrath, from His just judgement on our sin in Hell (Romans 5:9) (1 Thessalonians 5:9), and our being restored to the glorious life with God for which man was created, what the Bible refers to as eternal life, which will have its ultimate consummation in a new heavens (universe) and new earth (Romans 6:23) (Revelation 21:1-7).
And the Bible makes it very clear that our salvation is all of grace, a free gift, that costs us absolutely nothing but our damnable pride (James 4:6-7), which is the root of all sin, the very thing which brought us under the condemnation of God in the first place (Genesis 3:4-5). As I have noted in previous posts, sinful mankind has no ability to perceive our desperate condition or to do anything about it apart from the mercy and grace of God (Ephesians 4:17-19) (Ephesians 2:1-5).
God saves us in a way that destroys man’s pride, and glorifies His grace, so that no one can boast in anything in regard to their salvation, but will only praise, honor and glorify God throughout eternity for it. (Ephesians 2:8-9) (1 Corinthians 1:27-31) (Revelation 5:11-13).
God saves us only through faith in the person and work of the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, who in the ultimate expression of humility, came into this world as a human being, miraculously conceived in the womb of a teenage virgin, to accomplish through His sinless life, His substitutionary death on the cross, and subsequent resurrection from the dead, all that was necessary to secure the salvation of all whom God would call to Himself through the gospel, the good news of God’s salvation in Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:1-6) (Acts 2:36-39).
Theologians have commented on the differing aspects of God’s saving grace, and have categorized them in various ways, some of which I will try to represent in what follows.
Our salvation begins with what has been referred to as Electing Grace, wherein God, in the freedom of His will, chooses or predestines whom He will save, independent of any individual worthiness or meritorious actions of their own. This is probably the most controversial aspect of salvation, yet the most God exalting as it proclaims and upholds the sovereignty of God, who freely chooses, according to the wise counsel of His will and for His glory, those whom He would save and conform to the image of His true image bearer, Jesus Christ (Romans 11:5-6) (Ephesians 1:3-12) (Romans 9:14-18) (Romans 8:29-30).
Then we have Justifying Grace, in which Jesus, on behalf of those He will save, lives the perfectly holy and righteous life God requires for a person to live in His presence, and takes upon Himself, on the cross, the divine justice they deserve for their failure to do so. Jesus does this so that God can justly forgive our sins and declare us righteous or in right relationship with Himself through our faith in and spiritual union with Jesus (Psalm 24:3-6) (Romans 3:24-26).
Next, is what is referred to as Quickening Grace or Regenerating Grace. To quicken means to make alive, and refers to God restoring spiritual life, what the Bible refers to as regeneration or being born again, in which a person is made spiritually alive by the Holy Spirit, now capable of communion with God, given a new heart, with new desires, new affections and new motivations that are centered on knowing, loving and being loved by God (Ephesians 2:1) (John 3:3-8) (John 14:16-17) (Ezekiel 36:24-27) (Titus 3:3-7).
There is also Convicting Grace, in which the Holy Spirit reveals to our heart and mind our sinful condition, God’s judgement on our sin and our need for perfect righteousness to escape that judgement (John 16:8), a need that is met only through faith in Jesus (Romans 3:20-22)). The Spirit then points us to the Gospel of Grace, the good news of what Jesus has done to provide for that righteousness and to rescue us from God’s judgement, in which upon hearing this good news we are granted the faith to believe and to embrace Jesus as our all- sufficient savior and submit to Him as our Sovereign Lord. In doing so we are adopted by God as His beloved children and reconciled to the glorious relationship with Him for which we were created (Galatians 4:4-7) (2 Corinthians 5:21).
From that point on we are the recipients of Sanctifying Grace, in which we are made able to live out the spiritual transformation God has begun in us by the Holy Spirit who now lives in us, with the ultimate goal of our being conformed one day to the perfect image of God revealed in the man, Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:12-13). This is a process that begins in our inner man – our soul, while in this world, and will be completed when we see Jesus at our death (2 Corinthians 3:17-18) (2 Corinthians 4:16) (John 3:1-3). The final stage of our sanctification will occur when our perfected soul is united to a glorified body at the time of Jesus’ second coming ((Philippians 3:20-21).
As God’s children we are now citizens of Heaven. However, we presently live as sojourners in a world that has been cursed by God, is under the spiritual influence of the devil, and is populated by those who hate God and His people (Hebrews 11:13) (Colossians 3:1-4). Thus, God will provide Sufficient Grace to sustain us in this world through the tests and trials we undergo in God’s sanctifying processes (2 Corinthians 12:7-10), and Persevering Grace to keep us from falling away from Him completely under the wearisome burdens and worldly temptations we inevitably will experience in this present evil world (Jude 24-25) (Galatians 1:4).
And finally, there is Eternal Grace, the ultimate end or purpose for which all other graces God grants to us point to, wherein and throughout the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, God the Son, who loved me and gave His life for me (Ephesians 2:4-7) (Galatians 2:20).
To Him be glory and honor, praise and thanksgiving both now and forever, Amen.
Grace and Peace ×