Salvation

Salvation^[1] refers to the act of God’s grace in delivering his people from bondage to sin and condemnation, transferring them to the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col. 1:13), and giving them eternal life (Romans 6:23)—all on the basis of what Christ accomplished in his atoning sacrifice. The Bible says we are saved by grace through faith; and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

In theology, the study of salvation is called soteriology, from the Greek soteria meaning “salvation". Salvation, virtually synonymous with the overall concept of redemption, includes a past, present, and future sense. As Christians, we were saved from the penalty of sin when God brought us to faith in Christ; we are presently being saved from the power of sin as the Holy Spirit sanctifies us; and we will someday be saved from the presence of sin when we meet Christ face to face in glory. This idea is presented below in terms of initial, progressive, and final salvation.

• Salvation

by S. Lewis Johnson

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7

William Lane Craig

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Apart from Christ, we are “weak” and “ungodly” (Rom 5:6), “sinners” (Rom 5:8), under the coming “wrath of God” (Rom 5:9), “enemies” of God in need of “reconciliation” and salvation (Rom 5:10), under the “judgment” and reigning “death” that followed Adam’s “one trespass” (Rom 5:16-17), “enslaved to sin” (Rom 6:6, 16-17, 20), presenting our “members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness” (Rom 6:19), “of the flesh, sold under sin” (Rom 7:14), having “nothing good” dwelling in our flesh (Rom 7:18), having bodies “of death” in need of deliverance (Rom 7:24), “hostile to God” (Rom 8:7), the fruit and wages of which are death and condemnation (Rom 6:21, 23; 8:1).

See also: Sin, Total depravity, Original sin, Imputation of Adam’s sin

“It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) Apart from Christ, we are “by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (Ephesians 2:3) Those with “hard and impenitent heart[s]… are storing up wrath for [themselves] on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” (Romans 2:5) “[F]or those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil…” (2:8-9) “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might…” (2 Thessalonians 1:9)

See also: Justice of God, Wrath of God, and Hell