Theological Term of the Week

salvation
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, and giving them eternal life—all on the basis of what Christ accomplished in his atoning sacrifice.1 

• From scripture: 
  

  For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 2:3-7 ESV)

  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5 ESV)

• From the Belgic Confession:

  Article 17: The Recovery of Fallen Man
  We believe that our good God, by his marvelous wisdom and goodness, seeing that man had plunged himself in this manner into both physical and spiritual death and made himself completely miserable, set out to find him, though man, trembling all over, was fleeing from him.

• From Salvation - I Can Write No Other Theme by Wylie Fulton:

 Salvation means that long before you were born:

1. Your name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Revelation 17:8.

2. The immutable God had purposed, for reasons known only to Himself, to save you. Romans 8:29.

3. God loved you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3.

4. When the Baby Jesus was born into the world, He was God’s salvation for you. Luke

5. When Christ lived a perfect life and fulfilled all righteousness, it was for you.

6. Dying on the Cross, paying sin’s debt, your name was indelibly stamped on Christ’s hands and heart.

7. When Christ ascended to Heaven, He went there to intercede for you.

8. The Holy Spirit was assigned a job to do, and that was to reach you, regenerate you, plant faith and repentance in your heart, and bring you to the knowledge of Christ.

9. The angels of God were assigned a mission to watch over and minister unto you.

10. Christ went back to Heaven to prepare a place for you!

And there is more, so much more. One can never exhaust the unsearchable riches that are stored up for God’s elect in Christ the Lord. And remember, all of this was on purpose, by God’s eternal decree, and limited to those whom He chose to salvation.

Salvation means that during your lifetime:

1. The angels of God have ministered unto you, behind the scenes, protecting you, preserving you, keeping you for the hour when you would come to know God’s salvation.

2. The Holy Spirit has already singled you out and laid hold of your heart (or will, sometime before you die).

3. God will grant you repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; He will also give you saving faith.

4. God’s grace will keep you, preserve you, make you secure in Christ, so that you will not fall away.

5. The joy of the Lord and some knowledge of sins forgiven will become real to your heart.

Salvation means that when you come to die:

1. The angels of God will hover around you.

2. You will know that “Jesus led me all the way.”

3. You are going out to meet HIM.

4. There will be peace in the valley for you.

5. Even if you die in the dark, God’s Spirit is with you and you will be ushered into the presence of the LORD. “Absent from the body, present with the LORD.” “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD” Psalm 3:8.

Learn more:

1. Theopedia: Salvation
2. Tim Challies: The Essential: Salvation
3. GotQuestions.org: What is salvation?
4. The Trinity Foundation: What Must I Do to be Saved?
5. ESV Study Bible Notes: God’s Plan of Salvation
6. J. C. Ryle: Way of Salvation
7. John Samson: Saved by God, from God, for God
8. Greg Herrick: So Great Salvation
9. Wylie Fulton: Salvation - I Can Write No Other Theme, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
10. S. Lewis Johnson: Salvation, What It Is and Why It Is So Important (mp3)
11. Rob Lister: The Doctrine of Salvation (audio)

Related terms:

• adoption
• conversion
• election
• glorification
• gospel, the
• order of salvation
• regeneration
• repentance
• sanctification
• saving faith
• soteriology
• union with Christ

Filed under Salvation.

1From Salvation at Theopedia.

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