What Is Salvation?
What is Salvation?
Salvation is about how God puts the human race back together, one by one, until the entire human family reflects God’s purposes and design.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, once said.
“By salvation, I mean not simply the idea of being delivered from hell or going to heaven, but the present reality of being delivered from sin. I mean a restoration of the soul to its primitive health and original purity. I mean a recovery of the divine nature and the renewal of our souls, so they reflect the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, which are expressed as justice, mercy, and truth.”
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. The story begins with God’s creative grace as he fashions and brings to reality all that exists. This God does, not because he is lonely or deficient without the universe but because of his overflowing, generous, self-giving grace. God creates our world and pronounces it “Very good” (Genesis 1:31).
And among all the good things God creates, his crowning achievement is the human race. Among all the creatures that call Earth home, only humans are said to be created in God’s image. That means that we are supposed to live, work, and play in such a way that the rest of creation can look at us and understand what God is like. It also means that we are supposed to join God in his work of stewardship over creation, so that our world becomes a place where God’s will is done, just as it is done in heaven.
Sadly, that plan was wrecked by the presence of sin and death, which humankind chose over obedience to God and the eternal life and joy that comes with that obedience. Sin is everything that separates us from God, from each other and that which even creates internal strife in each of us. Sin leads to spiritual death, by keeping us from the source of life and joy – God.
Prevenient Grace
This is where the story of salvation really gets going. We start with something called prevenient grace, which means something like the grace that comes before, or first. Prevenient grace is the initiative God takes to bring us home. In other words, the story is not about the human race looking for a lost God. It is the story of God looking for lost people. It is about the God who comes looking for us.
Repentance
The role of repentance. In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of two sons who are well loved by a good father. But one of these sons decides to take his share of the inheritance and leave home before his father passes away. Apart from the oversight of his father, the son gets into every kind of trouble imaginable, compounding the problems with his own sin and stupidity. He ends up in such a state that he is starving and thinking about relieving his hunger by eating out of a pig trough. At that point, the Bible says, “He comes to himself.” The word used here is metanoia, which is one of our words for repentance. It means to be aware of one’s true state or situation, to to suddenly become aware of one’s need for change. It means recognizing that one is heading in the wrong direction and must make a course correction.
The Hebrew word shuve gives us our other word for repentance and means to turn and go in the other direction. Knowing one is headed down the wrong path, shuve is the action we take to turn around. But, we only come to realize our need for repentance by first recognizing our sin.
Sin – the Bible uses several different words to define sin. The word the Bible uses most is the Greek word harmartia. Harmartia is an archery term that means to miss the mark one was aiming for. It was God’s design for us to know and be known by him and for our lives to reflect his goodness as we spent our lives serving God, loving others, and caring for God’s world. Instead, the human race has found all kinds of ways to frustrate God’s plans, moving further from him with every sinful act.
Justification
Justification is the door of salvation, It is how God creates a path over the gulf of separation caused by sin.
Through faith in Jesus Christ, one can be forgiven of their sins, saved from the eternal consequences of sin and death, and begin a relationship with God. This step is the cornerstone of the Christian faith and is available to anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
The Bible says, “Therefore, since we have have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1-2).
If you would like to take this step of faith, we invite you to pray the prayer below:
“Dear God, I confess that I am a sinner and that I need your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died on the cross for my sins, and that He rose from the dead on the third day. I ask you to forgive me of my sins and to come into my life as my Lord and Savior. I give my life to you, and I ask for your guidance and strength to live for you from this day forward. Thank you for your love and mercy. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
But justifying grace is just the beginning. Salvation is not only about what we are saved from but also what we are saved for.
Remember that we said that humankind had been created in the image of God? Jesus reiterates that in the Gospels, saying, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamps and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16). Jesus comes to put that plan back on track.
In other words, salvation is not just about being saved from sin, but being saved for God’s good purposes. We can see the entirety of this idea in Ephesians 2:8-10: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Sanctifying Grace – the path of spiritual growth and restoration.
From the moment we invite Jesus into our lives, God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, whose job is to begin restoring us from the inside out. Over time, the Holy Spirit begins to renovate our hearts so that our character becomes more like God’s character.
In Galatians 5, we read about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is the evidence that shows that God is at work in our lives. There are many aspects of the Spirit’s fruit. These are “love, joy, piece, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” This growth and development continue as long as we are in fellowship with God.
Entire Sanctification
The ultimate aim of this renovation of the heart is to get us to a place in our lives where the underlying goal or objective is to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, all your soul, and all our mind. And to Love our neighbor as yourself.” – See Matthew 22:37-40. The goal is that Jesus will hold a place in our heart without rivals. That has always been the aim of God for us. Salvation is about the work of grace that starts where we are, no matter how broken or far from home, and brings us back to God, where we can be re-made in his image and discover our life’s true purpose. Entire sanctification is a gift of grace that happens when the loyalty issue is settled once and for all, and we give our entire selves to God.
Glorification: One day, Jesus shall return in glory, and complete the work God began in us. We and the entire human family will be restored to our original mission of reigning with God over all of creation. And, creation itself will be fully healed and restored, brimming over with the presence and knowledge of God (See Romans 5:17, Revelation 3:21, Revelation 5:10, Romans 8, and Revelation 20.)