Friday DIVE – WHAT IS SALVATION? | fd20260826

From Section 14 of We Believe, entitled Faith, Salvation & Repentance …  

14.5  What is salvation?  

• It is the restoration of human communion with God and the deliverance of the entire creation from the bondage of sin and death. 
• In saving us, God grants us reconciliation with him, forgiveness of sins, adoption into his family, citizenship in his kingdom, union with him in Christ, new life in the Spirit and the promise of eternal life.  
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17-19    ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.   
  • Colossians 1:13-14   ¹³ He has delivered us from the power of darkness and ^[a]conveyed us  into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.   
  • Galatians 4:4-7   ⁴ But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son,  born^[made] of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.  ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into  your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”  ⁷ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of^[through] God through Christ.   
  • Ephesians 2:19-21   ¹⁹ Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,   
  • Romans 6:3-5    ³ Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?   ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  ⁵ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,  
  • Titus 3:4-5    ⁴ But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, ⁵ not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing  of the Holy Spirit,    
  • John 3:16    ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.   

 14.6  Why is salvation needed?  

• Ever since the first human beings, the human race has rebelled and distrusted the perfect goodness and holy love of the triune God and therefore  alienated  themselves  from their Creator and rejected  the fellowship they were created to have with him as their God.   As a result, the human race has:   
  • Cut itself off from the source of its life and existence, resulting in physical death and subjecting itself to eternal spiritual death.
  • Promoted a lie about the nature and character of the triune God their maker, bearing false witness to God’s name and reputation by rejecting his faithfulness, goodness, grace and holiness.  
  • Undermined and at times even attempted to destroy the faith, hope and love for God and so stop the good, right and life-giving worship of the triune God by others, thereby incurring spiritual guilt and shame before God, which only God himself can remedy and has done so in the atoning work of Christ.  
  • Exposed itself to being manipulated by and enslaved to the power of sin from which it cannot free itself, leading to the corruption, warping and twisting of human nature itself, which it cannot undo.  
  • Experienced disharmony  between the human soul, mind and body, leading to  broken and even destructive and evil relationships between parents and children, between men and women, between nations and ethnic groups, and between human beings and the natural environment.  

14.7  How are people saved?   

• Salvation is accomplished for us through the life and sacrificial death  of Jesus Christ on the cross.   
• Salvation is freely given to us by the grace our triune God. 
• It is personally received  and experienced  through  faith in Jesus enabled  by the ministry of the Spirit. 
• It is not earned by good works  or through personal merit.   
  • Romans 8:21-23    ²¹ because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of ^[a]corruption^[decay] into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.  ²³ Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.     
  • Romans 6:18    And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.  
  • Romans 6:22-23   But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit ^[a]to holiness^{[unto sanctification]} and the end, everlasting life.  ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift^{[free gift]} of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.     
  • 1 Corinthians 1:9    ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.     
  • 1 Timothy 2:3-6     For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.   ⁵ For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,     
  • Matthew 3:17       ¹⁷ And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”     
  • Colossians 3:1     If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.       
  • Ephesians 2:4-10       ⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by  grace  you have been saved  through  faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not  of  works, lest anyone should boast.  ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for  good  works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.      

14.8  Is there any way of salvation other than through Jesus Christ?  

• No. The apostle Peter said of Jesus that “salvation is found in no one else” (Acts 4:12).  Jesus is the only one who can save us from our damaged and twisted nature and reconcile us to God so that we can live according to God’s ultimate purposes for human beings. He is the only one who can enable us to share in God’s eternal life, free from the power of evil and its consequence, which is death. 
  • 1 Timothy 2:5    ⁵ For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 

14.9  Will all people be saved?  

• All who call upon the Lord will be saved. No one who seeks after God will be turned away. God’s  work of atonement was accomplished for the benefit of all. Jesus is Lord and Savior over all persons, though Scripture does not say that all people will necessarily receive the salvation that is theirs in Christ, or that none will irreversibly reject the ministry of the Holy Spirit to unite them to Christ.   
• Salvation is the fruit of a relationship with the triune God — a gift that is complete in Jesus and that must, through the work of the Spirit, be personally received in order for its benefits, especially eternal life in eternal communion with God, to be fully enjoyed.   
  • Hebrews 10:31   ³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.   
  • Romans 11:32    For God has ^[a]committed them all to ^{[shut them all up in]} disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.     
  • Matthew 18:12-14   ¹² “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? ¹³ And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. ¹⁴ Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.   
  • Ephesians 2:8    For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God     
  • 1 Timothy 2:3-4   ³ For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.   
  • John 3:17-18   ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.   
  • Ezekiel 18:32    ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”   
  • 2 Corinthians 5:14-15    ¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.  

14.10  Through salvation, do humans eventually become God?  

• No.   
• Though ultimate salvation does not make us God (or parts of God), it does give us a full sharing in the sanctified and glorified humanity of Jesus Christ. 
• We remain human, becoming fully and truly human as Jesus was and still is.
• Through the incarnate Son of God, we enjoy union and communion with the whole of God, while remaining fully human.    

Teaching Notes: Faith, Salvation & Repentance  

Why do we need to be saved?

• Without the ministry of the Holy Spirit, humans do not trust wholeheartedly in God as Lord who alone is worthy of worship.   
  • • By nature, we do not welcome being God’s creatures, nor do we embrace God’s design for human life and the wisdom of following his ways.  
    • We do not implicitly trust in God’s goodness and judgments about what is evil.   
    • We do not freely receive God’s grace, as our dependence upon him offends our pride of self-sufficiency.   
    • We do not gratefully receive all of his blessings, including daily lifelong communion with God and a share of God’s own goodness and rightness, justice and mercy to pass on to others.   
• God must work individually in our lives through his Son and by his Spirit to give us renewed hearts, minds and wills set free from bondage to our self-will, our prideful commitment to autonomy, and our distrust and unbelief in God our creator and redeemer.  

Will all be saved?

• The Holy Spirit’s ministry is to set all free with the freedom won for them in Jesus Christ. But the biblical warnings require us to take seriously the almost impossible possibility that some people might somehow refuse the freedom the Spirit brings to them to surrender to the grace of God in Jesus Christ and receive all the benefits of living in a good and right worship relationship with God in which we receive his forgiveness by faith and accept his free gift of salvation daily and so live under his lordship.   
• The limits to salvation, whatever they may be, are known only to God.
• Three truths above all are certain:
  • • 1) God is a holy God who is not to be trifled with,  
    • 2) no one will be saved except by grace alone, and 
    • 3) no judge could possibly be more gracious than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  
• If some do manage to resist the Holy Spirit and reject God’s forgiveness and grace stored up for them in Jesus Christ, it will not be due to any lack or limits to God’s gracious provision made for all.  

From The GCI Statement of Beliefs:  

• Salvation is the restoration of human fellowship with God and the deliverance of the entire creation from the bondage of sin and death.  
• Salvation is given by the grace of God and experienced through faith in Jesus Christ, not earned by personal merit or good works.  
• God calls on every person to enter that divine fellowship, which has been secured for humanity in Jesus Christ and is embodied by him as the beloved of the Father at the Father’s right hand.  

Here is a GCI article that address the topic of Salvation:

• What is Salvation?