Friday DIVE – WHAT IS SALVATION? | fd20260904

Friday DIVE / By

 

 

Section 14: Faith, Salvation & Repentance    

Salvation     

 

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.  

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.  
      • These are some of the blessings that accompany salvation … See Hebrews 6:9  
    • 2 Corinthians 5:17-19    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 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 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 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  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  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   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.   
    • 2 Timothy 2:10    Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 
  • 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.  

 

  • 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  because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption 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  18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.   
    • Romans 6:22-23  22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.  23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
    • 1 Corinthians 1:9  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,  
        • 1 Timothy 2:1-2    Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions,  and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 
    • 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  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.   
  • 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.  

 

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   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 (Lord over all persons; Saviour of 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  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  
    • Romans 11:32  For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.   
    • Matthew 18:12-14  “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  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 (krinetai = is judged); but he who does not believe is condemned (kekritai = has been judged) already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  
        • Re: v.17 …
        • condemn ~ krine = might judge
        • Re: v.18 …
        • is not condemned ~ krinetai = is not judged
        • is condemned ~ kekritai = has been judged
        • The root word for each is krino — acc. to Strong’s … to judge, to decide, to determine
    • 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.  

    • 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:   

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.  

 

Below is a GCI article that addresses the topic of salvation a bit further:
• What is Salvation?   

 

What Is Salvation?   

In Greek and in English, to be “saved” is to be rescued from some problem.  To understand what Christian salvation is, we need to know what the problem was,  what God did about it,  and whether we have any role in being rescued.  

What humans are

When God made humans, he made them “in the image of God,” and he pronounced his creation “very good” (Genesis 1:26-27, 31).  Humans were a wonderful creation: made from dust and given life by the breath of God (Genesis 2:7).  

“The image of God” means that we are like God in some way, in a way that animals are not.  Some think it means intelligence, language, creativity and authority over creation.  It may include all of those, but it also includes the ability to make moral choices.  That’s because God has something special in mind for us, his children.  He wants a relationship with us, a friendship. 

Genesis tells us that the first humans did something God had told them not to do (Genesis 3:1-13).  Their disobedience showed that they did not trust God.  By being faithless, they damaged the relationship and fell short of what God wanted for them.  They became less like God.  The result, said God, would be struggle, pain and death (Genesis 3:16-19).  If they were not going to follow the Maker’s instructions, they would be doing things the hard way.  

Humans are like God, and yet ungodly.  We are not the way we are supposed to be.  Even though we have messed ourselves up, God still considers us to be made in his image (Genesis 9:6).  The potential is still there for us to be like God and to have a relationship with him.  This is why he wants to rescue us, to save us.  

God wants to give us eternal life, free from pain, living on good terms with God and with each other.  He wants our intelligence and creativity to be used for good.  He wants us to be like he is, to be even better than the first humans were.  He wants to live with us forever.  This is salvation.  It affects life right now, and gives us life forever with God in a good and perfect world.  

The center of the plan

We need to be rescued.  And God has done this — but he did it in a way that no human would have expected.  The Son of God became a human, lived a perfect life, and we killed him.  And that, says God, is the salvation we need.  What irony!   We are saved by our victim!  Our Creator became flesh so he could die for us.  But God raised him back to life, and through Jesus, he promises to make us new, to give us life after we die.  

In the death and resurrection of Jesus, the death and salvation of humanity is represented and made possible.  His death is what our failures deserve, and as our Creator, he paid for all our failures.  Though he did not deserve death, he willingly died for our sins, on our behalf.   

Jesus Christ died for us, and was raised for us (Romans 4:25).  Our old self died with him, and a new person is brought back to life with him (Romans 6:3-4).  In his death, Jesus paid “for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).  The question now is how we are to receive the benefits.   We participate in the plan through repentance and faith.  But what is repentance?  What is faith?  

 

Repentance  

Jesus came to call people to repentance (Luke 5:32). Peter told people to repent and turn to God for forgiveness (Acts 2:38; 3:19). Paul preached about “repentance toward God  and faith toward our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21).  

The Greek word is metanoia, which comes from roots meaning “after” and “thought.” It means a change of mind, a change that usually results in a change of behavior, too.  John the Baptizer told people to “bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8). He wanted visible evidence that the people had really changed the way they were thinking.

When Jesus’ apostles preached to Jewish audiences, they were often speaking to people who already had good behavior. What those people needed most was to change the way they were thinking about Jesus. They needed to see Jesus, not the law, as the correct guide to life. They needed to have faith in him, to trust in him. Repentance and faith meant almost the same thing for these people.

For pagans and for people whose lives were a mess, changes in the way they were thinking about Jesus would lead to major changes in behavior, too. Their faith in Jesus would lead them to trust his instructions in how to live, and they would change their behavior in response to Jesus’ teachings. Faith and repentance went together.

Repentance means to turn away from wrong thoughts and actions and to turn toward God. We stop answering the call of sin and answer God’s call on our life. Paul told people in Greece that God overlooked pagan worship that had been done in ignorance, but “now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). They should stop their idolatry and start worshiping the true God.

Paul was concerned that some of the Corinthian Christians might not repent of their sexual sins (2 Corinthians 12:21). For these people, repentance would mean that they would stop their immorality. Paul preached that people should “do deeds consistent with repentance” (Acts 26:20). They should change their thinking and their behavior.

Part of our doctrinal foundation is “repentance from dead works and faith toward God” (Hebrews 6:1). But this does not mean perfect behavior—Christians are not perfect (1 John 1:8). Repentance means not that we arrive at our goal, but that we begin traveling in the right direction.

Pleasing Christ becomes our highest priority, more than just pleasing ourselves (2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 6:20). Paul tells us, “Just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:19). We obey what our Lord says we should do.

Faith

Telling people to change their behavior is not going to rescue them. Humans have been told to obey for thousands of years, but they still need to be rescued. Something more is needed, and that is Christ. But we do not experience his salvation unless we believe that Christ has done this for us. We need faith, or belief.

The New Testament says much more about faith than it does repentance—the words for faith occur more than eight times as often. Christians are known as believers, not as repenters.  Belief is the defining characteristic.

Everyone who believes in Jesus is forgiven (Acts 10:43). “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). The gospel “is God’s saving power for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

Does this mean that we are to believe certain facts? The Greek word is pistis. It can mean belief in a fact, but more often it has the sense of trust. It is often a relationship term, meaning faithfulness. Wealthy people could show pistis toward their servants; the servants would respond with pistis as well. For one person it might mean generosity; for the other it might mean being thankful, and giving public praise. In both cases the people are being faithful to a relationship.

When Paul encourages us to believe in Jesus Christ, he is not emphasizing facts. (The devil knows the facts about Jesus, but he isn’t saved.) When we believe in Jesus Christ, we trust him. We know he is faithful and trustworthy. We can count on him to take care of us, to give us what he promises. We can trust him to rescue us from humanity’s worst problems. When we turn to him for salvation, we admit that we need help, and that he gives it.

Our faith does not save us — our faith must be in him, not something else.  When we believe in a fact, our faith does not make it true – it recognizes that it is already true. When we have faith in Jesus as our Savior, it does not make him a Savior. Rather, it recognizes that he is already our Savior. He has already paid the price to rescue us; he is already worthy of our praise and loyalty. We accept something that is already true.

When we trust in Christ, we quit trying to save ourselves. Although we try to have good behavior, we do not think our efforts are saving us (diligent effort never made anyone perfect). Nor do we get depressed when we fail. That’s because we are trusting in Christ, not in ourselves, for our salvation. Our confidence is in him, not in our performance.

Faith is a change in the way we think – it is repentance – and when we think in a new way, we will also change the way we behave. Our thoughts, words, feelings and actions will be changed by what we believe about Jesus.

When we trust Jesus as our Savior, when we realize that God loves us so much that he sent his Son to die for us, when we know that he wants the best for us, then we become willing to live for him and please him. We make a choice—we give up the pointless and frustrating life we had before, and accept his purpose and direction for what life is supposed to be.

Faith is the internal change that makes all the difference. Our faith doesn’t earn anything or add anything to what Jesus has earned for us. Faith is simply the willingness to respond to what he has done. We are like slaves working in the clay pits, and Christ announces, “I have purchased your freedom.” We are free to stay in the pits, or we can trust him and leave. Our part is to accept it, and when we do, we will also act on it.  

How Do We Receive Salvation?

Salvation is God’s gift to us, given by his grace, his generosity.  We can’t earn it, no matter what we do.  “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Even our faith is a gift of God.  Even if we obey perfectly from now on, we do not deserve a reward (Luke 17:10).  

We were created for good works (Ephesians 2:10), but good works cannot save us.  They come after salvation, but they cannot earn it.  As Paul says, if salvation could be achieved by law-keeping, “then Christ died for nothing” (Galatians 2:21).  

Grace does not give us permission to sin, but grace is given to us when we sin (Romans 6:15; 1 John 1:9).  Whatever good works we do, we thank God for doing them in us (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 2:13).  

God “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace” (2 Timothy 1:9). “he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy” (Titus 3:5).

Grace is the heart of the gospel: We are saved by God’s gift, not by our works.  The gospel is “the word of his grace” (Acts 14:3; 20:24).  “We will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 15:11). We “are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). We would be hopelessly in sin and condemnation, except for grace.

Our salvation depends on what Christ has done. He is the Savior, the one who rescues us. We cannot brag about our obedience, or our faith, because they are always defective. The only thing we can be proud of is what Christ has done (2 Corinthians 10:17-18)—and he did it for everyone, not just us.

How are we saved?  We are saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus.  How do we receive salvation?  By God’s grace – his gift to us.  How do we experience salvation?  By faith, by trusting that what God says is true.  

Justification

The Bible explains salvation in many ways: ransom, redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation, adoption, justification, etc. (See Lesson 3.)  That is because people understand their problem in different ways. For those who feel dirty, Christ offers cleansing.  For those who feel enslaved, he offers redemption, or purchase. For those who feel guilt, he gives forgiveness.

For people who feel alienated and put at a distance, he offers reconciliation and friendship. For those who feel worthless, he gives an assurance of value. For people who don’t feel like they belong, he describes salvation as adoption and inheritance. For those who are aimless, he gives purpose and direction. For those who are tired, he offers rest. For the fearful, he gives hope. For the anxious, he offers peace. Salvation is all this, and more.

Let’s look at justification.  The Greek word is often a courtroom term.  People who are justified are declared “not guilty.”  They are exonerated, cleared, acquitted, declared OK. When God justifies us, he says that our sins will not be counted against us (2 Corinthians 5:19).  They are removed from the record.  

When we accept that Jesus died for us, when we acknowledge that we need a Savior, when we acknowledge that our sin deserves punishment and that Jesus bore the penalty of our sins for us, then we have faith, and God assures us that we are forgiven.  On the day of judgment, all the evidence against us will be gone.  We may be rewarded on the basis of how much we did well (1 Corinthians 3:14-15), but we do not need to fear a verdict of “guilty.”  

No one can be justified, or declared righteous, by observing the law (Romans 3:20), because the law does not save.  It is a standard that we fail to meet, and by that measurement, all of us fall short (Romans 3:23). God “justifies the one who has the faith of Jesus” (Romans 3:26).  “A person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law” (Romans 3:28).  

To illustrate justification by faith, Paul uses the example of Abraham, who “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3, quoting Genesis 15:6).  Because Abraham trusted God, God counted him as righteous. This was long before the law was given, showing that justification is a gift of God, received by faith, not earned by law-keeping.

Justification is more than forgiveness, more than removing our debts. Justification means counting us as righteous, as having done something right. Our righteousness is not from our own works, but from Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30). It is through the obedience of Christ, Paul says, that believers are made righteous (Romans 5:19).

Paul even says that God “justifies the ungodly” (Romans 4:5).  God will consider a sinner righteous (and therefore accepted on the day of judgment) if the person trusts God. A person who trusts God will no longer want to be wicked, but this is a result and not a cause of salvation. People are “justified not by the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16).

A new start

Some people come to faith suddenly. Something clicks in their brain, a light goes on, and they accept Jesus as their Savior. Other people come to faith in a more gradual way, slowly realizing that they do trust in Christ and not in themselves for their salvation.

Either way, the Bible describes this as a new birth. When we have faith in Christ, we are born anew as children of God (John 1:12-13; Galatians 3:26; 1 John 5:1 ). The Holy Spirit begins to live within us (John 14:17), and God begins a new creation in us (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15). The old self dies, and a new person is being created (Ephesians 4:22-24) — God is changing us.

In Jesus Christ, and as we have faith in him, God is undoing the results of humanity’s sin. As the Holy Spirit works within us, a new humanity is being formed. The Bible doesn’t say exactly how this happens, and perhaps we are not even able to understand the details; it just says that it is being done. The process begins in this life and is finished in the next.

The goal is to make us more like Jesus Christ. He is the image of God in perfection (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3), and we must be transformed into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 4:19; Ephesians 4:13; Colossians 3:10). We are to be like him in spirit — in love, joy, peace, humility and other godly qualities.  That’s what the Holy Spirit does in us.  He is restoring the image of God.  

Salvation is also described as reconciliation—the repair of our relationship with God (Romans 5:10-11; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20-22). No longer do we resist or ignore God — we love him.  We are changed from enemies to friends.

And we are even more than friends—God says that he adopts us as his own children (Romans 8:15; Ephesi ans 1:5). We are in his family, with rights, responsibilities and a glorious inheritance (Romans 8:16-17; Galatians 3:29; Ephesians 1:18; Colossians 1:12).

Eventually there will be no more pain and sorrow (Revelation 21:4), which means that no one will be making mistakes.  God will live with us (verse 3) – that was the goal all along. God wants fellowship with us. He wants to share his life with us, to invite us into a communion of love, kindness and respect. If that sounds like a good thing, then Jesus is good news, because that’s what he is giving us.

Sin will be no more, and death will be no more (1 Corinthians 15:26). That goal may seem a long way off when we look at ourselves now, but the journey (just like any other journey) begins with a single step—the step of accepting Christ as Savior. Christ will complete the work he begins in us (Philippians 1:6).  

And in the future, we will be even more like Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49; 1 John 3:2). We will be immortal, incorruptible, glorious and sinless. Our spiritual bodies will have supernatural powers. We will have a vitality, intelligence, creativity, power and love far beyond what we know now.

It cannot be earned.  We don’t deserve it – it is the gift of God made possible by Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. 

Author: Michael Morrison; updated in 2025

 

 

 

 

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