Thesis 04/36: Salvation

DOCTRINES OF FAITH
Doctrine 4 / 36: Salvation

The term "salvation" often carries different connotations. In a general sense, when somebody receives salvation, he is simply being saved or delivered from some danger or situation in which he finds himself. When speaking of the salvation of a man's soul, the predicament in which he finds himself is the predicament which his sins have caused. His sins cause him to be under the wrath of God. God would be just and right to immediately damn the soul that sins without any hesitation. However, for no reason other than the grace, mercy, longsuffering and love of God, man has been afforded the opportunity for salvation: Jesus Christ. "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).

God's holiness demands satisfaction for offenses made against Him. When man sins, he is offending God. Man's wicked mind thinks that he is able to do something in his own power. He is so proud as to think that he could make things right with God. This mindset is what causes all the different religions in the world. When man tries to do something to appease God, he is failing to see the infinite holiness which is God. The satisfaction to God for offences against Him is either the eternal death in hell of a man's soul, or, the only alternative, the substitutional sacrifice of His only begotten Son Jesus. Jesus' death on the cross was satisfaction of God's wrath on man. However, this atonement is only applied to those that receive the gift by faith. It is by grace through faith.

Salvation is not a process but an event. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). Jesus said that a person that believes on Him is passed from death unto life. He did not say that he may pass from death unto life, or that he is in the process of getting close to passing unto life. Jesus said he is passed. Jesus also speaks of a person being born again. In His dialogue with Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus says that a person must have a second birth, a regeneration as it is called in other places. He said that people are "born of the Spirit." He does not say that they will be born of the Spirit, but that they already are born of the Spirit. After a person is saved, after that event, there is a process which is called progressive sanctification. Although sanctification in God's eyes happens at the time of salvation, there is also a growing in holiness as a Christian grows in his walk with the Lord. But there will have been a point in that man's life when he passed from death unto life, and the Holy Spirit came and sealed him (Ephesians 1:13).

The sealing of the Holy Ghost has two main concepts that go with it. First of all, when a man is born of the Spirit he is said to be baptized into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). The man becomes a real part of Jesus Christ's body on earth. He has been redeemed by God, so that he is no longer his own, instead he is to follow the head of the body, Jesus.

The second concept that goes along with the sealing of the Holy Ghost is the eternal security of the believer. Jesus said that He puts His sheep in His hand, and that the Father holds them in His hand (John 10:28-29). There is nothing that could ever separate God's sheep from His hands or from His love. God performs a spiritual circumcision, an operation, on a person when they pass from death unto life. It is "the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" (Colossians 2:11). Circumcision is not a reversible procedure. When a man responds with faith to the Spirit's reproof, He is then regenerated, given new life, born into a new family. It is impossible for that son to be unborn. It is impossible for that son to take away the spiritual life which he was unable to give himself. The salvation of the believer is kept by the power of God. A man was not saved by his own actions, nor does he keep his salvation by his own actions.

A word of caution should be said on the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer. It is clear in the Scripture that a person that is saved can and will never lose their salvation. However, there is also a sad truth in the Bible and is readily experienced today of many people who believe that they are saved, yet they are horribly deceived. 1 John 5:13 tells the Christian that they can know for sure that they are saved. That way to know is not a simple way. The way to know if a person is saved is whether or not they are walking in the light (1 John 1:7), obeying God's commandments (1 John 2:4), loving the brethren (1 John 2:9-10). These things are not the cause of the person's salvation; these things could never appease the wrath of God that was on them. But these things are the result of the Holy Spirit of God living inside them. These things are the fruit of a genuine repentance. It is a fearful thing to assure somebody that they are saved when there is no evidence of a true conversion or regeneration. Salvation has no causation in works, yet it will yield works. That is the reason for the charge of Paul to, work out your own salvation (Philippians 2:12).

"He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him."