Before we talk about salvation let us take a look at God and His Nature. The earliest insight we are given in scripture into the nature of God is in John 1:1-2 where we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”
We note that this “Word” was a person who was with God. That little phrase “with God” means that the “Word” had a “face-to-face” relationship with God. So there has to be at least two Persons who constitute “God”. This relationship was one in which there was nothing hidden – face-to-face. In verse 14 of this chapter we learn that this One who is the Word “became flesh and dwelt among us.” So this Word is Jesus. He was and is God, but He is not the fullness of God within Himself. In John 14 we find Jesus speaking to His disciples on the night before His crucifixion. He was about to “go away” and He was trying to comfort them. He said that He would, “…ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17) Here we see a third Person called the “Counselor”. This is a reference to the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead.
Therefore when we say “God” we must understand that there are three divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit who dwell together so inseparably that we say that they are One. For eternity they have lived together in absolute harmony. Each is devoted to the other two. They are of the same “homoousios” (Gr) or essence (substance). Their natures are identical. Their hearts function the same way. Their minds function the same way. They live in utter harmony.
This divine community of Persons, God, decided to create man in their “image”. Note, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)
Man was created to live in harmony with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The opposite of living in harmony with God is to live in a state of alienation from God. We can see from the story that soon after being created Adam and Eve, our first parents, broke trust with God and chose to believe the adversary.
This living in a state of alienation was a violation of their very being. This is the origin of all pain. We can see from the story that man is in great need of being rescued from living in this state of alienation. Salvation is the process of saving man from his alienation from God. Let us look deeper into this.
The subject of salvation seems to be a simple one. We could quote this scripture,
“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord (Jesus Christ) will be saved.” (Acts 2:21) Another scripture often quoted is this one. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name (except Jesus Christ) under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) These are simple scriptures and they are quite true. But two very important questions to ask are (1) “What are we to be saved from?” and (2) “What are we saved for?” Many places in scripture inform us that belief and the element of faith are necessary for salvation. Note this one, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9) So belief is necessary. Faith is also important, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) All of this may seem to overwhelm and confuse us. It is the purpose of this article to help shed some light on this subject and assist you in this journey of discovery of the most marvelous news that ever came to us.
As we begin let us take note that there are at least two views of what constitutes salvation. The “legal view” sees it as the removal of a death penalty pronounced upon us as a result of our sinful behavior. This view suggests that if we will believe in Jesus, that He is the Son of God, that He died to take away our sin debt, we will be “saved” and we will go to heaven when we die. This view does not give us much help in dealing with why we sin in the first place.
Another view suggests that if we are not in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ we are in a state of alienation from God. Paul wrote about this in his letter to the church at Colosse. (Colossians 1:21) Alienation from God happens when one cannot believe God nor can one trust God to be what says He is and do what He says that He will do. This view suggests that salvation is a process by which we come to know God and learn to believe and trust Him. In this view salvation was accomplished by Jesus Christ according to the will of the Father and by the power of the Holy Spirit. We “have been reconciled” (2 Corinthians 5:19). God is not counting our sins against us. We have been forgiven. The only thing that is left is for us to believe… and even that faith, that ability to believe, is given to us by God. (Ephesians 2:8) We will have more to say about this later in this article.
Let us answer the first question, “What are we to be saved from?” Sin would be a simple answer, but not a very clear and complete one. What do we mean when we say “sin”? 1 John 3:4b informs us that, “…sin is the transgression of the law.” (KJV) The “law” referred to here is generally understood to mean the Ten Commandments so let us look at them as a law. The first four of them have to do with a relationship being offered to us by God that we might have with Him. When He says, (1) “Don’t have any other gods before Me”, (2) “Don’t make any idols”, (3) “Don’t use My name in vain” and (4) “Don’t refuse the rest that I have provided” He is simply saying do not violate this relationship with Me. Then God gives us six commandments to inform us of ways that we can violate relationships with parents/children, spouses and neighbors. So the law seems to be saying, “Do not violate your relationship with God.” and “Do not violate any relationship with any other human being.” It doesn’t take much thought to see how universally we have broken this law. Scripture even tells us, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23)
It is easy to see that we need to be saved from this. But why do we think the wrong thoughts, speak the wrong words and do those things that have gotten us into this mess? How did this problem get started? God tells us clearly that He created us to be like Him. (Genesis 1:26) The obvious reason is so that we could enjoy a relationship with Him. He created us with an emotional structure so that we could experience love, joy, peace and a variety of other emotions. He created us with an intellect so that we could reason, think, create, plan, as well many other uses for our minds. He created us with the capacity for relationships, both with Him and with other humans. Since relationships are based on love, respect, shared interests and trust He gave us every gift for enabling us to live and function in these relationships. But we do not live in a relationship with God and only with selected humans. Sometimes those are fragile and we walk away from them. Why? Let us look at our first parents and the relationships they had with God and why they ended.
Adam and Eve walked and talked with God for quite some time in a state of harmony. But one day an adversary came into the garden. He immediately began to suggest that God had said something that He did not say. Eve was on the defensive and began to explain what God had really said. The adversary (Satan) even suggested that God had lied when He said “You will not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4) After discrediting God he went on to entice Eve into partaking of the “fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. (v.6)
Some have suggested that Eve “ate an apple”. There is no biblical support for this view. When God said, “…you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:17), He was simply saying, “Do not take to yourself the prerogative of choosing for yourself what is right and what is wrong.” Adam and Eve were young and inexperienced. God was protecting them. He was acting as a very wise parent in advising His children regarding life’s decisions.
Satan enticed Eve to take to herself that decision-making power, refusing to trust God to tell her/them which was right and which was wrong. Satan was successful. Eve took this action and enticed Adam to follow in the same behavior.
God had created man to be dependent upon Him. God would take care of man’s needs. When Adam and Eve chose to be independent of God they violated a very important aspect of their being. Guilt and fear were the immediate products of their behavior. Biblically we say that Adam and Eve became alienated from God. Their thinking became futile. (Romans 1:21) Their foolish hearts became darkened. When God came walking into the garden in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8) Adam and Eve hid among the trees of the garden. When God called them to account for their behavior each blamed someone else. The same continues to happen today.
Adam and Eve chose to believe a lie. Such is the seductive power of the evil one. But notice what God’s response was to the problem. Even after Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed Satan God took action. He knew who was ultimately at fault. He cursed Satan. He did not curse Adam and Eve. However, after Adam and Eve had made their decision God told them that they had to leave the garden. If they did not want the Giver they could not have His gifts (life in the garden). But before driving them from the garden God made garments of skins and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21) This “clothing” is a biblical metaphor for forgiveness. No wonder Romans 16:25 tells us that the “mystery of the gospel” has been hidden since the “beginning of time” (NLT). The forgiveness of man’s sin has been an integral part of the plan of God since before the beginning of man’s history.
God deeply wants a relationship with every human being. He has demonstrated His willingness to remove any barrier between Himself and us having reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son on the cross. (Colossians 1:22) He is simply not counting our sins against us. (2 Corinthians 5:19)
What is left then to be done? We must come to see that He is trustworthy. His ultimate nature is characterized by love. (1John 4:8) Scripture tells us that “love keeps no record of wrong” (1 Corinthians 13:5b) And…He is not far from any one of us. (Acts 17:27)
It is God who initiates salvation through His plan. It is God who purchases our salvation for us. Our salvation is almost complete. The only thing else to be done is for each one of us to embrace God and enter into this relationship.
What keeps us from entering into this relationship? We simply do not know God. We do not believe Him and we do not trust Him. It is as if we are blind. Scripture even hints at this when it says that there is a “veil” over our heart. (2 Corinthians 3:15-18) This veil must be removed to enable belief and trust, but we cannot remove it ourselves. God must remove the veil.
How does this happen? First, the spirit of the Father draws you to Himself and points you to Jesus Christ. (John 6:44) (Your curiosity suggests that the Father is drawing you.) Next, the Word of God reveals Jesus to you, His nature, His heart and His mind. (We use many scriptures on this site to enable you to know them and their meaning.) Then, perhaps most importantly Jesus reveals the Father to you. (Matthew 11:27) To know the Father is to trust Him. To know the Father is to love Him. This love is given to you by the Holy Spirit who pours the love of God into your heart enabling you to love Him. (Romans 5:5) Once you have seen this and have surrendered to the love of God and chosen to live in this relationship, salvation has come to you in its completeness.
Just like the man in the ninth chapter of John, who had been born blind, even so you were born blind. Every human is born blind. We simply cannot see the goodness, the trustworthiness of God. When Jesus healed the blind man we find that the physical healing did not lead to worship. Even though the man could see physically, he could still not comprehend that Jesus, the man standing before him, was the Son of God and the Son of Man. Note the conversation, “Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him." (John 9:36) The man wanted to believe just as you want to believe. Notice what happened next. “Jesus said, ‘You have now seen Him; in fact, He is the one speaking with you.’ Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped Him.” (John 9:37-38)
For you to be able to believe that Jesus is fully God and fully human He must heal your eyes as well. Jesus must personally reveal Himself to you. He will if ask Him. Tell Him that you want to know Him personally. He is there with you. Ask Him to reveal the Father to you. The Father, Son and Spirit are so worthy of your worship. To worship God is to declare His worth. You cannot understand His worth unless He is revealed to you. Through the eyes of faith you will see Him. You will see His worth. You will declare His worth. You will worship Him.
Once you have been saved from the manner of thinking that caused your alienation and you have embraced God and are living in this relationship, are you to live only with God (Just you and me, Lord?) or are you to live in fellowship with others who have embraced this relationship as well? The answer is obvious. You were created for fellowship. You need the love and devotion of others of like mind. You need to grow into the gracious likeness of Jesus. (2 Peter 3:18)
God is an “other-centered” Being. Humans are “self-centered” beings. It will take time and patience to grow into the likeness of Jesus. Are you to do this by yourself? No, God will watch over your growth. Note, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all-- how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:28-32)
Look at this marvelous destiny that you have, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.” (Philippians 3:20-21)
Note this also, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
You are being saved from this manner of thinking that has resulted in your alienation and you are being saved for this marvelous future as a fully-developed child of God, who will live in a state of harmony, love, joy and peace with God and with every other human who embraces this salvation.
