What is salvation? What is the Christian doctrine of salvation?
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What is salvation? What is the Christian doctrine of salvation?
Question: "What is salvation? What is the Christian doctrine of salvation?"
Answer: Salvation is deliverance from danger or suffering. To save is to deliver or protect. The word carries the idea of victory, health, or preservation. Sometimes, the Bible uses the words saved or salvation to refer to temporal, physical deliverance, such as Paul’s deliverance from prison (Philippians 1:19).
More often, the word “salvation” concerns an eternal, spiritual deliverance. When Paul told the Philippian jailer what he must do to be saved, he was referring to the jailer’s eternal destiny (Acts 16:30-31). Jesus equated being saved with entering the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24-25).
What are we saved from? In the Christian doctrine of salvation, we are saved from “wrath,” that is, from God’s judgment of sin (Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:9). Our sin has separated us from God, and the consequence of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Biblical salvation refers to our deliverance from the consequence of sin and therefore involves the removal of sin.
Who does the saving? Only God can remove sin and deliver us from sin’s penalty (2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5).
How does God save? In the Christian doctrine of salvation, God has rescued us through Christ (John 3:17). Specifically, it was Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection that achieved our salvation (Romans 5:10; Ephesians 1:7). Scripture is clear that salvation is the gracious, undeserved gift of God (Ephesians 2:5, 8) and is only available through faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).
How do we receive salvation? We are saved by faith. First, we must hear the gospel—the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection (Ephesians 1:13). Then, we must believe—fully trust the Lord Jesus (Romans 1:16). This involves repentance, a changing of mind about sin and Christ (Acts 3:19), and calling on the name of the Lord (Romans 10:9-10, 13).
A definition of the Christian doctrine of salvation would be “The deliverance, by the grace of God, from eternal punishment for sin which is granted to those who accept by faith God’s conditions of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus.” Salvation is available in Jesus alone (John 14:6; Acts 4:12) and is dependent on God alone for provision, assurance, and security.
Recommended Resource: Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification by R.C. Sproul.
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Related Topics:
What is the plan of salvation / way of salvation?
What is repentance and is it necessary for salvation?
What is the true gospel?
What does it mean for salvation to be a gift from God?
What is Lordship salvation?
OK...Call me stupid but if I Knew all that before I got "saved" I would never have asked Jesus into my life.
I would have run as far and as fast from you if you told m e that as I could.
It just wouldn't make sense, not would I care to try to figure it out.
But tell me I am going to Hell because God said it, then tell me I can avoid Going to Hell because God said it, then tell me I can talk to God because God said it, and tell me How to find out Waht God said...
Well I'm no idiot....I'll go ask God if He said it.
Ya don't give babies Prime Rib, so if you're a mother nursing a child, which works better if your breast feeding....,
Scaring the Snot out of New Born Babe?
Or Loving them to nurse and fall asleep in yours?
You can show me the Beef, like above,
But Show Me the Love, and I WILL get saved.
Michael James Stone
