What is the biblical definition of salvation? Let me begin with a small life example.
Many years ago we were visiting some friends in another city. My brothers and I, together with children from the neighborhood, began to play football (soccer). I loved football. We started kicking the ball around and as time passed we got more and more into the game.
As we were playing, I saw the ball coming my way. I took a good aim, put all me strength into it and shot the ball as hard as I could towards the opposite goalpost. Unfortunately, my aim proved weak in this instance. The ball went out of play, over the yard of a house and smashed a window.
I was very young, maybe ten years old, maybe less. I got scared. What would the people say? How much would it cost to repair the broken window?
My father and the father of the family we were visiting saw the damage. They talked with the family that lived in the house and resolved it. I don’t know how, but they did.
My father looked at me and smiled. “Don’t worry,” he said, “everything is fine.”
We all make mistakes. And in some ways, our whole life on this earth sometimes seems like a big mess. But fortunately, there is Someone who can solve everything.
In this study we will explore the basics of the Biblical definition of salvation.
Absolutely! To understand the Biblical definition of salvation, we have to get this most fundamental truth embedded in our mind. Salvation would not be possible if God did not love us.
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Many cannot understand God’s love. They feel that they have to earn His love by good deeds and a holy life. A holy life is great and good deeds welcome. However, God’s love is not dependent on our performance. God loves us because we are His children. He created us with His own hands to live in fellowship with Him. He loves us, just like a kind parent loves his/her child.
Of Enoch we read: “Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters” (Genesis 5:21-22).
Enoch began to deeply understand the love of God, when his son Methuselah was born. It was through his love for his son that he began to understand God’s love for him. And his relationship with God became so much deeper as a result, that he “walked with God” and was taken to heaven without facing death!
The bottom line: only when we begin to fathom God’s amazing love for us, will we really come into close fellowship with Him.
The suffering we see is not God’s will. God has good plans for everyone.
“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God;’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (James 1:13).
“But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil” (Luke 6:35).
In our previous study we saw how the sin and Adam and Eve had three negative consequences: (a) Satan won the rulership of this world; (b) human nature became corrupted; (c) it brought death upon all humanity because we have all sinned.
The problem of this world is sin.
In our previous study we saw that the Holy Spirit provides in every person defenses against the power of sin.
“That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9).
But to break the rulership of Satan and remove the penalty of sin God had to do something more drastic. Our Lord Jesus came to earth to live a sinless life and die for our sins.
Animal
sacrifices! Animal sacrifices were a lived out object lesson of what the Biblical definition of salvation is all about.
The first sacrifice was performed by God Himself when He slew an animal (or two) to clothe Adam and Eve.
“For Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).
Throughout the Old Testament times, God’s people offered sacrifices.
Jesus!
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac: “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Genesis 22:2).
As they approach Moriah and Isaac enquires about the animal for the offering, Abraham replies: “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8).
Just as Abraham is ready to sacrifice Isaac, God indeed intervenes and provides an animal for the burnt offering (Genesis 22:12).
As a response Abraham does something important: “And Abraham called the name of the place, ‘The-Lord-Will-Provide’” (Genesis 22:14).
One would have thought that Abraham would call the place, “The Lord has provided” given that God had already provided the burnt offering. No, rather than refer to the past, he points to the future – God will provide in the future the true burnt offering.
Of this incident Jesus said: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).
In this story of Abraham and Isaac we see the story of God and God’s Son, Jesus. But there is a difference. Before Isaac was sacrificed, God intervened. Nobody intervened to save Jesus. He willingly went to the cross to die on our behalf.
In the story of Abraham and Isaac therefore, God showed how He would solve the problem of sin, by offering His Son Jesus as sacrifice for our sins.
Through His sinless life.
Jesus lived a sinless life. Sin never had any power over Him.
“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:14-15).
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ [the second Adam, vs 45] all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
“Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down’” (Revelation 12:10).
It was Adam’s sin that gave Satan authority over this world. By choosing to listen to Satan rather than God, Adam and Eve in a way, offered allegiance to him. To reverse this, someone from the human race, a descendant of Adam, would have to succeed where Adam and Eve failed, to win back this world from the grip of Satan.
Jesus, the Son of God, became fully human, 100%, and was born as a descendant of Adam and Eve. He lived a perfect life down to the smallest detail. He never sinned, neither by act nor by thought. In this way, He defeated Satan and won back this earth. The power of Satan was broken.
The breaking of Satan's rulership is foundation to the Biblical definition of salvation.
Through His death. Jesus died for our sins.
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29).
If you owe a debt and someone pays it for you, you no longer have any debt. Our debt is sin. And the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Someone had to pay this debt.
But here comes the amazing thing. An angel could not die for you, because he is not related to you. He has no responsibility over what you have done wrong or have not done right.
Another human could not die for you, because he/she is only responsible for his/her life, good or bad.
But Jesus could. Why? Because Jesus is Creator. Everything on this earth was created through Him:
“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3-4).
If He is Creator, then we are His creation. Since He created us, He can take upon Himself the responsibility for our wrongdoing, much like an earthly parent can take responsibility for mistakes of his erring children, even if the parent had no involvement in the wrongdoing whatsoever. He can take responsibility simply by virtue of parenthood.
Jesus willingly took responsibility for the wrongdoing of His created children. He willingly paid the penalty that was due upon us. He took the death that was rightfully ours, so that we could have the life that is rightfully His! What an amazing Savior!
Jesus on the cross for our sins - this is the heart of the Biblical definition of salvation.
If the debt has been paid, you do not need to pay it! If someone (Jesus) died on your behalf, you do not need to die! Isn’t it amazing?
“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” (John 3:16).
You never need to die!
“Wait a minute,” I can hear you think. “People die all the time. Even people who believe in Jesus.”
Correct. But the Bible calls this death, “sleep.” This death that comes upon all humans, is but a sleep. It is temporary. When people sleep, sooner or later they wake up. The death we witness around us is like sleep. When Jesus returns at the Second Coming, all who died in faith will be resurrected. And they will live forever!
Even those who have rejected Jesus will one day rise again, after the Millennium. But they will not rise to live forever. They will rise to be judged. And then they will suffer the second death, which will be death in the true sense of the word in that they will never rise again.
Unfortunately not.
Jesus died for every person who has ever lived and who will ever live on this planet. But in order for you to be freed from the wages of sin, from the second death, you need to accept this sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf.
You see, it took a wrong decision on the part of Adam and Eve to bring sin into the world. Now a right decision is required to deliver you from sin. This right decision is to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord.
We will talk more about this in our next study.
No, absolutely not!
“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
“You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9-10).
Jesus is the only Savior through which you can receive forgiveness of sin.
Jesus died for them too. God will judge them in fairness and mercy depending on the light they have received. Though they never heard of Jesus, Jesus will plead for them based on how they responded to the mercy and light granted them.
“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’” (Matthew 25:34-40).
Jesus is a wonderful Savior. He left the splendor of heaven to live a difficult and sinless life, and then died for me on the cross. What amazing love! What an amazing sacrifice!
I choose to believe in Him and accept Him as my Savior and Lord!
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