What Is Salvation?

What do people get "saved" from?  Usually life-threatening situations.  Lifeguards have jobs because people who don't swim well begin to drown and need saving.  Firemen regularly rush into burning buildings to save people.  The issue that makes "salvation" difficult for people is that most people don't see that their lives are in danger.

What we need to be saved from is sin (please refer to my previous post on What Is Sin?).  What is the effect of sin though?  According to Romans, sin causes death - not necessarily the stop breathing, no brain waves type of death; but spiritual death...being eternally separated from the presence of God and spending eternity in anguish and regret.  Not exactly a nice walk in the park on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Too often, salvation gets reduced to banking on some kind of spiritual/church heritage of your family, praying some prayer as a kid because the pastor freaked you out because he told you about Hell and you didn't want to go there, or raising your hand and walking some aisle during a church service because you ended up having some spiritually charged emotional experience.

So what exactly is salvation?  The first thing we need to start with is God.  Salvation starts (and ends) with Him.  Jonah 2:9 declares clearly that "Salvation belongs to God."  Jesus plainly said in Luke 19:20 that his mission was to "seek and save the lost." Paul writes to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 2 that Christ "made us alive in Him" and "raised us up and seated us with Him" and saved us "by His grace"; and to make sure we get the point, Paul also writes "And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God."  The point is that we need to understand that it is God who saves sinners.  It is God who makes spiritually dead people spiritually alive.

Theologically, there are 3 aspects to our salvation:

1) We are justified.  Being justified has to do with our standing before God.  Because of Jesus' finished work on the cross and our faith in the Person and Work of Jesus, we can stand before God holy - cleansed of our sin.  This is a one-time event that only God does.  Here are some key verses: Romans 3:24, 28, 5:1; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Galatians 2:16.

2) We are sanctified.  Sanctification is basically the process of becoming more and more like Jesus in our daily lives.  It means a transformation of our thoughts, actions, and attitudes.  This is the part of salvation where we partner with God.  Through our response to mercy and our obedience we become more and more sanctified.  Some key verses are: John 17:17; Hebrews 10:14; Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 2:12-13.

3) We will be glorified. This is the final piece of our salvation process...when we are finally rid of all the terrible consequences of sin.  This is when we are given our resurrection bodies (like Jesus had upon this resurrection) and will live forever in joy in the presence of God in heaven.  Some key verses are: Romans 8:15-30; 1 Corinthians 15; Colossians 1:27, 3:4.

So here's the honest truth about salvation: it's living in tension.  It's living in the "already/not yet".  It's trusting that God has saved you and that you stand blameless before Him because of Jesus.  It's working with God in becoming more like Jesus.  It's hoping that all that is wrong in you and in the world will be righted one day.

But the bottom line: it is initiated by God, made possible because of God, and brought to completion by the power, goodness, and faithfulness of God.