(To watch or listen to “What Is Salvation?” instead of reading, click here.)
What exactly is salvation? What do people mean when they say Jesus died to save us?
Hi, everyone! Welcome to Session 4 of Discovering Good News in John. Today we’ll answer the question, What is Salvation?
When I started reading through the New Testament for the first time, I also began attending a Bible study that met during lunch at my high school. I read and heard words that I didn’t fully understand, such as salvation, justification, conversion, and born again, as well as regeneration. I also didn’t understand Scriptures that talked about people being dead while they were alive.
It was confusing! I had thought that “salvation” meant being saved from hell so you could go to heaven. But it turned out that salvation as it’s used in the Bible involves much more than a change of eternal residence. So today I’m going to define these terms and more, and I’ll explain what they all have to do with salvation.
The first concept that we need to know is that…
1) We Are All Born Spiritually Dead and Enslaved to Sin
The first human couple, Adam and Eve, were able to not sin. But they spiritually died when they sinned. Consequently, all of their descendants are born spiritually dead. We’re born unable to not sin. Indeed, we are slaves to sin and separated from God. Ephesians 2:1-3 reads:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Ephesians 2:1-3
So even though we’re physically alive at birth, we’re spiritually dead because of sin. When Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they not only died spiritually, but they became able to die physically.
2) But God Revealed His Plan to Reverse the Fall’s Consequences
Before God created the earth, he already had his plan in place to reverse the fall’s consequences and bring people who love him into eternal fellowship with him. He revealed elements of that plan throughout the ages, beginning with a promise to Eve of a descendant who would crush the serpent who deceived her. He also let the first couple know that the possibility of eternal life still existed, but cherubim blocked the way.
God revealed much more of the plan through Moses. He showed that sin defiled people, separated them from God, and brought death. But an animal’s life could substitute for a person’s life so they could fellowship with him. Still, a curtain embroidered with cherubim blocked the way to the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and temple, showing people that the way to eternal life remained blocked.
God revealed through various prophets that animal sacrifices could not bring eternal life, but he would provide a ransom to deliver those who love him from death. Indeed, a suffering, righteous servant would die to bear others’ sins so they could be counted as righteous. The Lord also revealed that one day all the dead would rise to either everlasting life or everlasting contempt. We’ll see the Gospel of John reveal all these things.
Now, let’s look again at John 3:17-18:
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:17–18
So those who believe in Jesus are saved from the condemnation that sin brings. How does this happen?
3) First, God Calls People to Himself
First Corinthians 1:9 tells us:
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:9
First Peter 2:9 reads:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9
Jesus explains why God calls people to himself in John 6:44:
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6:44
God draws us to him by giving us insight or understanding as we read Scripture or hear someone sharing the gospel message.
The Gospel Message
The gospel message includes three elements found in three verses:
1) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
2) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
3) But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
So God calls people to himself through the good news that although all have sinned and deserve the penalty of death, Jesus died while they were still sinners to pay that penalty for us.
The next concept we need to know is that…
4) God’s Call Produces Conversion and Regeneration
There’s no time to get into where theologians differ as to whether conversion or regeneration comes first, but here’s where they agree.
Conversion
Conversion is putting our trust in Jesus to save us. It includes both repentance from sins and faith in Jesus. It is not merely an intellectual agreement. Rather, it’s our response to God’s call. It’s described in Acts 16:31:
Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.
Acts 16:31
Regeneration
Regeneration refers to God changing our hearts. Ezekiel 36:26 explains:
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26
Regeneration is what Jesus called being born again in John 3:3:
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3
When we’re born again, we’re made spiritually alive, as Ephesians 2:4-5describes:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
Ephesians 2:4-5
This spiritual life is the beginning of eternal life. We are new creatures, as 2 Corinthians 5:17 proclaims:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
We are now able to not sin, but our physical body is still in its old state. Romans 8:10 reads:
If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
Romans 8:10 (NASB)
So God’s call produces conversion and regeneration. We’re born again and made spiritually alive. But that’s not all.
5) God Justifies Us
Justification is a change in legal standing. Theologian Wayne Grudem explains justification as a “legal declaration by God.” He writes,
When someone responds to God’s call in repentance and faith, God responds to that faith by thinking of that person’s sins as forgiven and by thinking of Christ’s righteousness as belonging to that person. At that very moment God also declares that person to be righteous in his sight. This act of God is called “justification.” Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and thinks of Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us and therefore (2) declares us to be “just” or morally righteous in his sight.
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, first edition, p. 95
People often describe being justified as being “just as if I’d” never sinned. God justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
God Is Just in Justifying
Romans 3:26 explains:
It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:26
God is just because the penalty for sin has been paid. Justification is not something that we earn by good works after coming to faith. It’s a gift, as Galatians 2:16 explains:
Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Galatians 2:16
So justification is a legal standing that means all our sins—past, present, and future—are forgiven because Jesus paid the penalty for them. Justification means we will not condemned at the final judgment.
So salvation is being saved from the death penalty due us for our sins.
This Salvation Is by Grace
Let’s look at a particularly comforting verse that’s often misunderstood by English speakers: Ephesians 2:8-9:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB)
In English, the verse sounds as if the word “that” in “that not of yourselves” points to “faith” because “that” follows closely after the word “faith.” But in Greek, “faith” is feminine while “that” is neuter, so “that” cannot refer to “faith.” Theologian Albert Barnes in his commentary on Ephesians explains the phrase:
And that not of yourselves. That is, salvation does not proceed from yourselves. The word rendered that…is in the neuter gender, and the word faith…is in the feminine. The word “that,” therefore, does not refer particularly to faith, as being the gift of God, but to the salvation by grace of which he had been speaking… So Calvin understands it.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Ephesians, Philippians & Colossians, ed. Robert Frew (London: Blackie & Son, 1884–1885), 42.
He means that Calvin taught exactly the same about the word that.
So salvation by grace is God’s free gift. It is not something we must earn. Thank God for that! But there’s still more good news.
6) God Adopts Us into His Family
While Adam is called the “son of God” because God created him, we—Adam’s descendants—do not start out as God’s children. But John 1:12–13 tells us good news:
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:12–13
Galatians 4:4–5 tells us we become God’s children through adoption:
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:4–5
Ephesians 1:5 is similar:
He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
Ephesians 1:5
Adoption Is a Two-part Process
We receive some of the privileges of being God’s children now. We can pray to God as our Father, and he blesses us. However, the full blessings await the hour that Jesus resurrects us, as Romans 8:23 explains:
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:23
Nonetheless, 1 John 3:2 assures us:
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:2
So once we’re saved we are also adopted into God’s family. In fact, the Holy Spirit indwells us and we are under new management. We are also able to not sin.
But that brings up a question.
Why Do We Still Sin?
David Needham in his book, Birthright, has a great explanation. He writes:
The following may serve to illustrate the difficulties involved in making this adjustment. Imagine with me a great profit-making company whose essential purpose is to manufacture poisonous gas for the army. Department by department the company busies itself daily with this goal. In the chemistry lab they are absorbed in the search for newer, deadlier, more destructive gases. The bookkeepers bend over the records in pursuit of profit/loss comparisons. Salesmen thumb through well-worn synonym-finders in search of positive adjectives. Quality control inspectors rush about with clipboards and sharpened number three pencils. All busy. All geared toward that one consuming goal: producing poisonous gas for profit.
And then a remarkable thing happens to the poisonous gas company. The entire board of directors of the company changes hands. It is actually a brand new company, not only because of a change in leadership and name, but also because of a change in its essential purpose. The new company rejects the profit-making motive. It is now committed by its very nature to be a nonprofit company. Its new product? Making life-saving oxygen for hospitals. It is more than a corporate name change. More than a simple paper shuffle. It is an actual change of identity. Well, that solves everything! Everyone appreciates oxygen. This new company should work out just fine.
But it isn’t quite that simple. All of the company’s machinery and all of those varied departments are still geared-up for the same old poisonous purpose. If left to themselves, each of those departments would still measure their success as they always measured success—producing poison for profit. That’s what life was all about for many of those old career poison producers. Just because the company changes doesn’t mean all the departments automatically snap to attention. It’s tough to teach the old hands new tasks. So management has a clear-cut job to do. An intense indoctrination program has to take place, filtering from the top right on down.
“Listen chemists, you must change your concept of success in this department. Junk your poison formulas. Success is now to be measured by the quality of lifesaving oxygen you produce. Bookkeepers, from now on you will have to forego the pleasure you used to derive from being the first to know the size of the company’s profit. Forget profit. Management expects you to simply keep the books and keep them well. Understood?” Understood perhaps, but not appreciated. “Why do we have to be so different? Every other company judges its success just like we used to!” “We’ve always measured ourselves against the competition. That added some spice to life!” “You’re asking us to reject most of what we’ve learned. It may sound easy for you up there on the top floor, but not down here!”
David C. Needham, Birthright: Christian Do You Know Who You Are?, Kindle locations 4495-4516, Kindle edition
Conclusion
Today we looked at what salvation is. We saw that the Bible teaches that we all are born spiritually dead and unable to not sin. But God revealed in the Old Testament his plan to save people from sin’s penalty, which is death, by having a righteous suffering servant die in place of sinners who put their faith in him. The New Testament reveals this person as Jesus, the Son of God.
We also saw that the salvation process begins when God calls people to himself. This calling produces both conversion and regeneration. Conversion consists of repentance from sin and faith in Jesus. Regeneration is our spirits coming alive and is also called being born again. God justifies those who have turned to Jesus in faith, which means he considers the penalty owed for their sins to be paid and he considers Jesus’s righteousness to be theirs. God also adopts them into his family.
This week in Discovering Good News in John, complete chapter 4: Finding Truth. We’ll answer the question, How did Jesus correct misconceptions about who he was? See you next time.
Join the Discussion
Please answer these questions in the comments below:
- What one thought stuck out to you in this week’s video? Why did it stand out?
- What one thought stuck out to you from this week’s chapter? Why did it stand out?
- Question 4, page 53: What mistaken notions did you initially have about Jesus? How did you discover your mistake?
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