Course # F001
Doctrine Of Salvation
Introduction
Salvation is the most common biblical expression used to identify the subjective changes in people's lives, when by faith they have received the Person and work of Jesus Christ at the cross. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
The Meaning of Salvation
The term salvation implies deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. It never implies in Scripture as an escape. Salvation is a rescue from impending danger.
The Source of Salvation
Jesus Christ is the source of salvation. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.
John 14:6
Christ Jesus is the source of salvation for two very important reasons:
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Christ is able to save: Now unto him (Jesus) who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Ephesians 3:20. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. John 10:28.
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Christ is willing to save: The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9
That someone is able and willing to save; such a Saviour must fulfill both requirements. As was previously stated, the Lord Jesus Christ is the source, and sum total of salvation! This is clearly demonstrated in the following passages: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. Luke 1:68-69. Neither is there salvation in any other (Jesus): for there is note other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12.
Man Needs Salvation
Salvation means to effect successfully the full delivery of someone from out of impending danger. The very word carries with it the reality of man(s) sinfulness, thus needing the Saviour.
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Only a sick person needs a doctor. Man is desperately ill! From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Isaiah 1:6.
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Only an accused person needs a lawyer.. Man stands condemned in God's court of law. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: there is is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God...For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:10-23.
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Only a drowning person needs a lifeguard. Man finds himself flooded by the waters of sin. Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. Psalm 69:1-2
Why Are Men Lost?
The following reasons explain why men are lost:
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They are lost because of their rejection of divine Bible Revelation. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Psalm 19:1. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:19-20.
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The are lost because of disobeying their own conscience. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Romans 2:13-16.
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They are lost because of their relationship to the world. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Ephesians 2:2
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They are lost because of their relationship to Satan. In whom the god (Satan) of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 2Corinthians 4:4.
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They are lost because of their relationship to sin. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Romans 5:12.
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They are lost because of their relationship to God. That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. Ephesians 2:12.
A sinner may not be as bad as he can be (like an Adolph Hitler) but he is nevertheless as bad off as he can be! Man is both dead spiritually and dying physically and in desperate need of salvation.
The False Hopes of Salvation
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12. The false hope of salvation is ultimately rooted in the lie that man can and / or must perform. (See Genesis 3:1-7; Note verse 7: They realized their sin, and they sewed {performed / work} fig leaves...). For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Galatians 2:16.
The world believes the lie that education, church membership, good works, baptism, proper environment, or living by the golden rule will save them. But Jesus said to Nicodemus (a very religious man) Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3. In John 3:16-18, Jesus explains how a person is born again.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
To believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation is to believe that only the Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood at the cross is the only remedy for the wages of sin
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23
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