What is the Christian doctrine of salvation?

Answer

Salvation is deliverance from danger or suffering. To save is to deliver or protect. The word conveys the idea of victory, health, or preservation. At times, the Bible uses the terms saved or salvation to describe temporal, physical deliverance, such as Paul’s release from prison “For I know that this will turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 1:19).

More frequently, the term salvation pertains to an eternal, spiritual deliverance. When Paul instructed the Philippian jailer on what he needed to do to be saved, he was addressing the jailer’s eternal fate (Acts 16:30-31). Jesus associated being saved with entering the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24-25).

What are we saved from? In the Christian concept of salvation, we are rescued from “wrath,” that is, from God’s judgment of sin (Romans 5:9;1 Thessalonians 5:9). Our sin has alienated us from God, and the result of sin is death “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”, (Romans 6:23). Biblical salvation denotes our liberation from the consequence of sin and thus entails the eradication of sin. We are rescued from both the power and punishment of sin.

Who performs the saving? Only God can eliminate sin and deliver us.From the penalty of sin (2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5).

How does God save? In the Christian teaching of salvation, God has delivered us through Jesus Christ: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). Specifically, it was Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection that accomplished our salvation (Romans 5:10; Ephesians 1:7). The Scriptures clearly state that salvation is the gracious, undeserved gift of God: “even when we were dead in sins, he made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved)” (Ephesians 2:5,8). “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:5,8), and is only accessible through faith in Jesus Christ: “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).

How do we obtain salvation? We are saved by faith. First, we must hear the gospel—the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection: “In him, you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom, after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). Then, we must believe—fully trust in the Lord Jesus: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. », (Romans 1:16). This involves repentance, a changing of mind about sin and Christ «Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; », (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 that 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 and assurance.