SO GREAT SALVATION!


In this study we will examine the following:

1 What salvation is.

2 How one receives salvation.

3 What happens to a person when they exercise faith for salvation.

4 How the early church understood salvation.



First of all let's get a definition of the word salvation. In the Greek New Testament, the word "Salvation" means the following: "To save, deliverance, preservation. It describes spiritual and eternal deliverance, the present experience of God's power to deliver and refers to the future deliverance at the Second Coming of Christ. The word "Salvation" is used inclusively of all the blessings of God and is used to ascribe praise to God and to what He bestows. Revelation ch 7 V 10: "And the multitude cried with a loud voice saying Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb".Now that we understand the meaning of salvation, it's important to know how one can receive it.

Salvation is received by believing the gospel. What is the gospel? The gospel is good news. Let me explain. We live in a sinful world. Sin came because of the fall of man. Man disobeyed God and sin entered the world as a result of his disobedience. Sin drove a barrier between God and man. Man's fellowship with God was broken. In order for man to be reconciled to God and have fellowship restored, the barrier of sin had to be dealt with. God said that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. God sent His only Son Jesus to pay the price for our sin. Jesus died for our sins. He shed His precious blood so that sin could be forgiven. He was buried and He rose again on the third day. The gospel (the good news) is that whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved, will receive salvation.To receive salvation, on must firstly acknowledge that they are a sinner and they need a Saviour. The Bible says that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3 v 23). Whether you consider yourself to be a good person, you are still a sinner (if you haven't accepted Christ as your Saviour) because you were born into a sinful world, and because of your inheritance from Adam. Secondly one has to repent of their sins. Repentance means to change one's mind and thus change one's actions (see my article on Repentance). Thirdly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Receive Him, ask Him to come into your heart and cleanse you.



What happens whenever a person does this?

Romans 10 v 10: "With the heart, one believes unto righteousness." 

Jesus said: "You believe in God, believe also in me".

Notice that the believing in Christ is done with the heart and not the mind. To believe with the mind is to merely exercise mental assent. Biblical believing is done with the heart with the help of the Holy Spirit. The word "in" as in "You believe in God, believe also in me" in the greek is translated "into". The verse actually reads "You believe into God, believe also into me".  Suppose I am in a Church building and I want to go from the building into the Church Prayer Room. For me to go into the prayer room means movement, transition and a change of circumstances. There is change and transition because of movement. When we believe in Christ, we believe into Christ. When Biblical faith is imparted to us we believe into Christ and there is a movement out of ourselves and into Christ. There is a movement out of our sin and into His righteousness. There is a movement out of our weakness and into His power and there is a movement out of our failure and into His victory. The problem were sin is concerned is the heart of man. The heart is wicked and sin springs from it. When one believes in Christ one undergoes a change of heart. God gives us a new heart. He puts the Holy Spirit within us and when this happens change takes place in a person's life.The Bible says that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The Bible also says that "God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying Abba Father". When one receives salvation, one experiences the Holy Spirit coming in to one's life bringing the love of God. The love of God that the Holy Spirit brings is a love for God and for others.

1 John 4 v10: "Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins". 

Contrast this with verse 19 of the same chapter. 

1 John 4 v 19: "We love Him because He first loved us". 

There was a time when believers in Christ did not belive in Him. They had no love for God, no awareness of Him and weren't seeking for Him. However, whenever they call upon Him and receive salvation, changes happen. Now they love God (verse 19). After Jesus' resurrection and prior to His ascension, He is with His disciples on the sea shore. He asked Peter: "Peter do you love me?" Peter replied that he did.In the Greek New Testament, there are three different words for love. When Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, the word Jesus uses for love is Agape which means the love of God. When Peter responds and tells Jesus that he loves him, Peter uses the word Phileo which means a brotherly love. Jesus is in effect saying to Peter: "Peter do you love me as God. Do you love me with the love of God". Peter's response in effect is: "I love you as a friend as I would my brother". On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came. The Holy Spirit brings the love of God. Something happens to Peter. In his 1st Epistle he says the following: "Whom (Jesus) having not seen, ye love in whom, though now ye seem Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Peter 1 V 8). Peter now loves Jesus with the love of God because the Holy Spirit has brought the love of God into his heart. Jeremiah 31 v 33 tells us that God will put His law into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and so because of this we know what is right and wrong in God's eyes because of the Holy Spirit enforcing God's laws inside us. Under the Old Covenant, God's laws were external written on tables of stone. Now under the New Covenant they are written on the tables of heart and interpreted as love. Not only that they actually become promises. For example. Let's suppose a person before they get saved (receive salvation) has a problem with stealing. Under the Old Covenant God's commandement is: "Thou shalt not steal". Suppose this person gets saved. God gives them a new heart. He puts His Holy Spirit within them. What was a commandment now becomes a promise. This person says to God: "God, before I knew you I struggled with stealing. It's a real problem to me. I know I'm not supposed to do it. God says: "Don't worry I love you, you belong to me, I'll help you, You will not steal. You have a new heart, my life is in you, you have the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm changing you, you won't steal anymore. You will not steal.

The Holy Spirit brings His fruit into our lives. The fruit of the Spirit as recorded in Galatians 5 is: Love, Joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and temperance (self-control) against such there is no law. When the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts not only does He bring the love of God, but also His fruit into our lives. We experience love, joy, peace etc. When Paul says "Against such there is no law", he is saying that when the Fruits of the Spirit are evident among a group of believers because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, then external laws are irrelevant. In otherwords when people are loving one another because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, then there is no need to bring out external commandments of dos and don'ts and say "Thou shalt not kill". Or those who are pursuing the good of others out of kindness don't need to be told: "Thou shalt not covet". Paul doesn't do away with such reminders, but the Holy Spirit's presence in the life of a believer is God's way of fulfilling New Testament Christianity. His laws are on the hearts of His people so that they will obey Him. We see that when we experience salvation, changes take place in our lives. God changes our desires. He gives us a love for Himself and others. We become aware of what pleases Him and what displeases Him. We come to know what is sinful.The Holy Spirit enables us to seek God and hear His voice. In the early church prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples had to find a replacement for Judas Iscariot. They had two potential candidates and to determine which one was God's choice they cast lots and the lot fell on Matthias (Acts 1 v 26). However after the Holy Spirit's coming they made their decisions somewhat differently. Upon sending out Paul and Barnabas they fasted and prayed (Acts 13 v 2). They could have intimate communion with God because of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

How did the Early Church understand Salvation?The Early Church were eschatological in their thinking. The word eschatological comes from the word eschatology which means the end. Eschatology is the study of the end times. It covers issues such as the rapture, the tribulation, the millenium, Daniel's 70th week and so on. Jewish expectations were that God through His Messiah would bring a dramatic end to the present age. This in turn would be followed by the coming age (Kingdom Age). The sign for this happening was the resurrection of the dead and the gift of the Holy Spirit. They arrived at this conclusion from their reading of the Old Testament prophets such as Daniel, Hosea, Jeremiah, Isaiah & Ezekiel etc. For the Jews it was simply the present age followed by the age to come. With the coming age would also come peace, health and universal righteousness and joy.

However the Early Church believed that the fulfillment of God's Old Testament Covenant promises had begun with the work of Christ and their experience of the Holy Spirit. In their view, they were already living in the beginning of the end times.They arrived at this conclusion from Jesus' ministry. Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God. He said that it was at hand. He demonstrated that it had come by signs and wonders. In John Ch 12, Jesus said "If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God is come unto you". The Kingdom of God was a present day reality and yet it was a future event. It was inaugurated at Jesus' First Coming and would be consumated at Jesus' Second Coming. Jesus said to the disciples that the Kingdom of God was within them and yet when teaching them how to pray he said pray "Thy Kingdom come". But it was the resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit that altered the Early Church's Jewish perspective. Remember that essentially the Early Church sprang out of Judaism. The Jews in reading the Old Testament Prophets were waiting for their Messiah accompanied by the resurrection of the dead. The Early Church in seeinng the resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out at Pentecost realised that the future had been set in motion. Characteristics that marked the Kingdom of God such as righteousness, joy , peace etc were evident now. This was how the Jews saw the Kingdom of God, but with one exception. There would be no more satan, sin, sickness and death. The Early Church saw the evidence of the future kingdom, yet there was still evil around them. The kingdom had come but yet there would be a more fuller expression of it at Christ's Second coming. The future (Coming Age) had invaded the present. They were experiencing the future kingdom in the present. They were living between the times. The future had begun, but it had not yet been fulfilled. There was an overlap of the present age and the age to come. They were living in the present age with evil all around them and yet they were also living in the Kingdom age by the Holy Spirit. What was their conclusion? In Acts Ch 2, Peter stands up and says "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh." At the end of the present age would come the Kingdom age which would be forever. They had begun to experience it now yet it hadn't fully come. Their conclusion was that they were living at the begining of the end. They were living at the beginning of the end times. In Matthew Ch 24 Jesus would repeat "But the end is not yet.

This perspective determined everything about the Early Church, how they lived and how they thought. At the Lord's Table, they proclaimed the Lord's death until He comes. They knew God's full and free forgiveness, but yet they were not perfected. Victory over death was theirs and yet they would still die. They lived in the Spirit but yet they lived in a world were satan could still attack. They entered the Kingdom of God but yet they wouldn't inherit it until Christ's Second Coming.The Apostle Paul had this perspective also. He said to the Corinthian Church that "we are those upon whom the ends of the ages have come"(1Cor 10 v11). In 2 Corinthians 5 V 14 & 15 he said that Christ's death and resurrection had passed sentence on the present age which is thus passing away. This was how the Early Church understood the times they were living in.

Paul viewed salvation in this context. Salvation began at the cross, but won't be completed until Christ returns. Salvation is past, present and future. There is a past tense aspect to our salvation, a present tense aspect and a future tense aspect. I have been saved, I am being saved and I will be saved.I have been saved. By faith in Christ I have been justified, acquitted, declared righteous, my sins have been forgiven. I have been saved.

I am being saved. By the Word of God my mind is being renewed. Changes are continually taking place in my walk with Christ. I am being purified and tested and moulded so that Godly qualities and character will be developed in my life.I will be saved. At the return of Christ I will be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. The dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. Corruptible shall put on incorruptible and mortality shall put on immortality.



Already

Not Yet

Redemption .....Ephesians 1 V 7

Redemption .....Ephesians 4 V 30

Adoption .......Romans 8 V 15

Adoption .......Romans 8 V 23

Righteousness ......Romans 5 V 1

Righteousness ......Galatians 5 V 5



We live as strangers on earth and yet are true citizenship is in Heaven. We have been raised with Christ, yet we still will be raised at the His return. We are justified and face no condemnation, yet we will be judged.Salvation has a past, present and future!

Some make the mistake of putting all of salvation into the past tense. They see no future dimension to salvation and the result is that they try to live impossible lives. They try to live as if they already have a resurrected, glorified body and so sickness has no right to touch it. The reality is that in Romans 8 we are told that all creation including the believers are groaning and travailing in pain waiting for the redemption of the body. The reality is until that happens, our bodies are corruptible, subject to decay (though are outward man perish). They are also mortal, subject to death. This does not in any way undermine the glorious truth of Divine Healing.This was a problem that the Corinthian Church had. They saw Jesus only as exalted and not as crucified. Due to the tension that believers live in. That already but not yet persepctive because of living beteween two ages means that believers will never be truly satisfied until our salvation is completed which will happen when Christ returns. In Romans Ch 8 we (believers in Christ) are groaning and yearning for the redemption of the body. There is a yearning which will only be satisfied when the body is redeemed which completes our salvation which happens at Christ's return. Some believers particularly those who put all of salvation in the past tense try to deal with the dissatisfaction they are expereiencing in the present by looking for "New Teachings", "New Revelations", "New Moves" etc. All this is to try and satisfy a longing, a yearning which won't be satisfied until Christ returns to complete our salvation. How many new moves, fads etc spring up because of ignorance of the truth about salvation?

The Early Church understood Salvation both as individual and corporateThe Bible tellls us in the Old Testament that God is saving a people for His name. This is still God's purpose today, only He is doing so not on the basis of nation (Israel), but on the basis of individual entry through faith in Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. God is not only saving individuals and preparing them for Heaven. He is creating a people among whom He can live and who in their life will reproduce God's life and character to the world around them.

Paul goes on to say that as believers we are members of one another. We are instructed to build up one another, care for one another, pusue one another's good, bear one another's burdens, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgive one another, submit to one another etc. Notice the emphasis on one another. It's easier to be a believer in isolation than to live out one's faith in the context of imperfect people who make up God's Church.As we meditate on all that our Lord Jesus Christ as purchased for us, we will indeed see that it is So Great Salvation!

Recommended Reading: "Paul, The Spirit and The People of God" by Gordon Fee