Soteriology
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Around the church we often hear a family of terms, such as “saved,” “salvation” and “Savior.” Those who are not familiar with church terminology may wonder what we mean when we freely use these words in our sermons and songs.
The preaching of the gospel urges people to “be saved.” They hear us sing, “Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me” or “Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need Thy tender care.”
What exactly do we mean when we speak often and freely about salvation or being saved by a Savior? For a few weeks Theology 101 will be seeking to look at the biblical doctrine of salvation.
The theologians’ term for the doctrine of salvation is “soteriology.” This formal way of referring to the study of salvation is formed on the Greek root term for “Savior.” While thinking about the doctrine of man in recent weeks, we have noted the fall of man and its subsequent impact on every human being. We inherit a sinful nature and we choose to commit acts of sin.
The result is what we usually refer to as being lost. The opposite of being lost is being found. To that end, Jesus Christ came into the world “to save that which was lost” (Matt. 18:11). That’s why we commonly use the idea of salvation to express the mission on which Christ came.
Range of meanings
As used in the Bible, “salvation” has a range of meanings or references. For example the term sometimes speaks of a physical deliverance such as saving a person from death. That is what Jesus referred to in Mark 3:4: “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”
Similarly this would be the meaning of the words from one of the criminals crucified alongside Jesus: “Are you not the Christ? Save Yourself and us” (Luke 23:39).
“Being saved” also is used in the Bible to speak of national deliverance from a natural calamity or an enemy nation. As an example, God’s mighty deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt is summarized in Exodus 14:30 in these words: “So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.”
National deliverance was the meaning of the prophet Jeremiah’s saving message to Israel, “‘Do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says the Lord, ‘nor be dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity’” (Jer. 30:10).
Eternal deliverance
The meaning that is most glorious is that in the Bible salvation has to do with spiritual and eternal deliverance that God has provided fallen humans through His provision in Christ. This is salvation by which God salvages sinful humankind and ultimately restores us into His image and likeness.
The doctrine of salvation begins with where we are in our lostness and does not stop until it takes us into full, final and glorious restoration.
Spiritual salvation is so full and far-reaching that the Bible looks at it from a variety of angles and uses a wide range of analogies by which to help us grasp what it means to be saved by grace through faith in Christ.
Some of these ways the Bible describes salvation will be the focus of Theology 101 in coming weeks.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jerry Batson is a retired Alabama Baptist pastor who also has served as associate dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and professor of several schools of religion during his career.
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