An early warning passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews cautions readers against drifting away from what we have heard about our salvation. The heart of the warning is against neglecting “such a great salvation” (Heb. 2:3). People who have grown up in church have heard many of the Bible terms that help describe this salvation, terms such as justification, reconciliation, redemption, sanctification and regeneration.
We tend to take these words and their concepts for granted until someone who is not familiar with them asks us to explain one or the other of these salvation words. When that happens, we often struggle to communicate what we mean. So whether it is for greater self understanding about our own Christian experience or for clearer ways of explaining God’s saving message to others, the review of some of the Bible’s ways of referring to this great salvation can be a profitable venture.
Salvation terms
For several weeks Theology 101 will explore what these words seek to communicate to us. Of course theologians have written lengthy essays and whole books on one or the other of these terms. However, our survey of these meaningful salvation concepts will seek to put them down at street level where all of us can renew our basic grasp of their meanings. We will not try to compete with learned explanations that probe into intricacies of meaning or tentacles of implications that might extend from them. After all Theology 101 implies a basic course.
Of all the terms used in the Bible most of us view our theme word “salvation” as the comprehensive, as well as most common, term by which to refer to God’s saving action in behalf of sinners. This term, along with its companion verb “save,” have very ordinary meanings apart from their spiritual references.
For example when Jesus invited Peter to step out of the boat in the midst of a storm and walk to Him, Peter found himself sinking. In desperation Peter called out, “Lord, save me” (Matt. 14:30). His plea was urgent and simple. We get the message.
Delivered to shore
Peter wanted Jesus to rescue him from drowning. In response Jesus took his hand and delivered him safely to shore (Matt. 14:22–32). From this incident we can glean two helpful ideas to keep in mind as we explore salvation as God’s spiritual provision for sinners: rescue and deliverance. Salvation involves both ideas.
When Jesus saves us we are rescued from serious danger and delivered into a new situation in which the danger no longer exists. So we always hold in mind that salvation includes what we are saved from and saved to. Our consideration of Christian salvation not only must deal with its positive and negative aspects, but also with its time dimensions.
Since salvation is a broad term we will begin by spending several sessions thinking about Christian salvation in its three dimensions — past, present and future. These time dimensions lead many to say, with equal biblical justification for each statement, “I have been saved,” “I am being saved” and “I will be saved.” Several of the biblical terms that are mentioned in the opening paragraph in Hebrews related to our great salvation have their setting in one of these three time dimensions, as we will see next week.
Share with others: