The Miracle of Salvation

I think too often we lose sight of the miracle of salvation. Perhaps we should, from time to time, reflect on why there is salvation at all in this desperately wicked world? The answer, of course, is Jesus and the cross.

Jesus came to earth and died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and to defeat the power of evil (Colossians 2: 13 – 17; 2 Corinthians 5: 20, 21) manifested in sin, the flesh, death, and disease. The cross is the central part of salvation – it was here that the sacrifice of God’s Son for our sins was effective. He triumphed over the powers and authorities of the demonic realm. Because of the cross and the death of Jesus, God’s Son, believing followers of Jesus are now victors. We are not victims.  We don’t pray for victory; when we pray, we pray from a place or position of victory over satan and his demons – saved, in all of its meanings and manifestations.

No cross, no salvation. Salvation depends upon God’s mercy, grace (in Hebrew, hesed), power, and the influence of and intercession by the Holy Spirit – all wrapped up in the person of Jesus (which is to say, in the Triune God).

Human agency is also required. We must choose salvation when it is offered. In a perfect description of salvation – life in the Promised Land, the Old Testament equivalent of the Kingdom of God – Moses told the Israelites:

“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love your God and to keep His commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in His ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord you God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.”

“But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.” (In other words, you will not experience salvation).

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord you God, obeying Him, and committing yourself firmly to Him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Deuteronomy 30: 15 – 20 NLT).

In this passage, God is telling His people, which includes us because we are Abraham’s spiritual descendants, we must choose salvation, which is life in the Promised Land. Jesus ‘updated’ this picture by ‘replacing’ the Promised Land with the Kingdom of God. Jesus paid the price for us to live saved lives. We cannot save ourselves; we cannot earn our salvation. But when salvation is offered, we have to choose life (in the Promised Land, aka Kingdom of God). We can reject God’s offer of salvation, and many do. If we choose salvation, we must love God, keep His commands, walk in His ways, and ‘not turn away and worship other gods’, especially during times of persecution. This is as true today as it was in the time of Moses. As Israel demonstrated, it is possible for our hearts, which once burned for God, lit by the fire of the Holy Spirit, to grow cold and wither.

Jesus warns us about this in John 15, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown in the fire, and burned” (John 15: 5, 6 NIV). If this happens, our salvation is lost. (We can lose our salvation. For some, this statement is heresy. In my next post, I’ll support this proposition with a lot of Scripture).

We cannot save ourselves; that we can have salvation at all is nothing but grace. But we have a role to play in our salvation, beginning with ‘choose’.

Paul writes essentially the same thing in his letter to the Philippians, commanding them, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2: 12 NKJV). Paul is not telling them to save themselves. Paul is not referring to ‘works of the Law’ – he is not telling them to obey all the laws and they will be saved in their own power. He is telling them they must continually choose to love God, keep His commands, walk in His ways, and not turn away to worship other Gods, which include money, sex, power, accomplishments, possessions, etc. They have work to do. We do this work daily, in the power of the Holy Spirit. This work includes repentance. This ‘work’ is the work we do on the journey of sanctification – the journey of “working out our salvation”.

We do not just repent; we are repentant. Repentance is a continual work. Without repentance, there is no salvation. For example, throughout the New Testament, Jesus calls His followers to repentance. He makes it clear: we must repent. He will not do it for us. Our role is to repent – confess our sins and shortcomings, turn away from them, and turn to Him. And not just one time – we must be repentant. We repent for what we have done, we repent of what we are doing, and we repent of who we are. He will influence us as in “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation” and we need the help of the Holy Spirit. But Jesus is clear: He commands us to repent. “The time promised by God has come at last! He announced. The Kingdom of God is near! Repent (a command) of your sins and believe the Good News!” (‘the Good News’ in NLT is translated as ‘the Gospel’ in NKJV)  (Mark 1: 15 NKJV).  

Jesus demonstrates this in John 8: 1 – 11, when the Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman caught in adultery. She was ‘caught’ in the act; she really was a sinner. She was saved by Jesus from certain death by stoning. When the Pharisees walked away, John writes, “Standing up Yeshua said to her, “Where are they? Has no one condemned you?”. She said, “No one, sir”. Yeshua said, neither do I condemn you. Now go, and don’t sin any more” (John 8: 10, 11 CJB).

“Don’t sin any more” is a command to repent – change her mind about the sin of adultery and turn to God for help to turn her life around. But as most of us know, we need the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to ‘change our mind’ and turn.

When someone is offered salvation, they can choose to reject the offer. For example, Jesus offered the rich young man salvation. He turned down the offer and, “Went away sad because he great wealth” (Mark 10: 22). Or consider Paul’s letter to Timothy:

“Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save (sozo) both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4” 15, 16 NIV).

When Paul tells Timothy, “If you do”, he is essentially warning Timothy about what will happen “if you don’t”. Timothy had a choice. We also have a role in the ongoing process of salvation. Paul tells us to take every thought captive, defeat it, and make it obedient to Christ:

“We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and breaks through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One” (2 Corinthians 10: 5 TPT).

We have a role to play – we demolish, we capture, and we insist that thoughts of temptation, accusation, condemnation, shame, etc. go. We capture thoughts as if at the point of a spear, take them prisoner, force them to bow to Jesus and cast them out, expelling them from our minds. We do them, but we can only do them in partnership with and in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is part of what it means to repent – to turn to God to help us do these things, but we also need help. We need the Holy Spirit, which Jesus promises to give us, “Repent and be baptized . . . And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 3 38 NIV).

(I use this simple prayer when such a thought enters my mind. I pray, “I come out of agreement with you. The Lord rebuke you. I command you to leave my mind, I cast you out. Go!”).

Paul makes our work clear in other passages as well. For example, in Colossians 3: 1 – 17 Paul describes our part in what is, essentially, a saved life in Christ, and what it means “to work out your salvation”. He uses phrases like: “set your hearts on things above”; “set your minds on things above”; “put to death”; “rid yourselves”; “do not lie”; “you have taken off your old self, put on your new self’; “clothe yourselves”; “forgive”; “put on love”; “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts”; “be thankful”; “let the word of God dwell in you richly”; “teach and admonish one another”; “sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude”; “and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him”. We do these things through worship, fasting, prayer, and service. All things we do, but in partnership with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Peter writes:

“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2: 2, 3 NIV).

Peter is reiterating what Paul wrote when he commands us to “rid ourselves . . .”, because in this way we grow up in our salvation. Salvation is progressive, and we have a role to play. As we obey the words of Peter and Paul, we grow more mature and deeper in our salvation. In this way, salvation is synonymous with sanctification.

Salvation is like a tree. We do not plant the tree; the tree grows from a seed. Jesus plants the seed in our heart. In fact, the seed is Jesus (Galatians 2: 16) – Jesus plants himself in “the good soil” of our heart. The seed sprouts into the ‘image’ of the parent plant, Jesus. Jesus is living in our heart. We are saved. The seed grows into a sapling or bush. But a sapling needs to be watered, fertilized, pruned and trimmed, so its roots can grow deep into the soil, producing an “oak of righteousness” than can withstand any storm and “does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17: 8 NIV). We water, fertilize, prune and trim; we have our part in this process. We choose to pray, read Scripture, believe, trust and obey; love, praise, and worship God, and repent. We choose surrender! These are all ways we water and fertilize, prune and trim. It is the Holy Spirit who grows us up in Christ, but we have a critical role to play. Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, pick up our cross daily, and follow Him. Then He adds, writing about salvation, “For whoever (there’s that word again – ‘everyone’) desires to save (sozo – we cannot save ourselves) his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (or will be saved) (Matthew 16: 24, 25 NKJV). What happens if we choose another path? If we reject the salvation offered by Jesus and choose the broad road of the kingdom of self instead? That way leads to destruction (Matthew 6: 13 NIV), and a life of eternal torment.

Paul reiterates this idea in Romans 8, one of the great passages in Scripture about salvation, “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8: 12 – 14 NIV).

Although helped by the Spirit, you have a role to play in our salvation – you must put to death the misdeeds of the body.

All of this is possible only because the believer is ‘in Christ’ and his “life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3: 3). God’s work is the work of salvation. He defeated the power of the flesh and sin in my life. My work is to repent and resist the ongoing temptation of the flesh, to receive and deepen that salvation life while I am ‘in Christ’, but only through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The passage most often quoted about salvation and faith is from Ephesians 2:

“For it is by grace you have been saved (sozo), through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2: 8, 9 NIV).

We cannot save ourselves. One of satan’s great lie is, “You are not good enough”. (Like all of his lies, there some truth in the lie. Apart from Christ, I am not good enough. But, ‘in Christ’, I am more than good enough). Satan’s accusation is a type of temptation. His goal is to make us rise up and say, “I’ll show you. I can make myself good enough”. We embark on the broad road of accomplishments, possessions, wealth, power, work, health and appearance, etc. (aka ‘works’) to make ourselves ‘good enough’ in our own eyes and the eyes of the world. In other words, to save ourselves. But that road always leads to destruction – never salvation. The idea that ‘I can make myself good enough’ or ‘I can save myself through my works’ is another root lie. This is the main point of Ephesians 2: 8, 9. I cannot save myself; salvation comes only through Jesus Christ.

But many use this passage as proof that human agency plays no role in salvation. They lump both ‘grace’ and ‘faith’ together as works, “So that no one can boast”. It is the grace that ‘is not from ourselves’. Grace is the gift (singular, not plural) from God. In the Ephesians passage, where Paul writes about ‘works’, he is referring to ‘works of the law’. Faith is not a work. Faith is what I bring. Faith has 2 components: belief and trust.  Consider these verses:

The Complete Jewish Bible translates Ephesians 2: 8,9 this way:

“For you have been delivered by grace through trusting, and even this is not your accomplishment but God’s gift. You were not delivered by your own actions, therefore no one should boast” (Ephesians 2: 8, 9 CJB).

‘Saved’ or sozo is translated as ‘delivered’; ‘faith’ is translated as ‘trust’. The gift Paul is writing about is deliverance, not ‘trusting’ or faith. We cannot deliver ourselves; only God can do that. For example, only Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, can deliver someone from a demon. But, while we cannot deliver ourselves, we have to trust. Trust is a deep word, but it implies human agency. The most essential part of trust, our most important work without which there is no relationship with Jesus, is surrender. We must surrender all of who we are, who we will ever be; all that we have and all that we will ever have, to the Lordship of Jesus. We must surrender as little children to our heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We must give up the right to ourselves – our wants, needs, and desires and place all of that at the feet of Jesus. We must crucify our self-life daily. Our choice! We do this because we believe Jesus is who He says He is, and we trust and love Him. Jesus will not make us or force us to trust Him. If He did, that would not be trust; that would be compulsion. He has given us every reason to trust Him, not least He died for us, but love and trust are our choices. We have a will that is free to choose – free to choose trust, free to love (without freedom, there is no love), and free to repent.

Many Christians, especially reformed Christians, believe all faith must come from God and not ourselves, if we will be saved; otherwise, they say, it would be a work, and Paul clearly writes, they say, salvation is not by works. But faith is not a work. Paul is clear about this. “Works” for Paul is the work of observing the Law.

“Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law (Romans 3: 27, 28 NIV).

Faith (belief + trust) is apart from observing the law (works).

“If in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about – but not before God. What does the Scripture say? Abraham believed (had faith) God and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4: 2, 3 NIV).

“However, to the man who does not work, but trusts (has faith in God) who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4: 5 NIV).

“It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by the law (works) are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, for the law brings wrath . . . Therefore, the promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring – not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all” (Romans 4: 13 – 16 NIV).

God alone saves, but we must have faith. Works – following and obeying the law – cannot save us. But faith is something different from “works”. “Abraham believed God” – that was something that Abraham provided in order to receive grace and choose salvation. For sure, the Holy Spirit played a role in his faith, but his faith was not a work.

Paul writes about faith and works in Galatians:

“We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, know that a man is not justified by observing the law (works), but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2: 15, 16 NIV).

Here again, Paul distinguishes between ‘works’ – ‘trying to save ourselves by observing the law’ – and faith. Two different things. Faith is not a work. We are saved (sozoed) by grace, through faith.

Scripture tells us that Jesus desires all men to be saved:

Peter writes, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish (apollumi in Greek meaning “to give over to misery in hell”, the opposite of saved ), but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3: 9 NIV).

Repentance, as I wrote above, is the doorway to salvation. Peter tells the crowd in Jerusalem, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3: 19 NIV). This is a good description of what it means to be saved – sins wiped out, times of refreshing coming from God. Peter commands us to repent. Apart from repentance, the is no salvation, forgiveness of sins.

Paul also makes it clear that God desires all men to be saved:

“This is good, and pleases God our Savior who desires all men to be saved (sozo) and come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men” (1 Timothy 2: 3 – 6 NIV).

Paul emphasizes Jesus’ heart for the salvation of the world in 2 Corinthians 5:

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all (‘all’ in Greek is pas, which means “each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything”, Thayer’s Concordance), and therefore all died. And He died for all (pas) that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again . . . That God was reconciling the world (‘world’ is kosmos in Greek, which means “the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human family” from Thayer’s Concordance) to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5: 14, 15; 17 – 19 NIV).

This passage from 2 Corinthians parallels Jesus’ famous words from John. “For God so loved the world (kosmos) that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever (‘whoever’ or ‘whosoever’ is pas) believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3: 16 NIV).

Salvation is for the whole world. God, through His Son Jesus, wants to ‘sozo’ the whole ‘Kosmos’.

How does one get saved? God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be a sacrifice for each person. The hard work is done. Paul gives us the key to salvation of each person, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” ( which means you say, “Jesus you are the Lord of my life; I am not any longer”), and believe (trust) in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10: 9 NIV).

Jesus wants to save the total person: spirit, soul, and body. His salvation includes emotional healing, demonic deliverance, and physical healing, and a life of freedom, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, today, in this life, and for eternity. But not everyone is healed physically when Christians pray for healing, and not everyone will be saved, even though Jesus wants everyone to be saved. Why not? I am guessing for many reasons, but one of the top reasons is they don’t believe in or trust Jesus for that kind of salvation now (and perhaps for that kind of healing).  

God saves and then uses the saved to release and advance His Kingdom in partnership with Him. God uses people to save the lost through prayers for healing and deliverance (sozo), in the name of Jesus; the sharing of the gospel through personal interactions, and preaching/teaching. God does the work of healing and saving because He is the healer and savior. But we have a role to play.  I have written elsewhere we are like a hose that carries the water – living water, if you will. When a house is burning, it is the water that extinguishes the blaze, but it is the hose that carries the water to the fire. No hose? Then it is much more difficult to save the house. The fire will not be put out by a bucket brigade – that is the world’s way of putting out the fire, apart from Jesus.

Prayer is an essential part of salvation, especially when we are interceding for the salvation of another. These prayers can range for them to confess Jesus as their savior all the way to praying for someone to be healed of an illness, disease, or delivered from demonic oppression. I know a person who was saved from a terminal illness and found Jesus as savior and friend, only because someone gave them a Bible. They read it non-stop, cover-to-cover. Somewhere in the middle of the Bible, they were healed and began to love and follow Jesus. Years later they are still physically healed from the ‘terminal’ disease. God chose a person – the one who gave him the Bible – to participate in their healing and deliverance – their salvation.

I am convinced that God has shown us only a small part of the reality of salvation. Sozo and soteria are words that describe deep mysteries known only to Jesus. We don’t have to understand these depths; in fact, we can’t, for the most part. But we need to choose to receive and accept the work God wants to do in our lives with obedient, grateful, and worshipful hearts. Being saved (sozo) and salvation (soteria) are about beginning to live continually, day-by-day with Christ and ‘in Christ’ now, in this age, in the Kingdom of God on earth; and then for eternity, in the age to come. Saved and salvation describe my deliverance from sin and satan’s grip on my life; saved describes healing, deliverance from demons, and my journey toward holiness – becoming more like Jesus – today. When I am saved, the power of the flesh, sin, and satan are broken and I can, if I choose, live free or, at least, growing in freedom more each day.

When I am saved and receive salvation because of the work of Jesus, I have a responsibility to work at this salvation – to make it my own; endeavoring to live a Kingdom life, for the world to see; reflecting or manifesting what a life of salvation, freedom, and power looks like. Like sanctification, God will do it for me, but I must do it with Him.

But I was saved, I am being saved now, and my future life of salvation begins today. Salvation is past, present, and future. It is dynamic, alive, active today; it is ongoing. Too many Christians believe when they first accept Christ as Lord and Savior they are saved (which is true) and then will experience salvation only when they die and (hopefully) ‘get’ to heaven. For them, the Christian life is like bookends. One bookend is the moment they were saved (salvation past). The other bookend is salvation (salvation future) experienced after death in heaven. Christian life is about both of the bookends, but also about all the books between the bookends – these books are the day-to-day life in the Kingdom of God. It is here, in this Kingdom life, that we experience healing from disease, deliverance, from demons, and the blessing of partnering with God releasing and advancing His Kingdom – the blessings and responsibilities of salvation. It is in these books that our participation with Jesus to bring His salvation to the world will be written. We have a role to play is saving the world! Too often, in the in-between life, Christians live with little no thought of a present salvation. This is not biblical. It is not the life Jesus died for us to live. Peter and Paul command believers to “rid yourselves”, “put your mind on”, “put to death”, etc. in this life. Moses’ commands us to love God, keep His commands, walk in His ways, and ‘not turn away and worship other gods’ These commands have a purpose: they deepen and drive our salvation daily and produce holiness, which is Jesus’ plan for our lives, in this world as we pray, “in the name of Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit”. As we grow in holiness, we grow in faith (or is it the other way around, or both). It is faith that helps us persevere. As we persevere, we live a salvation life for the world to see and for them to wonder, “How do they do that?”. As we demonstrate salvation in this world, we release and advance the Kingdom of God – our ultimate purpose.

If you want to be saved, pray this prayer:

Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God, the creator, sustainer, and King of the universe. I invite you to become the Lord of my life. I believe you died for my sins, that you were resurrected, and that, in Christ, I too will have eternal Kingdom life. I believe you are my provider, protector, and giver of all good things. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I choose today to surrender my life to you, to follow you more nearly, love you more dearly, and see you more clearly every day for the rest of my life. I pray these things in the mighty name of my Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.