What is salvation?

In connection with the above subject the question to consider in the first place is what is involved in salvation, or what it really consists in. What I understand by it is that the soul is delivered from that ruinous and destructive power under which it was held, and also from any evil to which it may be liable. The latter was exemplified in Noah and his house, and the former in the deliverance accorded to the children of Israel at the Red Sea. As to Noah and Israel, their salvation was temporal and did not necessarily involve new and eternal relationships with God as the salvation of our souls does, but to my mind the salvation that was accorded to them illustrates the two-fold character of the salvation which is ours in Christ Jesus. There may be other aspects of salvation, but they do not occur to me at this moment. I desire to look at the salvation under these two aspects.

The Son of God was named JESUS because He was to save His people from their sins, and this I take to be the consequences of their sins both present and future. I do not doubt the primary reference of this is to God’s earthly people, but it has also reference to those who would believe upon Him from among the Gentiles. Now, judgment and wrath are two great evils from which we need deliverance, for on account of our sins we are liable to both. In Romans 1:18 wrath is said to be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, and from this the Gospel is said to be the power of God to salvation, and in chapter 5:9, “Being now justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him,” and in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, “God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ”; and Peter informs those to whom he writes that the time had come when judgment must begin at the house of God, and if the righteous would scarcely be saved where would the ungodly and the sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:18). These passages of Scripture all present judgment and wrath as about to be inflicted and from which men need salvation. There are other Scriptures bearing upon the same aspect, but these will suffice.

But salvation is also viewed in Scripture as a present thing, for we are spoken of as being already saved. In 2 Timothy 1:9, we read of “God who has saved us, and called us with an holy calling,” and in Titus 3:5, “according to His mercy He saved us,” and in Ephesians 2:5, “By grace ye are saved.” There is therefore a present aspect of salvation contemplated in Scripture, and this I take to be the emancipation of the soul from the oppression and bondage of every adverse and ruinous power, whether it be death, Satan, sin, the flesh, or the world. We find deliverance from death, and the Devil as the one who has the power of death, by faith in that which answers to the dividing of the Red Sea; and from the working of sin in the flesh, by that which answers to the brazen serpent; and from the world, by that which answers to the passage of the Jordan.

But let us inquire what is included in the salvation which the grace of God brings? The answer is, Everything. Salvation is a precious box containing all I want for time and eternity. It includes salvation from the future consequence of sin and from its present power. To be a divinely-saved person — a person saved by the grace of God, saved by the blood of Christ as every believer is — involves entire deliverance from wrath, from hell, from Satan, from everything that could possibly be against me. A man whom God has saved is surely safe from all. There is nothing doubtful about God's salvation; it is all settled. There is no delay; it is all finished. We have neither to wait for it nor to add to it, but to receive it now and enjoy it forever. The mighty tide of grace rolls down from the very throne of God and bears upon its bosom a full salvation for me. I receive it as a free gift; I bow my head and worship, and go on my way rejoicing.

Let us look, then, first, at the character of the deliverance, or salvation, which this wondrous intervention of God in grace brings. This cannot be learnt by going over the points of systematic divinity [i.e. the creeds of religious systems], but by a reference to the character of man's condition through sin, as unfolded in the word of God, and manifested by the suffering and death of Christ. Whatever there is of moral distance from God, through sin, this salvation, which "the grace of God" brings, meets, and sets aside. "For Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." Sin in its very nature separates from God; for light cannot have fellowship with darkness; but then it is said, "Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Sin, and death, and Satan's power, and the judgment of God - all marked man's condition of ruin, and all must be met before salvation, full and adequate, can be proclaimed. It is not enough to raise man from his degradation and moral pollution, if such a thing could be, and set him on his pathway to happiness. The conscience must be set at rest on the ground of every claim of God in His righteous holiness having been met, and every possible consequence of sin set aside. And this is the salvation which the grace of God brings. It brings eternal life into this region of death; for "God hath given to us eternal life: and this life is in his Son." It brings in divine righteousness into the midst of condemnation. For "he who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." It brings deliverance from Satan's power; for "through death [Christ] destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." Nay more, the salvation which the grace of God brings puts us in the very place, and position, and acceptance before God, and makes us partakers of the very life and glory of Him by whom the salvation has been wrought. It has no other measure, and has no lower character. Was ever love like this!

T. The hope of salvation is the prospect of final deliverance; not merely as we have it now in the life of Christ, and in the power of the Spirit, but in a change of body; which will place us with Christ in glory, as we read in Philippians 3, “Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body.” The presence of the grace of God in the gospel has brought salvation to us in a moral and spiritual way, and the presence of the Lord in person shall bring it to us in an actual, complete, and final way. There is also a deliverance which is effected for us day by day. Our great Priest who has passed through the heavens is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him (Heb. 7:25). There is still another aspect of salvation to be referred to; that is, salvation from wrath through Him (1 Thess. 1:10; Rom. 5:9). That will involve what is called the rapture of the church, which will remove us out of this world before the wrath He speaks of is poured out upon it. There are, I think, four aspects of salvation. First: the deliverance of the soul from the consequences of sin, and from every adverse power, and setting it in right relations with God in Christ. Second: the adoption, which is the redemption of the body, when we shall be planted in the position and place designed for us before the world was. Third: the daily deliverances which are vouchsafed us through the intercession of our great High Priest. Fourth: salvation from the coming wrath.

It might be put this way for clearness, Salvation past—from the penalty of sin. Salvation present—from the power of sin. Salvation future—from the presence of sin.

Thus in Romans 5 salvation is very clearly referred to, and put in full contradistinction to what God has wrought for us by the blood of Christ. The apostle says, "God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us: much more then, being now justified by his blood" (it is evidently the same grand truth as the Passover), "we shall be saved from wrath through him." It is clear that salvation here is not simply that a person is purged from guilt, but the real application of Christ's work in all its fulness; only that we have it not yet for our bodies. "We shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (this was the beginning), "much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life." It is plain therefore, that salvation requires and involves not only the death but the life of Christ; that salvation supposes not merely guilt removed through His blood, but ourselves maintained, and to be brought through all difficulties, past, present, and future. Thus it is a complete deliverance from all that can be brought against us; not a going through the world with hope of protective mercy, which is the notion of man, but a complete victory over the foe present and future.

The type or principle of this we have here for the first time when Moses says "this day" and speaks about the salvation of Jehovah; and again, later on in the chapter, "Jehovah saved Israel." How beautiful the accuracy of scripture! We might have put in that Jehovah saved Israel on the night of the paschal lamb; but nowhere then is such an expression heard. No; they were sheltered, but in the true sense not yet "saved." Salvation means the known destruction of their foes, God having risen up in the majesty of His power, and manifested it completely in their favour. Here they were clearly on the simple ground of grace; and immediately afterwards we have the triumphant song of Moses and the children of Israel — "I will sing to Jehovah, for he has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has he thrown into the sea. Jah is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation." This last phrase then is not merely a casual expression; it is the purposed and suited language of the Holy Ghost. We are meant to take notice that now we can speak of "salvation," not before. (Ex. 15)

It is salvation, a simple word in itself, but one of unparalleled importance to our hearts. Salvation has its negative and its positive side. The first comprises the destruction of the enemy, of his power and all its consequences. Grace, in the person of Christ, has taken our place in death under all this: "It is the grace of God that brings salvation." Thus, Satan's power, the world, sin, death, wrath, and judgment, are overcome and destroyed for faith in the cross of Christ.

The present salvation of God which reaches man through the gospel, is the power of God in operation to free man from every force which holds his soul in bondage, whether it be Satan (Col. 1:13), the world (Gal. 1:4), or sin (Rom 7:24); that being delivered and supplied with new divine power in the gift of the Holy Spirit, he may be able to serve God acceptably in the midst of a hostile world.

Yet again and again we find in Scripture that salvation does mean exemption or deliverance from the wrath of God. The Gospel is "the power of God to salvation, to every one that believes … for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven" (Rom. 1:16-18). A little later in the same epistle we read, "We shall be saved from wrath through Him" (Rom. 5:9). Again we read, "God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:9). And yet again in 2 Thessalonians 2:12-13, we find that salvation is put in direct contrast with damnation.

"Thus the Lord saved Israel that day." We do not read of Israel being "saved" as long as they were in Egypt, though they had been sheltered from judgment. Egypt typified the world and Pharaoh typified Satan, the god and prince of the world. When clean delivered from these, Israel was said to be saved, and similarly in the New Testament salvation means not only that we have been forgiven and justified, but also delivered from the authority of Satan and from the world-system that he dominates.