What is salvation with Bible reference?

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.

Still, though there is this comprehensiveness of meaning about the word, we must not miss the fact that it always carries the thought of deliverance from peril; and inasmuch as sin lies at the root of every peril that threatens us, the New Testament very appropriately opens with salvation from sins. This salvation is not merely from the penalty of sins, but from the power of sins, and even from the love of them. The Gospel does not offer an exemption from sin's penalty while leaving us free to continue under the power of sin, or in the enjoyment of sin's temporary pleasures. Were it to do so, it would be no true salvation, for it would just encourage us to continue in sin: which God forbid!

"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.

There is a notion in the minds of those who come under the influence of these errors, that salvation and forgiveness may be taken as synonyms. Scripture, however, gives no support to such a thought. Forgiveness is simply that the Creditor no longer regards the debtor as liable for the debts he may have contracted. God releases the sinner from the consequences of his sins. But salvation is the emancipation of the sinner from every evil power that had captivated him, and held him as a slave. Reference is made to Israel in this book. At the Red Sea Israel was told to stand still and see the salvation of God. The people were delivered from the bondage under which they lay, and the dread power of the enemy was broken. If we should speak of the blood-sprinkled lintel as affording them salvation (I do not think it is ever called that), it would be salvation from God, for the blood was on the door-post to keep out His righteous Judgment, which was abroad in the land. Through the shed blood we have forgiveness (Eph. 1:7), and without shedding of blood is no remission (Heb. 9:22). At the Red Sea we have the salvation of God. This is Christ delivered for our offence; and raised again for our justification. Romans 3:24-26 has reference to the blood in Egypt, and chapter 4:24-25 to the Red Sea divided. Chapter 3, “Through faith in His blood.” Chapter 4, “We believe in Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.”

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.

There are many aspects of salvation. In Matthew 1:21 we read of Jesus coming to save His people from their sins; and in Luke 1:71 Zacharias spoke of Jesus coming “that we might be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us.” The death of Christ has saved us from the consequences of our guilt, from the power of sin, from the power of Satan, and from the fear of death. Soon, at the coming of the Lord, we shall be saved from the judgment that will overtake a world that knows not, and desires not, God and His Christ, a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:5).

“I am the door: by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” That is the first thing—salvation. Was there any salvation in Judaism? That was a system of probation. Every single person that was tested failed, and every failure under the law must be fatal. “The soul that sins it shall DIE.” The meaning of probation is that you are under trial, whereas the meaning of salvation is that you have got a Saviour. This salvation carries with it the settlement of God’s wrath against sin, and our deliverance from it. When Christ came as the door God appeared not as Judge but as Saviour. And it also carries with it the thought of deliverance from all those untoward influences that surround us all through our life down here. There are temptations of the flesh, the world and the devil, and all the fearful power of the enemy arrayed against us. We want salvation from these things, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the One who can give it. Finally we need salvation in connection with our bodies, and the Lord Jesus Christ will not be content until He gives us that salvation. Our salvation is not complete until the word “redemption” is spelled out in full, and redemption is not spelt out in full until Christ comes to take us to be for ever with Himself. “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom. 13:11). Our salvation draws nigh, because the Redeemer is drawing nigh. The Lord is coming.

A note in the New Translation may help the reader as to the meaning of the word "salvation" in this scripture. Giving it as deliverance in the text, the note to verse 77 says, "Or 'salvation.' Same word as in verse 69. 'Saved' in verse 74 is a different word; there the same as who 'delivers' us from the wrath to come." The difficulty in some minds has arisen from the fact that "salvation" is used by many to express all the glory connected with the accomplishment of God's purpose in conforming His people to the image of His beloved Son. It is plain, however, if the various passages be consulted in which the word "salvation" occurs, that the scriptural idea is deliverance. Take one example: "Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." If this passage be compared with chapter 7:25, it will be readily perceived that salvation here signifies final and complete deliverance. The path of the believer is surrounded with difficulties and enemies, and he therefore needs deliverance every day, and for this he is dependent upon the "unchangeable priesthood" of Christ, who is able to save to the uttermost (completely). When He appears the second time He finally delivers His people by removing them from the scene of their enemies, and their "salvation" is finished. Their glorified condition is rather the consummation of God's purpose. (See Rom. 8:30.)

As in creation, so in the matter of salvation, the Son is the person Who works out the divine purpose to its appointed end. He came into the world to save sinners; yet men are not saved by His incarnation, but by His atoning death. The death of Christ has furnished God with an irrefragable ground of righteousness on which to act in His grace towards perishing men. Nothing is demanded from men but faith — simple confidence in God and His beloved Son. He who in his deep need turns his eye in faith to God and Christ becomes at once entitled to all the advantages of Christ's most costly sacrifice.

Salvation is presented in the New Testament in a threefold way. (1) It is a PRESENT thing, in the sense of acceptance with God. The Christian is now "in Christ," and is consequently beyond condemnation, justified and reconciled. He stands in the divine favour now and for ever, and is loved as Christ is loved. So we read in Eph. 2:8. "By grace ye are saved through faith." In 2 Tim. 1:9 also: "God who has saved us." The Spirit's use of the present tense in these passages should dissipate every unbelieving doubt and fear. Doubts and fears are an insult to the love of God and a dishonour to the work of the Lord Jesus.

As has already been expressed the Red Sea is another aspect of the death of Christ. For every true believer in Christ it means the way of deliverance out of this world. While the children of Israel were still on this side of the Sea they were not beyond the reach of their enemies who regarded them as "entangled in the land," and so made a last determined effort to retain them in the house of bondmen. But God's salvation is a complete salvation involving as it does the defeat of the enemy and the crushing of his power, with the deliverance of God's people from the world over which the adversary exercises usurped authority and from all the influences which obtain there. As the god and prince of this world, Satan's power and influence pervades the whole scene which is called in Col. 1:13 "the authority of darkness," and the principle on which his kingdom is ordered is that all shall be according to the supremacy of man's will. This, according to God's judgment is sin, "and sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4), for it is the insubordinate will of a creature who has rebelled against God, and this is the root principle of the world.