All Biblical references in the following post are from the King James Version using a tool from Blue Letter Bible. Any other significant references are available at the bottom of the post, with their in-text citations marked by a number in brackets (e.g. [1]).
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph 2:8-9 KJV).”
These words, written by the Apostle Paul late in the first century AD outline one of the most central tenets of the Christian faith. Simply rephrased as “Salvation, by grace, through faith,” this doctrine is both highly debated and misunderstood by Scholars and lay people alike. These first four blog posts aim to walk through a Scriptural understanding of this important doctrine. Let us begin the first portion of this study by gaining a Biblical understanding of salvation.
The Greek word that Paul uses for salvation is the noun soteria, which comes from the verb sozo, meaning to save from physical or spiritual danger, suffering, and sickness [2]. Scholars have named the study of Salvation Soteriology using this Greek word. Paul made it clear in Ephesians 2:8-9 that God offers us the gift of faith by His wonderful grace, and this is the mechanism by which we receive salvation. To more fully explore this idea, Christ’s work of salvation can be broken down further into three categories: justification, sanctification, and glorification. These three “stages” of salvation will be detailed in the next blog post, but it is important that we first understand why salvation is necessary.
Mankind’s need for salvation stems from events that occurred at the very beginning of human history. Adam and Eve’s disobedience of God’s commands in Genesis 3 began the endless chain of human wickedness and sealed humankind to its fate of eternal separation from the presence of God. Scripture defines this disobedience and wickedness as sin in 1 John 3:4. Adam and Eve’s sin brought pain, suffering, and death into the world. They were meant to be the caretakers of all Creation, and therefore their sin brought death to all Creation. The Apostle Paul lays this concept out in Romans 3:23 and again later in 5:12. To rephrase Paul’s words, it can be said that Adam (and Eve) brought sin and death into the world, but every person has chosen to participate in that sin. The effect of that sin is eternal separation from God because He is holy and eternally righteous, and will not tolerate wickedness in His sight (see Habakkuk 1:13).
It should also be noted that sin is not simply doing something that God said not to do. It is also sinful to refuse to do the things that God commanded us to do. These two kinds of sin are usually referred to as commission (doing the wrong thing) and omission (refusing to do the right thing) [1]. The Bible does not use the same terminology, but it does back up this idea. Sins of commission are easily understood by looking at any of the commands in the Old Testament Law (See Exodus 12). As another example, Jesus lists several in Mark 7:21-23. Sins of omission can seem more difficult to understand because it sounds unusual to say that you can sin by NOT doing something, but the Apostle James makes this clear as well in James 4:17.
With all of this sin separating us from God, it may seem like the plight of mankind is hopeless. And indeed it is as long as we try to dig our way out of this pit of destruction that we have made for ourselves. Thankfully, God has a way of rescuing those who would choose Him: a plan seen plan unfolding through the history of the nation of Israel. By looking at Scripture as a whole, we can see the written Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17) like a flashing sign pointing to Jesus, the Savior and living Word of God (John 1:1,14; Hebrews 4:12). In the Old Testament, Israel mistakenly thought that the Law was written so they could obey it and receive the promises of God. Instead, the Law exposed the sin of the world (Romans 3:20, 5:13) and revealed the need for the coming promise of Jesus Christ (Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 61:1). Jesus, as the second person of the Godhead came to earth to live a perfect life according to God’s Law. He then took the sins of all people upon Himself, was put to death, and then resurrected to bring life to those who would put their faith in him (see the Gospel of John). We can summarize Jesus’ role in all of this by reading 2 Corinthians 5:21.
I hope that this introductory post has clearly laid out the desperate need that we have for salvation from our sins. Next month’s post will focus on understanding the three parts of Salvation: Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. Following that will be posts on Grace and Faith respectively. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future topics for this blog to discuss, please comment below or feel free to send a message through our Contact form. You can also feel free to contact us through our Facebook page.
References
