Outline-Christian Doctrine of Salvation

Introduction and meaning of salvation
(Who is saved and from what to what?)

Need for salvation

• Foreseen by God
• Man
• Sin
• God’s plan/provision for salvation
• Ground or basis for salvation (Christ’s death)
• Condition for salvation (What must man do?)
• Biblical Views and Descriptions of Salvation
• (Substitution, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation,
• expiation, justification, regeneration)
• Theories of Atonement
• Doctrine of Election
• Corporate
• Unconditional
• Conditional
• Extent of Atonement
• Particular redemption
• General redemption
• Security of the Believer
• Benefits/blessings of salvation (Not covered)

Introduction and Meaning
Salvation, Savior and the varied forms of the verb save appear well over one hundred times in the Scriptures. In theological terms the doctrine of salvation is called soteriology, a term compounded of two Greek words, Soteria, meaning salvation, and ology, from the Greek word logos, meaning word. Thus our study will involve words about salvation – specifically what the Bible says about salvation as well as the interpretations and views of Biblical scholars.

The word salvation means deliverance, preservation, safety, and the context of the passage in which the word appears determines the nature of that deliverance. Sometimes the word is used to describe deliverance from physical danger and death. Sometimes it is used in connection with Israel’s future deliverance. But the use of salvation that we are interested in is the use in connection with the part of man that lives forever – his soul. The body alone is not the man. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). It is the soul that needs to be rescued from eternal suffering in the lake of fire. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

The doctrine of salvation, as stated so well by Charles Ryrie, is “the grandest theme in the Scriptures. It embraces all of time, eternity past and eternity future. It relates in one way or another to all mankind, without exception…It is the theme of both the Old and New Testaments.” Man’s eternal salvation is what the Bible is about. The angel of the Lord said to Joseph, “And she (Mary) shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Later Mary said, “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47). When our Lord was born, the angel said, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). On another occasion, he said, “I am the door: by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved . . .” (John 10:9). After Pentecost Peter said, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Paul and Silas said to the prison guard, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31).

From these verses it is clear how God planned to save people: He provided them a Savior – the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus alone can meet the greatest need of every person on earth. Jesus alone can deliver them from coming judgment and bring them to God. This salvation is God’s greatest gift to mankind.

Need for Salvation
Foreseen by God

God foresaw the need for man’s salvation before the foundation of the world. “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). The word us in this verse refers to believers – saved people. He foresaw this need even though He was to create us in His own image and declare that man’s creation was “very good.” “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). How could God declare that His creation of man was very good after having foreseen that something would go wrong with man – something so wrong that it would require God’s intervention to save him? The answer lies in the nature of man.

Man
In choosing to create man in His own image, God created man with intelligence, emotions, and a free will. Because of God’s foreknowledge and predestination, some have questioned whether man really has free will, but the Bible clearly teaches it. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together … and you were unwilling” (Matthew 23:37). “For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I will have a stewardship entrusted me” (1 Corinthians 9:17). “But without your consent, I did not want to do anything, that your goodness should not be as it were by compulsion, but of your own free will” (Philemon 14). Indeed God saw it as “very good” that man has free will, for only a being of free will would be able to have any meaningful relationship with Him. Evangelical Christian author Charles Colson put it well. To create us without freedom of will would be “to create us not as full human beings but as puppets or robots programmed to do only what God wanted. But that would have hindered us from loving God or one another, for genuine love cannot be coerced. Also, without free will, we would not be capable of moral responsibility, creativity, obedience, loyalty or heroism.”

Sin
The point of man’s free will is emphasized here because the need for salvation that God foresaw was a byproduct of free will. God is good and created a perfect world. But because of free will, man had the freedom to obey God or turn away from Him. God foresaw that man would disobey Him. He foresaw sin entering the world, defiling man and all creation. Though God planned to create mankind in such a way that he could possibly sin and then in foreknowledge saw the possibility turn to reality, God is not the author of sin. Adam and Eve were created perfect, without sin. It was Adam and Eve’s choice to sin that brought sin into the world, the cause of the Fall. It condemned them and all of mankind to follow. Before they sinned, they were in perfect fellowship with God. Their sin broke the perfect fellowship with God and separated them from Him.

Much more can be said about man and sin – they are each doctrines in themselves. However, to complete our point about man’s need for salvation, we need only quote some familiar scriptures. Romans 5:12 tells us “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all have sinned.” Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Man’s sinful nature – the capacity and inclination to sin – is like an inherited disease. It is passed from parents to children, beginning with Adam and Eve. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). The result of sin is physical and spiritual death. “The soul who sins will die” (Ezekiel 18:4b). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). If God does not save us, the penalty is everlasting punishment in hell. “And if anyone’s name was not found in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15)

Sin is really bad. Perhaps, as sinners, we have become desensitized to just how bad it is. But, it is so bad that holy, righteous, and just God cannot bear to even look upon it. “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity” (Habakkuk 1:13 KJV). Upon confronting the holiness of God, Isaiah proclaimed, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). As sinners, we are totally ruined, condemned to death, hell and eternal separation from God. But, as discussed above, before creation God foresaw the evil of sin contaminating man and the world, and therefore, before creation, he also planned a way for man to be saved.

(Next: Part 2 – God’s Plan/Provision for Salvation)

Christian Doctrine of Salvation – Part 2

God’s Plan/Provision for Salvation
Grounds or basis for Salvation (Christ’s Death)
When a person recognizes that he is lost and needs salvation, he has overcome a significant obstacle. However, at that point, he needs clear direction from the Word of God because “The way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it” (Matthew 7:13b-14). The recognition of one’s need for salvation is no guarantee that he will find the narrow road to salvation. The tragedy is that many pursue the wrong way. “There is a way which seems right to a man but the end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). God, in His sovereignty, established the way, the one and only way of salvation. Some men have wanted to name the terms of their salvation, but they cannot. It is God’s sole prerogative. “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” (Romans 9:16)

As the prophet declares, “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). God’s way is not by good works, law observance, or anything else man could possibly do. It is that God Himself, became a man in the person of Jesus Christ, died on the cross and rose from the grave to pay the penalty for our sins and offers forgiveness, pardon, and salvation as a gift to all people (John 3:16), (Romans 6:23) Out of love for us, God took on Himself the punishment for our sins that His justice demanded. This is the sole ground or basis for man’s salvation.

As Christ died on the cross He said “It is finished” meaning the work of salvation was complete. There was nothing left to be done to provide man’s salvation. Hence, it is referred to as “the finished work of Christ.”

Condition for Salvation (What Man Must Do)
Salvation is conditioned solely on faith in Jesus Christ. Some 200 times faith, or belief, is stated as the single condition in the New Testament. What is faith? Faith means confidence, trust, to hold something to be true. Faith must have content; there must be confidence or trust in something. Saving faith is not merely intellectually learning the Biblical facts as a result of education, tradition, or rearing. To have faith in Christ unto salvation means to have confidence that He can remove the guilt of sin and grant eternal life, and you rely on Him to do it for you personally.

It is important to understand that salvation is always through faith, not because of faith. This can be a difficult distinction to understand. Were faith the grounds for our justification, faith would be in effect a meritorious work. Faith is not the grounds for salvation, but the means by which an individual person receives it. There is nothing we have to do, indeed there is nothing we can do to merit salvation – and that includes having faith. Because Christ died for our sins, salvation is available to all as a gift, and God is ready and waiting to give it to every person. So what is He waiting for? Our permission. Consistent with our free will, God does not force Himself upon us, to receive His salvation. We give Him permission by placing our faith for forgiveness of sin and eternal life in Christ.

Left to himself, man cannot have saving faith. Because of his sin nature, he is naturally uninterested in spiritual things and cannot come to Christ. “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). But man is not left to himself. God through the Holy Spirit convicts men of their sin and guilt, draws them to Christ, and woos or calls all men to repentance and faith. “There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” (John 1:9). “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me” (John 12:32). God takes the initiative to inform us of our need and urge us to believe and be saved but does not force us to.

For more information please follow Find Peace with God.