What is salvation?

Why do i live Does my life have a purpose? What will happen to me when I die? Basic questions that everyone has probably asked themselves before. Questions to which we will give you an answer here, an answer that should show: Yes, life has a meaning; yes, there is life after death. Nothing is safer than death. One day we receive the dreaded news that a loved one has died. Suddenly it reminds us that we too have to die tomorrow, next year or in half a century. Fear of dying drove many, for example, the conquistador Ponce de Leon to search for the legendary fountain of youth. But the reaper cannot be turned away. Death comes to everyone. 

Many today place their hope for scientific-technical life extension and improvement. What a sensation when scientists succeed in discovering biological mechanisms that may delay or perhaps even stop aging altogether! It would be the biggest and most enthusiastically welcomed news in world history.

Even in our super-technical world, however, most people realize that this is an unattainable dream. Many cling to the hope of living on after death. Maybe you are one of those hopefuls. Would not it be wonderful if humanity really had some great destiny? A destiny that includes eternal life? This hope exists in God's plan of salvation.

Indeed, God intends to give people eternal life. The apostle Paul writes that God, who does not lie, promised hope in eternal life ... for ancient times (Titus 1: 2).

Elsewhere he writes that God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1. Timothy 2: 4, multitude translator). Through the gospel of salvation, preached by Jesus Christ, the wholesome grace of God appeared to all people (Titus 2:11).

Sentenced to death

Sin came into the world in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve sinned, and their descendants did it to them. In Romans 3, Paul declares that all human beings are sinful.

• There is no one who is righteous (verse 10)
• There is no one to ask about God (verse 11)
• There is no one who does good (verse 12)
• There is no fear of God (verse 18).

... they are all sinners and lack the glory they should have with God, Paul states (v. 23). He lists evils that stem from our inability to overcome sin - including envy, murder, sexual immorality, and violence (Romans 1: 29-31).

The apostle Peter speaks of these human weaknesses as carnal desires that fight against the soul (1. Peter 2:11); Paul speaks of them as sinful passions (Romans 7: 5). He says that man lives according to the manner of this world and seeks to do the will of the flesh and the senses (Ephesians 2: 2-3). Even the best human action and thought does not do justice to what the Bible calls righteousness.

God's law defines sin

What it means to sin, what it means to act contrary to God's will, can only be defined against the background of divine law. God's law reflects God's character. It sets the norms for sinless human behavior. ... the wages of sin, Paul writes, is death (Romans 6:23). This connection that sin carries the death penalty began with our first parents Adam and Eve. Paul tells us: ... just as sin came into the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, so death came through to all men because they all sinned (Romans 5:12).

Only God can save us

Sold, punishment for sin is death, and we all deserve it because we have all sinned. On our own we can do nothing to escape certain death. We can not act with God. We have nothing we could offer him. Even good works can not save us from our common destiny. Nothing we can do by our own power can change our spiritual imperfection.

A delicate situation, but on the other hand we have a certain, certain hope. Paul wrote to the Romans that humanity is subject to impermanence without its will, but through whoever has subjected it, but to hope (Romans 8:20).

God will save us from ourselves. What good news! Paul adds: ... for creation too will be set free from the bondage of perishability to the glorious freedom of the children of God (verse 21). Now let us take a closer look at God's promise of salvation.

Jesus reconciles us with God

Even before mankind was created, God's plan of salvation was established. From the beginning of the world, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was the chosen sacrificial Lamb (Revelation 13: 8). Peter declares that the Christian will be redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, which was chosen before the foundation of the world was laid (1. Peter 1: 18-20).

God's decision to provide a sin offering is what Paul describes as an eternal purpose God carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:11). In doing so, God wanted in the times to come ... to show the abundant riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2: 7).

Jesus of Nazareth, God incarnate, came and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He took on being human and shared our needs and worries. He was tempted like us but remained sinless (Hebrews 4:15). Although he was perfect and sinless, he sacrificed his life for our sins.

We learn that Jesus pinned our spiritual debt on the cross. He cleared our sin account so we could live. Jesus died to save us!
God's motive for sending Jesus out is expressed succinctly in one of the most famous Bible verses of the Christian world: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that all who believe in him would not be lost, but eternal life have (John 3:16).

Jesus' deed saves us

God sent Jesus into the world that through him the world might be saved (John 3:17). Our salvation is only possible through Jesus. ... in no other is salvation, nor is there any other name given to men under heaven, through which we are to be saved (Acts 4:12).

In God's plan of salvation we must be justified and reconciled to God. Justification goes far beyond the mere forgiveness of sins (which, however, is included). God saves us from sin, and through the power of the holy spirit he enables us to trust, obey, and love him.
Jesus' sacrifice is an expression of God's grace, which removes a person's sins and abolishes the death penalty. Paul writes that justification (by the grace of God) that leads to life came through the righteousness of the one for all people (Romans 5:18).

Without Jesus' sacrifice and God's grace, we remain in the bondage of sin. We are all sinners, we all face the death penalty. Sin separates us from God. She builds a wall between God and us that must be torn down by His grace.

How sin is condemned

God's plan of salvation requires that sin be condemned. We read: By sending out His Son in the form of sinful flesh ... [God] condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8: 3). This damnation has several dimensions. In the beginning there was our inevitable punishment for sin, the condemnation to eternal death. This death sentence could only be condemned or overturned through a total sin offering. This was what caused Jesus to die.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians that when they were dead in sin they were made alive with Christ (Ephesians 2: 5). This is followed by a key phrase that makes it clear how we achieve salvation: ... by grace you have been saved ...; It is only from grace that the attainment of salvation takes place.

We were once, through sin, as good as dead, if still alive in the flesh. Whoever has been justified by God is still subject to fleshly death, but is potentially already an eternal one.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 2: 8: For by grace you were saved through faith, and that not from yourselves: It is God's gift ... Righteousness means: to be reconciled to God. Sin creates alienation between us and God. Justification removes this alienation and leads us to a close relationship with God. Then we are redeemed from the terrible consequences of sin. We are saved from a world that is imprisoned. We share ... in the divine nature and have escaped ... the pernicious desires of the world (2. Peter 1: 4).

Of the people who are in such a relationship with God, Paul says: Since we have become righteous through faith, we have peace with God dm-eh our Lord
Jesus Christ ... (Romans 5: 1).

So the Christian now lives under grace, not yet immune to sin, but continually led to repentance by the Holy Spirit. John writes: But if we confess our sin, he is faithful and righteous, that he forgives our sins and cleanses us from all injustice (1. John 1: 9).

As Christians, we will no longer have habitually sinful attitudes. Rather, we will bear the fruit of the divine Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5: 22-23).

Paul writes: For we are his work, created in Christ Jesus for good works ... (Ephesians 2: 1 0). We cannot be justified by good works. Man becomes righteous ... by faith in Christ, not by works of the law (Galatians 2:16).

We become righteous ... without the works of the law, by faith alone (Romans 3:28). But if we go God's way, we will also try to please him. We are not saved by our works, but God gave us salvation to do good works.

We can not earn God's mercy. He gives it to us. Salvation is not something we can do through penance or religious work. God's favor and grace always remain something undeserved.

Paul writes that justification comes through the kindness and love of God (Titus 3: 4). It comes not because of the works of righteousness we have done, but because of his mercy (v. 5).

Become a child of God

Once God has called us and we have followed the call with faith and trust, God makes us his children. Paul uses adoption here as an example to describe God's act of grace: We receive a filial spirit ... through which we cry: Abba, dear father! (Romans 8:15). In this way we become God's children and heirs, namely God's heirs and co-heirs with Christ (verses 16-17).

Before receiving grace, we were in bondage to the powers of the world (Galatians 4: 3). Jesus redeems us so that we may have children (verse 5). Paul says: Because you are now children ... you are no longer a servant, but a child; but if a child, then inheritance through God (verses 6-7). That is an amazing promise. We can become God's adopted children and inherit eternal life. The Greek word for sonship in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4: 5 is huiothesia. Paul uses this term in a special way that reflects the practice of Roman law. In the Roman world in which his readers lived, child adoption had a special meaning that it did not always have among the peoples subject to Rome.

In the Roman and Greek world adoption was a common practice in the social upper class. The adopted child was individually selected by the family. The legal rights were transferred to the child. It was used as an heir.

If one was adopted by a Roman family, the new family relationship was legally binding. Adoption not only entailed duties, but also conferred family rights. The assumption in the child's place was something so final, the transition into the new family something so binding that the adoptee was treated like a biological child. Since God is eternal, the Roman Christians surely understood that Paul wanted to tell them here: Your place in God's household is forever.

God chooses adopts us purposefully and individually. Jesus expresses this new relationship with God, which we gain through this, with another symbol: In conversation with Nicodemus he says that we have to be born again (John 3: 3).

This makes us God's children. John says to us: See what love the Father has shown us that we should be called God's children and we are too! That is why the world does not know us; because she doesn't know him. Dear ones, we are already God's children; but it has not yet been revealed what we will be. But we know that when it is revealed, we will be like it; because we will see him as he is (1. John 3: 1-2).

From mortality to immortality

So we are God's children already, but not yet glorified. Our present body must be transformed if we want to attain eternal life. The body of the physical, decaying body must be replaced by a body that is eternal and immortal.

In 1. Corinthians 15 Paul writes: But someone might ask: How will the dead rise, and with what kind of body will they come? (Verse 35). Our body now is physical, is dust (verses 42 to 49). Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, which is spiritual and eternal (v. 50). For this perishable must put on incorruptibility, and this mortal must put on immortality (v. 53).

This final transformation does not take place until the resurrection, when Jesus returns. Paul explains: We await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our vain bodies to become like His glorified body (Philippians 3: 20-21). The Christian who trusts and obeys God already has citizenship in heaven. But only realized at the return of Christ
this definitively; only then does the Christian inherit the immortality and the fullness of the kingdom of God.

How grateful we can be that God has made us fit for the inheritance of the saints in the light (Colossians 1:12). God delivered us from the power of darkness and placed us in the kingdom of his beloved Son (verse 13).

A new creature

Those who have been received into God's Kingdom enjoy the inheritance of the saints as long as they continue to trust and obey God. Because we are saved by God's grace, healing is completed and completed in his view.

Paul explains that if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature; the old has passed, see, the new has come (2. Corinthians 5:17). God has sealed us and in our hearts as
Pledge given the spirit (2. Corinthians 1:22). The converted, devoted man is already a new creature.

He who is under grace is already a child of God. God gives power to those who believe in his name to become God's children (John 1:12).

Paul describes God's gifts and calling as irrevocable (Romans 11:29, multitude). Therefore he could also say: ... I am confident that he who has begun the good work in you will also finish it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1: 6).

Even if the person to whom God has granted grace stumbles occasionally: God remains loyal to him. The story of the prodigal son (Luke 15) shows that God's chosen and called still remain his children even in the event of missteps. God expects those who have stumbled to withdraw and return to him. He doesn't want to judge people, he wants to save them.

The prodigal son in the Bible had really gone to himself. He said: How many day laborers does my father have who have plenty of bread and I perish here in hunger! (Luke 15:17). The point is clear. When the prodigal son realized the folly of what he was doing, he repented and returned home. His father forgave him. As Jesus says: When he was still a long way off, his father saw him and wailed; he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him (Luke 15:20). The story illustrates God's faithfulness to his children.

The son showed humility and trust, he repented. He said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy of being called your son (Luke 15:21).

But the father didn't want to hear about it and arranged for a feast to be held for the returnee. He said my son was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and has been found (v. 32).

If God saves us, we are his children forever. He will continue to work with us until we are fully united with him at the Resurrection.

The gift of eternal life

By his grace, God gives us the dearest and greatest promises (2. Peter 1: 4). Through them we get a share ... of the divine nature. The secret of God's grace consists in
a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1. Peter 1: 3). That hope is an immortal inheritance that is kept for us in heaven (v. 4). At present we are still preserved out of God's power through faith ... to salvation ready to be revealed at the last time (v. 5).

God's plan of salvation will finally be realized with Jesus' second coming and the resurrection of the dead. Then the aforementioned transformation from mortal to immortal takes place. The apostle John says: But we know that when it is revealed, we will be like him; because we will see him as he is (1. John 3: 2).

Christ's resurrection ensures that God will redeem the promise to us resurrection from the dead. See, I am telling you a secret, writes Paul. We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed; and all of a sudden, in an instant ... the dead will rise incorruptible, and we will be changed (1. Corinthians 15: 51-52). This happens at the sound of the last trumpet, just before Jesus' return (Revelation 11:15).

Jesus promises that whoever believes in him will have eternal life; I will raise him up on the last day, he promises (John 6:40).

The apostle Paul explains: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, God will also bring those who have fallen asleep with him through Jesus (1. Thessalonians 4:14). What is meant again is the time of the second coming of Christ. Paul continues: For he himself, the Lord, will, when the command is sounded ... come down from heaven ... and first the dead who died in Christ will rise (v. 16). Then those who are still alive at Christ's return will be caught up at the same time with them on the clouds in the air to meet the Lord; and so we shall be with the Lord always (verse 17).

Paul urges Christians: So console one another with these words (verse 18). And with good reason. The resurrection is the time when those who are under grace will attain immortality.

The reward comes with Jesus

The words of Paul have already been quoted:. Because the salutary grace of God appeared to all people (Titus 2:11). This salvation is the blessed hope that is redeemed at the appearance of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ (verse 13).

The resurrection is still in the future. We wait for it, hopefully like Paul did. Towards the end of his life he said: ... the time of my passing has come (2. Timothy 4: 6). He knew that he had been faithful to God. I fought the good fight, I finished the run, I kept faith ... (verse 7). He was looking forward to his reward: ... from now on the crown of righteousness lies ready for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, not only to me, but also to all who love his appearance ( Verse 8).

At that time, Paul says, Jesus will transform our vain bodies ... so that he may become like his glorified body (Philippians 3:21). A transformation brought about by God, who raised Christ from the dead and will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you (Romans 8:11).

The meaning of our life

If we are God's children, we will live our lives entirely with Jesus Christ. Our attitude must be like that of Paul, who said he would see his past life as filth so that I might win Christ ... Him and the power of his resurrection I want to know.

Paul knew that he had not yet achieved this goal. I forget what is behind and reach out to what is ahead and hunt for the goal set out in front of me, the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus (verses 13-14).

That prize is eternal life. Whoever accepts God as his Father and loves him, trusts him and goes his way, will live eternally in God's glory (1. Peter 5: 1 0). In Revelation 21: 6-7, God tells us what our destiny is: I will give free of the source of living water to the thirsty. He who overcomes will inherit it all, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Brochure of the World Church of God 1993

What is salvation?