Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 | NIV) And that name is Jesus. We use the words “save” or “saved” regularly. The fire department saved the house. I save money at the local bank. The swimmer owes his salvation to the lifeguard. Christianity uses “save” and its variants, “saved” and “salvation,” similarly. Salvation means deliverance from the influence or bondage of sin and a full pardon from the death penalty sin incurs.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 | NIV) Those who are saved do not die. They close their eyes to their brief, natural existence only to awaken to an eternal spiritual one. We are saved from the effects of our rebellion against God. That rebellion, sin, is not doing what we know is right and taking the place of God in our lives. The penalty of sin is eternal separation from God, which reflects the personal decision to live without him. Those who will spend eternity away from God and his love get what they want in this life. And it just carries over to the next one.
It is a Gift
Eternity in God’s presence is, in essence, the result of being saved, and salvation can’t be earned. It is a gift of God’s grace or unmerited favor. We get the reward we do not deserve instead of the punishment we deserve. That is the gospel message. “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Romans 8:9-10 | NIV).
Life to the full that Jesus promises is deliverance from the power sin once held over us, and the resulting guilt and shame sin always carry with it. When we place faith in Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, who leads and empowers us to live the life God intends for us to live.
Faith, plus nothing else, saves us. Salvation results from placing absolute trust and confidence in what Jesus did on the cross. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17 | NIV). All God requires for salvation is childlike trust and willing obedience. Once we are saved, only apostasy, totally renouncing faith in Jesus, will again place us in eternal jeopardy.
The First Step
Salvation is only the first step toward discipleship. Just as we are saved from something, sin’s penalty, we are saved for something, to be like our Savior. True discipleship makes us want to be like Jesus and produce “fruit in keeping with repentance.” Believers receive the Holy Spirit to help us do that, but only if we listen to his voice and follow his lead. Faith in Jesus alone makes him our savior, but obedience demonstrates that he is our lord.