Salvation
Salvation in scripture is what Yahweh does for those who cannot rescue themselves. The vocabulary is wide — saving, delivering, redeeming, ransoming, justifying, reconciling, pardoning, cleansing, forgiving — and the imagery is wider still: a horn, a shield, a tower, a cup, a helmet, walls, wells, garments, a victory, a serpent lifted on a pole. Underneath the variety, scripture holds together two things: the predicament from which a person must be saved, and the one who saves. The Old Testament names that one Yahweh; the New Testament names him Jesus Christ. Both insist that the saving is his work, that it is offered freely, and that it ends in praise: "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb" (Rev 7:10).
Salvation Belongs to Yahweh
The Hebrew Bible places salvation squarely in Yahweh's hand. "But the salvation of the righteous is of Yahweh; He is their stronghold in the time of trouble" (Ps 37:39). David sings, "Yahweh is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?" (Ps 27:1), and again, "He only is my rock and my salvation: [He is] my high tower; I will not be greatly moved" (Ps 62:2). Isaiah picks up the same confession in personal form: "Look, [the Speech of] God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for Yah, Yahweh, is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation" (Isa 12:2). Jeremiah extends it to the nation: "truly in [the Speech of] Yahweh our God is the salvation of Israel" (Jer 3:23). Zephaniah portrays Yahweh as the warrior in Israel's midst: "Yahweh your God is in the midst of you, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over you with singing" (Zeph 3:17).
The historical books press the same point in the language of military rescue. "Thus Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore" (Ex 14:30). David, before Goliath, reasons from precedent: "Yahweh who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine" (1 Sam 17:37). Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah each see Yahweh strike enemy armies before them (2 Chr 14:12; 20:22; 32:21). The chronicler distills the whole pattern into a prayer for the people: "Save us, O God of our salvation, And gather us together and deliver us from the nations, To give thanks to your holy name, And to triumph in your praise" (1 Chr 16:35).
Even the Maccabean writer, narrating a much later deliverance, insists that the same God still works the same way. He prays, "Blessed are you, O Savior of Israel, Who broke the violence of the mighty by the hand of your servant David" (1 Macc 4:30); he tells his men, "the Lord himself will overthrow them before our face: but as for you+, don't fear them" (1 Macc 3:22); and the narrator concludes, "And all nations will know that there is one who redeems and delivers Israel" (1 Macc 4:11). Ben Sira makes the same confession lyrical: "For Yahweh is merciful and gracious, And he saves in time of trouble" (Sir 2:11).
The Lord Our Redeemer
Inside the Old Testament's vocabulary of salvation, "redeemer" carries a particular weight. The redeemer is the kinsman who has both the right and the obligation to act on behalf of the helpless. Job's confession reaches for that word in extremity: "But as for me I know that my Redeemer lives, And at last he will stand up on the earth" (Job 19:25). The psalmist promises Israel, "And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities" (Ps 130:8). Proverbs warns the oppressor that the orphan is not friendless: "For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their cause against you" (Prov 23:11). Jeremiah uses the same picture against Babylon: "Their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause" (Jer 50:34).
Isaiah turns the title into liturgy. "Don't be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you+ vermin Israel; [my Speech] will help you, says Yahweh, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel" (Isa 41:14). "Thus says Yahweh, your+ Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel" (Isa 43:14); "Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb: I am Yahweh, who makes all things" (Isa 44:24); "Our Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel" (Isa 47:4). The redeemer's coming is also promised: "And a Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, says Yahweh" (Isa 59:20). The "redeemed" themselves are pictured walking the highway: "the redeemed will walk [there]" (Isa 35:9); "the ransomed of Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads" (Isa 51:11).
The Predicament
Salvation is not a generalized blessing. It is a deliverance from something specific. The Old Testament names that predicament as wrath, iniquity, and inability to set oneself right. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom 1:18). "Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges; Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath; Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves [wrath] for his enemies" (Nah 1:2). Josiah, hearing the lost book read, recognizes the danger immediately: "great is the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us, because our fathers haven't listened to the words of this book" (2 Kings 22:13). The Pauline echo is identical: "the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience" (Eph 5:6).
Set against that wrath is human inability. "Of a truth I know that it is so: But how can common man be just with God?" (Job 9:2; cf. Job 25:4). "And don't enter into judgment with your slave; For in your sight no man living is righteous" (Ps 143:2). Jeremiah uses the homely image of laundry: "For though you wash yourself with lye, and take yourself much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Sovereign Yahweh" (Jer 2:22). Ezekiel records the people's own diagnosis: "Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?" (Ezek 33:10). David makes the same confession in his own voice: "I have sinned greatly in that which I have done: but now, O Yahweh, put away, I urge you, the iniquity of your slave; for I have done very foolishly" (2 Sam 24:10). Job, after God's whirlwind speech, can only answer, "Therefore I abhor [myself], And repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). And the bare fact behind it all: "by the works of the law will no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law [comes] the knowledge of sin" (Rom 3:20).
Salvation Sought
Inside that predicament, the Bible's saved people pray. They do not invent a remedy; they ask Yahweh for one. Moses pleads with stunning self-offer: "Yet now, if you will forgive their sin-; and if not, blot me, I pray you, out of your book which you have written" (Ex 32:32); "If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray you, go in the midst of us; for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin" (Ex 34:9); "Pardon, I pray you, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving-kindness, and as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now" (Num 14:19). Saul, reduced, asks the same: "Now therefore, I pray you, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship Yahweh" (1 Sam 15:25). Daniel's intercession is just as bare: "O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, listen and do; don't defer, for your own sake, O my God" (Dan 9:19).
The Psalter is full of the same prayer. "For your name's sake, O Yahweh, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great" (Ps 25:11). "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness: According to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions" (Ps 51:1). "Make your face to shine on your slave: Save me in your loving-kindness" (Ps 31:16). "Save me, O God, by your name, And judge me in your might" (Ps 54:1). "Remember me, O Yahweh, with the favor that you bear to your people; Oh visit me with your salvation" (Ps 106:4). "Let your loving-kindnesses also come to me, O Yahweh, Even your salvation, according to [your Speech]" (Ps 119:41). Out of distress comes a simple appeal: "In the day of my trouble I will call on you; For you will answer me" (Ps 86:7).
Salvation Promised
To those who turn, Yahweh promises the very thing they ask for. "let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isa 55:7). "I, I am he, who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins" (Isa 43:25). "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return to me; for I have redeemed you" (Isa 44:22). "[But] Israel will be saved by [the Speech of] Yahweh with an eternal salvation: you+ will not be put to shame nor confounded forever without end" (Isa 45:17).
The new-covenant promise is more radical still. "And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities" (Jer 33:8). "they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jer 31:34). "And I will sprinkle clean water on you+, and you+ will be clean: from all your+ filthiness, and from all your+ idols, I will cleanse you+" (Ezek 36:25). Hebrews picks the promise up verbatim: "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And their sins I will remember no more" (Heb 8:12). Micah closes the OT thread with worship: "Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving-kindness" (Mic 7:18).
The promise is for the long span of a person's life: "With long life I will satisfy him, And show him my salvation" (Ps 91:16).
Salvation Through Christ
When the New Testament names the saviour, it names a person. "Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" (1 Tim 1:15). "And we have seen and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son [to be] the Savior of the world" (1 John 4:14). "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him" (John 3:17). "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). "Therefore also he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them" (Heb 7:25). "but has now been manifested by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the good news" (2 Tim 1:10).
The reason salvation runs through Christ is that no other foundation is on offer. "For another foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 3:11). "I am the door; by me if any man enters in, he will live, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture" (John 10:9). "I am the bread of life: he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes on me will never thirst" (John 6:35). When Jesus presses the question on the Twelve, Peter answers from inside that necessity: "Lord, to whom shall we go? you have the word of eternal life" (John 6:68). Hebrews puts the same point as a doxology of result: "and having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the author of eternal salvation" (Heb 5:9). And Paul: "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess 5:9). "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath [of God] through him" (Rom 5:9).
The Old Testament sometimes anticipates the same conclusion in spite of itself. Of Yahweh in Israel's wilderness, Isaiah writes: "And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and [by his Speech] his righteousness, it upheld him" (Isa 59:16). The arm that brings salvation is, finally, his own.
The Seeking Saviour
Salvation in the gospels is also active in the other direction. Christ is not only the savior to whom one turns; he is the one who seeks. "What man of you+, having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he finds it?" (Luke 15:4). "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). The pattern shows up in encounter after encounter. Of Philip: "On the next day he was minded to go forth into Galilee, and he finds Philip: and Jesus says to him, Follow me" (John 1:43). Of the healed paralytic: "After these things Jesus finds him in the temple, and said to him, Look, you are made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing befall you" (John 5:14). Of the man born blind: "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and finding him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man?" (John 9:35). Salvation is not only an answer to a sinner's search; it is a search the sinner did not initiate.
The Lamb Who Bears the Sin
The way Christ saves is set out in sacrificial terms. John names him as he comes: "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Paul makes the Passover identification explicit: "For our Passover also has been sacrificed, [even] Christ" (1 Cor 5:7). Peter reaches for the same image: believers are redeemed "with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, [even the blood] of Christ" (1 Pet 1:19). And Revelation sees, repeatedly, "a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain" (Rev 5:6); the saints "overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb" (Rev 12:11); their names are written "in the Book of Life of the Lamb that has been slain" (Rev 13:8); the new city has no temple, "for Yahweh, the God of hosts, and the Lamb, are her temple" (Rev 21:22); and a great multitude stands "before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes" (Rev 7:9).
The lamb-language is the key to Isaiah 53. "Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows" (Isa 53:4); "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isa 53:5); "All of us like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isa 53:6); "as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn't open his mouth" (Isa 53:7); "he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors: yet he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for their sins" (Isa 53:12).
The same language is unfolded by the apostles. "Him who knew no sin he made [to be] sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor 5:21). "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" (Gal 3:13). "who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you+ were healed" (1 Pet 2:24). "Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you+ to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit" (1 Pet 3:18). "and walk in love, even as Christ also loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell" (Eph 5:2). "by the grace of God he should taste of death for every [man]" (Heb 2:9). "For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom 5:6). "and he died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again" (2 Cor 5:15). "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his soul for the sheep" (John 10:11). "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
The Bronze Serpent and the Lifted Son
Among the OT figures of salvation, one is taken up directly by Jesus. In the wilderness, "Yahweh said to Moses, You make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard: and it will come to pass, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, will live" (Num 21:8); and Moses obeys, with the result that "if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked to the serpent of bronze, he lived" (Num 21:9). Jesus takes the image as his own: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in him have eternal life" (John 3:14-15). The shape of salvation is fixed by that picture: a remedy provided by God, lifted up in plain view, received by simple looking.
Ransom, Mediator, Once-for-All
The New Testament reaches for several other images for the same act. Christ gave "himself a ransom for all; the testimony [to be borne] in its own times" (1 Tim 2:6). He is the only mediator: "For there is [only] one God, and [only] one mediator between God and men, [the] man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim 2:5); "But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises" (Heb 8:6); "And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance" (Heb 9:15); "to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than [that of] Abel" (Heb 12:24).
His self-offering is once for all. "For Christ didn't enter into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us" (Heb 9:24); "but now once at the very end of the [past] ages he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb 9:26); "so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, apart from sin, to those who wait for him, to salvation" (Heb 9:28). Even from heaven Christ continues the work: "if any man sins, we have a supporter with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1); "and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:2); "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).
The OT atonement system stood as the rehearsal. Yahweh told Israel, "For the soul of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you+ on the altar to make atonement for your+ souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the soul" (Lev 17:11), and again, "for on this day atonement will be made for you+, to cleanse you+; from all your+ sins you+ will be clean before Yahweh" (Lev 16:30). Hebrews makes the application brief: "And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb 9:22), and "Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin" (Heb 10:18). Daniel's prophetic timetable carried the same language: "Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness" (Dan 9:24). See the longer treatment in Atonement.
Justified Freely by Grace
Paul's word for the legal side of salvation is justification — God's verdict over the believer. The Old Testament sets the precedent in Abraham: "And he believed in [the Speech of] Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness" (Gen 15:6). Paul reasons from there: "For we reckon that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law" (Rom 3:28); "Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:1); "even so through one act of righteousness [the gift came] to all men to justification of life" (Rom 5:18); "the Gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith" (Rom 9:30); "So that the law has become our tutor [to bring us] to Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Gal 3:24). The negative side is just as plain: "You+ are severed from Christ, you+ who would be justified by the law; you+ have fallen away from grace" (Gal 5:4). The Corinthian believers know it from their own changed lives: "but you+ were washed, but you+ were sanctified, but you+ were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor 6:11).
The whole sentence about justification gathers grace, redemption, propitiation, and faith into one frame: "being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth [to be] a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done previously, in the forbearance of God" (Rom 3:24-25). Grace is the only ground. "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). "But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace" (Rom 11:6). "For this cause [it is] of faith, that [it may be] according to grace; to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed" (Rom 4:16). "even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you+ have been saved)" (Eph 2:5). "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present age" (Tit 2:11-12). And to Titus again: "not by works [done] in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Tit 3:5-7).
The classic Pauline formula puts it as briefly as possible: "for by grace you+ have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not of works, that no man should boast" (Eph 2:8-9). And Paul collects the cluster of "gift" sayings around the same hinge: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 6:23); "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift" (2 Cor 9:15); "He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?" (Rom 8:32); "the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many" (Rom 5:15). See Grace of God and Faith.
Reconciled to God
Justification is paired with reconciliation — the relational side of the same act. "But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave to us the service of reconciliation" (2 Cor 5:18). "and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation" (Rom 5:11). "and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity in himself" (Eph 2:16). "and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens" (Col 1:20). The end of that work is the believer's standing: "yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you+ holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him" (Col 1:22). And the priest behind that work: "Therefore it behooved him in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Heb 2:17). Ben Sira preserves the everyday conviction that estrangement need not be final: "If you open your mouth against a friend, Do not fear, for there is a [way of] reconciliation" (Sir 22:22), and "for slander there is reconciliation, But he who reveals secrets has no hope" (Sir 27:21). The inter-personal pattern is itself a small image of what Christ does on the larger scale.
Conditions: Faith, Repentance, Confession
Salvation is a gift, but scripture is just as clear about how it is received. The word that names the receiving most often is "faith." "that if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom 10:9). "for, Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Rom 10:13). "He who believes on him is not judged: but he who does not believe has been judged already" (John 3:18); "He who hears my speech, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life" (John 5:24). "He who believes on the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God stays on him" (John 3:36). Paul: "by which also you+ are saved. For what reason did I preach the good news to you+? Unless you+ hold fast [to it], you+ believed for nothing" (1 Cor 15:2); "For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom didn't know God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe" (1 Cor 1:21); "and that from a baby you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim 3:15).
Repentance and turning are the other side of the same coin. John the Baptist preaches "the baptism of repentance to remission of sins" (Luke 3:3). "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). "Therefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your+ souls" (Jas 1:21). "Therefore, brothers, be the more diligent to make your+ calling and election sure: for if you+ do these things, you+ will never stumble: for thus will be richly supplied to you+ the entrance into the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior" (2 Pet 1:10-11). Revelation's picture of the saved is the same: "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right [to come] to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city" (Rev 22:14).
The Old Testament had already cast the same call as a turning. "you, when once you have turned again, establish your brothers" (Luke 22:32). "The law of Yahweh is perfect, restoring the soul" (Ps 19:7). "Restore to me the joy of your salvation; And uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways; And sinners will be converted to you" (Ps 51:12-13). Saul becomes a different man: "And it was so, that, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day" (1 Sam 10:9). Ben Sira says it bluntly: "Do not delay to turn to him; And do not put it off from day to day. For suddenly his indignation will go forth; And in the time of vengeance you will be consumed" (Sir 5:7); "Turn to the Lord and forsake sins, Supplicate before his face and lessen offence" (Sir 17:25); "Turn from iniquity, and purify your hands; And from all transgressions cleanse your heart" (Sir 38:10). The pastoral consequence is real: "if any among you+ errs from the truth, and one converts him; let him know, that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death" (Jas 5:19-20).
In the gospels conversion shows in changed people. The Samaritan woman, told her own story by a stranger, says, "Come, see a man, who told me all things that I ever did: can this be the Christ?" (John 4:29). The Gerasene demoniac who cried out night and day in the tombs is found "sitting, clothed and in his right mind" (Mark 5:15). Zacchaeus hears, "Today has salvation come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham" (Luke 19:9). The Sons of Thunder, who once asked to call fire down on a Samaritan village (Luke 9:53-54), become teachers of love: "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone who loves is begotten of God, and knows God" (1 John 4:7). Repentance and Faith treat the receiving side at greater length.
Possible to All; Free
Although the saved are a particular people, the offer is wide. "And all flesh will see the salvation of God" (Luke 3:6). "who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4). "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is long-suffering toward you+, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet 3:9). "even so through one act of righteousness [the gift came] to all men to justification of life" (Rom 5:18). "For to this end we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe" (1 Tim 4:10).
The offer is unpriced. "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come+ to the waters, and he who has no silver; come+, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without silver and without price" (Isa 55:1). The book of Revelation closes the canon with the same invitation in the same words: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he who hears, let him say, Come. And he who is thirsty, let him come: he who will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev 22:17).
The Good News
The means by which salvation reaches a sinner is the spoken and written gospel. Isaiah pictures the messenger arriving over the hills: "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good [things], who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns" (Isa 52:7); and again: "The Spirit of the Sovereign Yahweh is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives" (Isa 61:1). The message is universal in scope: "And the good news must first be preached to all the nations" (Mark 13:10); "the hope of the good news which you+ heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven" (Col 1:23); "having eternal good news to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people" (Rev 14:6).
The message gives life when received and judgment when refused. "how that our good news did not come to you+ in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance" (1 Thess 1:5); "And even if our good news is veiled, it is veiled in those who perish" (2 Cor 4:3); "rendering vengeance to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the good news of our Lord Jesus" (2 Thess 1:8). The summary the apostle delivered to Corinth is the rule of preaching: "For I delivered to you+ first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15:3). See Gospel.
No Condemnation
For those who are saved, the verdict is settled. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom 8:1). "who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died, and what's more, who was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us" (Rom 8:34). "He who hears my speech, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life" (John 5:24). "Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God" (1 John 3:21). Isaiah states the same confidence in court-room form: "Look, the Sovereign Yahweh will help me; who is he who will condemn me? Look, they will all wax old as a garment; the moth will eat them up" (Isa 50:9). And Jesus' own pastoral imperative: "And do not judge, and you+ will not be judged: and do not condemn, and you+ will not be condemned: release, and you+ will be released" (Luke 6:37).
The flip side is severe: divine vengeance falls on those who refuse. "For the day of vengeance and recompense will come in time" (Deut 32:35); "Vengeance belongs to me; I will recompense, says the Lord" (Rom 12:19); "For we know him who said, Vengeance belongs to me, I will recompense. And again, The Lord will judge his people" (Heb 10:30); "O Yahweh, God to whom vengeance belongs, God to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth" (Ps 94:1). The two sides — salvation and condemnation — are not invented at different times by different gods; they are two outcomes of the same encounter with the same Yahweh.
Deliverance
Salvation is also a thread that runs through everyday rescue. The same God who pardons sin also lifts the godly out of trouble. "He will deliver you in six troubles; Yes, in seven no evil will touch you" (Job 5:19); "For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, And from the word of calamity" (Ps 91:3); "For you have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, [And] my feet from falling" (Ps 116:8). The psalmist's voice is constantly asking for the same: "Oh keep my soul, and deliver me: Don't let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you" (Ps 25:20); "Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: Oh deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man" (Ps 43:1); "Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, And save me from the bloodthirsty men" (Ps 59:2); "Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked" (Ps 71:4); "Redeem me from the oppression of man" (Ps 119:134); "Deliver me, O Yahweh, from [the] evil man" (Ps 140:1); "Deliver me, O Yahweh, from my enemies: I flee to you to hide me" (Ps 143:9); "Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hand of aliens, Whose mouth speaks deceit" (Ps 144:11).
The narrative books supply test cases. Lot is dragged out of Sodom — "the men laid hold on his hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his two daughters, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they brought him forth" (Gen 19:16). The three young men in the furnace are untouched: "the fire had no power on their bodies" (Dan 3:27). Daniel says in the lion-pit, "My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions' mouths" (Dan 6:22), and the king afterward: "He delivers and rescues, and he works signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions" (Dan 6:27). Jonah is swallowed and kept alive: "And Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah" (Jonah 1:17). Through all of it the apostle's confidence is the same: "who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver: on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us" (2 Cor 1:10); "The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me to his heavenly kingdom" (2 Tim 4:18); "and might deliver all those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to slavery" (Heb 2:15); "the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment to the day of judgment" (2 Pet 2:9). And the believer is promised that no trial will outrun grace: "No trial has taken you+ but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not allow you+ to be tried above what you+ are able; but will with the trial also make the way of escape" (1 Cor 10:13).
Ben Sira locates personal deliverance in the same hand: "For you have redeemed my soul from death, You have kept back my flesh from the Pit, And have delivered my feet from the hand of Sheol. You preserved me from the slander of the people" (Sir 51:2); "You helped me, according to the abundance of your mercy, Out of the snare of those watching for my downfall" (Sir 51:3).
Imagery of Salvation
Scripture turns salvation into a gallery of pictures. It is a horn — a weapon and a sign of strength: "Yahweh is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge; My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower" (Ps 18:2). David's parallel song says, "Great deliverance he gives to his king, And shows loving-kindness to his anointed, To David and to his seed, forevermore" (2 Sam 22:51), and earlier in the same psalm: "You have also given me the shield of your salvation; And your response [your Speech] has made me great" (2 Sam 22:36). Salvation is a lamp: "For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns" (Isa 62:1). It is a cup: "I will take the cup of salvation, And call on the name of Yahweh" (Ps 116:13). It is a helmet — first worn by Yahweh himself: "And he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation [by his Speech] on his head" (Isa 59:17) — then handed over to the believer: "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph 6:17).
It is also clothing. Solomon prays at the temple, "let your priests, O Yahweh God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness" (2 Chr 6:41); the psalmist promises, "Her priests also I will clothe with salvation; And her saints will shout aloud for joy" (Ps 132:16); and Isaiah turns the image into wedding-day rejoicing: "for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels" (Isa 61:10). Salvation is a wall: "We have a strong city; salvation he will appoint for walls and bulwarks" (Isa 26:1). It is a well: "Therefore with joy you+ will draw water out of the wells of salvation" (Isa 12:3). It is a war-chariot: "you rode on your horses, On your chariots of salvation" (Hab 3:8). It is a victory: "but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 15:57). And, above all, it is a serpent of bronze on a standard, looked at by people the venom is killing — the picture Jesus chose for himself (Num 21:8-9; John 3:14-15).
Salvation to Our God and to the Lamb
The end of the canon places salvation where it began — in a song. The great multitude in white robes "cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb" (Rev 7:10). The voice in heaven repeats it: "Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God" (Rev 19:1). The redeemed sing the new song: "Worthy are you to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were slain, and purchased to God with your blood out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation" (Rev 5:9). Heaven itself is described by the same fact: "Hallelujah: for Yahweh our God, the Almighty, reigns" (Rev 19:6). And the very last verses of scripture send the same invitation back to earth that the first song of Isaiah held out — "let him take the water of life freely" (Rev 22:17) — and close with the benediction that holds the whole article together: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all" (Rev 22:21).