May 30, 2004

SALVATION IN CONTEXT

Romans 1:16

   When we speak of salvation most often we mean that time when our eyes were first opened and we were turned from darkness unto light, and from the authority of Satan to God, when we received the forgive-ness of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 26:18). The word salvation means that for sure, but it is also used to mean deliverance, rescue from hazard or illness and many such situations.

  The Old Testament speaks of salvation far more often than the New Testament. The Psalms use the term more that all the other books combined. Second to Psalms is Isaiah where salvation was the hope for a nation heading into captivity. Salvation for Israel often meant deliverance from their enemies, famine, and various calamities. God's final deliverance into their glorious kingdom is often set forth as their hope. Never in Old Testament history did Israel occupy half the land God promised to Abraham. And though Joshua led them into the promised land, David still referred to a future rest when they would indeed "cease from their labors as God did from His." His eternal Kingdom was their hope and expectation.

  The Gospels use "salvation" much the same as the Old Testament. They looked for national "salvation...from...enemies" (Luke 1:71), and for personal deliverance from illness and emergencies. They also expected "salvation from sins" and its guilt and consequences as well. But "spiritual salvation" was made more clear in the epistles of Paul.

  Paul said the gospel was "the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16). "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son (salvation), much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved (kept, preserved) by His life" (Rom. 5:10). Paul used the word "saved" in the way of deliverance from evil and error in our lives (1 Tim. 16). We are saved by the gospel" IF we keep in memory" what Paul preached. Forgetting that, we might err as did the Corinth-ians saying, "there is no resurrection" (1 Cor. 15:12). He also held out our hope of being "saved from the tribulation," (2 Th.2:13) about which Israel would be going through." Saved from much & for more!

Ivan L. Burgener