Salvation

Information about salvation has some good info and commentary.

AI summary:

We are saved through faith *‘by Grace’*, which is not a work of our own, but a gift from God. Salvation is by grace - the free favor of God - and we receive it by laying hold of the grace offered in the gospel1.

Salvation has past, present, and future dimensions. We can say we have been saved from the guilt of our sins, but we have not yet been fully delivered from sin or received our new bodies2.

Critically, we are not saved by our own righteous deeds, but because of God’s mercy. God comes to our rescue when we are lost, not when we are trying to save ourselves, demonstrating His love even when we are “dead in trespasses”3.

The process of salvation involves the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration - creating in us a totally new nature. We are saved by being made anew and continually kept anew, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit3.

Ultimately, everything in our salvation comes through Jesus Christ, who is the mediator through whom we receive God’s grace3.

1. 1

Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1853), 3:667.

2. 2

John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 146.

3. 3

Charles H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Titus, ed. Elliot Ritzema, Spurgeon Commentary Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014), 331–334.

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: For by grace, the free favour of God, as ver. 5, are ye, even ye Ephesians, Gentiles, who had not such promises made to you as the Jews had, ver. 12, saved, from first to last, from your calling, ver. 5, to your glorification, ver. 6. Object. How are believers said to be saved, when they are not yet glorified? Answ. 1. Because Christ their Head is glorified. 2. Because their salvation, begun in their effectual calling, shall be as certainly accomplished in them as it is begun in them, and perfected in their Head, Christ. Through faith; by which ye lay hold on the grace offered you in the gospel. Faith is not considered here as a work done by us, but as an instrument or means applying the grace and salvation tendered to us. And that not of yourselves; not for your own worth, nor by your own strength. It is the gift of God; that ye are saved is the gift of God, and therefore free and purely by grace. God is opposed to self: gift relates not merely to faith immediately preceding, but to the whole sentence. 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. Not of works; any works whatever, and not only works of the ceremonial law: for if they only were excluded, the opposition between God and man, grace and works, were not right, which yet we find so often elsewhere; (see Rom. 11:6;) men might not be saved by works of the ceremonial law, and yet still be saved by works, and of themselves. Lest any man should boast; glory in their own works or worth, as men are apt to do when they think they have any thing of their own which contributes to their salvation see Rom. 3:27; 4:2. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ║ordained that we should walk in them. For we, we believers, both Jews and Gentiles, are his workmanship; not only as men, but especially as saints, which is the proper meaning here. The Israelitish people formerly were God’s work, Deut. 32:6; Isa. 43:21; 44:21; so are believers under the gospel, being new creatures, Gal. 6:15. The apostle confirms what he said before, that by grace we are saved, and not of works, in that we are God’s workmanship, and are formed by him ere we can do any good work; and his forming us in our regeneration is a part of the salvation mentioned ver. 8. Created in Christ Jesus; who, as our Head, enlivens us, as members united to him by faith. As the first creation was by Christ as the Second Person in the Trinity, John 1:3, so the second creation is by the same Christ as Mediator, the Lord and Head of the new creation, in whom we live, and move, and have our new being, and not in ourselves, 2 Cor. 5:17. Unto good works; as the immediate end for which we are new-created. We receive our new being that we may bring forth new works, and have a carriage suitable to our new principle. Which God hath before ordained; or rather, as the margin, prepared, i. e. prepared and fitted us for them, by enlightening our minds to know his will, disposing and inclining our wills, purging our affections, &c. That we should walk in them; i. e. that we should glorify God in a holy conversation, agreeable to that Divine nature, whereof we are made partakers in our new creation.

Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible, vol. 3 (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1853), 667.

We shall be saved through Christ (9–10) So far the apostle has concentrated on what God has already done for us through Christ. We have been justified. We have peace with God. We are standing in grace. We rejoice in our hope and in our sufferings. Yet there is more—much more—still to come, which is not yet ours. In fact, verses 9 and 10 are notable examples of the familiar New Testament tension between the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’, between what Christ has accomplished at his first coming and what remains to be done at his second, between our past and our future salvation. For salvation has a future tense as well as past and present tenses, and the words common to these two verses are the statement that we shall be saved. If, therefore, we are asked by some brash evangelist whether we have been saved, it would be just as biblical to say ‘No’ as ‘Yes’, although the correct answer would be ‘Yes and no.’ For yes, we have been saved through Christ from the guilt of our sins and from the judgment of God upon them, but no, we have not yet been delivered from indwelling sin or been given new bodies in the new world. What, then, is the future salvation which Paul has in mind here? He uses two expressions, the first negative and the second positive. First and negatively, we shall be saved from God’s wrath through Christ (9). Of course we have already been rescued from it in the sense that through the cross God has himself turned it away from us, so that now we have peace with him and are standing in his grace. But at the end of history there is going to be a day of reckoning which Paul has called ‘the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed’ (2:5) and his wrath will be poured out on those who have rejected Christ (2:8). From that fearful coming wrath we shall be saved, for, as Jesus put it, the believer ‘will not be condemned; he has [sc. already] crossed over from death to life’. Secondly and positively, we shall be saved through his life (10). For the Jesus who died for our sins was raised from death and lives, and means his people to experience for themselves the power of his resurrection. We can share his life now, and will share his resurrection on the last day. Paul will elaborate these truths in Romans 8; he does no more than sketch them here in promising that we shall be saved through Christ’s life. So the best is yet to be! In our present ‘half-saved’ condition we are eagerly looking forward to our full and final salvation. But how can we be sure of it? It is mainly to answer this question that Paul pens verses 9 and 10. Both are a fortiori or ‘how much more’ arguments. The basic structure of both is identical, namely that ‘if one thing has happened, much more will something else take place’. What, then, has happened to us? The answer is that we have been justified (9) and reconciled (10), both of which are attributed to the cross. On the one hand, we have now been justified by his blood (9a), and on the other, we were reconciled to him (sc. God) through the death of his Son (10a). So the Judge has pronounced us righteous, and the Father has welcomed us home. In addition, it is essential to Paul’s argument that he stresses the costliness of these things. It was by his blood (9a), shed in a sacrificial death on the cross, that we have been justified, and it was when we were God’s enemies (10a) that we were reconciled to him. Here then is the logic. If God has already done the difficult thing, can we not trust him to do the comparatively simple thing of completing the task? If God has accomplished our justification at the cost of Christ’s blood, much more will he save his justified people from his final wrath (9)! Again, if he reconciled us to himself when we were his enemies, much more will he finish our salvation now that we are his reconciled friends (10)! These are the grounds on which we dare to affirm that we shall … be saved.

John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 146

5 he saved us, not by deeds of righteousness that we have done, but because of his mercy There was a motive for this salvation. Positively, “He saved us … because of his mercy”; and negatively, “Not by deeds of righteousness that we have done.” We could not have been saved at the first by our works of righteousness, for we had not done any. “No,” says the apostle. “We were foolish, disobedient, led astray.” Therefore we had no works of righteousness, and yet the Lord interposed and saved us. Behold and admire the splendor of His love, that He loved us even when we were “dead in trespasses” (Eph 2:5). He loved us and therefore quickened us. God does not come to men to help them when they are saving themselves. He comes to the rescue when they are damning themselves. When the heart is full of folly and disobedience, the good God visits it with His favor. He comes, not according to the hopefulness of our character, but according to His mercy, and mercy has no eye except for guilt and misery. The grace of God is not even given according to any good thing that we have done since our conversion. The expression before us shuts out all real works of righteousness that we have done since regeneration, as all supposed ones before it. The Lord assuredly foreknew these works, but He also foreknew our sins. He did not save us according to the foreknowledge of our good works because these works are a part of the salvation that He gave us. 5–6 through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit There was a power by which we were saved. “He saved us … through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” The way in which we are delivered from the dominion of sin is by the work of the Holy Ghost. This adorable Person is very God of very God. This divine Being comes to us and causes us to be born again. By His eternal power and Godhead, He gives us a totally new nature, a life that could not grow out of our former life nor be developed from our nature—a life that is a new creation of God. We are saved not by evolution but by creation. The Spirit of God creates us anew “in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph 2:10). We experience regeneration, which means being generated over again, or born again. Remember the result of this as set forth in covenant terms: “And I will give a new heart to you, and a new spirit I will give into your inner parts, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give to you a heart of flesh” (Ezek 36:26). This great process is carried out by the Holy Ghost. After we are regenerated, He continues to renew us. Our thoughts, feelings, desires, and acts are constantly renewed. Regeneration as the commencement of the new creation can never come twice to any man, but renewal of the Holy Ghost is constantly and perpetually repeated. The life once given is revived. The light once kindled is fed with holy oil, which is poured on it continually. The new-born life is deepened and increased in force by that same Holy Spirit who first of all created it. See then that the only way to holiness is to be made anew and to be kept anew. The washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost are both essential. The name of Jesus has been engraved in us, even on our hearts. But it needs to be cut deeper and deeper, lest the letters be covered up by the moss of routine or filled up by the bespatterings of sin. We are saved “through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit”—one process in different stages. This is what our God has done for us, blessed be His name! Being washed and renewed, we are saved. 7 so that, having been justified by his grace There is also mentioned a blessed privilege that comes to us by Jesus Christ. The Spirit is shed on us abundantly by Jesus Christ and we are “justified by his grace.” Both justification and sanctification come to us through the medium of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is shed on us abundantly “through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Never forget that regeneration is wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, but comes to us by Jesus Christ. We do not receive any blessing apart from our Lord Jesus. In all works of the Spirit, whether regeneration or renewal, it is the Lord Jesus who is putting forth His power, for He says, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5). The Mediator is the conduit pipe through which grace supplies us day by day with the water of life. Everything is by Jesus Christ. “Apart from him not one thing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3), either in grace or in nature. We must not think it possible for us to receive anything from God apart from the appointed Mediator. But in Jesus Christ we are today abundantly anointed by the Holy Spirit. The sacred oil is shed upon us abundantly from Him who is our Head. We are sweet to God through the divine perfume of the Holy Spirit who comes to us by Jesus Christ. This day we are just in the sight of God in Christ’s righteousness, through which we are “justified by grace.” We are accepted in the Beloved. Since Jesus has washed our feet, we are “completely clean” (John 13:10)—clean in the double sense of being washed with water and with blood, and so cleansed from the power and guilt of sin. What a high privilege this is! Can we ever sufficiently praise God for it? we may become heirs according to the hope of eternal life There comes out of this a divine result. We become today joint heirs with Christ Jesus, and so heirs of a heavenly estate. Then out of this heirship there grows a hope that reaches forward to the eternal future with exceeding joy. We are made “heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Think of that! What a space there is between “foolish, disobedient, led astray” right up to “heirs according to the hope of eternal life”! Who thought of bridging this great gulf? Who but God? With what power did He bridge it? How but by the divine power and Godhead of the Holy Ghost? Where was the bridge found by which the chasm could be crossed? The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us, has made a way over the once impassable deep.

Charles H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Titus, ed. Elliot Ritzema, Spurgeon Commentary Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014), 331–334.

In Ephesians 2:8–9 Paul states the free character of grace perhaps even more explicitly, now not using the language of justification but simply of salvation. We are told that we have been saved “by grace” but “through faith.” Grace is seen here as the means by which we are saved, a free gift; faith is seen as the mechanism by which that salvation or grace is appropriated. Paul must then go on to argue that even faith is “not by works so that no one can boast” (v. 9). This does not mean that Paul keeps grace separate from works in sanctification, for he goes right on to speak of us being God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works (v. 10). Similarly, grace is seen as being in the midst of our present Christian life. In Romans 5:2 Paul speaks of gaining “access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” and in 5:21 of grace reigning “through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” While all of this is in the context of the grace of God as a gift versus the Law of God as a work, nevertheless grace is viewed as reigning even as we live the life we are supposed to live in Christ. Hence the argument of Romans 6 that we are not to go on sinning so that grace may increase, but we are to “count [ourselves] dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus … for sin shall not be [our] master, because [we] are not under law, but under grace” (vv. 11–14). The key metaphor used in this chapter to describe this “work” of sanctification is “offer.” Hence we are not to “offer the parts of [our] body to sin as instruments of wickedness,” but rather offer ourselves to God, “as those who have been brought from death to life” (v. 13). This is done as slaves, offering ourselves in obedience to him (v. 16).

Andrew H. Trotter Jr., “Grace,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, electronic ed., Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 316.