The term “salvation” has been thrown around so much in popular culture that believers and skeptic alike can easily become confused as to its exact meaning.

Another point of confusion is the difference between salvation and sanctification. Briefly, salvation is a one-time event, and sanctification is a lifelong process following salvation.

Salvation permanently establishes a person’s eternal relationship with God through the indwelling Holy Spirit (born again).

Sanctification is a process that has its ups and downs as the believer learns how to walk in step with the Holy Spirit throughout his life.

Lewis Sperry Chafer, author of the book Salvation, expanded on this point: “Salvation is the result of the work of God for the individual, rather than the work of the individual for God, or even the work of the individual for himself. Good works are evidently made possible by salvation; but these good works, which follow salvation, do not add anything to the all-sufficient and perfect saving work of God.”

Salvation Defined

The often-misunderstood term “salvation” is commonly associated with theology.

However, the more general use of the term, also referred to as “saved,” simply means “a deliverance from danger.”

For instance, the newspaper headline following the 1912 Titanic disaster stated that, of the 2,170 people on board that fateful night, 868 were saved.

Applying the word salvation in the theological realm, the danger from which we need deliverance is spiritual in nature and is rooted in a condition of spirit caused by a thing called sin.

The distinctively nasty thing about sin is that, like cancer, it aggressively metastasizes, taking on a life of its own, which is why it requires aggressive treatment, or it will kill the patient.

The Bible states that this sin condition is hereditary. It is passed down in full strength by the parents of every human being and, unless ultimately remedied, the result is eternal separation from God.

It is commonly believed that the definition of sin is limited to deliberate violations of religious or moral rules.

Although this is true, sins are more broadly defined in the Bible as any thought, word or deed that “misses the mark” — the mark being God’s righteous standard. This is an archery term, suggesting that we have missed a target’s bullseye.

We All Need to be Saved

The more important point is that, although individual sins routinely violate divinely established religious or moral principles, their very existence points to a deeper cause rooted in the “fallen” (fatally flawed) nature of man.

Originally created without a propensity to sin, Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God in the Garden of Eden resulted in a crippling of their inner spiritual faculties.

Immediately following their act of defiance, they became afraid of God, ran from His presence, covered themselves up, and blamed Him for their self–inflicted catastrophe.

Sadly, this predilection “package” has been handed down through the millennia to the present day in the form of a spiritual nature that seems to be spring loaded to the sin position.

Anyone with children knows that they have never had to teach them how to lie, strike their siblings or demand their own way — these just seem to come naturally.

In fact, the universal parental responsibility has always been to teach their children not to do these things.

A person who has not been saved from this inherited spiritual condition is considered “lost” by God and in need of divine intervention.

Bear in mind, this “lostness” is not a reflection of the person’s intrinsic value or importance — they are just out of place and unavailable to God’s kingdom purposes.

Presently, God is graciously permitting mankind to live life independently of him. This “grace period” is intended to give them time to choose their eternal destiny — either with him in his kingdom or away from him on their own — a most uncomfortable option indeed.

Dallas Willard warned:

“Thus, no one chooses in the abstract to go to hell or even be the kind of person who belongs there. But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of person for whom away — from — God is the only place for which they are suited.

“It is a place they would, in the end, choose for themselves, rather than come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is.

“Whether or not God’s will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not. There are limits beyond which it cannot bend back, cannot turn or repent.”

So, what to do?

The biblical remedy for this lost-ness is to abandon all self-saving efforts, turn to God, accept his prescription for salvation, and be willing to accept his kingdom rule.

Although all spiritual seekers have a role in their salvation, the entire process is initiated, carried out and concluded by God himself. 

This was made necessary because man was rendered spiritually wounded by his inherited sin condition and therefore unable to save himself.

This applies to all men, regardless of their relative “goodness” or “badness” in the eyes of their fellow men, from Mother Teresa to Joseph Stalin.

4-1-1

Click here for a fascinating AI-generated audio overview of this essay.