SALVATION: THE REDEMPTION OF MAN

We mentioned in our last study of the Baptist Faith & Message on humanity, “Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.”

The next section in the Baptist Faith & Message concerns salvation. On salvation, the Systematic Theology Study Bible states, “Salvation may well be the most commonplace yet deeply cherished word in the Christian’s vocabulary. Lamentably, though, this beautiful biblical term has suffered distortion by those who have sought to redefine not only the nature of salvation but also the Christian faith in general. Thus, for man, ‘salvation’ is now little more than self-realization or attaining some vague sense of personal authenticity. What we are ‘saved’ from is low self-esteem, meaninglessness, aimlessness, or anomie (uprootedness caused by a breakdown in social values). Others would point to the need for greater education to save us from ignorance. Some conceive of salvation as cultural refinement. One man said of the impact of his wife in rescuing him from loneliness and despair: ‘She was my salvation.’

“The meaning we give to the notion of salvation clearly depends on what we perceive to be our greatest threat personally and corporately. In other words, the idea and experience of salvation will never have the right effect on our lives until we grasp what we are saved from and to.”

[Crossway, The ESV Systematic Theology Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 1710.]

What we understand about salvation is absolutely essential. Perhaps you have heard me mention that phrase before, but we are truly dealing with the essentials of the sacred Scriptures. Our understanding of salvation is built upon the special revelation, the revealing of Who God is and What He has done.

Our Baptist Faith & Message acknowledges the importance of salvation, built on the foundation of the sacred Scriptures, the person of God, and the biblical understanding of humanity. Salvation, as the BF&M states,

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

In this brief statement we learn several truths: the content of that which is saved, how salvation is accomplished, how salvation is obtained, the composition of salvation, and the limit of salvation.

You can imagine, then, with such an enormous topic is will be divided into several sermons. This first sermon will address salvation in an overview manner. The subsequent sermons will cover the various aspects of our salvation: regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

Salvation, or the redemption of man, is a wonderful, life-altering (both now and forever) truth of the sacred Scriptures. We will examine the BF&M’s statement on this wonderful doctrine in the following ways: Who, What, How, and Why. These are helpful questions that we can ask of any passage of Scripture to gain more knowledge of what the message of Scripture truly is. So, without further ado, let us begin.

I. WHO IS INVOLVED IN SALVATION?

The first question we ask, and to which the BF&M through the Scriptures frames the answer, involves the who of salvation. Please not this is not a reference to the WHO band, but to the parties involved in salvation.

A. WHO IS SAVED?

The next question we ask ourselves is who is saved? The BF&M clearly teaches that human beings are saved. It states, Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

Human beings are saved. The Scriptures teach us that we, human beings born in the image of God are the recipients of salvation. Now, how this comes about will be a matter for discussion in a moment. Right now we are focused on the objects of God’s salvation.

But first we must note the inclusion of the word redemption. In the Lexham Dictionary of Bible Themes, redemption is defined as

Dictionary of Bible Themes 6720 redemption

The buying back or release of an object or person. In Scripture redemption refers to God’s ransoming of believers only through the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross and to all the benefits that this brings.

So, we see that redemption is another word used to describe the salvation of the human being. That is why I constantly use the phrase the plan of redemption to refer to God’s working in the lives of His creation. While we will discuss this more in the future, we realize that this salvation, this redemption, this buying by refers to the human beings.

In we learn about man’s fall. Since we have already devoted much attention to this in other sermons, we simply note that our offence against the thrice holy God, the infinitely righteous and perfect God and our creator, deserves nothing short of death and eternity in hell. But God, in His great mercy and lavish grace, chose to redeem His fallen creatures.

The answer to the question, Who is saved? is mankind, human beings, men and women of every nation, tribe, people, and language ().

B. Who saves?

The next question that comes up is Who saves? Who does this great and marvelous task of saving these fallen creatures? The BF&M, in accordance with the Scriptures, places this wonderful work in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It states,

Salvation…is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

That is, Jesus saves. The song goes,

We have heard the joyful sound:   Jesus saves! Jesus saves! Spread the tidings all around:   Jesus saves! Jesus saves! Bear the news to every land, Climb the steeps and cross the waves; Onward!—’tis our Lord’s command;   Jesus saves! Jesus saves! (Priscilla Owens)

All the stories of Israel’s deliverance in the Old Testament are the result of God, all the miracles of deliverance and healing in the Gospels are the working of Jesus, and all the salvation verses in the epistles are the result of the saving work of Jesus Christ. Jesus saves! Paul describes the work of Jesus like this, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (, NIV)

In other words, we were unable and incapable of saving ourselves, therefore Jesus saves.

C. WHO ARE WE SAVED FROM?

This inevitably leads us to ask the question, who are we saved from? This seems an odd question, but as we noted at the beginning, what we are saved from matters greatly. And this odd question has an even odder answer: we are saved from God.

Saved from God? you may wonder, and the answer is yes. We are saved from the wrath of God. You see, we have sinned against the most holy, the incomprehensibly holy God, and because His holiness is infinite, offenses against it are as vast as the holiness is violated. Consider these terrifying words from :

Revelation 6:12–17 ESV

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Commenting on who we are saved from, another confession of faith, the Belgic Confession, states, “Therefore, with good reason the thought of this judgment is horrible and dreadful to wicked and evil people....The evil ones will be convicted by the witness of their own consciences, and shall be made immortal—but only to be tormented in the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

We are judged for our sins, but we receive this judgment from God. This salvation, then, involves human beings, God the Son, God the Father, and even God the Holy Spirit (a point which we will address in a future sermon, Lord willing).