Evangelism Training

The Meaning of Salvation.

Salvation means to completely delivery of someone or something from impending danger.

Salvation by definition carries a twofold implication:

First, that someone or something needs to be saved.

so how do we know that man needs to be saved?

Man is desperately ill.

Isaiah 1:6 NASB95

From the sole of the foot even to the head There is nothing sound in it, Only bruises, welts and raw wounds, Not pressed out or bandaged, Nor softened with oil.

Matthew 9:12 NASB95

But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

Mark 10:18 NASB95

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

Man stands condemned in God’s court of law.

Romans 3:10–19 NASB95

as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; “Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;

Man is lost for the following reasons.

They are lost because of their rejection of Gods revelation. (Ps. 19:1; Acts 14:17; Rom. 1:19, 20).

They are lost because of disobeying their own conscience (Rom. 2:14-16).

They are lost because of their relationship to the world (Eph. 2:2; Jas. 4:4; 1 Jn. 2:15-17).

They are lost because of their relationship to Satan (Mt. 4:8, 9; Jn. 8:42-44; 12:31; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:13; 1 Jn. 3:10; 5:19).

They are lost because of their relationship to sin (Gen. 2:17; 8:21; Job 14:4; Eccl. 7:20; Jer. 17:19; Mk. 7:20-23; Rom. 5:12; 7:14; Eph. 4:18).

They are lost because of their relationship to God (Jn. 3:36; Eph. 2:12; 1 Jn. 5:12; Jude 1:19).

A sinner may not be as bad as he can be (like an Adolf Hitler) but he is nevertheless as bad off as he can be.

Man is both dead (spiritually) and dying (physically). (See Gen. 2:17.) This can be likened to a condemned criminal in death row awaiting the electric chair and suffering from terminal cancer.

The second thing is that someone is able and willing to save.

Such a Savior must fulfill both requirements.

He must be able to save.

Hebrews 7:25 NASB95

Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 4

12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?

It is possible for a person to have the desire but not the ability to save another individual. Many a physician has stood in utter frustration beside the bed of his dying patient, wanting so much to give aid, but totally helpless to do so.

He must be willing to save.

It is possible for a person to have the ability but not the desire to save another individual.

In 1978 a man in the United States, in desperate need of a rare blood transfusion, died. The tragedy of the story was that he suffered and died needlessly, for one of his own relatives possessed that rare type of blood and could have easily donated some, but stubbornly refused. Perhaps the greatest ability after all is availability.