SALVATION (2)

SALVATION. A term that stands for several Heb. and Gk. words, the general idea being safety, deliverance, ease, soundness. In the OT the term refers to various forms of deliverance, both temporal and spiritual. God delivers His people from their enemies and from the snares of the wicked (see Pss. 37:40; 59:2; 106:4). He also saves by granting forgiveness of sins, answers to prayer, joy, and peace (79:9; 69:13; 51:12). The OT prophecies center upon One who was to come as the bringer of salvation (see Messiah).

In the NT salvation is regarded almost exclusively as from the power and dominion of sin. And of this Jesus Christ is the author (see Matt. 1:21; Acts 4:12; Heb. 2:10; 5:9). It is freely offered to all men but is conditioned upon repentance and faith in Christ (see John 3:16; Heb. 2:3). Salvation proceeds from the love of God, is based upon the atonement wrought by Christ, is realized in forgiveness, regeneration, and sanctification, and culminates in the resurrection and glorification of all true believers. See Atonement; Forgiveness; Justification; Regeneration; Sanctification; Resurrection.

ATONEMENT (Heb. kaphar, to “cover, cancel”; Gk. katallagē, “exchange, reconciliation”).

Definition. In accordance with the force of these terms of Scripture the atonement is the covering over of sin, the reconcilation between God and man, accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is that special result of Christ’s sacrificial sufferings and death by virtue of which all who exercise proper penitence and faith receive forgiveness of their sins and obtain peace.

Scripture Doctrine—Terms and Methods. In addition to the terms named above there are other words used in the Scriptures that express the idea of atonement or throw special light upon its meaning. Of these may be here cited (1) hilaskomai, translated (Heb. 2:17; Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10) to “make propitiation”; (2) lutron, translated “ransom,” “redemption” (Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45; Luke 2:38; Heb. 9:12). By such words and in such passages as these the doctrine is taught that Christ died to effect reconciliation between God and man, to propitiate the divine favor on behalf of sinful men, and to redeem or ransom men from the penalties and the dominion of their sins.

There are also forms of expression in which the idea of substitution, that Christ stands as our substitute in the economy of divine grace, appear with marked emphasis (Rom. 5:6–8; 1 Cor. 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18).

The divinely appointed sacrifices of the OT dispensation are also full of significance, embracing as they did special offerings or sacrifices for sin. The uniform teaching of the NT is that these were typical of the sacrifice that Christ made of Himself for the sins of the world.

FORGIVENESS. One of the most widely misunderstood doctrines of Scripture. It is not to be confused with human forgiveness that merely remits a penalty or charge. Divine forgiveness is one of the most complicated and costly undertakings, demanding complete satisfaction to meet the demands of God’s outraged holiness.

In the Old Testament. “The priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven” (Lev. 4:20). However, OT sacrifices had only a typical significance and served as a covering (Heb. kāpar, “to cover, to aid,” Deut. 21:8; Gen. 50:17; etc.) from sin until the appointed time when God should deal finally with sin through the death of Christ. It is thus obvious that the transaction was to some extent incomplete on the divine side. Of necessity sin was let pass. However, the offender received full forgiveness (cf. Rom. 3:25; Acts 17:30).

For the Unsaved. Forgiveness under this consideration is never an isolated operation but is always connected as an integral part of the whole divine undertaking for man called “salvation.” Forgiveness is only one of the many transformations wrought by God in the unsaved in response to simple faith in Christ. Thus forgiveness of sin is not equivalent to salvation. It is merely negative. All else in the comprehensive term salvation is gloriously added (John 10:28; Rom. 5:17).

The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary Justification

JUSTIFICATION. Justification is a divine act whereby an infinitely Holy God judicially declares a believing sinner to be righteous and acceptable before Him because Christ has borne the sinner’s sin on the cross and has become “to us … righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 3:24). Justification springs from the fountain of God’s grace (Titus 3:4–5). It is operative as the result of the redemptive and propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, who has settled all the claims of the law (Rom. 3:24–25; 5:9). Justification is on the basis of faith and not by human merit or works (3:28–30; 4:5; 5:1; Gal. 2:16). In this marvelous operation of God the infinitely holy Judge judicially declares righteous the one who believes in Jesus (Rom. 8:31–34). A justified believer emerges from God’s great courtroom with a consciousness that another, his Substitute, has borne his guilt and that he stands without accusation before God (8:1, 33–34). Justification makes no one righteous, neither is it the bestowment of righteousness as such, but rather it declares one to be justified whom God sees as perfected once and forever in His beloved Son. As Lewis Sperry Chafer says: “Therefore, this may be stated as the correct formula of justification: The sinner becomes righteous in God’s sight when he is in Christ: he is justified by God freely, all without a cause, because thereby he is righteous in His sight” (Systematic Theology, 7:222

The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary Regeneration

REGENERATION (Gk. paliggenesia, “a being born again”). The spiritual change wrought in man by the Holy Spirit, by which he becomes the possessor of a new life. It is to be distinguished from justification, because justification is a change in our relation to God, whereas regeneration is a change in our moral and spiritual nature. The necessity, in the one case, is in the fact of guilt; in the other, depravity. They coincide in point of time and are alike instantaneous, and thus are both covered by the general term conversion, as that term is popularly and loosely applied (see Conversion). Still they are distinct in that the one is the removal of guilt by divine forgiveness, and the other is the change from the state of depravity, or spiritual death, to that of spiritual life. Regeneration is also to be distinguished from sanctification, inasmuch as the latter is the work of God in developing the new life and bringing it to perfection, whereas the former is the beginning of that life. See Sanctification.

Regeneration is represented in the Scriptures principally by such terms as “born again,” “born of God,” “born of the Spirit” (see John 3:3–13; 1 John 3:9; 4:7; 5:1; 1 Pet. 1:23). There are also other forms of expression of deep significance with reference to the same great fact (see Ezek. 36:25–26; Eph. 4:22–24; 2 Cor. 5:17; Col. 3:9–10).

The work of regeneration is specially ascribed in the Scriptures to the Holy Spirit (see John 3:5–8; Titus 3:5). This is in full accord with the whole tenor of special revelation in representing the agency of the Spirit in the economy of salvation

The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary Sanctification

SANCTIFICATION (Gk. hagiasmos, “separation, a setting apart”). The Heb. term qōdesh, rendered “sanctify,” has a corresponding meaning. The dominant idea of sanctification, therefore, is separation from the secular and sinful and setting apart for a sacred purpose. As the holiness of God means His separation from all evil (see Holiness of God), so sanctification, in the various Scripture applications of the term, has a kindred lofty significance.

In the OT economy, things, places, and times, as well as persons, were sanctified, i.e., consecrated to holy purposes (see Gen. 2:3; Ex. 13:2; 40:10–13; etc.). Connected with this were the Mosaic rites of purification (see, e.g., Num. 6:11; Lev. 22:16, 32; Heb. 9:13). These rites, however, when applied to persons were efficacious only in a ceremonial and legal sense and did not extend to the purifying of the moral and spiritual nature. They were symbolical and thus were intended not only to remind the Jew of the necessity of spiritual cleansing but also of the gracious purpose of God to actually accomplish the work. So David prayed not only, “Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean,” but also, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51:7–10).

Although in the OT, as well as in the NT, men are sometimes called upon to sanctify themselves, i.e., to consecrate themselves

The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary Resurrection of the Body

RESURRECTION OF THE BODY (Gk. anastasis, “to make to stand,” or “rise up”). The reunion of the bodies and souls of men that have been separated by death. This is rightly held to be an important article of Christian belief, though it is left by the revelation of Scripture obscure in many details.

Spiritual. The OT in the earlier parts does not speak explicitly upon this subject. Christ, however, declares the doctrine to be generally presupposed in the old economy (see Luke 20:37–38). Allusions to it are to be found in Gen. 22:5, cf. Heb. 11:19; Pss. 16:10–11; 49:14–15; Isa. 26:19; 53:10; Ezek. 37. A clear reference appears in Dan. 12:3. It is plainly taught also in the apocryphal books of the OT (Wisd. 3:1; 4:15; 2 Macc. 7:14, 23, 29). It was a belief held commonly among the Jews in the time of Christ (see Matt. 22:30; Luke 20:28–39; John 11:24; Acts 23:6, 8). The Sadducees were the exceptions in their denial of the doctrine. Christ appeared and confirmed this belief, though He was careful to guard against erroneous conceptions held by some in connection with it, as appears in some of the passages to which reference has been made. Naturally it was a marked feature of apostolic doctrine (see Acts 4:2; 26:23; 1 Cor. 15; 1 Thess. 4:14; Phil. 3:20–21; Rev. 20:6–14; etc.). The teaching of the Scriptures sums up as follows: (1) The body shall rise again. The integrity of man’s being, a creature of soul and body, shall be restored. (2) In some sense the identity of the body shall be preserved. (3) The body is to be changed and refined to fit it for the new surroundings of the future life. For the saints it is to be a “glorified body.” (4) The resurrection of the righteous will take place at the coming of Christ (1 Thess. 4:13–18; 1 Cor. 15:53), of the unsaved at the great white throne judgment after the Kingdom age (Rev. 2:11–15). (5) The power is of God in Christ, who said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).