What does it mean to be saved?

What the Bible says

In Scripture, to save means to rescue. Paul shows the heart of the God who rescues us.

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

Eph 2:4-5

Salvation begins in God's love, and it is pictured as raising the dead. Colossians describes the same thing as a rescue and a transfer.

He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Col 1:13-14

Saved from what? The Bible names sin and what follows from it: guilt and death. It also speaks of being saved from God's wrath (Rom 5:9). But salvation is not only a rescue from something. It is a rescue to something. In his prayer Jesus says what eternal life is.

Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

John 17:3

At its center is knowing God, a restored relationship. And the motive is love.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

John 3:17

The New Testament unfolds this salvation in several pictures. One is justification, God's declaration that the sinner is righteous: "since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:1). Another is new birth, as Jesus told Nicodemus.

no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

John 3:3

Another is adoption: "you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’" (Rom 8:15). The saved become God's children, and "if we are children, then we are heirs" (Rom 8:17). Then there is sanctification, God shaping a Christlike life in the people he has already saved. Finally there is completion.

And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

Rom 8:30

So the New Testament speaks of salvation in three tenses. Paul says "in this hope we were saved" (Rom 8:24), looking back; he speaks of "us who are being saved" (1 Cor 1:18), now; and he looks ahead: "how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him" (Rom 5:9). And the way we receive it is grace: "it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:8).

The church's witness

From the beginning the church confessed salvation as Christ's work. The Nicene Creed says that the Son came down from heaven for us and for our salvation The Nicene Creed. The Heidelberg Catechism says our only comfort in life and in death is that we belong, body and soul, not to ourselves but to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 1.

Explaining the name Jesus in Matthew 1:21, Remigius writes that he saves his people "not so much from visible as from invisible enemies; that is, from their sins, not by fighting with arms, but by remitting their sins" Remigius. Augustine compares salvation to a physician's treatment.

The physician, so far as his will is concerned, heals the sick. If the sick despises or will not observe the directions of the physician, he destroys himself.

Augustine

On Ephesians 2, Matthew Henry says: "The grace that saves is the free, undeserved goodness and favour of God" Matthew Henry. Salvation is not received because someone deserves it.

On the details, Christians differ. First, "predestined" in Romans 8:30. The Reformed tradition holds that before time God freely chose in Christ those who would be saved, not for anything he foresaw in them. The Wesleyan-Arminian tradition holds that God, who wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), chose those he foreknew would answer his grace in faith. Lutherans confess election as pure grace yet deny that anyone is predestined to be lost, and Catholic and Orthodox teaching holds that God's eternal plan includes each person's free response to grace. Second, "water and the Spirit" in John 3:5. Catholic, Orthodox and Lutheran churches read this as new birth through baptism. Many in the Reformed and evangelical traditions see baptism as the sign of new birth, and read the water in light of Ezekiel's promise of clean water and a new spirit (Ezek 36:25-27). See What are baptism and the Lord's Supper?. Third, whether salvation can be lost is discussed in Can salvation be lost?. All of these churches agree that salvation is Christ's work and is given by grace.

In the original languages

The New Testament word is soteria (σωτηρία), and its verb is sozo (σῴζω). The verb carries the senses of rescuing from danger, healing a sickness, and keeping whole. So salvation is not one event but the whole care of God, who rescues, heals and keeps to the end.

In Hebrew, salvation is yeshuah (יְשׁוּעָה), from the verb yasha (יָשַׁע). Its root idea is often, though not certainly, explained as bringing someone out of a tight place into a wide one. The name Jesus comes from the same root: the Hebrew Yehoshua (Joshua) means ‘the LORD is salvation’. The angel told Joseph, "you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins" (Matt 1:21).

Common objections

"Saved from what?" Many people today do not feel lost. Words like sin and guilt have sometimes been used to crush people. One can also ask: if salvation is rescue from God's wrath, isn't God the problem? This deserves a serious answer. The Bible's wrath is not a deity's temper but God's settled opposition to the evil that destroys people. And the one who rescues is that same God. Paul says, "God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8). The centre is not a threat but that God came first. Whether we need rescue depends on how we diagnose ourselves; see What is sin?. On hell, see Are heaven and hell real?.

"Can't a good life, or another path, save a person without Christ?" Acts 4:12 says, "Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Christians have confessed that the ground of salvation is Christ's cross and resurrection. What happens to those who have never heard the gospel is a matter on which Christians hold different views. Some say only those who hear and believe are saved. Others say Christ's work is the ground, but that God may apply it in ways he chooses. See Is Jesus the only way? and What about those who never heard?.

"If salvation is a free gift, may I live as I please?" The Bible's answer is that because it is a gift, life changes. Ephesians 2:10 says we are "created in Christ Jesus to do good works," and Titus 3:5 says God saved us "not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." Philippians 2:12-13 says to "continue to work out your salvation," and gives the reason: "it is God who works in you." If free forgiveness starts to look like an excuse, look again at how costly the gift was.

Going further

Salvation is not a club with entry requirements. It is the Saviour reaching a person bound by death and guilt and taking him home to the Father.

You might ask yourself some questions. Have I thought of salvation only as a matter for after death? What do I most want to be rescued from now? If knowing God is eternal life, how much do I want to know him?

To read further, see What is grace?, Why did Jesus have to die? and What is faith?. Reading Ephesians 2:1-10 slowly is a good place to start.