SOTERIOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION

Soteriology is the branch of Christian systematic theology that focuses on salvation from sin. Soteriology seeks to answer the following questions:

What does it mean to be saved?
What is a person saved from?
How does a person get saved?
Are there many ways of salvation, or is there only one way?
What are the benefits that come with salvation?
What happens to those people who are not saved?

The theme verse for Soteriology is Ephesians 2:8, 9 which says that people are saved by grace through faith, and not by their own works. Christianity is the only belief system in the world that offers salvation entirely by grace through faith. All other belief systems, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and false Christian cults call for people to somehow earn their salvation through their own good works. Christianity is based on theosoterism, which means God does all the necessary work in saving a person. Other belief systems are based on autosoterism, which means people are required to somehow save themselves from their adverse spiritual circumstance by meriting God's favor. Christianity is not a religion but a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Other belief systems are religions that place a heavy burden of do's, don't's and special rituals on a person that prove to be unprofitable in earning salvation. All the great spiritual leaders that founded the world's religions are dead. Muhammad is dead, Confucius is dead, Moses is dead, and Joseph Smith and Charles T. Russell are also dead. However, Jesus Christ is the spiritual leader of true Christianity and He is still alive, as He was bodily resurrected from the dead to be our Savior, Mediator, High Priest and King.

Salvation means to be saved from your sins by resting on God's Son Jesus Christ as the substitutionary atonement for your sins, which in turns opens the way for God to declare you righteous, no longer guilty of sins. Instead of imputing sin on you after salvation, God imputes the perfect righteousness of His Son on your account, so that God now sees you as being without sin. Jesus' substitutionary atonement does not cover just some of your sins, nor does it cover most of your sins, instead, it covers all of your sins (1 John 1:7). A person is at Peace with God once their sins have been covered by Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1), but they were at enmity with God prior to being saved. There is no condemnation on those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

The reason why we, as sinners cannot save ourselves is because the Bible teaches that, as a result of the fall of man (Genesis 3:1-7) every part of human nature, including our mind, will, emotions and flesh, have been corrupted by sin. In other words, sin affects all areas of our being, including who we are and what we do. It penetrates to the very core of our being so that everything is tainted by sin and "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6). The Bible teaches that we sin because we are sinners by nature, not merely by choice alone. God's law demands perfection, but we cannot produce perfect deeds, nor can we transform our nature from imperfect to perfect (Proverbs 20:9). God gave the Law to humanity so that we may know His will, but the Law also serves to reveals our sinfulness, and the only thing the Law can do is condemn us under God's wrath because we are unable to keep the Law perfectly (Romans 7:7-14). Every time we break one of God's laws, we automatically break all of God's laws (James 2:10). Consequently, any salvation plan that is based on human works is futile. An autosocteric gospel does not and cannot save.

God saw humanity's terrible situation back in eternity past, before the foundation of the world. God arranged for the ransom sacrifice of His Son before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). God began disclosing His salvation plan to humanity at the moment our original parents, Adam and Eve, fell into sin (Genesis 3:15). Eventually, God sent His Son into the world to be our Savior; His name was Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:21). Christ suffered a terrible, painful death on the Cross of Calvary for our sins. That was not an ordinary death; it was Almighty God pouring out His fierce, just and holy anger upon His own Son for the sins of humanity. God's just and holy hatred for sins was bruising Jesus on the Cross. Isaiah 53:10 says that it pleased the Lord God to bruise His own Son as payment for our sins. Jesus' resurrection from the dead proves that the payment for our sins was sufficient. Therefore Jesus paid for everything and we are required to do nothing to get saved except to repent and believe on the Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Acts 20:21; 26:20; Romans 10:9).

So what happens to those who do not become saved? Jesus said "If you do no believe that I AM He, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24); that is, the individual who dies as an unbeliever will remain in an everlasting state of spiritual death, eternal separation from God. Their name will not be written down in the Book of Life (Revelation 20:14, 15). Anyone who does not become saved through the Lord Jesus Christ will remain under the wrath of God and the curse of God against sin will be bound to them forever (John 3:36). The lack of salvation will place them under the eternal judgment of Almighty God and they will live out their eternal destiny in Hell, alongside the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). The intense torment they will experience in Hell will never end. Since the individual was not faithful to Christ to allow for Christ to pay for all their sins, the individual will be found guilty before God on Judgment Day and they will be forced to pay the full penalty for their own sins.

THE PROFOUND DILEMMA OF THE GOSPEL

The way God saves sinners is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:16). Almighty God is a holy and just God who weighs people's hearts and deeds according to perfect fairness and gives due recompense (Ecclesiastes 3:17; Jeremiah 17:10). The Bible says God is loving and forgiving, but it also says God’s way of dealing with sin is just and righteous. The profound dilemma resolved by the Gospel is this: How can God forgive and justify wicked people, and yet, still be perfectly just? If God forgave our sin without demanding full payment, it would not be just. "God will by no means clear the guilty;" (Exodus 34:7; Nahum 1:3). "He that justifies the wicked, and he that condemns the just are both an abomination to the LORD." (Proverbs 17:15). From our point of view, this seems like an unsolvable problem for God. He cannot justify the wicked or condemn the just or He would be violating His own word. God cannot forgive sin by simply saying “not guilty”. Someone said, “A judge who clears a guilty man becomes guilty himself.” How does God deal with it? God provided the solution by sending His Son Jesus Christ in to the world to pay for humanity's sins. Perhaps the greatest words in all of scripture are these: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:23-26). Jesus became sin for us; He died with our sin on Him; our sin was punished in His death (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24, 25). He did not become guilty of sin, but He did become the bearer of sin; our sin was placed on Him and He died for it (Isaiah 53:5, 6; 53:10-12). In other words, God sent Jesus to be a propitiation for our sins, a substitutionary atonement that satisfies God's perfect justice (Romans 3:25; 1 John 4:9, 10). Thus the atoning work of Jesus takes care of the justice of God. But how are we justified? In reverse. Christ's perfect righteousness is placed on us. God saw Jesus as our Sin Offering so He could see us covered with the righteousness of Jesus. This is known as imputed righteousness. God forgives us because, and only because our sin was punished in Christ and our guilt taken away when Christ acted as our substitute. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1a). Thus the Gospel explains how God can forgive wicked people and still be consistent with His perfect justice. The Gospel is the good news of the person and work of Jesus Christ as summed up in John 3:16, Romans 1:16, 17 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. The biblical Gospel is the good news that God saves sinners. Man is by nature sinful and separated from God with no hope of remedying that situation through his efforts. But by God's grace and power, He provided the means of man’s redemption in the death, burial and resurrection of the Savior, Jesus Christ. The gospel is the call to repentance to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's grace (Ephesians 1:7). Sinners are saved by God's grace, not by their works (Ephesians 2:8, 9; Titus 3:5).

THE NARROW WAY AND THE EXCLUSIVITY OF JESUS CHRIST

Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and the only Mediator between God and humanity (Acts 4:10-12; 1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus Christ is the one and only way to God, salvation and eternal life. Jesus personally said to His disciples "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). The doctrine of the exclusivity of Christ has been rejected by universalists, by the Emergent Church, and by the New Age Movement, all of which claim there are many pathways to God and salvation, and that coexistence between religions is a wonderful idea. Jesus described the way of salvation as the narrow road to life, as compared to the broad road to destruction. Jesus said "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13, 14). Notice that Jesus not only described the way to life as "difficult" but He also described the gate to life as "narrow." When Jesus says, “I am the Door” at John 10:7, He is reiterating the fact that only through Him is salvation possible. This is far removed from the ecumenical teachings popular in today’s liberal religious circles. As one reads further down the context of Matthew 7, they will read where Jesus said that not everyone who says to Him "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of God the Father. Despite so many people professing Him as Lord, and performing all kinds of powerful works in His name, Jesus will reject them as workers of lawlessness (Matthew 7:21-23). They openly professed to be Christian and outwardly displayed a form of godliness (2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 1:16), while at the same time, they hypocritically lived as though Christ never gave them commandments on how to live the Christian life. What did Jesus mean by "I never knew you"? Jesus knows only those who do the Father's will and keep Christ's commandments. He said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him" (John 14:23). Jesus said "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you" (John 15:14).

REGENERATION AND THE THREE PARTS TO SALVATION

There are three parts to salvation: justification, sanctification and glorification. Justification frees a believer from the penalty of sin; sanctification free them from the power and influence of sin; and glorification removes them from the presence of sin. Justification is God's legally declaring a repentant sinner righteous as their sins are covered by the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, thus the repentant sinner is no longer guilty and subject to the penalty of sin. At the moment God justifies a repentant sinner who believes on Jesus, God begins to regenerate them into a new creature by renewing their heart and soul (Ezekiel 36:25-27; 2 Corinthians 5:17). This regeneration is not the work of man but a supernatural work of God's Holy Spirit and it spans all three phases of justification, sanctification and glorification. In fact, all three phases of salvation are summed up in one word: regeneration. God will finish the salvation work He began in the believer (Philippians 1:6). Sanctification is God's setting apart or consecrating the repentant sinner to do God's work and to be conformed to the image of Christ. This conforming to the image of Christ involves the work of the person, but it is still God working in the believer to produce more of a godly character and life in the person who has already been justified. A person's good works are the fruit of salvation, not the root of salvation (Ephesians 2:10; Philippians 2:13). Sanctification is not instantaneous because it is not the work of God alone. God's part in sanctification includes, regeneration, the conviction and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and divine chastening. The justified person is actively involved in submitting to God's will, resisting sin, seeking holiness, and working to be more godly, thus bearing more spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 4:20-24; Colossians 3:9, 10). The regeneration that accompanies salvation converts a person's heart from rejecting God to loving God, and from loving sin to hating sin, and from conformity to the sinful flesh to conformity to the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:17 ,18). Glorification is the final step of salvation in which the believer receives their resurrected and/or glorified body that is immortal and no longer corrupted by sin, plus the believer is transferred from earth to the pristine heavenly realm to dwell with Christ (1 Corinthians 15:50-55; Philippians 3:20, 21; 1 John 3:2).

THE FIVE SOLAS OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

After breaking away from the Catholic Church and its legalism, the Protestant Reformers devised five biblical salvation doctrines and christened each doctrine  with a Latin name. These five salvation doctrines, known today as the Five Solas, served to separate Protestantism from Catholicism and to clarify the biblical view of salvation by grace through faith without the works of man. The Five Solas are identified as follows:

Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) – Scripture alone is sufficient for people to learn the truth about God, Jesus Christ, their sinful condition, and how to become saved. Man-made ideas among the Church or the secular society are either superfluous or unnecessary in learning about essential truths about God and salvation. (1 Timothy 3:16, 17; Galatians 1:6-9; 2 Corinthians 11:3, 4).

Sola Gratia (Grace Alone) – God in His grace has done all the work necessary for our salvation, including the substitutionary atonement, regeneration, and glorification. In eternity past, God had foreknowledge of everyone who would become saved, thus He predestined them to enter His kingdom as coheirs with His Son Jesus Christ. To mingle humans works with God's grace distorts or neutralizes God's grace (Romans 11:5, 6; Galatians 2:21).

Sola Fide (Faith Alone) – Repentant sinners are saved and justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they continue to live by faith (Romans 1:17; Galatians 2:16-21).

Solus Christus (Christ Alone) – This is doctrine of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. John 14:6 and Acts 4:10-12 clearly state that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to God, salvation and eternal life. Anyone who looks forward to salvation must believe on Jesus Christ alone as their Lord and Savior and Mediator.

Soli Deo Gloria (For the Glory of God Alone) – The Lord God Almighty deserves all the glory for our salvation, for His divine providence in our lives, and for every good thing we receive from His hands (Psalm 115:1; Jeremiah 9:23, 24; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Philippians 2:10, 11; James 1:17; Revelation 1:4-6)

The complete sentence for the Five Solas, translated into English, would be: “By scripture alone, we come to the understanding that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone.”

DEBATES OVER THE DOCTRINES OF SALVATION

Even among the Protestant denominations, debates arose between those who agreed with John Calvin and those who agreed with Jacobus Arminius. Calvinism teaches that unregenerate humans have no free will and the sovereignty of God take absolute precedence over salvation. Arminianism teaches that, although unregenerate people have a sin nature, they still have free will to choose God, accept salvation in Christ, and determine the course of their Christian walk. Calvinists believe it is impossible for a person to loose their salvation once they are saved, because God will make sure to preserve them and finish the salvation work He started in them. On the other hand, Arminians believe the security of salvation is conditional, that a person will remain saved only if they remain faithful to God for the rest of this life. Calvinists accuse Arminians of placing too much emphasis on humanity's own efforts, while Arminians accuse Calvinists of portraying God as a discriminator who purposefully saves only certain people and leaves everyone else to suffer eternally in Hell. There also arose debates between the views of Easy-Believism and Lordship Salvation. Easy-believism teaches that the only thing a sinner is required to do is believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him into their heart, then the sanctifying power and providence of God will carry them the rest of the way. On the other hand, Lordship Salvation teaches that a sinner must believe in Jesus Christ and also turn away from all their sins and humbly submit to Jesus Christ as Lord of their life. Both Easy-believism and Lordship Salvation teaches that repentance is a change of mind, but they disagree on exactly what that change of mind means. Easy-believism teaches that repentance is turning away from unbelief to believe in God, but Lordship Salvation teaches that repentance is turning away from unbelief and also turning away from sinful practices while striving in service to Jesus as Lord. Proponents of Easy-believism accuse supporters of Lordship Salvation of promoting a gospel based on works or legalism. Proponents of Lordship Salvation accuse supporters of Easy-believism of promoting antinomianism and salvation without transformation. There are plenty of Christians who are neither extreme Calvinist nor extreme Arminian; there are also plenty of Christians who are neither extreme Easy-believist nor extreme Lordship Salvationist. A considerable percentage of Christians have a view of salvation that is proportional, accepting a few ideas from this perspective and a few from that perspective.