Salvation

Questions:

“When does salvation occur?”
- “Can you lose your salvation?”
- “Is the Holy Ghost and tongues experience absolutely necessary to salvation? What about all those well-meaning people who believe in Jesus but haven’t received the Holy Ghost?”

Salvation

Definitions

The OT Concept of Salvation

Implies that a person or nation is in great distress

Danger from enemies

Suffering caused by disaster

Sufferers cannot help themselves

Involves or requires a deliverer or savior

Portrays movement: from distress to safety

The NT Concept of Salvation

Concepts are carried over from OT

In the NT, it is God in the form of Jesus who acts as a deliverer to save believers from both physical danger and eternal damnation

Yeshua – Yahweh Saves

Salvation has many components

saved by grace

Rom. 3:23,24

Titus 2:11

Eph 2:5,8

saved by faith

Acts 16:31

Eph. 2:8

I Peter 1:9

saved by confession

Rom. 10:10

I John 1:9

James 5:16

saved by repentance

Luke 13:3

II Cor. 7:10

II Peter 3:9

saved by baptism

Mark 16:16

John 3:5

I Peter 3:21

saved by the Holy Ghost

John 3:5

Rom. 8:9

Eph. 1:13,14

saved by endurance

II Tim. 2:10

James 1:12

Heb. 3:6

Salvation is a process:

we have been saved

According to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:5),

"{God} has saved us and called us to a holy life" (2 Tim 1:9)

we are being saved

"For by grace are ye saved" (Eph 2:8)

"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phi 2:12)

we shall be saved

"much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life" (Rom 5:10)

"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." (I Tim 4:16).

God only gives this final salvation if we continue in him (Rom 11:22; Col 1:23; I John 2:24,25). Ralph Reynolds gives this illustration:

“When were the children of Israel saved? At the night of the Passover after the blood was applied, while the death angel passed over, they were saved. Yet they were not yet saved. They were saved when they crossed the Red Sea and the armies of Pharaoh were destroyed. Yet they were not yet saved. They were saved when they were led by the cloud in the wilderness. Yet they were not yet saved. Many were never saved for they never entered the Promised Land.”

Final salvation occurs after we have been transformed, translated from corruptible into incorruptible, and have passed through the judgment. Then, we will be complete and perfected.

God intends to see us through:

Matt. 28:20

Philippians 1:6

Heb. 13:5

I Peter 1:5

Can you lose your salvation?

Salvation is a process

Compare to the human birth/life

Hearing the word è Conception

Baptism è “water breaking”

Being filled with the Spirit (“Born Again”) è being born as a human baby

Just as the human baby isn’t complete or finished in her life once she is born, so a new believer isn’t finished in her spiritual growth just because she’s received the Spirit.

Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23

Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received the seed on good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

Unpacking the parable

In only ¼ of the instances where the seed was sown did the hearer reject the word.

In only ¼ of the instances where the seed was sown did the hearer bear fruit.

What happened for the other ½?

Salvation began, but wasn’t finished.

It is possible to receive the word, even gladly, be excited about it, and start to grow, but not finish.

When you start to bear fruit, are you forever saved?

Mark 11:12-14 – “Now the next day, when they had come from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."”

2 Timothy 4:2 – “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season.”

We are to always be ready to bear fruit, no matter what the season. If you’re not bearing fruit, you’re not saved. It is possible to at one time bear fruit, and to stop bearing fruit.

Is the Pentecostal experience of the Holy Ghost really a part of salvation?

Romans 8:9 – “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”

This argument presumes agreement that we can reasonably agree that tongues are always associated with the infilling of the Spirit

Acts 2

Acts 10

Acts 19

Tongues are not the Holy Ghost. Tongues are the initial outward manifestation of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost

Matthew 12:34 – “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

When the Spirit of God comes into your heart, you WILL speak in a heavenly language, out of the abundance of your heart.

Therefore, agreeing that tongues are associated with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, if one has not experienced the Pentecostal demonstration of the Spirit, then we can agree with Paul that they are none of His (Christ’s).

This isn’t a mean-spirited, exclusionary sort of thing. What good is it, to teach a doctrine of universal salvation, or a “Billy Graham” style of conversion, when it isn’t Biblical? It leads people to believe a lie, to place false hope in a conversion and security that has never taken place. That isn’t loving.