Introduction
Any large organisation or interest group, and Christianity is no exception, has a jargon of its own. That's great if you're a part of the group and understand the jargon, giving as it does a sense of belonging - but it's not so good if you're on the outside, or if you're new to the group, and don't understand it. In that situation the opposite occurs and a sense of not belonging can occur, a sense of awareness of being on the outside.

Christians use words like Believers, the Scriptures, grace, justification, sin, The Law, righteousness, sanctification, The Lamb, transfiguration, the Vine, Pentecost, breaking bread, The Comforter, the Morning Star, tithes, Zion and many, many others. Some of these may be relatively obvious, whereas others may be completely unknown to those who are just getting to know Christianity. On this site we will attempt to avoid "jargon" and any particularly Christian words that are used will be fully explained.

One word that is at the centre of Christianity is "Salvation" or "saved."

So this introductory study is to look at the whole issue of "Salvation" - what does it mean, why do we need it, and how does it happen?

PLEASE NOTE: With each Bible study on this site there will be an explanation of the main points that I want to put across. There will also be many Bible references used to support those points. It is intended that the person doing the study should look up these Bible references. In this way you can make the Bible study longer or shorter to suit your own requirements. For those who are not familiar with all the different types of Bibles available, all the references used are taken from a Bible translation known as The New International Version and, to get the most from these studies, it would be useful if you had one of these Bibles to hand.

What is salvation?
Salvation, or being saved, carries with it the idea of being rescued from something. And this is true of salvation in the Christian use of the word; however, in Christianity salvation is not only being saved from something, it is being saved into something. This study will look at both these aspects.
For some salvation can mean simply staying out of hell when one's life on this planet comes to an end. Some see salvation as something that starts at the end of one's earthly life. Yet the Bible makes it clear that salvation starts in the here and now.

The following is a look at what salvation is:

Salvation is a work of God for man. John chapter 3, verse 16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." It was God doing the giving, the reaching out, and the sacrificing. It is God who is the rescuer - for salvation is very much about being rescued.
Salvation is NOT a work of man for God. 2 Timothy 1:9 says, "God, has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace." This Bible verse makes it very clear that we are not saved because of anything we have done. This, of course, separates Christianity from the other major religions of the world which all teach that a person has to earn their salvation (their right to enter heaven) by the way they live.

Why do we need to be saved?
The Bible makes it quite clear that God is perfectly holy and sinless. He is also mighty and awesome. He also hates (Psalm 11:5) and punishes (1 Thessalonians 4:6, 2 Thessalonians 1:8) sin. Put all that together and being a sinner is not a good place to be!
God has always wanted us to trust Him and, as a result, obey Him. In Genesis chapter 3 the story is told of how Eve doubted God and that led her and Adam to disobey God. A look through the Bible shows that we are all now doing the same thing. If in any doubt, look at some of the following passages: Matthew 5:21-48; Mark 7:20-23; Mark 9:43-48; Mark 12:28-34; Romans 3:23; Romans 3:10-12; Galatians 5:19-21.

We need to be saved - that is, brought back into a relationship with God - because our sins have separated us from God. The Bible verses above show how high God's standard is, and how desperately short of it we all fall. Unlike all other major religions, Christianity makes it quite clear that a person is simply not capable of living in a way, by their own efforts, that pleases God. We needed someone to do for us that which we could not do for ourselves - that is, get rid of our sins.
That is why Jesus came - to take our sins and so make us acceptable to God.

What happens if we are not saved? The Bible makes it very clear that just as there is a heaven, so there is a hell. Jesus Himself teaches us more about hell than any other person in the Bible. So He certainly believed in it - and died on a cross so that we don't have to go there. The Bible makes it quite clear that "death" is not a state on being unaware, but a state of being eternally separated from God and of being punished for sins.
So the choices are stark: Eternal life, through faith in Jesus; or eternal death, through rejection of Jesus. And it is because the choice is so stark, and irreversible, that we need to be saved. We need a Saviour and, in Jesus - through His death and resurrection - we have one!

How does it happen, how are we saved?
The first thing to say is that salvation is only available through Jesus. It is popular these days to believe that "all roads lead to God" and that we can just pick the one that suits us. It has to be said very clearly that this is not what the Bible teaches, and it is not what Jesus Himself said. The idea that we can pick and choose our own way to God is simply another example of us not believing God and, as a result, disobeying Him.
 
In the Bible, in Acts chapter 4 verse 12 it says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." The person speaking in this passage is the Apostle Peter, and he is talking about Jesus.  In the Gospel of John chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus Himself said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." In the light of such verses (and others) we are faced with a choice. We either accept them and, in doing so, accept the Bible or we reject them and, in doing so, reject the Bible - because the issue of "Who is Jesus?" is absolutely central to the teachings of the Bible, to being a Christian and, therefore, to being saved.

In Acts 16 a man comes to the Apostle Paul and asks him directly, "What must I do to be saved?" In verse 31 the Apostle answers, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." In Romans 10:9 the Apostle Paul says a similar thing when he writes, "If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

In Acts 15:11 there is a slightly different angle when it says, "We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved," and Ephesians 2:5 expresses the same idea, "It is by grace you have been saved."

So to make sense of these verses we have to be able to bring the ideas of faith and grace together. Are we saved through faith in Jesus, or by grace? (NB: There is a study on the website about grace on 2 December but, for the moment it can be understood as God's freely given blessing.)

A very important passage is Romans 5:1-2 which say, "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."
And similarly, another really important verse for understanding how we are saved is Ephesians 2:8 which says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God"

Both these passages express the idea that salvation is an act of grace on the part of God. In other words, it is a blessing that God freely offers to all mankind without any strings attached. However, not all mankind will benefit from this freely offered gift of eternal life, but only those who will believe that Jesus Christ really is the Son of God and that He died and rose again - thus taking our sins into Himself and defeating death on our behalf.
So grace and faith work together to bring salvation into a person's life. Faith allows us to access grace, and all the blessings that then flow through our new relationships with God. It is God who has done all the work to make salvation possible and He simply asks that we believe Him - which is, actually, all He's ever really asked of us.

For those wishing to believe but feeling that they're not quite there, God takes the willingness of our hearts and He will do the rest; but anyone wanting to be saved - brought into a relationship with God - should be prepared to put the time into developing that relationship, particularly through Bible reading and talking with and listening to God. Such activities will definitely help make the relationship more real.

Conclusion
At the beginning I said we would look at three issues:

1. What is salvation?
2. Why do we need it?
3. How does it happen?

In summary:
Salvation is being rescued from the penalty due to us for our sins and brought into a day-to-day relationship with God;
We all need to be saved because we are all sinners - and sin separates us from God and, if not saved, will lead to our eternal death;
Salvation happens as we choose to believe what is written in the Bible about Jesus and, so, enter into God's act of grace - salvation - that is freely on offer to everyone. Grace and faith working together.

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