The Different Things To Which Salvation Is Attributed In The Bible

The Bible attributes salvation to a great many things. This fact goes unnoticed by many people, because they overly rely on their church and their preacher for their Bible knowledge. Sadly, very few churches are careful to speak all of the council of God on very many subjects at all (Acts 20:26-27). They teach their members only the parts and portions of the Bible that they want them to know. This shields their members from Bible teaching on most subjects. If these members don’t do their own personal Bible study, or seek information from others elsewhere who are willing to teach them in these areas, sadly, they will remain ignorant of various aspects of basic Bible truths.

Some people are confused by the notion that salvation is attributed to several different things. They see it as a contradiction. Of course, the Bible does not contradict itself: “The Scripture cannot be broken” (Jn. 10:35). There is a simple solution to what some see as multiple contradictions. We are to conclude simply that salvation involves and requires several things, and each thing is vitally important. All of the ingredients of salvation must be combined in order for salvation to be produced. Each component should be viewed as one thing that must be combined with the others.

Salvation Is Attributed To:

THE GOSPEL (Rom. 1:16; Jas. 1:21; Acts 11:14; Eph. 1:13; 1 Cor. 1:21; 15:1-2; Ps. 19:7) — The gospel is God’s power to save the believer. No one can be saved apart from his hearing, believing and obeying the gospel. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).

FAITH (Acts 10:43; 16:31; John 3:16; 8:24; Mark 16:16; Hebrews 11:6; Rom. 3:28; 5:1) — Faith is persuasion and strong belief. It is the foundation upon which we act in service to God.

REPENTANCE (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 11:18; 17:30-31; 2 Cor. 7:10; Luke 13:3,5) — Repentance means to turn, or change. In reference to salvation, repentance is a change of mind accompanied by a change in action.

CONFESSION (Romans 10:9-10; Jn. 12:42-43) — This is a verbal acknowledgement of the Son-ship and deity of Jesus Christ.

BAPTISM (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 8:12, 36-38; 9:18; 10:47,48; 16:15, 33; 18:8; 22:16; Rom. 6:3,4; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:26,27; Col. 2:11,12; 1 Pet. 3:21) — Baptism is immersion in water for the remission of sins.

FAITHFULNESS (Matthew 10:22; 24:13; Rev. 2:10; Col. 1:21-23; 2 Tim. 4:7; Heb. 3:6,14)

OBEDIENCE (Matt. 7:21; Mk. 3:35; Lk. 6:46; John 14:15; 15:13; Heb. 5:9; 1 Pet. 1:22; 4:17; Rom. 6:17-18; Acts 5:32; Phil. 2:12; 2 Thess. 1:8)

WORKS (James 2:24)

CALLING ON THE NAME OF THE LORD (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13; see Acts 22:16)

THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS (1 Cor. 1:18, 21)

THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH (2 Thessalonians 2:10) — The apostle plainly states that those who do not have a love for the truth will receive a strong delusion, believe a lie, and be damned.

HOPE (Romans 8:24) — “We are saved by hope…” But, obviously not hope alone! Not without faith, repentance, confession, obedience, and the other things to which salvation is attributed in the Bible.

HUMILITY (Luke 18:11-14; 1 Pet. 5:5-6) — It was the humble publican that went down to his house justified. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.

GOD Himself (2 Timothy 1:9) — (God) has “saved us and called us with a holy calling.”

GOD’S GRACE (Acts 15:11; Eph. 2:5,8; Tit. 2:11; 3:7; Rom. 3:24) — We are indeed saved by grace, but that grace does not exclude every other component of salvation.

GOD’S MERCY (Titus 3:5; Eph. 2:4) — “…but according to His mercy He saved us…”

GOD’S LOVE (1 John 4:8-10; John 3:16) — Christ’s coming to the earth, and His work of redemption, were the result of divine love. We are saved on the basis of God’s love, However, God’s love does not nullify human action and responsibility.

GOD’S GOODNESS (Romans 2:4) — God’s goodness is one of the things that leads us to repentance.

CHRIST Himself (Luke 19:10; Galatians 2:17) — “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

CHRIST’S BLOOD (Romans 5:9)

CHRIST’S DEATH (Romans 5:10)

CHRIST’S LIFE (Romans 5:10) — We are no more saved by Christ’s “life” alone, than we are by Christ’s “death” alone. We are saved by both the life and death of Christ!

CHRIST’S FREE GIFT (Romans 5:15-18) — Death had passed upon all, because all had sinned (Rom. 5:12). Once sin is committed, man has no innate powers by which he can cleanse himself of his sin. This text shows that Jesus did all of the things that were necessary to enable man to deal with his own sins. As is taught in the very next chapter, man is still responsible for his part. He must meet the conditions of grace.

THE HOLY SPIRIT (1 Corinthians 6:11) — The Holy Spirit is involved in our sanctification and justification. His word, the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17), guides us away from the path of sin and darkness. One is God’s child insofar as he is willing to be led by the Spirit, and to conform his own spirit to the image of Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14,16).

WE SAVE OURSELVES (Acts 2:40; Phil. 2:12) — Some people have been so indoctrinated with Calvinistic concepts of salvation, that they are shocked by this last point. They have been led to believe that there is absolutely no sense in which we “save” ourselves. I urge the reader to read the two references that I cited. They clearly teach that we are responsible for our own salvation. There is a sense in which we do save ourselves! The context of these passages demonstrates in what sense this is: we must act upon the divine instructions given to us in God’s “word of life” (Phil. 2:16). We must obey God.

Conclusion

We are not saved “by faith alone,” as some have been misled to believe. We are saved by everything by which God says we are saved. By attaching the word “alone” to any one of the items to which salvation is attributed, one excludes every other item! Faith “alone” excludes repentance, confession, baptism, hope, love, the gospel, and everything else we have discussed in this article. Let us not take from God’s word (Deut. 12:32).

Tim Haile