Soteriology — the doctrine of salvation

Sōtēria is the Greek word for rescue, deliverance, being brought to safety. Soteriology asks the four questions that follow: saved from what, by whom, how, and to what end.

Saved from what

From three things, and Christians often only think about the first.

From sin's penalty. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23) — separation from God, permanently. This is dealt with in an instant, at the moment of faith.

From sin's power. Not only forgiven but freed. "Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14). This is worked out over a lifetime.

From sin's presence. One day, gone entirely. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more" (Revelation 21:4). This is still future.

Past, present and future. Most spiritual discouragement comes from expecting the third now.

Why nothing else works

The problem is not that we have accumulated debits that a sufficient run of credits would cancel. Isaiah says even "all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6) — not that good deeds are bad, but that they cannot function as payment, because they are already owed.

And there is a structural problem: the offence is against an infinite God, so a finite creature has no currency of the right kind. Religion at its core is humanity attempting to build a ladder. The gospel is the announcement that God came down.

What God did

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Read the exchange carefully, because the whole of Christianity is in this sentence. Christ took what was ours — the guilt — and we receive what was his — the righteousness. Theologians call it double imputation: our sin credited to him, his righteousness credited to us.

This is why Christian assurance is not arrogance. You are not claiming to be good. You are claiming that someone else's record has been put in your name.

Luther called it the "joyful exchange" and compared it to a marriage in which a bankrupt bride's debts become the wealthy groom's, and his estate becomes hers, on the day of the wedding.

How it is received

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Every clause is doing work. By grace — the cause is God's unearned favour. Through faith — the instrument is trust. Not your own doing — including the faith itself. So that no one may boast — the purpose is to exclude self-congratulation permanently.

Faith is not a work, and this matters pastorally. Faith is the empty hand that receives; it has no value of its own. A drowning man who takes hold of a rope has not saved himself, and nobody would praise his grip.

The two movements are repentance and faith. "Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3:19); "believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). Turning from, and turning to. They are two sides of one motion, not two stages.

The chain

Paul compresses the whole thing into two verses:

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son... And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Romans 8:29-30).

Every verb has God as its subject. Not one step is our achievement. And Paul writes glorified in the past tense about something still future, because from God's side it is as good as done.

The distinction that prevents most of the damage

Justification is declared; sanctification is worked. Justification is instant; sanctification is gradual. Justification is complete; sanctification is partial until death. Justification is God's work for you; sanctification is God's work in you, with your involvement.

Confuse them and you get one of two failures. Collapse justification into sanctification, and you are always auditioning — never sure you have done enough, which is legalism and it is exhausting. Collapse sanctification into justification, and nothing needs to change — which is presumption, and Scripture calls it a lie (1 John 2:4).

Hold them apart and you get what the New Testament actually describes: a person entirely secure and still under construction.

Where works belong

Immediately after saying salvation is not from works, Paul adds: "for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

Works are not the root; they are the fruit. Not the payment; the receipt. An apple tree does not become an apple tree by producing apples — but a tree that never produces any is worth investigating.

Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone.— a Reformation formula, variously attributed to Luther and Calvin

The end of it

Salvation does not terminate in you being forgiven, or even improved. It terminates in you being with God — "so that where I am you may be also" (John 14:3) — and in a renewed creation where everything wrong has been put right.

Spurgeon's summary of the whole doctrine is still the best one line ever written on it:

God justifies the ungodly. Not the godly — for they need no justifying. This is the glory of the gospel: that it is for the sort of people who could never deserve it.— Charles Spurgeon, All of Grace