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What is salvation?
Salvation is the deliverance by God of a sinner from
His own righteous judgment.
God is wholly, pure, and righteous. He is the only and proper standard
of righteousness in all of creation. He has revealed this standard of
perfection in the Bible. We can see part of it in Exodus 20 where God gives the 10
Commandments. In these Commandments we see the standard of moral
perfection. In this moral perfection is a reflection of God's character.
Jesus said, "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,"
(Matt. 12:34). Therefore, we can see
that as God spoke the moral law, He was giving us an insight into His
own perfect and pure character. Therefore, the law is a standard of
righteousness which all people are obligated to follow whether they are
aware of it or not.
There is no law that is a law without a punishment for
breaking that law. If a law has no punishment, then it is nothing more
than a slogan. But in the case of God's law, He states that anyone who
breaks it will die (Ezekiel 18:4). Therefore, the
righteous judgment of God upon anyone who would break the law is that he
should be damned. But God in His great mercy has provided a way out of
this damnation. The provision is found only in God the Son, Jesus (John 1:1,14; 3:16; Acts 4:12), who died on the cross while He
bore our sins (1 Pet. 2:24).
Therefore, we can see that salvation is deliverance
of the sinner from the righteous judgment of God. Salvation means that
we are "saved" from that judgment.
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