The New Covenant

Salvation

There is a term we need to consider again, and that is "salvation." What do we mean by "salvation"? What do we mean when we ask, "Are you saved?" Let us consider these phrases, asking God to give us fresh understanding.

The thought in the word "saved" is that we have been delivered from some place of danger into a place of safety. What was the danger? The danger was that we were dead in sin, and the only thing we could expect was the wrath and judgment of God. What is the place of safety? The only safe place is "in Christ," for everything that God is doing is in Him. All of the promises are to those who are "in Christ." The thought of somehow being delivered from the wrath and judgment of God but not being in a place of living union with Christ is not to be found any place in the New Testament.

An often-used scripture is Romans 10:9-10, which says: "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation." Notice the words: "If you confess...the Lord Jesus..." How can we confess Jesus as Lord except by the Spirit? (I Corinthians 12:3) To say, "Yes, I know Jesus Christ is Lord" if He is not truly Lord has no meaning. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The saints in the Old Covenant believed in God, but that did not make God Lord in their lives. Paul expressed this in Romans 7. This was Paul's experience under the Law, and he did not find deliverance apart from Christ and the provisions of the New Covenant (Romans 8:1-4). The only way we can be "in Christ Jesus" is to be in the Spirit, in His life, for "if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." (Romans 8:9)

The Philippian jailer said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Paul answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." What was this believing? Was it an intellectual belief in a historical Christ, or was it a living belief in the heart, which leads one on into the life of God? The cheap "believism" that is so prevalent today says, "Yes, I believe," but does not see the life changed and a person brought into union with God by the Spirit. It is spoken of by James as "faith without works"--dead, and useless (James 2:14-26).

Paul says it like this: "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Romans 5:10). Think carefully about what he is saying. The reconciliation was what Christ did on the cross, apart from us. Christ removed the veil that separated man from God. That was God's doing, whether we responded or not. But we were in the place of danger: death. The only thing that could bring us out of danger was life, and Paul says we will be "saved by His life." Our only salvation is to be made alive to God and to be led by His Spirit. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:14). That is the only way we can be delivered from being sinners.

We were sinners because we were dead to God. When we were separate from God, living independently from Him, manifesting our own righteousness, and trying to be good, all that we did was sin. It was all filthy rags in God's sight. God says that to be righteous, we must partake of His righteousness. This is accomplished as we partake of His life by the Spirit. This is salvation.

Next: The New and Living Way