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In the initial stage of God’s full salvation the believers experience God’s calling, the Spirit’s sanctification, their repentance, believing, and being baptized, Christ’s redemption, their union with the Triune God, and the Spirit’s regeneration. Hence, they are saved, that is, they have received God’s eternal salvation. Concerning salvation, the Bible speaks of at least five kinds: eternal salvation, daily salvation, environmental salvation, salvation of the body, and salvation of the soul. In this lesson we will cover only the first kind of salvation, that is, eternal salvation.
We have been saved because of God’s love. God’s love is the source of God’s salvation. If God had not loved us, we would not have received salvation. God’s heart is love, and His heart so loved us “that He gave us His only begotten Son” (John 3:16) to prepare salvation for us. His great love caused Him to love us, who were not only sinners but also dead ones, those who were deeply fallen and were dead in offenses and sins. Thus, He made us alive and caused us to ascend to the heavens together with Christ (Eph. 2:4-6). Therefore, our salvation is because of God’s love.
We have been saved according to God’s mercy (Titus 3:5). According to our true condition, we not only were short of righteous deeds, but we also were full of sins and were therefore unworthy of God’s love. But God not only loves us; He is also rich in mercy (Eph. 2:4). His mercy reaches farther than His love. Because of His mercy, His love was able to reach us and to visit us, the fallen and unbecoming ones, lifting us up from an undeserving position that we might be worthy to enjoy His love. His love prepared salvation for us, while His mercy caused Him to bestow His salvation upon us, the undeserving ones.
We have been saved by God’s grace (Eph. 2:8-9). Because God loves us, He has given us grace. This grace has become the source of our eternal salvation. We have been saved by grace, which comes out of God’s love and which is through His mercy. This grace is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. It is also not of our works, which have nothing to do with our eternal salvation (2 Tim. 1:9). We were saved apart from our works; in fact, we were saved altogether according to God’s grace, which came to us through the Lord Jesus (John 1:17). By this grace He accomplished salvation for us, performing everything that was necessary for us to be saved. Therefore, we have been saved by God’s grace and not by our works.
The source of our salvation is God’s love, God’s mercy, and God’s grace, while the accomplishment of our salvation is by the Triune God. It is the Triune God who saved us and became our Savior: God the Father planned, God the Son accomplished what the Father planned, and God the Spirit applies to us what God the Son accomplished (Eph. 1:3-14). Therefore, the Bible addresses God particularly as “God our Savior” (1 Tim. 1:1; 4:10) and “our Savior God” (1 Tim. 2:3; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4).
The three parables spoken by the Lord Jesus in Luke 15 unveil and depict the work of the divine Trinity in bringing fallen sinners back, through the Son by the Spirit, to the Father. The Son came in His humanity as the Shepherd to find the sinner as a lost sheep and bring him back home. The Spirit seeks the sinner as a woman seeks carefully one lost coin until she finds it. And the Father receives the repenting and returned sinner as a certain man receives his prodigal son. The entire divine Trinity treasures the sinner and participates in bringing him back to God. Therefore, the Triune God Himself is the Accomplisher of our salvation; He is the One who completed the work of salvation.
The work of salvation which God accomplished in His divine Trinity is firstly of God the Father (2 Thes. 2:13). God the Father chose us from the beginning; that is, before the foundation of the world and in His sovereign ordination, He foreknew, chose, and predestinated us to receive His salvation. Since He is the origin and source of salvation, it is of God the Father that we are saved.
The work of salvation which God accomplished in His divine Trinity is in God the Son. As the embodiment of the Triune God, the Son was sent by the Father (1 John 4:14) into the world as a man to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). He passed through incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension, thus accomplishing an eternal redemption. On the one hand, He terminated the negative things, such as sin, the flesh, the old man, Satan and the world belonging to him, the old creation, and all separating ordinances of the law; on the other hand, He released the divine life. Thus, He is able to redeem us who have believed into Him. Furthermore, in resurrection He brought us into a life relationship, an organic union, with God, that we might participate in all that God is and has. Hence, we are saved in God the Son.
The work of salvation which God accomplished in His divine Trinity is through God the Spirit (Titus 3:5). God the Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God, the reaching of the Triune God to us to apply that which the Father planned and that which the Son accomplished. First, by enlightening and seeking man He sanctifies the fallen man unto the obedience of faith in Christ’s redemption. This is illustrated by the second parable in Luke 15, which speaks of a woman who lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and seeks carefully until she finds the lost coin. This is also what the Lord Jesus was referring to in John 16:8, where He said that when the Spirit comes, He will convict the world concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment, that men may repent and turn to God, believe into the Lord Jesus, and be regenerated. Furthermore, the Spirit washes and renews us in the divine element to make us a new creation with the divine nature that, having been justified by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we may become heirs of God in His eternal life (Titus 3:7), inheriting all that the Triune God is to us. Therefore, our salvation is of God the Father, in God the Son, and through God the Spirit. It is the Triune God Himself who accomplished this work of salvation.
The source of our salvation is God’s love, God’s mercy, and God’s grace; the accomplishment of our salvation is by the Triune God; and the means of our salvation is through God’s calling, the Spirit’s sanctification, Christ’s redemption, our union with the Triune God, and the Spirit’s regeneration.
We are saved, first, through God’s calling. God’s calling is the first thing that God accomplishes in His chosen ones in the initial stage of His full salvation. This is God’s new beginning, in which He calls men out of the created Adamic race and transfers them into the called Abrahamic race, and out of the life of the old creation into the life of the new creation, that the believers may come out of darkness and enter into the marvelous light of God, out of the death-realm of Satan’s darkness into the life-realm of God’s marvelous light, and become a people made holy unto God. It is through God’s calling that we receive God’s salvation. Therefore, we are saved through God’s calling.
We are saved through the Spirit’s sanctification. After God calls man, the Holy Spirit comes to separate man, to sanctify man, that man may repent and turn to God unto the obedience of faith in Christ’s redemption. The Holy Spirit sanctifies the fallen men by enlightening and seeking them, convicting them concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment, thus causing them to repent and turn to God and to receive God’s salvation. Therefore, we are saved through the Spirit’s sanctification.
We are saved through Christ’s redemption. Christ died on the cross to accomplish an eternal redemption for man. When we believe into Christ, we are redeemed; that is, we are forgiven of our sins, freed, washed, sanctified, justified, and reconciled to God. As a result, we who once belonged to God but became lost, and who became God’s enemies because of our fall, are recovered and accepted by God. Hence, we are saved through Christ’s redemption.
We are saved also through our union with the Triune God. After we repent, believe, and are baptized, we are joined to the processed Triune God. Through our union with God the Father we have His divine life and nature, being related to Him in life and joined to Him in nature, thus producing an organic union. Through our union with God the Son we have been put in Him and He in us; thus we have become one with Him, sharing with Him the same life, nature, living, and activities. And through our union with God the Spirit we have received Him into us essentially for our existence, being, life, and living; we also have received Him as the Spirit of power upon us economically for our spiritual work and function. Through such a wonderful union with the Triune God we enjoy all the blessings of His salvation. Hence, we are saved through our union with the Triune God.
Our salvation is through the Spirit’s regeneration (John 3:5). Christ’s redemption solves the outward problems between us and God. However, besides having problems with God outwardly, we also have problems inwardly in life and nature. Hence, when we believe and are baptized, God not only solves our outward problems through Christ’s redemption but also imparts His life and nature into us through the Spirit’s regeneration. Therefore, we are saved through the Spirit’s regeneration.
The way for the believers to be saved is to believe, to call, to confess, and to be baptized. These four matters joined together form one complete step for the believers to receive the Lord’s salvation. When we have these four items, we are fully saved.
We are saved by God’s grace and also through our faith, that is, our believing (Eph. 2:8). Although there is God’s grace, without our believing, we still cannot be saved. By His grace, God has prepared and accomplished salvation for us; by our believing, we receive that which has been prepared and accomplished. By His grace, God gives us salvation; by our believing, we receive that which has been given. If there is only the preparation by God’s grace but not the appropriation by our believing, or if there is only the giving by God’s grace but not the receiving by our believing, we still cannot obtain God’s salvation. In order to obtain God’s salvation, we must apply and receive it by believing. This is the way, the step, for us to obtain God’s salvation.
Once a person believes in the Lord, he will spontaneously call on the Lord (Rom. 10:14). Although he cannot see the Lord, a person can call upon His name. The Lord’s name is the Lord Himself. Hence, to call on the Lord’s name is to call on the Lord Himself. Therefore, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved by Him.
When a person believes into the Lord, he must confess the Lord (Rom. 10:10). When we believe into the Lord, we believe in our heart in the Lord as our Savior; when we confess, we confess with our mouth the Lord as Lord. To believe into the Lord is primarily before God, whereas to confess with the mouth is mainly before men. Once we believe into the Lord in our heart, we are saved. But we must confess with our mouth before men in order to show forth the fact that we have believed into the Lord and are saved. Merely to believe into the Lord in our heart without confessing with our mouth indicates that there is a problem not only before men but also before God. Hence, in order that we may be thoroughly saved, we must believe in our heart and confess with our mouth.
He who believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:16). Faith is related to man’s salvation, because man is saved by believing; likewise, baptism is also related to man’s salvation, because man is saved also by being baptized. To believe is to exercise the inward faith to receive the Lord’s salvation, whereas to be baptized is to take an outward action to partake of the Lord’s salvation. To believe and be baptized constitutes one complete step by which man receives the Lord’s salvation. To believe without being baptized is to receive the Lord’s salvation by taking only a half step. The Lord’s salvation consists of many elements, some of which man must apply and receive by believing, while others man must enter into and partake of by being baptized. If a person believes but is not baptized, he can receive only a partial salvation; he cannot receive the Lord’s complete salvation. To receive the Lord’s complete salvation, a person must believe and be baptized.
Once a person is saved by believing in the Lord, he is forgiven of his sins and is delivered from God’s judgment and condemnation (John 3:18; 5:24), from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from God’s wrath (Rom. 5:9; John 3:36; 1 Thes. 1:10), and from the fear and slavery of death (Heb. 2:14-15), thus escaping eternal perdition (John 3:16). Moreover, having been born of God and having received God’s eternal life and His Holy Spirit, he is delivered from sins (Matt. 1:21) and the power of sin (John 8:34, 36; Rom. 6:6), and from law (Gal. 4:4-5; Rom. 7:6) and the bondage of law (Gal. 5:1; 4:7). He is also freed from the flesh (Col. 2:11), the old man (Col. 3:9), the oppression of Satan (Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38), the power and charm of the world, the religious world and its ordinances (Gal. 1:4; 6:14-15; Col. 2:20), and the vain manner of life handed down from his fathers (1 Pet. 1:18). Thus, he is fully set free (John 8:36) and is no longer under any bondage or confinement.
The source of our salvation is God’s love, God’s mercy, and God’s grace. The accomplishment of our salvation is by the Triune God: God the Father foreknew, chose, and predestinated us to receive His salvation; God the Son accomplished redemption and released the divine life; and God the Spirit convicted us concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment that we might repent and turn to God, believe into the Lord Jesus, and be regenerated, and He also is making us a new creation with the divine life by washing and renewing us with the divine elements. We are saved through God’s calling, the Spirit’s sanctification, Christ’s redemption, our union with the Triune God, and the Spirit’s regeneration. In order to be fully saved, we must pass through the complete step of believing, calling, confessing, and being baptized. Once we are saved by believing in the Lord, we are delivered from God’s judgment, condemnation, and wrath, from the curse of the law, and from the fear and slavery of death, thus escaping eternal perdition. Moreover, we are released from sins, the power of sin, the law, the bondage of the law, the flesh, the old man, the oppression of Satan, the power and charm of the world, the religious world and its ordinances, and the vain manner of life handed down from our fathers. Thus we are fully set free and are no longer under any bondage or confinement.
