THEME: Understanding Salvation: Inheriting Incorruptible Nature
LESSON: One
TOPIC: Biblical Understanding of The Subject of Salvation
TEXT: Psalms 27:1, 18:46, 24:5; Isaiah 52:7; Luke 3:6; Acts 28:28; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Titus 2:11; 1 Peter 1:9
INTRODUCTION:
The word “salvation” is probably one of the most misunderstood words by humankind. This is the work of the devil and his fallen angels, who disobeyed and rebelled against God’s order in the heavens (Jude 6). Satan and his cohorts have taught men what salvation is from the “eye of death” and thereby perverted the true meaning of what God calls Salvation as we see it in Scripture. Almost every religion on earth thrives on the theme of salvation, or of bringing its followers to the state of being saved. Many also, in most parts of the body of Christ, have a “wobbled or lopsided” understanding of salvation. In most cases, this is what is responsible for our not-so-balanced and inaccurate teaching of Scripture. This again is in itself the work of satan and fallen angels.
Some things to know and note about salvation as revealed in the Scriptures:
- Salvation not originally intended to be a remedy for sin or man’s fallen nature/estate: As alarming as it may seem to sound, SALVATION IS NOT ORIGINALLY INTENDED TO BE A REMEDY FOR SIN OR THE FALLEN NATURE (Titus 2:11-13; Psalms 62:7; Psalms 25:5).
- Salvation amongst angels: The term salvation is not synonymous with man/men alone; it is a term also used and found amongst God’s angels in heaven. Hebrews 1:14; Psalms 80:1-3; Revelation 10:1, 18:1). Salvation is the quality of and an estate of a kind of life that ought not to be corruptible or easily corrupted according to the wisdom of God in scriptures. So God, in His wisdom, made Angels in their various hierarchies with “some kind of salvation”, though not exactly God’s own life, Hallelujah.
- Salvation is a quality of life that is both EVERLASTING AND ETERNAL IN NATURE: God is an everlasting and an eternal uncreated Being, Hallelujah; Deuteronomy 33:27). His dual nature is both everlasting and eternal (Isaiah 52:7; Revelation 7:10). God made a replica of this quality of life (that is in the uncreated God) when God created angels in the heavens (Romans 1:20-27). So, it is safe to say God’s life, which is uncreated, is salvation (everlasting life) unto salvation (eternal life). And the angelic heavenly life, which is created, is also “salvation”, Hallelujah!
- Man, made in God’s image, was designed as a being of salvation and for salvation: By design, even before the fall in Genesis 3, man was made a being
(image/replica) of salvation, but not the exact type in God. This is obvious because man’s type of salvation could still be corrupted and tempted. The process of eating the tree of life, and the eventual eating of the tree, was meant to transition man from just having a type/image of God’s salvation (Genesis 1:27) to fully inheriting God’s salvation/exact image (Hebrews 1:3).
So SALVATION REALLY ISN’T AN AFTERTHOUGHT TO REMEDY SIN ON EARTH (Romans 5:12-13) OR INIQUITY IN THE HEAVENS (Ezekiel 28:14-15).
ANGELIC SALVATION CORRUPTED; MAN’S PROBLEM (Ezekiel 28:12-16)
What mankind is fighting with is a twisted and corrupted heavenly angelic salvation. Satan and his cohorts killed, twisted, and deliberately perverted their own innate salvation life/laws, and brought forth “sin, hell, and death” (James 1:14-16; Revelation 1:18). Every religion seeks and truly looks for freedom from the fallen, imperfect nature, which they can never find WITHOUT TURNING TO JESUS (THE LORD WHO HIS SALVATION)! Salvation is in no other but Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12)
The Gospel of Jesus Christ; God’s Tool of Salvation
It is good to say the following about the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:15; Romans 16:25-26; Isaiah 52:7)
- God’s unfailing and incorruptible salvation is ONLY in Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Peter 1:4; Hebrews 7:26). And to lay hold on that salvation, one must hear the FULL gospel (gospel that saves not just the spirit in the new birth, but also heals and saves the soul).
- The gospel of Jesus Christ, which is in the New Testament, is ALL OF WHAT PAUL, PETER, JAMES, JOHN AND JUDE PREACHED AND WROTE IN ALL THEIR EPISTLES. To be selective in what we take from those EPISTLES may hinder our full participation in salvation.
- There is no full preaching of the gospel without talking about THE HEAVENS and making references to angels (who are replicas of the salvation of God). The books of Hebrews, Revelation, and even all the EPISTLES are full of such references and comparisons (Hebrews 1:1-14).
- The gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to heal and save the soul of everyone who is born again; hence, there can not be full teaching and reference to the salvation gospel without it being preached to man’s soul for the saving of the soul (1 Peter 1:9; James 1:21).
Conclusion
It is good to also add that the New Testament economy of salvation (which is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ) IS GOD’S REMEDY TO CORRUPTION THAT IS AT WORK IN MEN. It remedies satan’s work of sin and iniquity in man, and also saves man to the uttermost, never to be vulnerable to sin or iniquity again, becoming “as saved as God is saved” (1 Peter 1:15-16; Hebrews 7:25). Hallelujah!