SALVATION OF THE
SOUL
INTRODUCTION
Salvation of the soul is receiving Christ as Lord and Savior; with a joy that cannot be compared with any other joy experienced on earth for it is of a heavenly nature.
Apostle Peter wrote : Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed (saved) with corruptible (perishable) things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation (aimless conduct) received by tradition from your fathers; but with the previous blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish (sinless) and without spot (1 Peter 1:18-19).
Salvation of the Soul
Recognizance of a Need
Jonathan Edwards sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God" contained these words: Consider the fearful danger that you are in: You hang by slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder. You have no interest in any mediator, nothing to save yourself, nothing to keep the flames of wrath away, nothing you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.
Those words still ring loud and clear towards endangered souls who are about to descend into eternity without the benefit of a Savior (the Lord Jesus Christ), unless repentance comes into focus prior to Judgment Day.
A man was asked, if given an hour to explain the Gospel to someone how would he do so? He said he would spend the first fifty minutes on the bad news of judgment and then the last ten minutes on the good news of salvation, because without the context of judgment one would not appreciate or even understand salvation.
Redemption for Mankind
Apostle Paul noted: The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men (Titus 2:11), looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar (special) people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:13-14).
It was noted that the word "redeem" means to purchase. When Christ died for our sins, He paid the price that satisfied the demands of God's holiness. The price of redemption was the blood of Christ towards salvation of the soul of man; a spiritual and eternal nature, which God provided mankind through His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God's love was clearly demonstrated at Calvary when His Son died for all our sins.
Scriptural Reference
to Salvation
Scripture reveals: God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17). Apostle John wrote: He that believes on the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides (remains) on him (John 3:36).
Apostle Paul wrote: If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved (Romans 10:9). For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13). Jesus extended an invitation to all: I stand at the door and knock (door of one's heart); if any man hear my voice, and open the door (only you can), I will come in to him, and will sup (dine) with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20).
Most Pleasurable
Years
On the day of my salvation, having fallen in love with whom I had not seen (the Lord Jesus Christ), yet believed in, and His saving grace towards the salvation of the soul. Jesus, in revealing Himself to one who had doubted His resurrection from the dead (sometimes referred to as the doubting Thomas); cried out: My Lord and my God.
Jesus' response was: Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed (John 20:29). On the day of my salvation, in a little Pentecostal church in Virginia, after receiving Christ into my life, I felt the presence of God's Spirit for the first time in my life, cementing a relationship with a heavenly Father; His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God, which resulted in the most pleasurable years of my life.
Trials and Tribulations
Jesus said to His disciples (referred to as the Great Commission): Go you, and teach (make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost (God's Spirit): teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world (Matthew 28:19-20). The words proclaimed that day are being fulfilled despite trials and tribulations to hinder the Lord's work.
In another instance Jesus proclaimed: Because iniquity (lawlessness) shall abound, the love of many shall wax (grow) cold. But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come (Matthew 24:12-14).
When one's faith is tested; one can turn to the Lord, as the Psalmist David, who cried out to the Lord: Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with your free (generous) spirit (Psalm 51:12). This Psalm is one of eight written when David was fleeing from King Saul who sought to take his life. The salvation of the soul is not temporal but spiritual and eternal; with God willing and able to uphold the believer in the hour of need.
A Moment of Darkness
In a poem titled "This too will Pass Away" by an unknown author are these words: If I can endure for this minute whatever is happening to me, no matter how heavy my heart is or how dark the moment may be. If I can remain calm and quiet with my entire world crashing about me secure in the knowledge what I know in my heart to be true that darkness will fade in the morning and that this will pass away too.
Then nothing in life can defeat me; for as long as this knowledge remains, I can suffer whatever is happening, for I know God will break all the chains that are binding me in the darkness trying to fill me with fear. For there is no night, without dawning and I know that my morning is near.
Freed from Entrapment
I witnessed a monarch butterfly that had been caught in the snare of a spider's web; leaned over and freed it from its entrapment, for the spider had not yet begin its work, and it flew up "freed." It was a beautiful sight to behold, and that is what God wants to see in His people, freed from the temptations that so readily ensnares one in our modern day culture.
God gave His best in providing His only begotten Son, as atonement for our sins, through Jesus as Lord and Savior. The ugliness of what the spider was going to do to such a beautiful butterfly was undone by a moment of kindness and such is the beauty of salvation of the soul when freed from the ugliness of a sinful life into the beauty of holiness.
Freed from Sin
Apostle Paul wrote: Being made free from sin, we become servants (disciples) to God, having our fruit unto holiness; and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God (His unmerited love) is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:22-23). It was noted that regenerate (repentant) persons are free from sin, having fruit unto holiness, though God's Spirit operating in one's life. On the other hand; the wages of sin is death which is separation of the soul from God, in a sense of divine wrath throughout eternity.
Apostle Paul noted: If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you shall be saved; with the heart man believes unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (salvation of the soul) (Romans 10:9-10); such a confession is a sincere confession to God, and all, that Christ is Lord and Savior.
It was noted that this is an open acknowledgement of Christ, the Son of God, the true Messiah (Deliverer), the Mediator between God and man; the only Savior of lost sinners. This confession is open, visible, real, and sincere, with the words of one's mouth agreeing with the experience of one's heart. Scripture reveals: Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
Lasting Salvation
Scripture reveals: He is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him (the Lord Jesus Christ), seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25). It was noted that He is able to save to the uttermost; not of temporal salvation, but of spiritual and lasting salvation. Not on a throne of justice but on a throne of grace (His unmerited love), as our Mediator (Intercessor), having made peace, atoning for our sin through His shed blood on the Cross of Calvary.
Though He died as a man and our benefactor, He has risen from the dead, to never die again, but lives forever more; as is promised to those who accept Him as Lord and Savior. He lives in heaven; at the right hand of His Father, to continually intercede for mankind, removing charges and accusations of Satan, an enemy of the soul of man.
Author of Spiritual Strength
and Joy of Salvation
The Prophet Isaiah wrote: God is my salvation; I will not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:2-3).
It was noted that God is my salvation; through Christ, appointed by the Father, to become the author of salvation of the soul. In Him one is safe and secure from all wrath and condemnation, and every enemy, and to not be afraid; for the Lord is our strength; the author of spiritual strength, strength of life, and the joy of salvation.
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