I once confronted a young man from Philadelphia who asked me, “Are you safe?”My answer was, “Saved from what?” I was surprised by my question. Clearly, I hadn’t thought much about the meaning of the question I was asking. I certainly didn’t save myself from being interrupted in the street and approached with the question “Are you saved?”
The question of salvation is the supreme question of the Bible; the theme of Sacred Scripture is the theme of salvation; Jesus, in his conception within Mary, is proclaimed as the Savior; the Savior and salvation go hand in hand. The Savior’s role is to save.
- We ask again: saved from what? The biblical meaning of salvation is broad and varied.
- In its simplest form.
- The verb save means “to be saved from a dangerous or threatening situation”.
- When Israel escapes defeat at the hands of its enemies on the battlefield.
- It claims to be saved.
- When people recover from a deadly disease.
- They experience salvation.
- When the harvest is saved from a plague or drought.
- The result is salvation.
We use the word hello in a similar way. A boxer would have been ‘saved by the gong?’If the round ends before the referee starts counting. Salvation means being saved from calamity. However, the Bible uses the term salvation in a specific sense to refer to our final redemption of sin and our reconciliation with God. In this sense, is the salvation of the final calamity?The judgment of Dios. La salvation is achieved by Christ, who delivers us from the coming wrath (1Qs 1. 10).
The Bible clearly announces that there will be a day of judgment, when all human beings must be accountable to the court of God. For many, this day of the Lord will be a day of darkness, without light. This will be the day, when God pours out his wrath upon the wicked and those who do not repent. It will be the final Holocaust, the darkest hour, the worst calamity in human history. To be freed from the wrath of God, which will certainly come into the world, is the ultimate salvation This is the rescue operation that Christ is carrying out for his people, as his savior.
The Bible uses the term salvation not only in many ways, but repeatedly. The save verb appears at almost every possible moment in the Greek language. There is a sense that we have been saved (since the foundation of the world); we were saved (by God’s work in history); we are saved (for being in a justified state); we are saved (by being sanctified or made holy) and will be saved (by experiencing the consumption of our redemption in heaven). The Bible speaks of salvation in terms of past, present, and future.
Sometimes we equate our present salvation with our justification. At other times, we see justification as a specific step in the total order or plan of salvation.
Finally, it is important to point out another central aspect of the biblical concept of salvation: salvation belongs to the Lord; salvation is not a human initiative; human beings cannot be saved. Salvation is a divine work, which is accomplished and applied by God; we are saved by the Lord and the Lord; he is the one who saves us from his own wrath.