What is salvation?

Salvation means to be saved. But having seen few threads in SI, like the one on suicide. It is clear that many frequent posters have got wrong understanding of salvation.

Salvation is to be saved from Sin. The very first promise in Matthew 1:20- states that Jesus came to save us from our sins. All most all of you will agree with me on this. But in recent threads, it is clear that salvation is actually seen as being saved from Hell to Heaven. For example the question that if a believer living in adultery die, will be go to hell etc, are clear that the questioner assumes that salvation is mainly from hell to heaven.

There is not a single verse that says that Jesus came to save us from hell. Still most believers unconsciously relate salvation to being saved from hell. I think it is because of their Christian upbringing.

I was brought up as a Hindu with no Christian roots. When I came to Christ, I never even once saw salvation as escaping hell. Even now I do not see that way. If the Gospel is all about escaping Hell then it is such a poor Gospel, even Hinduism has many wonderful ways to escape Hell. Those ways are far more attractive and far move believable and logical that what Jesus offers.

But thankfully Salvation offered by Jesus is not escaping Hell. Escaping hell is a byproduct of being saved from Sin. The main offering is being saved from Sin which no other religion or way of life can offer.

Honestly I do not care if I end up in Hell or in heaven if I cannot live a heavenly life on this earth. This is salvation. If a person lives with discouragement or in adultery or anyother serious sin, then what profit it makes if he ends up somehow in heaven? Honestly zero.

Let us have the right perception of Salvation. Honestly it is difficult to change as most posters here are already old and have from years been drilled into the wrong understanding of salvation. I know most posters will straight away challenge me that they know the Gospel better. I am not here to challenge anyone, but just trying to point out what I observed.

The Bible uses Salvation in 3 tenses. We are saved from the penalty of Past sins, being saved from the power of sin in our life and will be saved from presence of sin in future. Each of these points are supported by the scripture. I believe it is all or nothing. One cannot look into future salvation alone and then have no interest in present salvation.

Even our sins being forgiven is not unconditional.
1 John 1 :7 - if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Blood of Jesus cleanses us from all our sins only if we are walking in Light currently. Walking in Light means we should have no known sins in our life. IF we are aware of any Conscience sin then we should immediately confess and repent from it.

We all have many unconscious sins in our life. But if we focus on Conscious sins and keep repenting from them then God will forgive ALL our sins, which means both conscious and unconscious sins. Not only this, he will also shed light on our unconscious sins so that we can repent from them as well.
This is true Full Gospel.

IT is so dumb that there are people here who believe that God has power to forgive our future sins but cannot believe that the same God has power to save us from the power of our current sins.

Hi sree. If you look at Ephesians chapter 2 you will notice we are unconditionally saved by almighty god because of the atonement of Christ. Even while we were dead in trespasses and sins almighty god made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up and seated us together with Christ in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. For by grace we have been saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God. We are saved entirely and only because the lamb was slain before the foundations of the earth. Not by power not by might, not because some great preacher presents the gospel a certain way, but because it is the gift of god, and our lord Jesus shed his blood for us while we were yet in our sins. 1 Corinthians 15:17- and if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. The thief on the cross went to paradise with Christ. I think we don’t have a clue what will be on that final day, I think many who are first will be last and the last first. If we confess our sins he the lord is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I can understand why you take the stand of saying you don’t care if you end up in hell or heaven because of the unchristlike gospel we have in this day and age, but dear friend, that’s a bold statement and can’t be true, you’ve never experienced even a split second of the torments of hell, but I know what you mean when you say that, we want heaven living in us now, Christ in us the hope of glory, we want to walk in the light as he is in the light, and have a living testimony and not a bunch of people saying they’re Christians and there’s nothing there. I’m sure there’s things you wrote I don’t understand properly what you mean, please forgive me for that. But I stand entirely on the fact we are saved because it’s gods work and not ours, he decided to send his son, not you not me, and we will praise and worship him for all eternity. p.s the strength of sin is the law, if we focus on Jesus and his kingdom we become more aware of his presence, and less aware of our sinful nature.

Sree, I agree with you. Salvation for many has become "saved from hell" or "forgiveness of sins". Both are byproducts of salvation but not its primary purpose. Being saved from sin is seldom, if ever, taught in the churches I associate with. I often hear it said " you will sin every day, every hour, every minute. You should not but you will. Thank God for grace". Of course, the grace spoken of is the grace of forgiveness. The grace to stand is never mentioned.
Leonard Ravenhill said "If all salvation is to you is forgiveness of sin you are just trifiling with Christianity". Good point I thought. Just be forgiven and wait for heaven appears a common enough sentiment.
I believe 2 Peter 1:1-11 takes away all of our excuses and reminds us that through Christ Jesus we have not only been made righteous but,having purged us from old sins, He has empowered us to live pure and holy lives even in this present world.
Our salvation from sins presence is indeed yet to come but our salvation from its penalty (past) and its power (present) have been given to us in their fullness through the death, burial, and resurrection, of Christ.

Washad1 wrote;
"Our salvation from sins presence is indeed yet to come but our salvation from its penalty (past) and its power (present) have been given to us in their fullness through the death, burial, and resurrection, of Christ.”

Amen! Very well said 🙏🏻
Never heard it quite put this way but it is an edifying blessing:)

Hi sree. If you look at Ephesians chapter 2 you will notice we are unconditionally saved by almighty god because of the atonement of Christ.

Like I put in my original post, salvation has 3 tenses. Whenever Bible talks about Salvation in past tense, it means we are saved from the Penalty of our past sins. This is not based on our work but based on his mercy. There is nothing we can do to be forgiven of our sins.

But staying forgiven does require a walk in light. That is why 1 John 1:7 says that 'if we walk in light then only the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sins'. I am not sure how else we can interpret 1 John 1:7!

Let us examine the simple part of Lord's prayer.
"‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." - Matt 6-12. Which means Jesus asked us to pray that if we are not forgiving others, please do not forgive me!

I’m sure there’s things you wrote I don’t understand properly what you mean, please forgive me for that

The point I am making is, Salvation is a complete package of 3 tenses (past, present and future). We cannot just take one tense (past tense alone) and say it is done.

Let us consider this verse.

Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved [f]by His life.

If salvation is already done deal by the death of Jesus then here Romans talks about the salvation to come because of the Living Christ.