What is Salvation?
The word salvation comes from the Hebrew words yēšaʿ and yᵊšûʿâ, both meaning deliverance from danger. From this root comes the name Yeshua—the Hebrew name for Jesus—which means “Yahweh saves.”
In the Old Testament, salvation often referred to God delivering His people from immediate danger or distress. In the Greek, the word for salvation is sōtēria, which carries a similar meaning—deliverance or preservation.
At its core, salvation means being rescued by God—from destruction and from all that leads to it.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,”
The word “saved” comes from the Greek verb sōzō, which means to save or keep from destruction. While salvation is often discussed only in the context of the soul, the ministry of Jesus reveals a much broader scope of what salvation includes through His life, death, and resurrection (Luke 4:18).
Throughout Scripture, sōzō is used in several different contexts, demonstrating the many ways Jesus’s saving power operates. In 1 John 3:8b, Apostle John gives an umbrella under which every implication of salvation falls, in saying; “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” Salvation includes freedom from sin and every impact of sin. Consider a few examples:
Healing from sickness: Luke 17:19; Mark 5:34
Deliverance from demons: Luke 8:36
Deliverance from sin or a sinful nature: Ephesians 2:8
Preservation from end-time destruction: Mark 13:13
Preservation from Eternal judgement: John 12:47-48
The common thread in each of these uses is this: a person is saved from something. In other words, at the point that those realities occur, that person will be saved. That means that a believer who has received the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ is no longer bound to the implications of sin, sickness, and demonic oppression in both their physical bodies and their soul.
This shows us that salvation can be understood as both a present reality and a future event.
When viewed in the eternal context, we understand that the final day of redemption has not yet occurred. Because of this, believers ultimately await the full completion of salvation. The Apostle Paul explains it this way in Romans 8:23–25:
“23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”
Paul describes believers as waiting for the redemption of the body, meaning the full realization of salvation is still ahead. For now, we live in hope and patiently wait for that day.
“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?”
This raises an important question often asked in Christian theology: Can a believer “lose” their eternal salvation?
However, if we understand the biblical use of the word saved as pointing toward a future fulfillment, the question itself becomes problematic. Saying someone could “lose their eternal salvation” would imply that the final day of redemption has already taken place—when, in reality, it has not.
This leads to another question: Are believers eternally secure until that day?
Is salvation guaranteed, or can a believer lose that assurance?
These questions will be explored in Part Two of the Salvation Series.
