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DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
1] Salvation is the means by which
God, through Christ, saves man from the penalty of sin and gives him
eternal life. This process includes one's calling, repentance, baptism,
justification, receiving of the Holy Spirit, a life of faith and
obedience and final birth into God's kingdom as a spirit being.
Salvation is a freely given gift from God through grace, with our
ultimate reward being according to our works.
DOCTRINAL OVERVIEW
2]
The goal of every Christian is to be saved from
the death penalty of sin through the sacrifice of Christ and to receive
the gift of eternal life in God's family and kingdom. This goal and the
process by which it is attained is called salvation. It is the ultimate
purpose of life and the explicit reason why mankind was created.
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3]
God created man in His image and after His likeness. But the
creation process will not be complete until mankind is perfected
spiritually-has perfect godly character created in him-and actually
enters the God family. God initiates this process by "calling" a
person-opening his mind to understand, grasp and be convicted by the
truth of the Bible. It is impossible for anyone to come to Christ unless
the Father calls him (John. 6:44), and God's calling "depends not upon
man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy" (Rom. 9:16).
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4]
If one responds to the realization of God's truth by believing
it, committing oneself to it and by acting upon it, God will then grant
him the miracle of true repentance (Rom. 2:4). Repentance is the state
of mind which an individual attains through seeing and acknowledging his
past sinful way of life, and by recognizing that he has broken God's
laws (Rom. 3:23; I John. 3:4) and resolving to do so no longer.
Repentance, Includes both a deep ("godly") sorrow over past wrongs (2
Cor. 7:10) and a steadfast determination to change the whole direction
of one's life from disobedience to obedience of God. It is accompanied
by a profound realization of the need for forgiveness and the help and
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5]
Once a person has repented and professed a sincere faith in the
person, message and sacrifice of Christ, he may be baptized by immersion
for the forgiveness of sins. This baptism is a type of Christ's death,
burial and resurrection, which is our means of reconciliation to God
(Rom. 5:10) since He paid the death penalty for our sins. Baptism
symbolizes the death and burial of one's old sinful way of life and the
beginning of a totally new spirit-led life of obedience and submission
to God. After baptism the new convert receives the Holy Spirit through
the laying-on-of-hands ceremony performed in accordance with the
commands and examples of the apostles (Acts 8:12-17; 19:5-6).
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6]
God's Spirit is an absolute necessity for the spiritual creation
process of salvation as it serves many functions. It begets one as the
son of God; it strengthens him to face trials and tests, to overcome
problems and to build godly character, and it converts and changes the
person's whole direction of mind from being carnal to being spiritual
(Rom. 8). As such, the Holy Spirit is the seed of eternal life within us
which at the resurrection will overtake our mortality with immortality
and clothe us with eternal life (Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 5:1-5). It is the
guarantee to a Christian of eternal life which can only be negated by
willful neglect or deliberate rejection.
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7]
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is clearly the focal point of the
salvation process. He was "put to death for our trespasses and raised
for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). We "were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son" (Rom. 5:10) and are thereby justified through
faith in that reality (Rom. 5:1). Yet salvation must go beyond
justifying the past, it must continue into the future throughout one's
life. The true Christian is admonished to "Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). Indeed, the active
participation of Jesus Christ in one's life through His Holy Spirit is
absolutely essential for ultimate salvation. As Romans 5:10
concludes "much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His
life."
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8]
This whole salvation process is by "grace" (Greek "favor"-Eph.
2:8)-It is unmerited and freely given by God and cannot in any way be
earned. The Christian totally depends upon God's grace, initially for
the forgiveness of sins he may commit subsequent to baptism.
Nevertheless, the individual must meet certain criteria in order to be
given this free gift.
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9]
First, the person must live by and grow in faith-a total and real
conviction. One must have faith that God exists; faith that He will
perform all of His biblical promises including that of granting him
salvation (Rom. 4); faith that the death of Jesus Christ will pay the
penalty for one's sins and reconcile him to God; and faith that the
resurrection of the living Jesus Christ will enable him to attain
eternal life.
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10]
Furthermore, a Christian must not be disobedient, since continual
sin that is not repented of disqualifies one from God's kingdom. (I Cor.
6:9-11). Salvation is surely not earned by obedience, because salvation
can in no way be earned (cf Rom. 4:4). Nevertheless, Christ's response
to one who asked Him what must be done in order to be saved was that the
commandments must be kept (Mt. 19:17). Furthermore, Christ told His
disciples that at the resurrection He shall "reward every man according
to his works" (Mt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12).
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11]
The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 also illustrates why
obedience and good works are necessary. Although salvation itself is a
totally freely given gift (and hence is "by grace"), our individual
responsibilities within God's family and kingdom shall vary according to
the way we have lived our lives since baptism. The parable of the
talents in Matthew 25 shows plainly that we will receive
responsibilities in direct proportion to the way we have conducted our
lives.
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12]
Today, God is calling a relative few, but now is not the only day
of salvation. Every human being who has ever lived shall have an
opportunity for the greatest free gift that could ever be imagined. God
wants all mankind to receive the opportunity for salvation (I Tim. 2:4)
and is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9). To this end God is infinitely patient and has
apportioned a time for all human beings from all times to be called to
Him and to the ultimate gift of eternal life in the family of God.
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13]
In summary, salvation is by grace, through faith, not earned by
obedience but dependent upon obedience, with the degree of our ultimate
reward being according to our works. This salvation process is thus one
which entails our continuance in God's way and necessitates our
endurance to the end (Mt. 10:22; 24:13). Only when that process is
complete and we have been born as spirit beings into the family of God
shall salvation have been completely and totally achieved.
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