Just What Is Salvation?

Scripture reading: Romans 3:19-26

Believe on Jesus. Are you saved? In Jesus is salvation.

All common phrases in church circles. But just what does it mean to be saved or to have salvation? Paul gives us a good start in Romans 3. To dig deep into this question and understand the mechanics of salvation, this article will focus on verse 25 and particularly on the word “propitiation” because it gets right to the heart of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Thayer’s Lexicon takes us back into the Old Testament to understand the meaning of propitiation: “The well-known cover of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies, which was sprinkled with the blood of the expiatory victim on the annual day of atonement (this rite signifying that the life of the people, the loss of which they had merited by their sins, was offered to God in the blood as the life of the victim, and that God by this ceremony was appeased and their sins expiated); hence the lid of expiation, the propitiatory.”

Thayer’s Lexicon is specifically referring to Leviticus 16:11-22. There are several things to note from this passage of Scripture in understanding salvation and particularly propitiation. First, the penalty for our sin, our disobedience of the Lord’s laws, is death. In Genesis 2:17, the Lord plainly said, “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” This was the Lord’s law, and its violation brought the penalty of death. This is confirmed in Romans 6:23. At the heart of the atonement at the mercy seat is reconciliation of our lives to the Lord.

Let me stop here and say that if you do not have a firm understanding of sin, that sin violates the Lord’s laws and leads to spiritual death (hell and eternal separation from the Lord), then you are not at a point where you believe you need salvation. Salvation, although it is available to everyone, will only be given to the truly penitent. That is to say, salvation is freely given to those who understand they have sinned and that their sin has offended the Lord.

Second, the mercy seat was on top of the ark of the covenant and was the place where the Lord met the priests of Israel (Exodus 25:21-22). It was, for lack of better words, the resting place of the Lord, and we should take special note of how the Lord described His seat where He rested and met the priests – “mercy.” The Lord comes to us and meets us in mercy. Romans 3:25 in our Scripture lesson reflects mercy as well (“whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed”).

Third, the Lord allowed the blood of an unblemished lamb to signify our belonging to Him and to repair our relationship with Him. The origins of the lamb are found in Exodus 12:5-13 in the first “passover.” Passover literally means that the judgment of the Lord passes over us, provided we are marked with the blood of an unblemished lamb. It is a washing or cleansing of our souls, and in exchange we are excused from receiving the judgment of the Lord’s wrath poured out on the sin of the world. We should take special note that Israel, although living in the land of Egypt, was physically separate from Pharaoh and the Egyptian people. They lived in separate areas, at least this is what we gather from reading the Scripture. The reason they needed the passover was that the Lord’s judgment was not directed at one finite part of the globe. It was and still is universal. Judgment is meted out against anyone and everyone who has offended the Lord and is unrepentant.

The passover was necessary because without it judgment would be on both Egypt and Israel. The passover was, then, a divine act of mercy, and instead of requiring the death of the people to satisfy the punishment required for breaking the Lord’s law (sin), He allowed Israel to use a substitute, which was the passover lamb.

Jesus fulfilled the passover, as we read in Matthew 26:17-20,26-28. In these verses, you will recognize the Protestant communion ceremony, and it is a celebration of the first passover in Exodus. Jesus is our lamb. This was pronounced in John 1:29, “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” Jesus is the unblemished lamb. 1 John 3:5 confirms this, “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.”

Let’s summarize this information thus far in one word: Substitute. The Lord allowed Israel to use a substitute for the atonement of their sins, the penalty of which was their own lives. Jesus fulfilled this substitution by Himself becoming a sacrificial lamb and presenting Himself before the Lord as our substitute. In an act of divine mercy, He took on Himself the penalty for our sin, the penalty of death, which was paid at the cross. His blood was shed, and by accepting the benefits of His substitution, we are cleansed with His blood and passed-over on judgment day.

This is salvation. Be sure to also read the post on sanctification, which begins at the point of salvation.