Salvation
Salvation comes from God, not from us.
The first mention of salvation in the Bible is in the form of a prayer, Genesis 49:18:
I have waited for your salvation, O Lord! It is Jacob, son of Isaac, praying a blessing on each of his sons. It is when he is blessing Dan, his fifth son, that he speaks of salvation. It is a strange thing to say, considering that the body of Jacobs blessing on Dan sounds much more like a curse.
16 Dan shall judge his people
As one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way,
A viper by the path,
That bites the horse's heels
So that its rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!
Dan shall be critical of his brothers, Dan shall be like a hidden viper, knocking them backward with his venomous words, Jacob says. Then Jacob suddenly says that he has waited for Gods salvation. What does he mean? Why is this here, in this blessing cum curse? It seems that Jacob is calling out on the authority of God, saying that he has longed for the Lord to change his son Dan, from a bitter judgmental biter into a decent personhe is calling on the Lord to bring salvation to Dan. He is seeking deliverance from the power and effects of sin for Dan. He is looking for a personal experience of Gods power to deliver Dan from his sins of bitterness and anger, a personal salvation that Jacob admits can only come from the Lord. This is an important point. From the very beginning, people of God understood and acknowledged that salvation is from the Lord.
The next mention of salvation is Exodus 14:13:
And Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.
Salvation in this sense means deliverance from bondage. Moses was telling the Hebrew people that they would see the Lord rescue them out of the bondage of the Egyptians, and rescue them without any effort on their part. They were to stand still, not work, not run, not devise a way to escape, but to stand still and see the salvation happen. Even at this early point in the spiritual history of the Hebrews, salvation was acknowledged to come to them, not through works but by faith in God alone.
In I Samuel 2:1.4-5,10, Hannah acknowledges and anticipates another kind of salvation:
And Hannah prayed and said:
"My heart rejoices in the Lord;
My face is turned up toward the Lord.
I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation
The bows of the mighty men are broken,
And those who stumbled are girded with strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
And the hungry have ceased to hunger
For by strength no man shall prevail.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces;
From heaven He will thunder against them.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.
He will give strength to His king,
And exalt the horn of His anointed."
Salvation in this sense means material and temporal deliverance from danger or fear. Hannahs song expresses her acknowledgment that God alone is the one who administers mercy and justice.
In the letter to the Romans, Paul echoes these understandings of salvation, and the truth that salvation comes from the Lord by faith.
Right from the beginning of the letter, Paul states that salvation comes from the power of God and is given to everyone who believes.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
This is the personal experience with the power of God that Jacob longed for to deliver Dan from his sin. Paul goes on with this truth in 10:9:
Romans 10:9-11 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
And in verse 13:
Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Salvation is an act of God that is obtained by humans by believing in their hearts that God, through Christs death and resurrection, has the power to save. Crying out to God with a belief in His authority to change reality, like Jacob cried for Dan, like Hannah cried for herself, brings salvation.
The type of salvation that Hannah longed for, a rescue from fear and danger is echoed in Romans 5. Through faith in Christ, we are rescued from the fear and danger of Gods wrath and punishment.
Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Finally, the deliverance from bondage that Moses told his people to watch for and expect is echoed in Romans 8:
Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 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?
Like Mosess speech to the Hebrews, Paul tells the Romans to be on the lookout for a deliverance from the bondage of the world.
Pauls letter to the Romans, then, is a confirmation of the truth that is stated everywhere in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelationthe truth that salvation is a manifestation of the power of God that delivers people from the power of sin, rescues people from danger and fear, and delivers us from bondage, and is freely given to all who believe.
God will not abandon those who look to Him for salvation. As long as you keep going back to Him, he keeps taking you back.
Salvation comes from God, not from us.
The first mention of salvation in the Bible is in the form of a prayer, Genesis 49:18:
I have waited for your salvation, O Lord! It is Jacob, son of Isaac, praying a blessing on each of his sons. It is when he is blessing Dan, his fifth son, that he speaks of salvation. It is a strange thing to say, considering that the body of Jacobs blessing on Dan sounds much more like a curse.
16 Dan shall judge his people
As one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way,
A viper by the path,
That bites the horse's heels
So that its rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!
Dan shall be critical of his brothers, Dan shall be like a hidden viper, knocking them backward with his venomous words, Jacob says. Then Jacob suddenly says that he has waited for Gods salvation. What does he mean? Why is this here, in this blessing cum curse? It seems that Jacob is calling out on the authority of God, saying that he has longed for the Lord to change his son Dan, from a bitter judgmental biter into a decent personhe is calling on the Lord to bring salvation to Dan. He is seeking deliverance from the power and effects of sin for Dan. He is looking for a personal experience of Gods power to deliver Dan from his sins of bitterness and anger, a personal salvation that Jacob admits can only come from the Lord. This is an important point. From the very beginning, people of God understood and acknowledged that salvation is from the Lord.
The next mention of salvation is Exodus 14:13:
And Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.
Salvation in this sense means deliverance from bondage. Moses was telling the Hebrew people that they would see the Lord rescue them out of the bondage of the Egyptians, and rescue them without any effort on their part. They were to stand still, not work, not run, not devise a way to escape, but to stand still and see the salvation happen. Even at this early point in the spiritual history of the Hebrews, salvation was acknowledged to come to them, not through works but by faith in God alone.
In I Samuel 2:1.4-5,10, Hannah acknowledges and anticipates another kind of salvation:
And Hannah prayed and said:
"My heart rejoices in the Lord;
My face is turned up toward the Lord.
I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation
The bows of the mighty men are broken,
And those who stumbled are girded with strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
And the hungry have ceased to hunger
For by strength no man shall prevail.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces;
From heaven He will thunder against them.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.
He will give strength to His king,
And exalt the horn of His anointed."
Salvation in this sense means material and temporal deliverance from danger or fear. Hannahs song expresses her acknowledgment that God alone is the one who administers mercy and justice.
In the letter to the Romans, Paul echoes these understandings of salvation, and the truth that salvation comes from the Lord by faith.
Right from the beginning of the letter, Paul states that salvation comes from the power of God and is given to everyone who believes.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
This is the personal experience with the power of God that Jacob longed for to deliver Dan from his sin. Paul goes on with this truth in 10:9:
Romans 10:9-11 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
And in verse 13:
Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Salvation is an act of God that is obtained by humans by believing in their hearts that God, through Christs death and resurrection, has the power to save. Crying out to God with a belief in His authority to change reality, like Jacob cried for Dan, like Hannah cried for herself, brings salvation.
The type of salvation that Hannah longed for, a rescue from fear and danger is echoed in Romans 5. Through faith in Christ, we are rescued from the fear and danger of Gods wrath and punishment.
Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Finally, the deliverance from bondage that Moses told his people to watch for and expect is echoed in Romans 8:
Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 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?
Like Mosess speech to the Hebrews, Paul tells the Romans to be on the lookout for a deliverance from the bondage of the world.
Pauls letter to the Romans, then, is a confirmation of the truth that is stated everywhere in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelationthe truth that salvation is a manifestation of the power of God that delivers people from the power of sin, rescues people from danger and fear, and delivers us from bondage, and is freely given to all who believe.
God will not abandon those who look to Him for salvation. As long as you keep going back to Him, he keeps taking you back.
