What Does Salvation Really Mean? (Part Three)
In our previous two studies we found that the word “salvation” in the Old and New Testaments simply means “rescue." We realized that the context of the Bible passage tells us what someone or some group of people is being rescued from. Many times in Scripture the people were being rescued by God from physical enemies. Other times God was rescuing people from their sins and sometimes from sicknesses or from spiritual oppression. As we move now to our final study let’s look at the use of the word “salvation” in the writings of Paul the apostle. We don’t have time to cover each time that Paul uses the Greek word soterion or one of its derivatives in his writings, but let’s look at three key passages in his letter to the believers at Rome. (All Bible quotations are from the New American Standard Bible translation, NASB) Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel , for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to th