They Who Believe Shall Be Saved

“For ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

~Romans 10:13 (NRSV).

The New Revised Standard Version says at the head of Romans 10:5-21, “Salvation Is for All.” The Apostle Paul mentions heart and lips, sentiment and speech—from these come the utterances of Divine salvation; the acceptance of the redemptive plan for our persons.

Saved from What?

Venturing back into Joel 2:32—where Paul quotes from—there’s reference found (from verse 28) to the infamous and terrible Day of the Lord. Yes, we’re saved to endure ‘the day’ and survive it.

But, we’re also saved from ourselves.

Saved from Ourselves?

Most Christians know that rudimentary theology has us as broken persons; a fact none can escape. We sin; God forgives... if we accept that forgiveness. We’re hence saved from the punishment our acts and condition deserves. God knows we cannot help it. Grace is thus afforded.

Saved from Sin...

We’re no longer hemmed into our sins, accorded to the trust of God. We’re released from our sins and burdens a moment at a time—grace for the moment—according to our obedience of trust.

This is why we will often struggle with one or more of our sins.

Some of our sins we were healed from instantly and with lasting effect. But with other sins it wasn’t so easy. For these, salvation was never meant to be anything other than a momentary thing; for every ounce of obedience is a pound of grace getting us through to situational holiness.

Saved from Condemnation

And yet, we’re justified in and through Christ anyway, despite our sin. We ought to believe it. This is God’s gospel. This is why it’s “good news.”

Should we go on sinning? Certainly not!

But, are we saved from the eternal weight of our momentary sins? Certainly yes! Will we be judged? Oh yes! Will God judge fairly? Never more certain, yes!

Saved people do not stand as the condemned do. Their stance is straight and true, but with contrition. They give all thanks and praise to God for the divine majesty of grace. For, the cognisance of sin is never far from these, living to truth as they do, yet they do not surrender to the lies of the evil one. Condemnation is now a thing of the dim, distant past. Importantly, those days—whilst not spoken of—are never forgotten.

Saved from Unbelief

What are we to believe?

We are to simply believe that Jesus is Lord; that he came to this world for a solitary function, or one function above all functions. That is that he came to absolve the world of the cost of its corruptness, subject only to belief, that whoever should believe in his name should be saved from the weight of humankind’s and their personal sin; and this due to a commitment of repentance.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.