Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation

The doctrine of salvation is perhaps one of the most important theological concepts to understand. Salvation in the Biblical sense describes recue, safety, deliverance, wholeness, forgiveness of sins, rebirth, resurrection, and eternal life (Hamme, 2014; “Lecture 2,” 2016; Morrison, 2016). The theological name for the study of salvation is called soteriology (Berkhof, 1938). On one side of soteriology, it deals with the objective life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus while on the other side it discovers the subjective application or order of salvation known as the ordo salutis (Berkhof, 1938; Bird, 2013; Grenz, Guretzki & Nordling, 1999). The Bible communicates that humanity has fallen into a desperate state (Eph. 2:1-3). Human beings need to be saved (Acts 4:12) or else they will perish (John 3:3). Humankind is unable to acquire salvation on their own because they are utterly depraved and only Christ can save (Acts 4:12; Eph. 2:8-10; Matt. 1:21; 15:11; Titus 3:5). The point of Christ’s entire incarnation was to secure the salvation of humanity and restore the relationship that was lost during the fall (1 Tim. 1:15). Every aspect of salvation is solely and only a gift from God by His Grace (Eph. 2:8). Throughout the Gospels, Jesus communicates that this salvation has come in the form of the Kingdom of God while in the Epistles, Paul communicates salvation that has come from justification by faith. Moving forward the good news of the Kingdom of God spoken of by Jesus will be defined, and justification by faith from Paul will also be discovered. Furthermore, both messages will then be combined to prove the synergy of both the Gospel of Jesus and the Gospel of Paul.

Salvation in The Kingdom Of God

The Kingdom of God was not a new teaching during Jesus’s time. The Old Testament had a heavy emphasis of God as King (Ps. 93:1; 96:10), God ruling over all (Judg. 8:23; Ps. 22:8), God being on the throne (1 Kings 22:19; Ezek. 1:26–28; Ps. 103:19), how God’s throne is eternal (2 Sam. 7:16), and how God maintains His kingdom (2 Kings 19:15; Barry et al., 2016; Hodge, 1997; Ps. 45:6). Before Jesus was born, the forerunner John the Baptist, who was prophesied to announce the Messiah; preached a gospel of repentance because the Kingdom of God was at hand (Hodge, 1997; Matt. 3:2). Even an angel told the mother of Jesus “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom [italics added] there will be no end” (Luke 1:31-33). 

Jesus on the Kingdom

When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God, He spoke as if the kingdom was coming (Mark 9:1), then the kingdom was near or at hand (Luke 10:9, 11; Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7; Mark 1:15), and finally; the kingdom had arrived (Bird, 2013; Berkhof, 1938; Col. 1:13; Luke 4:18-21; 11:20; 17:20-21; Matt. 12:28; 13:16-17; Stanton, 2002). For Jesus, the evidence of the Kingdom of God arriving was all around Him, and even Origen noted that the Kingdom of God was so intimately bounded up in Jesus, he called it the autobasileia meaning the Kingdom in Himself (Bird, 2013). Other great theologians believe that “The kingdom of God is not a single place; rather, it is divine dominion over the entire world” (Bird, 2013, p. 239). Bird (2013) goes on to say that the Kingdom of God is a fulfillment of Old Testament promises and a future consummation that inaugurates the coming age. 

Regnum Gratiae

The Kingdom of God consists of three stages which will fully complete the salvation plan that Christ accomplished: the regnum gratiae which speaks to how Christ rules over His Church spiritually in the present, the regnum potentiae which speaks of Jesus’s rule over the entire universe, and a future Kingdom that will be consummated during the second coming or the Parousia (Berkhof, 1938). The regnum gratiae focuses on how Christ is ruling inside the Kingdom of God by taking over Christian’s heart’s spiritually; it is a kingdom of spiritual order (“Lecture 2,” 2016). Moreover, Christ accomplished the salvation of His people both directly and immediately in the spiritual sense by his death and resurrection on the cross (Berkhof, 1938). The rule of Christ is not administered by force or external means but only by the Word of God and the Spirit of God (Berkhof, 1938). There are many concepts in scripture that denote the spiritual rule of Christ: Jesus’s kingdom is perpetual, His kingdom is not of this world, the Father assigned Jesus a kingdom, and Christ is the head of the Church (1 Cor. 11:3; Col. 1:18; 2:19; Eph. 1:22; 4:15; 5:23; John 18:36; Luke 1:33; 22:29). Jesus is currently the present mediatorial King, and one is not able to be a part of this kingdom unless they are born again (Berkhof, 1938; Hodge, 1997; John 3:3, 5). 

Regnum Potentiae

Another stage of the Gospel in which Jesus preached the Kingdom of God is known as the regnum potentiae. Berkhof (1938) defines this stage:

By the regnum potentiae we mean the dominion of the God-man, Jesus Christ, over the universe, His providential and judicial administration of all things in the interest of the Church. As King of the universe the Mediator so guides the destinies of individuals, of social groups, and of nations, as to promote the growth, the gradual purification, and the final perfection of the people which He has redeemed by His blood. (p. 410)

After Jesus’s ascension and exaltation to the right hand of God, Jesus received this gift from the Father of regnum potentiae which was promised to Him (Eph. 1:20–22; Matt. 28:18; Phil. 2:9–11; Ps. 2:8, 9; 8:6). This promotion did not give Jesus any additional power or authority in which he already had, but now the Theanthropos or the God-Man was able to share in this Glory with His human nature (Berkhof, 1938; Hodge, 1997). Hodge (1997) summarizes the regnum potentiae this way:

It is in and through and by Him that the universe is governed. This dominion or kingdom is to last until its object is accomplished, i.e., until all his enemies, all forms of evil, and even death itself is subdued. Then this kingdom, this mediatorial government of the universe, is to be given up. (1 Cor. 15:24; p. 601)

Jesus, the amazing King Theanthropos, is now Lord over the entire universe!

The Parousia

The final aspect of the Gospel of salvation that Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God is that it will fully consummate with His second coming, i.e., the Parousia (Bird, 2013). One day, Jesus will return just as He promised to eradicate sin, Satan, death, and evil. Christians will be in the presence of God in their glorified bodies and will live for all eternity restored to a perfect relationship with their creator (John 14:2-3; Matt, 26:29/Mark 14:25/Luke 22:18; Rev. 21-22). Bird (2013) says, “The mystery of God as Trinity will no longer be a theological exercise, but an experiential one as God dwells among his people” (p. 510). The New Covenant that Jesus established with His blood will finally achieve the appointed goal, and the Church will live forever with their Lord in the consummated kingdom. This kingdom of the future is an everlasting kingdom which is spoken of by the Old Testament prophets and will finally be actualized (Barry et al., 2016; Dan. 2:24; 4:3; Isa. 9:6-7; Lam. 5:19; Ps. 145:13; 146:10). This is the final stage of salvation; God’s people who will dwell in God’s place, in God’s presence, under His reign (Bird, 2013).  

Pauls means of salvation

After Jesus’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus appeared to a man named Paul who was a lunatic murderer but then became madly in love with Jesus after He appeared to him. Paul’s Gospel focused primarily on the means of salvation rather than the result of salvation. In Romans, Paul makes it abundantly clear of what the entire letter is about showing no apology for it, “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 the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). In this letter, Paul explains salvation in a very detailed manner showing believers the origin of salvation, the means of salvation, and even the order in which this salvation takes place. This order of salvation is known as the ordo salutis (Berkhof, 1938; Bird, 2013). Berkhof (1938) defines what this ordo salutis is:

The ordo salutis describes the process by which the work of salvation, wrought in Christ, is subjectively realized in the hearts and lives of sinners. It aims at describing in their logical order, and also in their interrelations, the various movements of the Holy Spirit in the application of the work of redemption. (p. 415-416)

The general order salutis that Paul describes is found in Romans 8:29-30 which says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

Paul makes it abundantly clear throughout his letters that believers are elected unto salvation, not by Human choice but of God’s choice (predestined). God is the one who summons them to open their heart and believe in the Gospel (calls), it is through Christ that one is made right with God to have a personal relationship with again (justified), and in the future; all believers will receive a glorified body like their Lord and be with Him for eternity (glorification). Paul further teaches that one’s salvation or justification is not based on works but rather by faith (Berkhof, 1938; Rom. 3:30, 5:1; Gal. 2:16-20). Due to this justification, believers now have peace with God, are free from the bondage of sin, and have direct access to God (Rom. 5:1-2; 6:18-22). God takes all those who are justified and adopts them into the family of God, assures them of eternal life and makes them co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:15-17; Gal. 4:4-7). The problem with humankind in Paul’s Gospel is death rooted in sin, but Jesus is the answer of his gospel message who defeated both death, sin, and the devil (Rom. 6:23; Berkhof, 1938). Paul’s Gospel flows beautifully with Jesus’s Gospel since Paul states that those who have been delivered from the darkness are now a part of the Kingdom of Christ (1 Cor. 4:20; Col. 1:13; Eph. 5:5; Rom. 14:17). Paul believed in not only a present-day kingdom but also a future reality (1 Cor. 15:23-24). 

Conclusion

The doctrine of salvation has been picked apart by many brilliant minds over the centuries. Much has been written on Jesus’s Gospel of the Kingdom of God and Paul’s Gospel of justification by faith. Jesus’s kingdom is a past, present and future reality in which he secured the elect’s salvation by His perfect work. It is not something that can be earned but instead must be believed. Paul’s Gospel shows one the depravity and impossibility of man obtaining salvation without the redeemer purchasing and securing believers salvation on the cross. They are not contradictory Gospels but rather complementary Gospels which only point to Jesus as the means of one’s salvation. It is essential to reflect on what Jesus accomplished, celebrate in the present, and also look forward to the day when Jesus will be the eternal King and complete this great salvation.

References

Barry, J. D., Bomar, D., Brown, D. R., Klippenstein, R., Mangum, D., Sinclair Wolcott, C., … Widder, W. (Eds.). (2016). In The Lexham Bible dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Bauckham, R. (1992). Descent to the Underworld. In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible dictionary. New York: Doubleday.

Berkhof, L. (1938). Systematic theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co.

Bird, M. F. (2013). Evangelical theology: A Biblical and systematic introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Grenz, S., Guretzki, D., & Nordling, C. F. (1999). In Pocket dictionary of theological terms. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: An introduction to Biblical doctrine. Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.

Hamme, J. T. (2014). Salvation. D. Mangum, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, & R. Hurst (Eds.), Lexham theological wordbook. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Hodge, C. (1997). Systematic theology. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Lecture 2. (2016). HTH-202: Christian Theology II. Phoenix, AZ: Grand Canyon University.

Morrison, M. D. (2016). Salvation. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Stanton, G. (2002). The Gospels and Jesus. Retrieved from https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=478397&site=ehost-live&scope=site&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_255