To best understand salvation, we should begin with God and his work. Without knowing what or who they are responding to, sinners will have little desire to be saved from sin or to enjoy life with God and without the pleasures of sin. Christians should emphasize God’s work in salvation before emphasizing the appropriate response to God’s gift. In fact, the Scriptures have focused on God’s work in salvation. Acts 2, for example, records Peter’s sermon which begins in verse 22 and continues until he is interrupted in verse 37. For those 15 verses, Peter focused on what God had done for the salvation of the world in Christ. After hearing what God had done through Christ, the crowd begged to know what they had to do.
Peter taught that salvation was “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (1 Pet. 1:1-2). Paul taught that the Father “chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). Christians are “adopted to himself as sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:5). Christians are also “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:13-14). Before time began our triune God knew those who would believe and had providentially arranged the world for their good and his own glory (Rom. 8:28-30).
God’s choice to save his people was made despite their decision to practice cosmic treason against him. Sinners are “dead in their trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). In Romans 5 Paul described sinful man as “weak” (5:6 “helpless” CSB), “ungodly” (5:7), “sinners” (5:8), and “enemies” (5:10). Remarkably, each time God described the hopeless condition of his people, he followed that hopeless description with glorious hope. The “weak,” “ungodly,” and “sinners” are those for whom “Christ died” (Rom. 5:6-8). The “enemies” of God were “reconciled to God by the death of his own Son” (Rom. 5:10).
God’s work in the salvation of his people is at the forefront of John 3:16–the golden text of Scripture. There, God teaches that he acted for his people because “God loved the world in this way” (Jn. 3:16 CSB). The quality of God’s love is shown in the quality of his gift. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” (Jn. 3:16 KJV). The result of God’s loving gift is seen in that those who committed cosmic
treason against him are able to be saved through him. God says that all the believers will not perish but will have everlasting life.
