CHAPTER III. SALVATION: THE FIRST AREA OF REDEMPTION

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

"The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Definition of Salvation

We have employed the term salvation to denote the first area of redemption because of the familiarity and acceptability of the word to so many Christian people of various doctrinal beliefs and denominational affiliations. Salvation is the part of our redemption that has to do with survival and preservation in the Day of Judgment that is coming.

Being saved means we shall pass into the realms of light when we die physically; that we shall escape from the wrath of God, from Hell, from the Lake of Fire; that we shall live forever in the new heaven and earth reign of Christ.

The "amazing grace" of salvation is the song of Christians at every level of spiritual maturity. God is good, and it is His desire that every person on earth have the maximum opportunity to receive His forgiveness and blessing. Once we were prodigals but now we are back at the Father's house. This is what salvation is all about.

The first area of redemption has its counterpart in the history of the children of Israel. When we are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of God's dear Son, Christ, we escape from slavery to the "pharaoh" of the world. Salvation is our covering with the Passover blood, our "crossing through the Red Sea" (water baptism), our readiness to begin our "journey through the wilderness" (the tribulations and testing that take place in the present life).

Important to our salvation are the imputing, the assigning, of righteousness to us on the basis of the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; our ceasing to attempt to find favor with God by our own schemes for righteous living; our identification with Christ's death and resurrection, and the birth of Christ in our heart.

Let us look at some of the statements the Scriptures make concerning the first area of redemption. These statements are in the form of Old Testament illustration—types, as they are called. An example is the Ark of Noah, as we shall see presently.

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