Introduction
In religion, salvation refers to the concept that God saves humankind from eternal damnation or spiritual death by offering humanity eternal life. Many religions in the world agree that human being requires salvation. Nevertheless, from an eternal viewpoint, they hold incompatible positions on the meaning of one being saved, the l way of achieving salvation, and the materials which are required in order for one to get saved. Some religions argue that salvation can only be achieved by the help of only internal human resources like good acts, reflection, simplicity, gathering of insight or rituals. On the other hand, some religions teach that individuals can only be saved by the grace which is provided by a superior person such as avatar, God or bodhisattva among others. People should recognize and understand that one cannot be saved by his or her own efforts but by the unconditional grace of God. In addition, the dismal religions from the East consider salvation as an unfriendly practice. On the contrary, the three biggest world religions include; Islam, Judaism, and Christianity and they relate salvation to liberty of humanity from oppression of sin or transgression and the restoration of individual relationship with God. Nevertheless, there are some fundamental dissimilar between the above three mentioned religions concerning the way individuals should overcome sin, the individuality of Jesus Christ, the responsibility of Jesus Christ, and what kind of attitudes individuals should have towards Christ (Valea 45). This paper will examine how salvation is conceived and how individuals can achieve it.
Christian perspective
Christians believe that no person can merit God’s grace by doing good acts, meditation, rituals or simplicity since grace results from the initiative of an individual. The concept of being forgiven and reconciled back to an individual relationship with the creator is not adequate to show that God’s grace exists as a probable solution. It should be declared individually by the sinful individual. The identification of a person’s sinful situation, followed by the agreement of Christ’s atoning sacrifice is referred to as repentance. In the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, repentance meant more than lamenting the committed mistakes. It referred to being sorry because of rejecting the son of God, Jesus Christ as the savior of people’s souls followed by successive alteration of mentality. The alteration in attitude towards the son of God is needed today in order for one to maintain salvation. Similarly, Christianity trains that Jesus Christ is not a simple man but an omnipresent and superior person who came to save the world. Jesus Christ is the only name on the earth in which people must be saved. Only by this can the atoning of Jesus Christ be a real answer to people’s sins (Newman 17).
Conception of salvation
According to Romans 5: 8, the bible says “but God shows his love for us in that while we still sinners, Christ died for us”. Therefore, it is clear that God in heaven loves everyone even before the earth’s foundations was laid. In addition, Genesis chapter three declares the way God offered blood-shed casing to Adam and Eve, our first parents who sinned against the creator by eating the forbidden fruit. They later decided to hide from the creator in the trees of the Garden of Eden but the creator found them. Moreover, the creator formed coats of skin for Adam and Eve and clothed them. From then, God set instructions, patterns and standards which were to be followed and obeyed by all humankind in the entire God’s word; thus, without the blood being shed, sin cannot be forgiven. Therefore, salvation is conceived by God. Similarly, it was God’s idea to offer the ark of security and safety in the day of Noah for the antediluvians. Passover was also an idea of God in order to deliver the people of Israel from their oppression in Egypt. In addition, God thought it was ideal to send His Son Jesus Christ from heaven to come and die on the cross because of the sins of humanity. In Isaiah 43: 11, God declares that “I, I am the Lord and besides me, there is no savior”. Therefore, God conceived salvation which is a great plan that reconciles man back to God and this salvation is accessible to everybody by faith in the Son of God, who suffered and died for humanity sins at Calvary and not by people’s efforts (Alister 388-390).
Individuals are saved from sin and death, bondage to vice and habit, fear of demons, lack of knowledge of the truth, fear of God, culpability and estrangement, despair of self, meaningless life, and separation from others among others. Paul’s testimony is almost entirely positive since salvation has provided to his peace with God, offered to sustain joy in the creator, given him access to the favor and presence of God, provided steadfast character, helped him to endure in suffering, given him an optimistic mind, provided hope of getting back the intended glory for men and has offered internal motivations of the holy spirit’s power and divine love of Christ. In addition, salvation expands to the community, intending to recognize and comprehend God’s kingdom; to nature, bring to an end its oppression of ineffectiveness and to the cosmos, achieving final reconciliation of all things whether in heaven or on earth, making peace by the blood of his cross (The Holy Bible, Roman 8: 19-20).
Though the creator is ubiquitous, he is also just and holy; thus, he would not have merely obliterated all individuals’ sins by a declaration. Instead, everyone could have been thrown into hell since all people are sinners and have fallen short of God’s glory. Nevertheless, God is perfect and merciful not only in justice and power but too in his love towards his people. This is the reason why the answer for the predicament of sin would not have been a simple one. The love of God could not have been great or perfect if it was not unified with his power, justice and wisdom. Therefore, God used the greatest and perfect solution of offering his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross in order to reconcile mankind back to him (Anselm 56).
How salvation is achieved
Some individuals believe that salvation can be attained through some particular acts or practices like suicide bombing or prayers against enemies who attack their faith. Others believe that salvation can be achieved by embracing a specific belief like trusting that Jesus Christ is the son of the creator, he suffered, bled and died so that humankind’s sins may be forgiven.
In religion, two major doctrines explain how an individual can attain salvation. These are faith-only doctrine and obedient faith doctrine. The faith-only doctrine declares that transgression is forgiven and later everlasting salvation is achieved. Therefore, the doctrine requires an individual to accept that he or she is a sinner, believe that Jesus Christ is the only savior, and only through faith in Jesus Christ can he or she receive salvation. In addition, most people who embrace this doctrine trust that once an individual achieves salvation, there is no importance of giving up or losing this everlasting salvation. Furthermore, living a Godly life, reading God’s word, confessing sins, obeying the commands or repentance is not significant to salvation and does not play any part in individual justification and his or her everlasting salvation. Thus, when one becomes saved or achieves salvation, though he or she lives ungodly or horrible life thereafter, he or she will remain saved and eventually end up in heaven (Wells par. 4).
Secondly, the obedient faith doctrine states that individuals should not only have absolute faith in the son of God but many other things such as reading the word, repentance, love, obedience, confession, baptism, prayer, hope, faithfulness, and learning the will of God among others need to be fulfilled if people desire to maintain their faith in the son of God. Individuals achieve salvation by accepting they are sinners and need Jesus Christ in their lives in order to be saved. Therefore, the condition in achieving salvation in this doctrine is accepting that one is a sinner and has faith that it’s only Jesus Christ who can save someone. In addition, achieving salvation is not enough for one to maintain his or her faith in Christ; thus a Godly lifestyle should be observed and practiced. This kind of lifestyle should be approving and pleasing to Jesus Christ, ought to keep an individual’s faith in the Son of God at a high level all the time. Without this stable high degree of faith in the son of God, then people’s faith in Christ starts to weaken and once someone’s faith starts to wane, then everlasting salvation starts to slip away (Wells par. 5).
Salvation is achieved through faith in Jesus Christ and not by the effort of an individual. For instance, the book of Romans chapter five, states that people are justified by faith and they can access the grace of God which is sufficient. In the book of Acts chapter ten, it is written that everybody who trusts in Jesus Christ receives or gets forgiveness of sins. Moreover, Galatians chapter two states that people ought to understand that they are not justified by their own efforts or by the law but through faith in the son of God. Thus, faith in the Son of God is absolutely significant in order for one to achieve salvation. Similarly, in order to maintain salvation, obedience is a necessity. For example in Hebrews chapter five, it is written that Jesus Christ is the founder of everlasting salvation to all individuals who obey Him. In addition, Mathew chapter seven declares that in order to accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of humanity’s sins and get into heaven, individuals ought to obey Christ and follow what He says. Therefore, in order for one to achieve and maintain salvation, faith and obedience are needed.
Conclusion
In conclusion, salvation was conceived and recommended by God. In addition, individuals can achieve or receive salvation by having faith in Jesus Christ. Thus, faith gives people the power to be called children of God. In order for one to maintain salvation, the following things should be incorporated appropriately in one’s life; confession of sins, studying God’s word, baptism, prayer, obeying God’s commands, and all other things described in the bible.
Works Cited
Alister, McGrath. An Introduction. Christian Theology, 2nd. ed., pp. 386-422.
Anselm, Kyongsuk. Dialectic of Salvation: Issues in Theology of Liberation. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989.
Newman, Jay. Foundations of religious tolerance. University of Toronto Press, 1982.
The Holy Bible. Compact Thinline Edition. 2003. Print.
Valea, Ernest. Salvation and eternal life in world religions. Comparative Religion. Ernest Valea holds a BD in theology (London University, 2006)
Wells, Robert. Salvation – Is it achieved by”Faith Only” or by “Obedient Faith”. n.d. 2010. Web.