What is salvation? Many Christians would answer that salvation means going to heaven when you die and having eternal life. These certainly are important aspects of Christian salvation. However, this answer represents an impoverished and shrunken understanding of salvation that misses important aspects of what Christian salvation means. A careful study of the concept of salvation in Scripture shows a broader, richer, and more holistic understanding of salvation.
Salvation in the Old Testament
When most Christians hear the word “salvation,” they immediately think of salvation from sin. This is, of course, a very important theological concept in the New Testament. However, when we turn back to the Old Testament, we see that this concept is almost entirely absent. Possible references to salvation from sin occur only in a couple of Psalms (39:8, 130:8) and two verses in Ezekiel (36:29, 37:23). It is significant that three of these four (Ps 130:8, Ezek 36:29, 37:23) refer to God saving Israel as a corporate entity from its sin, while only one possibly refers to individual salvation from sin.
The Old Testament does speak of individual salvation. However, when it does so, it almost always speaks of salvation from this-worldly dangers, rather than salvation from sin. The Psalms frequently refer to God saving the nation of Israel from earthly enemies or distress, but also speak of individual salvation from these dangers in the same manner. There are also numerous references to being saved from death in the Old Testament (e.g. Ps 6:5-6, 103:4). Almost always, though, these refer to being saved from dying, rather than to an afterlife. When Christians hear the word “salvation,” they usually immediately think of an afterlife, but the Old Testament concept of salvation is focused on this life. There are a few clear references to a future resurrection in the Old Testament (Isa 26:19, Dan 12:2), but they are about being raised bodily in order to enjoy God’s blessings in this world, rather than about one’s soul going to heaven.
When the Old Testament speaks of salvation, it is primarily focused on God’s salvation of the nation of Israel and its subsequent life as God’s redeemed people. The foundational and central act of salvation in the Old Testament is the Exodus, in which God saved the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt. It is this event which provides the foundation for God’s covenant relationship with Israel and its understanding of itself as God’s redeemed people throughout its history.
God would continue to save Israel from its enemies at various times during its history. However, eventually, due to Israel’s unfaithfulness, God sent Israel into exile from the land He had given them. After Israel was sent into exile, God’s prophets spoke of a future return from this exile, often using terminology reminiscent of the exodus. This return from exile is the second central act of salvation in the Old Testament, as the prophet Jeremiah makes clear: “The days are surely coming, says Yahweh, when it shall no longer be said, “As Yahweh lives, who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,” but “As Yahweh lives, who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of the all the lands where he had driven them” (Jer 16:14-15).
While the prophets’ message of hope that God would one day bring Israel back from exile was fulfilled during the Old Testament period (Ezra 1:1-2:70), it is important to note that it was really only partially fulfilled. A small remnant of exiles returned, occupying a small part of the promised land. They were not a truly independent nation ruled by a Davidic king. And the glory of Yahweh never truly returned to the Second Temple. Even after returning from exile, Israel was still awaiting the full fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation in a second Exodus. This is highly significant for understanding the New Testament and what it has to say about salvation.
Salvation in the New Testament
As we interpret what the New Testament has to say about salvation, we must keep in mind the Old Testament concept of salvation as our foundation. There are certainly new developments in the New Testament and discontinuities between Old and New Testaments, but, fundamentally, the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, not its repudiation. This means that we must begin with what the Old Testament has to say as we interpret the New Testament, rather than interpreting the New Testament in isolation, and then reading that interpretation back into the Old Testament.
The New Testament portrays Jesus’s life, death and resurrection as a kind of second Exodus (Luke 9:31) that finally fulfills the Old Testament prophets’ promises of a future salvation for Israel. Through Jesus, God’s promise of the end of Israel’s exile is finally fully fulfilled, though in some surprising ways. In Jesus, God’s presence finally returns to Mount Zion. Jesus (and by extension His Body, the church) replaces the second temple as the true temple where God’s people have access to the presence of God. The community of Jesus’s disciples now constitutes true, faithful Israel. By His death and resurrection, Jesus defeats the cosmic powers of evil that are at the root of Israel’s oppressive pagan enemies; Israel’s enemies are thus defeated not (as was expected) by military might, but by the suffering and death of the Messiah. Much of the New Testament concept of salvation is new and surprising, but it is the fulfillment of the Old Testament hope of salvation.
In the Old Testament, salvation is primarily corporate rather than individual. We must keep this in mind when reading the New Testament and be careful to avoid a falsely individualistic understanding of salvation. Jesus came to “save His people [Israel] from their sins” (Matt 1:21), not to bring salvation to individuals in the abstract. Jesus is the savior of His people, the church, and individuals are saved because they are members of that redeemed covenant people. There is certainly an individual aspect to Christian salvation, but it is not a private, individualistic affair. Salvation in the New Testament is about being a faithful member of God’s covenant people and therefore receiving the blessings of God’s covenant promises to His people.
In the Old Testament, salvation is primarily about being saved from injustice, oppression, and danger in this life, rather than being saved from sin and enjoying an afterlife. It is unquestionable that salvation from sin and the hope of the resurrection are central theological ideas in the New Testament. From the very first chapter of the New Testament, we are told that Jesus came to “save His people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). This is an essentially new theological concept that is vitally important for Christian theology. Through Jesus, God has done something new, striking not just at the effects of sin, but at sin itself, the root of the world’s problems. Jesus has provided a way for humanity to be truly free from the destructive and oppressive power of sin.
Many Christians believe that all that really matters is salvation from sin so we can have eternal life, and that we should set aside the idea of salvation from injustice and oppression (or at least postpone it until Jesus’s Second Coming). After all, if being forgiven of our sins by believing in Jesus brings about eternal life rather than eternal death, then why be distracted by trying to establish justice and liberation in the here and now?
It is certainly true that salvation from sin is vitally and centrally important to the mission of the church, and that we should spare no effort in our attempts to evangelize the world. Yet, if the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, then it is illegitimate to abandon the Old Testament concept of salvation and see the New Testament as putting forward a completely different concept. The New Testament concept of salvation must be an extension of the Old Testament concept, rather than a replacement of it. In other words, salvation in the New Testament may be something more than Old Testament salvation, but it cannot be anything less than it.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus begins His public ministry by reading the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isa 61: 1-2), and then declaring, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled” (Luke 4:18-21). Jesus certainly did not believe that His mission was simply to die on a cross as a sacrifice for humanity’s sin so that people could be forgiven and go to heaven when they die. According to Jesus’s own self-understanding of His mission, He came to bring about good news for the poor and liberation for the oppressed in this world.
Conclusion
As the body of Christ, Christians are agents of God’s saving work in His creation. As they live out this identity, they must not restrict themselves to the task of evangelizing so that people can be saved from their sins. Instead, they must operate with a broader understanding of salvation, being agents of justice and liberation in the here and now as they work to advance God’s Kingdom. This does not mean that Christians should uncritically support any movement that claims to be in favor of “social justice” and “liberation,” even though its methods and/or goals may be contrary to the nature of God’s Kingdom. Nor does it mean that Christians should ignore the vital work of evangelism and replace it with efforts to improve the world in the here and now. What it does mean is that, as Christians act as agents of God’s saving work in His creation, they must operate with a holistic understanding of salvation, derived from the whole of Scripture, which includes salvation from injustice and oppression as well as salvation from sin.