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God's Plan of Salvation

by David Brown; edited by Russ Westbrook

Note: In Internet Explorer 4+, when your mouse pointer hovers over a scripture, a popup tip will show the scripture from the New American Standard version.

Steps of the Plan of Salvation

Enumerating the "steps" of salvation is done reluctantly for fear of trivializing what God really wants from us, which is nothing short of everything (Rom. 12:1-2). Each of the steps is quite profound, and each is designed to bring us to the point where we will be able to state as the apostle Paul did: "For me to live is Christ..." (Phil. 1:21).

As an overview, consider these verses about each of the following:

1. Hearing -- Jn. 6:44-45; Ro 10:14, 17
2. Believing -- Jn. 3:16; 8:24; Acts 16:31; Rom 5:1; Heb 11:6
3. Repentance -- Lk. 13:1-5; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 11:18; 17:30; 2 Cor 7:10
4. Confession of our faith in him -- Mt. 10:32-33; Lk 9:26; Acts 8:36-37; Rom 10:9-10
5. Being baptized -- Mk. 16:16; Acts 2:38; 8:36; 22:16; 1 Pe 3:21
6. Being faithful unto death -- Mt 7:21; 10:22; Heb 5:9; 1 John 2:4; Rev. 2:10

Each of these verses states a condition. The examples of conversion that we have in the book of Acts enables us to see how these form the New Testament pattern.

However, what does it mean to hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized and be faithful unto death? These questions will be addressed. One aspect of this question can be answered immediately: these are not works whereby we merit our salvation. It is the blood of Christ and that alone that purchases our salvation (Acts 20:28; Rev. 5:9). No works of our own hands can ever atone for our sins (Eph. 2:8; Tit. 3:5). We certainly cannot compare our part of salvation with the sacrifice of the perfect Son of God on the cross. And, the more we sacrifice ourselves, the more we receive of the abundant life which Jesus promised his followers (Luke 18:29-30). In light of this, we can understand that, truly, salvation is a free gift of God.

There is a simple principle of language that many of us contently use, but overlook in scripture. It is called synecdoche. It means: the part represents the whole. We use synecdoche all the time in English. The following are examples:

1. "Bless your heart" = We don't mean bless the organ that pumps your blood. We mean "Bless all of you." The part represents the whole. The heart represents the whole person.
2. "It's good to see your face" = "It's good to see YOU, all of you"
3. "Bless the hands that prepared this food" = "Bless ALL of you"
4. "I like your wheels" = "I like your whole car"
5. "Let's do a head count" = "Let's count all the people" to include their bodies
6. "I have 100 head of cattle" = "I have 100 whole cows"

We use synecdoche all the time. It's like second nature.

It is also used in the Bible like this. When the N.T. writers speak of being saved by believing, they are using "believe" synecdocally. The term "believe" represents the whole response to the gospel. The emphasis he is trying to make in the context decides which term he uses. Sometimes he speaks of being saved by repentance (2 Pet. 3:9) but repentance is representative of the WHOLE response to the gospel to include faith, baptism, and being faithful. Baptism is used synecdocally in 1 Pet. 3:21 and "believe" in places like Acts 16:31. But it is apparent that "believe" is used in a representative way in this verse because the jailer was baptized the same hour of the night. Confessing is used in Romans 10:9-10 along with belief.

It is utterly absurd to expect the N.T. writers to write down every single faith-response to the gospel every time they talk about it. But WHATEVER they wrote, whether believe, repent, baptism, works, confess - - ALL were representative of the WHOLE response to the gospel. The hearers understood this.

 Adapted primarily from David Brown"s "Think on These Things"
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB (New American Standard Bible).

Last updated: Tuesday, September 26, 2006

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