Purpose of the Gospel

“...for salvation...” Romans 1:16

What is meant by salvation? The rest of the epistle will give the full answer, for our text is in no small measure the text for all that follows in this epistle. The English word “salvation” comes from the Latin word for “health.” In early times, it described the health of the body, but later it came to be applied to the health of the soul and the spirit. In our spiritual use of the word, “salvation,” it is everything that conduces to the safety, health, and happiness of the soul and spirit.

It is also used in the sense of being delivered -
• Delivered from sin.
• Delivered from Satan
• Delivered from destruction.
• Delivered from judgement.
• Delivered from hell.
• Delivered from death.

Salvation then is to be delivered from sin, death and hell, and delivered into safety of the fullest extent. Man’s security and safe passage through life - divine judgement and his entrance into eternal blessedness is bound up in his being saved. It includes forgiveness and escape from wrath. It includes new life - life in the Spirit, resurrection, eternity.

“Salvation is not something that is done for you, but something that happens within you. It is not the clearing of a court record, but the transformation of a life attitude.” - Albert W. Palmer