Leaving off yesterday I asked what it means to be saved. Here is a very unexpected offering.

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Save:

sav: In the sense “except,” the word came into English through the French (sauf) and is fairly common (38 times, in addition to “saving,” the King James Version Ec 5:11; Am 9:8; Mt 5:32; Lu 4:27; Re 2:17). It represents no particular Hebrew or Greek terms but is employed wherever it seems useful. It is still in good (slightly archaic) use, and the Revised Version (British and American) has few modifications (De 15:4 the King James Version; Ps 18:31, etc.), but the English Revised Version has dropped “saving” in Lu 4:27 and Re 2:17 and the American Standard Revised Version also in Ec 5:11; Am 9:8, retaining it only in Mt 5:32.

There are no particular Hebrew or Greek terms that have representative meaning.

In the French translation into English one might see “except” as being an alternative outcome to what should be expected. This renders a variety of meanings based on what one expects.

John 6:63 English Standard Version

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

The first time the word save is used in the KJV is in Genesis 12:12 with the Biblical outline usage of the Hebrew word ḥāyâ is to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health.

Our attention will turn from the OT sense of being threatened by our enemies to one usage that holds meaning to us in the NT, “be quickened”.

John 6:63 King James Version

63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

John 3:3 English Standard Version

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Romans 6:4 English Standard Version

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Where we were once spiritually dead, we are now spiritually alive by the grace of God through our faith in Christ. If it were that simple why so many different uses of the word salvation?

1 Corinthians 15:10 English Standard Version (ESV) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Paul confesses here that it was hard for him to give up his old ways. He was hated and distrusted by these new Christians who had not found their way in faith. It took years before Paul shed the personality of Saul the oppressor. Some never forgot.

It is normal to remember the deeds of those who have wounded us before they came to Christ. According to Christ’s own words we have to forgive them and welcome them into the family of God. If others could do that for us, we owe it to them to do the same.

Leviticus 26:40-42 English Standard Version

40 “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, 41 so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

Just because it is old school does not mean it is any less true. God is a God that does not change. We are the ones that are changed. That means learning to do things God’s way.

John 14:6 English Standard Version (ESV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

This is such a blessed verse to those who have placed their faith in Christ and a curse to those who say they can know god without Christ. Notice the use of the little g in spelling out God. If you do not know the One true Christ, you cannot know the One True God.

We will be hated for believing that, shunned and rejected for insisting on it and that is what Christ said would happen.

Matthew 10:22 English Standard Version (ESV) and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

What does it mean to you to be saved?