Christian teaching on the topic of salvation

SolitaryRoad.com

Website owner:  James Miller

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Info ] [ Mail ]

Christianity is unique among religions in its teachings. Most religions provide teachings on how to live life. Christianity provides teachings on how to live life plus another message that is quite unique. The Christian message: We are all sinners. Jesus came down from heaven, sent by God, to redeem those sinners who were willing to repent — and provide them with eternal life (entry to heaven).

Christianity teaches that we are all sinners deserving hell and we can have redemption from that sentence of eternal hell through the death of Jesus on the cross if we repent of our sins and follow him.

Consider the following scripture:

______________________________________________________________________________

John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

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

4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Note the passage: 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

This passage refers to the following incident:

______________________________________________________________________________

Numbers 21:4 4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” 6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.

7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

______________________________________________________________________________

So what was Jesus saying in all this? The Jew who had been bitten by one of the serpents was healed simply by looking at the bronze serpent on the pole. He was healed by his faith. In the same way we are healed and saved simply by looking to Jesus raised up on the cross (when he died on the cross for us). In a number of passages Jesus tells why he came down to earth:

John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

Matthew 26:28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

John 10:17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

25 Feb 2026