" I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and
shall go in and out, and find pasture. " Joh 10:9


two distinct meanings can be found in Holy Scripture concerning the
Bible word " saved. " the word may refer to persons delivered from
physical harm and it may refer to persons delivered or saved from
bondage to sin and death in the spiritual realm.

as in all cases, the immediate context is to be considered as well
as the context of the Bible as whole when studying God's Word.

wonderfully, deliverance from physical harm is an illustration and
teaching tool typifying deliverance from spiritual harm... though
deliverance from physical harm does not necessarily include
deliverance from spiritual harm in the events noted.

in the account of Noah, he and his family are warned by God that
impending doom is about to befall all of mankind because of their
wickedness...

" ...the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth,
and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. " Gen. 6:5

while the offered council of God by the preaching of Noah ( 2 Pet.
2:5 ) was not heeded ( 1 Pet. 3:20 ) God was pleased to preserve alive
these 8 people from the complete destruction He said would come.

in like manner, the sons of Israel as a nation were delivered from
bondage to Pharaoh by The Angel of the Lord, Jesus Christ,
( 1 Cor. 10:1-4 ) and though physically delivered were not all
spiritually delivered ( 1 Cor. 10:5 ) from the spiritual bondage to
sin, misery and eternal death.


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when speaking of the Bible word " saved " or the Bible word
" salvation " in the spiritual sense, as in Joh. 10:9 noted above, the
one who is ' saved ' is taken out of harms way from everything which
points directly at him condemning him for his rebellion against God.

the condemnation facing him is the humanly uncountable
transgressions he has committed against the Word of God, beginning at
his conception ( Ps. 51:5 ) and self promoted from cradle to grave.
Ps. 58:3 cp. Joh. 8:24

he is said to be " without excuse " and under the wrath of God.
Ro. 1:18-32

this bend towards sin is the direct result of being found in Adam,
who's sin is imputed to all mankind, without exception. Ro. 5:6-21

since man is absolutely without self help to deliver himself from
this bondage to sin and death ( Joh. 1:12,13 ) there must be help from
some other source. that source is Jesus Christ, the Savior.
Joh. 10:4

there is no ceremony which delivers ( Ro. 2:29 ) nor any supposed
turning to the Lord by ' free will ' ( Ro. 10:14a; Joh. 1:12,13; Acts
13:48 et al ) for such is to put confidence in the flesh ( Php. 3:3 )
which rejects grace.

to be " saved " requires the Lord to move first ( Lk.19:10 ) and
requires complete dependence on the One doing the saving, Jesus
Christ, and not on the wit and wisdom of man since to do such is to
keep the confidence of the flesh as noted in Php. 3:3.

" Salvation is of the Lord " ( Ps. 3:8 ) and is not a joint
operation by man as if to give permission to the Lord through free
will nor by man made ceremonies, nor Biblical ceremonies such as water
baptism.

for such is salvation by good works... coming from those who seek
to control the Lord by placing conditions on salvation.

wonderfully, that since " salvation is of the Lord, " and since
Christ came to do the seeking and saving ( Lk. 19:10 ) salvation takes
place before man believes unto salvation. ( Acts 13:48; Ro. 10:14;
Eph. 1:3-14; et al ) thus, Christ gets the all glory since Christ did
all the work of saving... for He is the Savior... man has contributed
nothing to his own salvation.

this is what is meant when Jesus declares... " you did not choose
Me, but I chose you " ( Joh. 15:19 ) " and " He chose us "
( Eph. 1:4 )... for Christ to get all the glory He alone is involved
when it comes to saving man from his sins.

this is a most basic tenant of giving the glory to whom it belongs
and not trying to re-word the Bible so as to fit man in as a
contributor to his own salvation.

the taking away of sin is the circumcision made without hands and is
never to be thought of as a joint effort as though man saves himself
by co-operating with the Savior resulting in his salvation... man in
Adam is spiritually dead ( Eph. 2:1-10 ) and therefore...

" Blessed is the one whom You choose, and cause to come near You. He
shall dwell in Your courts " Ps. 65:4

the glory, total and complete, goes to the Savior, Jesus Christ...
for in His name of " Savior " resides the power to bring out of
eternal death those whom the Lord is pleased to beautify with
salvation ( Ps. 149:4 )... for no other has made satisfaction to
Divine justice requiring the eternal punishment for sin in the
condemned one. Joh. 1:29

to be " saved " then, is to be delivered from the penalty of our
sins by the Deliverer, Jesus Christ. we can not deliver ourselves.

with salvation by the will of God comes all of the blessings with
which He " beautifies " His meek ones. Praise be to God.