What is the gospel? Specifically, what is salvation?

It's the heart of the Christian faith -- the core unassailable doctrine. But how much do we think about it?

I'd like to think about it some in this post.

Our ideas about salvation stem from our ideas about God and our ideas about man. This is by definition -- salvation deals with the relationship the two.

God is perfectly righteous -- in Him there is no sin (1 John 1:5; Psalms 5:4). God is perfectly-just -- in Him there is exact judgment upon evil (Deuteronomy 32:4; Isaiah 28).

Man is inherently evil -- in him there is no good (Genesis 6:5; Romans 5:12). There is no desire for good. Of our own devices, we are as Ephesians 2 says, "dead" in our sins. There is nothing alive in us that can even wish to be good -- every intention of the heart of man is only evil continually. There is no desire for good -- in our only-evil state, there is nothing within us that can possibly seek righteousness. We are wholly incapable of it (John 15:16)

This is where salvation comes in. Jesus Christ chose a people for His own before creation based entirely on His mercy, not their merit (Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 2:1-10). These people's sins He bore upon the cross, accomplishing His work to remove from us the condemnation of our sins that we might be in right standing with God (Rom. 8; 1 Timothy 1:12-17).

Without this saving work of God's doing alone -- unless God Himself renews us -- we cannot even know what is good and right (Matthew 13:10-12; Ephesians 4; Ezekiel 36:22-36). We are incapable of wanting to be saved not only because our every thought is evil, but because we cannot of ourselves even know what is good.

It is for this reason that it is not unloving for God -- who is love -- to supercede our bound will (enslaved to those things which are vile and wicked) in order to bring us out of this inescapable darkness through His power into His righteousness and light. This act of God is not an assault by a malevolent force upon an innocent victim -- this act is an act of taking an enemy by the hand and pulling them to safety -- and beyond safety, to an immeasurable stronghold of joy.

Salvation is the victim taking the criminal's sentence upon himself and allowing no refusals of the gift. It is the creditor granted the debtor not just forgiveness of debt, but also signing to his account an immeasurable fortune.

Salvation is the perfect God taking upon Himself the full weight of all the sins of those He has chosen to be His own and bear His name and paying their sins in full to secure an eternal union between His people -- despite their inability to produce anything but hatred and vitriol towards Him -- and the infinitely-perfect, infinitely-loving, and infinitely-just God.

That's salvation. It's the three-dollar-word that is worth infinity itself.